Joy to the World

Joy. Doesn't she look happy?

One episode (Joy to the World)

First broadcast: Dec 25 2024
Audience for story: 5.91m

REGULAR CAST

Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor) Born Oct 15 1992 Click here for Ncuti Gatwa's entry on The Giggle

Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday) Born Jun 19 2004 Click here for Millie Gibson's entry on The Church on Ruby Road

GUEST CAST

Jonathan Aris (Hotel manager) Born Jan 24 1971

Career highlights

Jonathan made his debut in Bugs (1996), followed by roles in Metroland (1997), Pilgrims Rest (1997), As Time Goes By (1998), Bob and Margaret (1998), Topsy-Turvy (1999), Relic Hunter (2001), Ali G Indahouse (2002), The Brief (2004), Hotel Babylon (2006), The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006), My Family (2008), Bonekickers (2008), Merlin (2008), Being Human (2010), Peep Show (2012), Wolf Hall (2015), The Martian (2015), The Night Manager (2016), Rogue One (2016), The Death of Stalin (2017), Black Mirror (2018), Good Omens (2019), The War of the Worlds (2019), Dracula (2020), Grantchester (2021), A Very British Scandal (2021), His Dark Materials (2022), Red Eye (2024) and The Famous Five (2024). He also regularly played Anderson in Sherlock (2010-16) and Ralph in Stan Lee's Lucky Man (2017).

Facts

Jonathan is the son of actor Ben Aris, who appeared in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. He is married to fellow actor Louiza Patikas, best known as Moira Pollock in Coronation Street (2017-20) and Helen Archer in radio soap The Archers since 2008.

Phil Baxter (Edmund Hillary)

Career highlights

Further work includes Toast of Tinseltown (2022), The Gathering (2024) and Seize Them! (2024).

Peter Benedict (Basil Flockhart)

Career highlights

Debuted in I, Claudius (1976), followed by parts in A Touch of Frost (2001), EastEnders (2003), UKIP: The First 100 Days (2015), Transhuman (2017) and Executioner (2024).

Nicola Coughlan (Joy Almondo) Born Jan 9 1987

Career highlights

Irish Nicola made her screen debut in Flashpoint (1997) aged 10, followed by roles in Doctors (2012), Harlots (2018), Oliver Twist (2022), Barbie (2023), Dodger (2023), Big Mood (2024) and Seize Them! (2024). Nicola has done an awful lot of voice character work too, including on the English version of the series SimSalaGrimm II: The Adventures of Yoyo and Doc Croc (2010), Jelly T (2012) and The Velveteen Rabbit (2023), but she is best known for her roles as Clare Devlin in sitcom Derry Girls (2018-22) and Penelope in Bridgerton (2020-24).

Awards

2021: Irish Film and Television Rising Star Award

Facts

Politically-minded Nicola has campaigned for various causes over the years, including body conformity, Channel 4, anti-abortion rights and refugees.

Steph de Whalley (Anita Benn) Born 1988

Doctor Who credits

Played: Anita Benn in Joy to the World (2024), The Reality War (2025)

Career highlights

Steph debuted in The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael (2005), then Cyber Bride (2019) and Midnight Taxi (2024).

Joel Fry (Trev Simpkins) Born May 20 1985

Career highlights

Joel's first screen credit was in the 2007 TV movie Sound, followed by parts in Casualty (2007), 10,000 BC (2008), The Wrong Door (2008), No Signal (2009), Octavia (2009), Tamara Drewe (2010), White Van Man (2011-12), Bedlam (2012), Twenty Twelve (2012), Death in Paradise (2015), Game of Thrones (2014-15), You, Me and the Apocalypse (2015), W1A (2014-17), Paddington 2 (2017), Yesterday (2019), Silent Night (2020), In the Earth (2021), A Boy Called Christmas (2021), Bank of Dave (2023) and Inside No 9 (2024). Regular roles include Leighton in Trollied (2011-13), Stylax in Plebs (2013-16) and Frenchie in Our Flag Means Death (2022-23).

Facts

Joel is also a musician, having released music as part of the band Animal Circus in 2012, and contributed to the soundtrack of Our Flag Means Death.

Joshua Leese (Mr Single)

Career highlights

Joshua's other credits include Chernobyl (2019), Extraordinary (2023), Archie (2023) and Silent Witness (2025).

Fiona Marr (Angela Grace)

Career highlights

Fiona debuted in Ted Lasso (2021), followed by roles in The Sandman (2022), Doctors (2023), Insomnia (2024), Signora Volpe (2024) and My Fault: London (2025).

Ell Potter (Server)

Career highlights

Ell's other work includes the 2016 short Surfing and the series Cheaters (2024). Ell is also an prolific audiobook narrator.

Liam Prince-Donnelly (Barman)

Career highlights

Liam's other work includes Payback Season (2012), Pennyworth (2019) and Children of Oceanville (2020).

Ruchi Rai (Receptionist)

Coming soon...

Fiona Scott (Joy's mum)

Career highlights

Fiona has also appeared in Closing Ranks (1988) and The Lesson (2022).

Samuel Sherpa-Moore (Tenzing Norgay) Born 2000

Career highlights

Samuel's further work includes Wonka (2023), The Boys in the Boat (2023) and The Crown (2023).

Facts

Samuel is distantly related to the character he played in Doctor Who, Sherpa Tenzing, as Norgay's grandson married Samuel's great-aunt (making him Samuel's great great uncle). His family runs the Sherpa Society tour guide firm in Nepal.

Niamh Marie Smith (Sylvia Trench)

Coming soon...

Julia Watson (Hilda Flockhart) Born Sep 13 1953

Career highlights

Julia's earliest credited screen role was in Park Ranger (1979), followed by roles in Tales of the Unexpected (1979), Rings on Their Fingers (1979), Shoestring (1979), Agony (1980), Maybury (1981), Dempsey and Makepeace (1986), Bust (1988), Lovejoy (1993), A Touch of Frost (2008), Midsomer Murders (2010) and The Freaks Come Out (2024). Julia may be best remembered for playing Lyn in the sitcom Never the Twain (1981-83) and Barbara "Baz" Wilder in 90 episodes of Casualty (1986, 1995-98 and 2003-04).

Facts

Julia is married to poet and writer David Harsent (aka novelist David Lawrence).

CREW

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

Alex Sanjiv Pillai (director)

Doctor Who credits

Directed: Joy to the World (2024), Wish World/ The Reality War (2025)

Career highlights

Alex, who is of South Indian Tamil heritage, began directing with 1996's Thief Takers, followed by Flight (1997), Touching Evil (1998), The Last Train (1999), The Wyvern Mystery (2000), Blue Murder (2004), Wire in the Blood (2005), Silent Witness (1998-2008), Being Human (2009), Robin Hood (2009), Merlin (2011), Da Vinci's Demons (2015), Harry Price: Ghost Hunter (2015), Midsomer Murders (2012-17), Bull (2017-20), Bridgerton (2022), DI Ray (2022), Riverdale (2018-23) and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin (2022-24).

ARTICLE: How DWM Predicted Doctor Who Could Come Back in 2002 - Were They Right?

Cast your mind back (if you're old enough!) to a time before Doctor Who was brought back to life by Russell T Davies, after a 16-year hiatus, in 2005. That period has since become known by fans as The Wilderness Years, that wedge of time between Season 26 ending in December 1989 and Rose debuting in March 2005. It was a time packed with Doctor Who books, comics, audios, toys and even a 90-minute TV movie... but no new series proper.

In its Christmas 2001 issue, Doctor Who Magazine decided to ask some pertinent questions about the practicalities and probabilities of our beloved programme ever getting back onto TV. In an article called "When's He Coming Back?" (hindsight makes that pronoun stick out!), writer Jonathan Blum asked 50 questions of a panel of pundits who worked in TV and media, to find out whether Doctor Who really could still cut it in the year 2002. Looking back, some of the panel's answers are amusingly wide of the mark, as well as fascinatingly prescient. So let's look back at what was asked, what was said, and whether anybody got it right...

The Legend of Ruby Sunday/ Empire of Death

S Triad. That's not an anagram,
it's a trap.

Two episodes (The Legend of Ruby Sunday, Empire of Death)

First broadcast: June 15-22 2024
Audience for story: 3.60m

REGULAR CAST

Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor) Born Oct 15 1992 Click here for Ncuti Gatwa's entry on The Giggle

Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday) Born Jun 19 2004 Click here for Millie Gibson's entry on The Church on Ruby Road

GUEST CAST

Jasmine Bayes (Corporal Sullivan) Born 1994

Career highlights

Jasmine's other work includes Platform 7 (2023), Father Brown (2024) and Vera (2024).

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

Sian Clifford (Kind woman) Born Apr 7 1982

Career highlights

Sian's earliest credit was in Dark Matters: Twisted But True (2012), followed by Midsomer Murders (2013), Vanity Fair (2018), Fleabag (2016-19), Hitmen (2020), Liar (2020), Quiz (2020), Two Weeks to Live (2020), The Duke (2020), Inside No 9 (2021), Life After Life (2022), Chevalier (2022), His Dark Materials (2022), Unstable (2023) and Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021/24).

Awards

2020: BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme (Fleabag)

Aidan Cook (The Vlinx) Click here for Aidan Cook's entry on The Rings of Akhaten

Alexander Devrient (Colonel Ibrahim)

Played: Colonel Christopher Ibrahim in The Giggle (2023), The Legend of Ruby Sunday/ Empire of Death (2024), Lucky Day (2025), Wish World/ The Reality War (2025). He also played Ibrahim in the 2025 spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea

Career highlights

German/ French actor Alexander made his screen debut in the 2010 short Detente, followed by We are What We Drink (2010), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), Voodoo Magic (2013), Emmerdale (2014), The Danish Girl (2015), SS-GB (2017), Genius (2018), The Bureau (2018), Industry (2020), Motherland (2021), Ted Lasso (2021), All the Old Knives (2022) and The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself (2022).

Anita Dobson (Mrs Flood) Born Apr 29 1949 Click here for Anita Dobson's entry on The Church on Ruby Road

Yasmin Finney (Rose Noble) Born Aug 30 2003

Doctor Who credits

Played: Rose Noble in The Star Beast (2023), The Giggle (2023), The Legend of Ruby Sunday/ Empire of Death (2024), Wish World/ The Reality War (2025)

Career highlights

Yasmin rose to prominence playing Elle Argent in the series Heartstopper (2022), and has also appeared in the short film Mars (2022).

Facts

Yasmin is a trans woman.

Michelle Greenidge (Carla) Born Jun 15 1970 Click here for Michelle Greenidge's entry on The Church on Ruby Road

Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush) Born Jul 22 1964 Click here for Bonnie Langford's entry on The Trial of a Time Lord Parts 9-12

Fela Lufadeju (Bailey Sinclair)

Career highlights

Further work includes White Girl (2016), I May Destroy You (2020) and Santiago (2022).

Genesis Lynea (Harriet Arbinger) Born Oct 20 1989

Career highlights

Bermuda-born actor Genesis first appeared in the family comedy 4 O'Clock Club as Maddie Harper (2018-19), followed by roles in Shadow and Bone (2021), A Discovery of Witches (2019-22), The Baby (2022), Champion (2023), Halo (2024), Death in Paradise (2023-24) and You & Me (2023-24). Regular roles include Archie Hudson in Casualty (2019-20) and Dr Simone Tyler in Silent Witness (2021-22).

Facts

Genesis was the original Anne of Cleves in the stage musical Six, and features on the original cast soundtrack. Genesis was one of the UK's first female krump dancers, and appears in the music video for Jessie J's Do It Like a Dude (2010).

Faye McKeever (Louise Miller) Born Jan 18 1985

Doctor Who credits

Played: Louise Miller in The Legend of Ruby Sunday/ Empire of Death (2024), Lucky Day (2025)

Career highlights

Faye debuted in Hollyoaks: In the City (2006), followed by Massive (2008), Unforgiven (2009), The Street (2009), Shameless (2010), No Offence (2015), Little Boy Blue (2017), Moving On (2019), Plebs (2019), The Salisbury Poisonings (2020), Des (2020), Death in Paradise (2021), The Reckoning (2023), Time (2023) and Adolescence (2025). She might be best known as Linda in more than 60 episodes of Trollied (2011-18) or Jodie Sweeney in The Responder (2022-24).

Facts

Faye was in a relationship with singer Shayne Ward between 2003-14, having got engaged in 2012 but since split up.

Tachia Newall (Colonel Chidozie) Born Jan 10 1990

Career highlights

Tachia has also appeared in Doctors (2010), Moving On (2010), Young Dracula (2011), Coronation Street (2010/12), Scott & Bailey (2014), Vera (2015), From Darkness (2015), Armchair Detectives (2017), Silent Witness (2018), Dirty God (2019), Dune: Part 1 (2021), Dodger (2022), Life After Life (2022), Pennyworth (2022) and Brassic (2023). He may be best remembered for playing Bolton Smilie in 57 episodes of Waterloo Road between 2007-13.

Facts

Tachia also has a second career as a rapper, under the name Truthos Mufasa. Although born in Manchester, Tachia moved with his family to Mozambique in 1993, and when he returned to the UK in 1996, his first language was Portuguese.

Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart) Born Jan 14 1965 Click here for Jemma Redgrave's entry on The Power of Three

Lenny Rush (Morris Gibbons) Born Mar 18 2009

Career highlights

Lenny's debut came in 2018 as Eli in Apple Tree House, followed by roles in A Christmas Carol (2019), The Dumping Ground (2021-22), Am I Being Unreasonable? (2022), Enola Holmes 2 (2022), Best Interests (2023), The Queen Mary (2023), Dodger (2022-23), W1A (2024) and Renegade Nell (2024).

Awards

2023: BAFTA TV Award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme (Am I Being Unreasonable?)

2023: National Comedy Breakthrough Award

Facts

Lenny was originally cast to provide the voice of Eric in Space Babies, but was offered the bigger role of Morris Gibbons when the production team saw how good he was. Lenny was born with the condition spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, which affects his growth.

Susan Twist (Susan Triad) Born c.1957 Click here for Susan Twist's entry on Wild Blue Yonder

Gabriel Woolf (Voice of Sutekh) Born Oct 2 1932
Doctor Who credits
Played: Sutekh in Pyramids of Mars (1975), The Legend of Ruby Sunday/ Empire of Death (2024)
Played: Voice of the Beast in The Impossible Planet/ The Satan Pit (2006)
Career highlights
Gabriel was first credited in The Boy with a Cart (1951), then appeared in Knights of the Round Table (1953), Rob Roy (1961), Emergency Ward 10 (1961), Merry-Go-Round (1968), Honey Lane (1969), Paul Temple (1971), Look and Read: The Boy from Space (1971), The Brothers (1972), Dial M for Murder (1974), Bognor (1981), The Prisoner of Zenda (1984) and Wizards vs Aliens (2012-13).
Facts
He is married to opera singer Dame Felicity Lott, who sang at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York in 1986. In 1981 Gabriel read three Doctor Who novelisations as RNIB talking books (imagine a bedtime story read to you by Sutekh!). Gabriel is also a vice-president of the Joyful Company of Singers.

Angela Wynter (Cherry) Born Jul 14 1957 Click here for Angela Wynter's entry on The Church on Ruby Road

CREW

Russell T Davies (writer) Born Apr 27 1963 Click here for Russell T Davies' entry on Rose

Jamie Donoughue (director)

Doctor Who credits

Directed: Destination: Skaro (2023), The Legend of Ruby Sunday/ Empire of Death (2024)

Career highlights

Jamie's first directing work was 2013's Ada, followed by The Last Kingdom (2017), The Innocents (2018), Endeavour (2019), A Discovery of Witches (2019-22) and A Town Called Malice (2023). He has also acted as co-producer on A Discovery of Witches and A Town Called Malice.

Facts

Jamie's short film Shok was nominated for an Oscar in 2016. In 2010 Jamie travelled to Kosovo to film a commercial when he was left stranded there for five weeks following the eruption of the Icelandic volcano. He has also directed music videos.