Into the Dalek

A Dalek was the location for the
Twelfth Doctor's first
encounter with them

One episode (Into the Dalek)
First broadcast Aug 30 2014
Average audience for story: 7.29m + 0.85m iPlayer = 8.14m

REGULAR CAST

Peter Capaldi (The Doctor) Born Apr 14 1958 Click here for Peter Capaldi's entry on The Fires of Pompeii

Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) Born Apr 27 1986 Click here for Jenna Coleman's entry on Asylum of the Daleks

GUEST CAST

Samuel Anderson (Danny Pink) Born Apr 27 1982
Doctor Who credits
Played: Danny Pink in Into the Dalek, Listen, Time Heist (uncredited), The Caretaker, Kill the Moon, Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline, In the Forest of the Night, Dark Water/ Death in Heaven, Last Christmas (all 2014)
Career highlights
Samuel made his debut in Doctors (2003), then Sons, Daughters and Lovers (2004), Hex (2004), Totally Frank (2005-06), The History Boys (2006), Highlight (2009), Gavin & Stacey (2007/09), DCI Banks (2011), Bedlam (2012), Midsomer Murders (2013), Death in Paradise (2014), Pleasure Island (2015), The Lady in the Van (2015), Loaded (2017), Genesis (2018), Plebs (2019), Gunpowder Milkshake (2021), Landscapers (2021) and Red Rose (2022). He also regularly played Daniel in 24 episodes of Trollied (2014-17), DC Vince Grady in DCI Banks (2011-16), Patrick in Witless (2016-18) and William in Another Life (2019-21), but his breakthrough role was Ross Kirk in more than 100 episodes of soap Emmerdale (2007-09).
Facts
Samuel originated the character of Crowther in Alan Bennett's The History Boys when it was on stage at the National Theatre in 2004, directed by Nicholas Hytner, then reprised the role in stage runs in the US, Australia and Hong Kong, as well as the movie adaptation. In 2011, he appeared as Mr Romantic in a series of TV commercials for Carte Noire coffee. Here he is on Twitter.

Zawe Ashton (Journey Blue) Born Jul 25 1984
Career highlights
Zawe debuted at the age of 11 in Game On (1995), then The Demon Headmaster (1996), In Deep (2002), NCS Manhunt (2002), The Bill (2000/08), St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009), Sherlock (2010), Misfits (2010), Blitz (2011), Weekender (2011), Case Histories (2011-13), Psychobitches (2013/14), The Devil You Know (2015), Not Safe for Work (2015), Little Soldier (2016), Guerrilla (2017), Wanderlust (2018), Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) and The Handmaid's Tale (2021). She also regularly played Vod in 30 episodes of Fresh Meat (2011-16). In 2014, she also wrote, directed and produced two short films: Happy Toys and The Place We Go to Hide.
Facts
Zawe's mother is Ugandan and her father British (teacher Paul Ashton, who once worked for Channel 4 educational programming). Her grandfather was Paulo Muwango, President of Uganda for 10 days in 1980, and Prime Minister of Uganda for 25 days in 1985. Zawe is also an accomplished playwright and writer of slam poetry. In 2012, Cosmopolitan Magazine awarded her Ultimate Newcomer at their Women of the Year awards. In 2022, she announced her engagement to actor Tom Hiddleston. Here she is on Twitter.

Nigel Betts (Mr Armitage) Born Oct 5 1963
Doctor Who credits
Played: Mr Armitage in Into the Dalek, The Caretaker, Dark Water (voice only) (all 2014), Class: For Tonight We Might Die (2016), Class: The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo (2016)
Career highlights
Debuted in Jekyll & Hyde (1990), then The Whipping Boy (1994), Sharpe's Mission (1996), Coupling (2000), Barbara (2002), Thunderpants (2002), Paradise Heights (2002), Keen Eddie (2003), The Eustace Bros. (2003), Cheeky (2003), Grease Monkeys (2004), EastEnders (2006), Grange Hill (2007), Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution (2007), The Catherine Tate Show (2006-07), Moving Wallpaper (2009), Lipstikka (2011), Downton Abbey (2013), The Christmas Candle (2013), Our Zoo (2014), The Wrong Mans (2014), Boy Meets Girl (2015-16), The Coroner (2016), Vera (2017), Bounty Hunters (2017), Outlander (2017), Trollied (2018), Pennyworth (2019), Father Brown (2020), The A Word (2020), All Those Small Things (2021), Ridley Road (2021), All Creatures Great and Small (2020-21) and Ralph and Katie (2022). Regular roles include Eddie Hope in Emmerdale (2003/07) and Alan Walker in You, Me & Them (2013-15).
Facts
Here's Nigel on Twitter.

Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Daleks) Born Sep 29 1961 Click here for Nicholas Briggs' entry on Rose

Ben Crompton (Ross) Born 1974
Career highlights
Ben made his debut in a 1996 episode of the sitcom The Thin Blue Line, after which he secured work in City Central (1998), Les Miserables (1998), Normal Ormal: A Very Political Turtle (1998), Love in the 21st Century (1999), Doomwatch: Winter Angel (1999), 102 Dalmatians (2000), All or Nothing (2002), Sweet Medicine (2003), New Tricks (2005), The Outsiders (2006), Housewife, 49 (2006), Collision (2009), Nativity! (2009), The Sinking of the Laconia (2011), Kill List (2011), Blood (2012), Before I Go to Sleep (2014), The Great Fire (2014), Motherland (2017), Marcella (2018), Peterloo (2018), Rebecca (2020), Lore (2022) and Strike (2017-22). He has enjoyed several regular roles, including Barney Watson in Clocking Off (2001-03), various parts in Man Stroke Woman (2005-07), Colin in Ideal (2005-11), Keith Prince in Pramface (2012-14) and Eddison Tollett in 34 episodes of Game of Thrones (2012-19).
Facts
Ben lives with both Tourette's Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and wrote about these conditions in a BBC Radio play called Neurotics Anonymous in 2013.
In 2016 Toby Hadoke released his Who's Round interview with Ben here.

Laura Dos Santos (Gretchen) Born 1980
Career highlights
Debuted in Innocent Party (1998), then Fingersmith (2005), Bad Girls (2006), The Bill (2005-06), Wallander (2012), Doctors (2015), Holby City (2016) and Little Boy Blue (2017).
Facts
Laura got her big break when she was championed by playwright Willy Russell to play Rita in Educating Rita, a role which won her a nomination for Outstanding Newcomer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2010.

Barnaby Edwards (Dalek operator) Born Aug 20 1969 Click here for Barnaby Edwards' entry on Dalek

Bradley Ford (Fleming)
Doctor Who credits
Played: Fleming in Into the Dalek, Dark Water (uncredited) (both 2014)
Career highlights
Other work includes 10 Minute Tales (2009), Law and Order UK (2010), Gulliver's Travels (2010), Candle to Water (2012) and Mr Sloane (2014).

Ellis George (Courtney Woods) Born Aug 30 1998
Doctor Who credits
Played: Courtney Woods in Deep Breath, Into the Dalek, The Caretaker, Kill the Moon (all 2014)
Career highlights

Further work includes Small Axe (2020), Blood Rites (2022) and Grace (2022).

Michelle Morris (School secretary)
Career highlights
Further work includes Reform School Girl (1994), Rebel Highway (1994), The Colour of Justice (1999), Bugs (1999), The Knock (2000), Big Kids (2000), Little Howard's Big Question (2011) and Endeavour (2013).

Michael Smiley (Colonel Morgan Blue) Born Jan 29 1963
Career highlights
Belfast-born Michael debuted uncredited in The Heist (1989), followed by roles in Cracker (1994), Burnside (2000), Spaced (1999/01), Time Gentlemen Please (2000-02), 15 Storeys High (2002), Murder Prevention (2004), Rose and Maloney (2005), Bleak House (2005), Outpost (2007), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), The Wrong Door (2008), Wire in the Blood (2008), Burke and Hare (2010), Kill List (2011), Shell (2012), Ripper Street (2013), Utopia (2013), Black Mirror (2013), A Field in England (2013), The World's End (2013), Father Figure (2013), The Life of Rock with Brian Pern (2014), Glassland (2014), The Hallow (2015), The Lobster (2015), Orthodox (2015), The Aliens (2016), Star Wars: Rogue One (2016), Jawbone (2017), The Nun (2018), The Devil Went Down to Islington (2019), Rialto (2019), Dead Still (2020), Bloodlands (2021), Gunpowder Milkshake (2021), Ragdoll (2021) and The Curse (2022). He also played Benny Silver in Luther (2010-19).

Awards

2011: British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor (Kill List)
Facts
In 1993, Michael was a runner-up in the So You Think You're Funny contest at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He is married to journalist and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer, and is a good friend (and former flatmate) of actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, both fellow Doctor Who alumni. He is also an accomplished stand-up comedian and playwright. This is his Twitter feed.

CREW

Phil Ford (writer)
Doctor Who credits
Wrote: The Sarah Jane Adventures: Eye of the Gorgon (2007), The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Lost Boy (2007), Torchwood: Something Borrowed (2008), The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Last Sontaran (2008), The Sarah Jane Adventures: Day of the Clown (2008), The Sarah Jane Adventures: Enemy of the Bane (2008), Dreamland (animation, 2009), The Sarah Jane Adventures: Prisoner of the Judoon (2009), The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Eternity Trap (2009), The Sarah Jane Adventures: Mona Lisa's Revenge (2009), The Waters of Mars (2009), The Sarah Jane Adventures: Vault of Secrets (2010), Doctor Who: The Adventure Games (2010-11), The Sarah Jane Adventures: Sky (2011), The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Curse of Clyde Langer (2011), Into the Dalek (2014)
Produced: The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 and 3 (2008-09)
Career highlights
Phil's writing work includes Taggart (1998), Heartbeat (1998), Footballers' Wives (2002), 21 episodes of Captain Scarlet (2005), 17 episodes of Bad Girls (1999-2006), Waterloo Road (2007) and Wizards vs Aliens (2012-13, which he also co-created and produced). He also wrote more than 50 episodes of Coronation Street (1997-2002).

Awards

2010: Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form (Doctor Who) - shared with Russell T Davies and Graeme Harper

2012: Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Children's Television Script (The Sarah Jane Adventures)
Facts
Here he is on Twitter.

Steven Moffat (writer) Born Nov 18 1961 Click here for Steven Moffat's entry on The Empty Child

Ben Wheatley (director) Born May 1972
Doctor Who credits
Directed: Deep Breath, Into the Dalek (both 2014)
Career highlights
Ben's first directorial credit was on Modern Toss (2008), after which he worked on The Wrong Door (2008), Steve Coogan: The Inside Story (2009), Ideal (2009-10), Kill List (2011), Sightseers (2012), The ABCs of Death (2012), A Field in England (2013), High-Rise (2015), Free Fire (2016), Strange Angel (2018-19), Rebecca (2020) and In the Earth (2021). Ben is also a writer, and penned material for Time Trumpet (2006) and The Wrong Door, as well as films such as Kill List and A Field in England.

Awards

2011: Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer

2013: Evening Standard British Film Award Peter Sellers Award for Comedy (Sightseers)
Facts
Ben also directed the music video for The Editors' single Formaldehyde (2013). Here's his Twitter feed, and the blog he runs with his wife, Amy Jump.

Nikki Wilson (producer) Click here for Nikki's entry on The Sontaran Stratagem

Derek Ritchie (script editor) Born 1978
Doctor Who credits
Script edited: The Time of the Doctor (2013), Deep Breath (2014), Into the Dalek (2014), The Caretaker (2014). Derek also script edited the 50th anniversary sketch The Five(ish) Doctors (Reboot) (2013)
Produced: The Doctor's Meditation, Under the Lake/ Before the Flood, The Girl Who Died, The Woman Who Lived (all 2015), Class (2016). He also produced Strax's cinema introduction for Deep Breath (2014)
Career highlights
Derek first worked as a locations assistant on The Book Group (2003), and has also edited scripts for Wizards vs Aliens (2012-13). He also produced that series in 2014. As an assistant director he has worked on The Planman (2003), AfterLife (2003), Shoebox Zoo (2004), The Last King of Scotland (2006), Still Game (2002-07), Identity (2010), Frankenstein's Wedding... Live in Leeds (2011), Becoming Human (2011) and Being Human (2008-12). Production work includes Luther (2019), The Capture (2019) and Then You Run (2022).