This year's Doctor Who Christmas special is a little 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 Penelope 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 Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023 which we now know is titled "The Church on Ruby Road". We'll have already had plenty of time with the 15th Doctor by the time this 2024 special rolls around as Doctor Who season 14 is on its way at some point next year. As for the 2024 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 recently seen in the Barbie movie and is due to appear 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 Star 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.
