This year's Doctor Who Christmas special is over a month away, but Showrunner and writer Russell T Davies has already revealed a major signing for the cast of the festive Doctor Who episode in 2024!
At a recent event at Battersea Power Station in London to celebrate Doctor Who's 60th anniversary, Russell told us that he'd cast Nicola Coughlan, who plays Penny Featherington in Bridgerton and Clare Devlin in Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls, for his 2024 Doctor Who festive adventure in an as yet unnamed role.
"Oh, so the Doctor Who press team are really going to tell me off. But Nicola Coughlan is joining us for Christmas. Not this Christmas, next Christmas so in 2024. We’re shooting 2024 now."
Nicola will be starring with Ncuti Gatwa who regenerates into the Doctor in time for the Christmas special in 2023. That's called "The Church on Ruby Road" and we will have had a full season of Ncuti as the Time Lord before he's acting with Nicola in the 2024 Doctor Who Christmas special. Nothing else is known about this episode. Nicola is the first guest star announced.
As well as Bridgerton, Derry Girls, and now Doctor Who, Galway-born Nicola Coughlan was in the Barbie movie and can be seen in a number of new projects before she enters the TARDIS in 2024. This includes the Channel 4 comedy Big Mood which will be shown during the early part of 2024.
* The three Doctor Who 60th-anniversary specials are coming to BBC One and Disney Plus internationally and in the US. The first is called "The Sea Beast" (Saturday, November 25, 2023) then it is "Wild Blue Yonder" (December 2, 2023) and finally The Giggle (December 2, 2023) before David Tennant's Doctor regenerates into Ncuti Gatwa and Ncuti takes over for the Doctor Who Christmas special called "The Church on Ruby Road".
