Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, Preview, TV, YouTube | Tagged: bbc, doctor who, Millie Gibson, Ncuti Gatwa, preview, russell t davies

Doctor Who: Anita Dobson Shares Name, Details on New Series Character

Anita Dobson shared the name & details on her character in the new Doctor Who series, and had kind words for Ncuti Gatwa & Millie Gibson.

When we first learned last month that Anita Dobson (EastEnders) & Michelle Greenidge (After Life) were joining showrunner Russell T. Davies, new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa, and Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday) on the next series of the BBC's & Disney+'s Doctor Who, no details were relased about their respective roles. Well, thanks to some comments that Dobson had to share with MailOnline, it appears we have some more details to help fill in the blanks. While attending the ICON Awards in Support of Prostate Cancer Charity on Friday night, Dobson revealed that she's been tapped to play Mrs. Flood, a neighbor of Gibson's Ruby ("Well, Mrs Flood is the character I play, and she's… Milly, the Ruby Sunday, the doctor's assistant, she's her neighbour"). For Dobson, it was impossible to resist Davies when he approached her about the role, adding, "He asked me to join the ranks, and he said, 'Please come and play with us." How can you resist that?'"

As for the role her character will play during the upcoming series, Dobson was cautiously humble, sharing, "I wouldn't say, 'starring,' I think the Lord himself, Ncuti and Milly are the ones starring, I'm merely joining the ranks of." Dobson is looking forward to some camera time with Gatwa, who she has nothing but praise for. "I haven't worked with Ncuti yet. I've done the read-through with him, and he's gorgeous… he's absolutely adorable and very talented," Dobson revealed. And the same goes Gibson as far as Dobson is concerned. "Milly, I adore. I think she's absolutely stunning. But I've only done about three days, so very early days," the actress added.

How They Found "Brilliant" Ncuti Gatwa to Lead "Doctor Who"

In Doctor Who Magazine #586 (which you can order here), Davies confirmed that Casting Director Andy Pryor was charged with bringing the creative team "the best in the land," with Davies and producer Phil Collinson confirming that they auditioned "all backgrounds, all genders," including one non-binary actor. The duo also confirmed that another actor was seriously being considered for The Doctor heading into the final audition… and then (as Collinson puts it), "in walked Ncuti [Gatwa] and absolutely stole the part. He took control of it and did things with it that I'd never seen an actor playing 'Doctor Who' do. It was just extraordinary." In fact, Tranter described Gatwa's audition as "the most extraordinary" one that she's ever seen ("He was the Doctor").

Davies On What They Were Looking For & "Brilliant" Ncuti Gatwa: "I think, as a rule, we were looking for younger – most of the people we saw were under 30 – but not as a definite rule, and kind of new talent. Ncuti's not exactly new. He's world-famous already with 'Sex Education.' But we weren't looking for an older, established face. And in he walked. The last person to audition. It sounds like one of those stories you tell as an anecdote, but Ncuti was absolutely the last person in, and everything clicked into place. I sat there thinking, 'Why didn't we just offer [Ncuti the role]? Why did we need to audition the man from 'Sex Education'? Of course, he's brilliant."

Welcoming "Brilliantly Confident" Millie Gibson to the TARDIS

Referring back to Gibson's September 2022 audition, executive producers Jane Tranter found Gibson to be "brilliantly confident and centered and just a shining star" who "held her own, in her own way, as Ruby would with [Gatwa's] Doctor"  and that things" just clicked between them." Collinson shared how Gatwa "came down to London on his day off and did a day of auditioning with us," with Davies reminding "Who-storians" that Christopher Eccleston did that very same thing when it came time to audition an actress to play Rose Tyler. And as impressed as they were with what Gibson was bringing to the role, they were soon far from alone. We showed those auditions tapes to the BBC and to Disney, and everyone instantly went, 'Millie, Millie, Millie.'"

Davies Had His Eye on Millie Gibson Since Her "Coronation Street" Days: I'd had my eye on Millie for a while because I'm still watching 'Coronation Street' [Gibson played Kelly Neelan from 2019 to 2022] and, I tell you, the writers obviously loved her. Over four years, I noticed her getting more and more to do. That reached the most extraordinary synthesis of plots where she was on a drug heist, and her father had been kidnapped, and she was being accused of murder, at the same time as she was winning North-West Regional Hairdresser of the Year!"

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