Doctor Who companion Millie Gibson was cast as Ruby Sunday thanks to Coronation Street

Doctor Who actor Millie Gibson reveals she was cast as The Doctor's new companion Ruby Sunday thanks to her work on Coronation Street, because Russell T Davies was a fan.

The actor spoke alongside Ncuti Gatwa and Davies about joining the BBC's iconic sci-fi series at a press event for The Church on Ruby Road, the forthcoming Christmas special marks her debut in the role and Gatwa's first official outing as the Time Lord.

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"When I left Corrie I thought 'would be nice to get something or nothing', but Russell's a fan so he actually got me an audition for this," Gibson revealed.

"I couldn't be happier and I couldn't be prouder. It was a really cool moment watching [the Christmas special] just now."

Gibson played Kelly Neelan in the ITV soap from 2019 to 2022, and Davies said he had been watching Gibson on the ITV soap for so long that he felt she must have been a great actor because of how often her character was included.

"You can tell when writers like the character on a soap because they write a lot for them," he explained. "They give them a lot to do, and I was watching one episode of Coronation Street where Kelly, played by Millie, was a drug addict, and she kidnapped her own father, [and] at the same time she won regional hairdresser of the year, all in one episode.

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"I literally was sat watching that thinking 'they like her'. Particularly when you get that many stories, something's going on."

Joining Doctor Who

Davies added that his casting of Gatwa was a similarly easy process because he knew immediately that the Sex Education star was perfect for the role of The Doctor: "I did the audition with Ncuti and it was one of the most astonishing [auditions] of my life, Ncuti was just so amazing... folks are gonna tell you he had one audition, normally there's like 27 auditions — one [audition]."

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Gatwa, for his part, describes the role of The Doctor as "everything", and reflected on what he wanted to add to such an iconic role by saying: "[The Doctor is] an explorer that's been around for a billion years, and they have so many quirks and intricacies, and rage, and joy. They're just full of the whole kaleidoscope of emotions.

"So to pick what I was going to bring out differently, it's a very hard question to ask. So I guess just myself, I guess I just brought my Black beautiful self."

The actors also spoke about the pressures of being in a show of this magnitude, with Gatwa adding: "The show has been going for 60 years, there's so much weight that is on your shoulders. Beautiful weight, beautiful, beautiful weight... people really like this show, we've got to keep it likeable. But yeah, it's a beautiful pressure, it's a labour of love."

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Gibson went on: "The fanbase alone are so supportive, they defend me if their lives depended on it even though they've never met me. They're just an amazing fanbase and we're very lucky to have them or else there's no show. [But] the pressure is there for sure."

Teasing what's to come in season 14

Following the release of the Christmas special, Gatwa and Gibson will return for a whole new season in 2024 which Davies spoke about in more detail at the event — even giving away a secret.

He said: "You're trying to describe The Doctor, you're trying to describe Ruby Sunday and we never pin them down. We never do actually sit there and say 'he's this, he's that. She must do this, and she must do that'.

"Every episode you see, the next episode is so completely different to the next episode, and the one after that is The Beatles, it's nuts. It keeps changing and so it's always beyond your reach, actually. One of the things about it that makes it is the team, they all have to work hard and I think it helps very much that everybody on the show knows that children are watching it.

"It's not a children's show but that's a different atmosphere when you come into work with grips whose kids or their neighbours kids, or their nephews and nieces, are all watching it, and that's very different to working on most shows that's just about a murder in a cottage. It's a lovely show."

The Doctor Who Christmas special The Church on Ruby Road premieres on Christmas Day at 5.55pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Watch the trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas special: