The Devil's Chord

"What's that? Some fans believe
my performance was a little...
Over. The. TOP?!"

One episode (The Devil's Chord)

First broadcast: May 11 2024
Audience for story: 3.91m

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

Sherinne Kayra Anderson (Tea trolley lady) Born 1983

Career highlights

Sherinne is a trained dancer and choreographer, and has performed in music videos for acts such as Alphabeat, Fifty Phantoms, Leee John, La Roux and MIA, has danced on stage in support of acts like Leona Lewis (2008 Top of the Pops), CeeLo Green (2011 Brit Awards) and Rihanna (2016 Brit Awards), and appeared on TV in programmes such as Game of Thrones (2009) and Bridgerton (2020-22).

Shirley Ballas (Shirley Ballas) Born Sep 6 1960

Career highlights

Shirley is best known as a professional ballroom dancer and choreographer, and particularly as head judge on BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing since 2017. She began dancing at the age of seven, and by the age of 23 she and husband/ dance partner Sammy Stopford had won the professional Latin category at 1983's Blackpool Dance Festival. She divorced Stopford in 1984, and married new dance partner Corky Ballas in 1985, both winning the professional Latin categories at the 1995 and 1996 Blackpool Dance Festivals. Shirley and Corky's son Mark is also a professional dancer and choreographer, finding success as a professional dancer on the American series Dancing with the Stars since 2007.

George Caple (Paul McCartney)

Doctor Who credits

Played: Alfie in Flux: Survivors of the Flux (2021)

Played: Paul McCartney in The Devil's Chord (2024)

Career highlights

George debuted in Doctors (2016), followed by Tin Star (2020) and Lethal Love (2023).

Philip Davies (George Harrison)

Murray Gold (Murray Gold) Born Feb 28 1969

Doctor Who credits

Composer: Series 1-10 (2005-2017), The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder, The Giggle, Series 14- (2023- )

Career highlights

Murray's other composing work includes Vanity Fair (1998), Love in the 21st Century (1999), Queer as Folk (1999-2000), Beautiful Creatures (2000), Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased (2000-01), Miranda (2001), Clocking Off (2000-02), The Second Coming (2003), Servants (2003), Hawking (2004), Mine All Mine (2004), Casanova (2005), Alien Autopsy (2006), Mischief Night (2006), Death at a Funeral (2007), The Devil's Whore (2008), Single Father (2010), Scott and Bailey (2011-12), Shameless (2004-13), The Musketeers (2014), Life Story (2014-15), Cucumber (2015), Vicious (2016), Last Tango in Halifax (2012-16), A Very English Scandal (2018), Years and Years (2019), Quiz (2020), It's a Sin (2021), Magpie Murders (2022) and Gentleman Jack (2019-22).

James Hoyles (Ringo Starr)

Laura June Hudson (Elderly woman)

Doctor Who credits

Costume designer: The Ribos Operation (1978), Destiny of the Daleks (1979), The Creature from the Pit (1979), The Horns of Nimon (1979-80), The Leisure Hive (1980), Meglos (1980), Warriors' Gate (1981), Logopolis (1981)

Played: Mrs Linderhof in Class: For Tonight We Must Die (2018)

Played: Elderly woman in The Devil's Chord (2024, as Laura June Hudson)

Career highlights

As a costume designer and wardrobe supervisor, June has worked on Till Death Us Do Part (1966), The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976), Survivors (1976), Nicholas Nickleby (1977), Blake's 7 (1979), The Basil Brush Show (1979), Jane (1982), The New Adventures of Lucky Jim (1982), Dombey & Son (1983), All Creatures Great and Small (1988), EastEnders (1985-88), Nudes in Tartan (2011) and Going Green (2012).

As an actress, June (often credited as Laura June Hudson) has appeared in The Bill (2001), Judge John Deed (2001), Derek (2013-14), Marley's Ghosts (2015), This Country (2018), Johnny English Strikes Again (2018), Four Weddings and a Funeral (2019), This England (2022), Room 7 (2022) and Wicked Little Letters (2023). She has also appeared in many TV advertisements.

Facts

June auditioned, but failed to win, the role of the ill-fated Mrs Pitt in Mummy on the Orient Express (2017). She has written at length about her time costume designing for Doctor Who, and Tom Baker, on Baker's website here.

Simon Jason-Smith (Vinnie)

Jeremy Limb (Timothy Drake) Born 1971

Career highlights

Jeremy's debut came in 2007's Comedy Cuts, followed by Miranda (2010), The Royal Bodyguard (2011), The Death of Stalin (2017), Traitors (2019) and Ghosts (2021). He has also written material for the series Harry Enfield and Chums (1998), The In Crowd (2004) and The Now Show (2009-12).

Facts

His father is Roger Limb, the musician who composed the incidental scores for eight Doctor Who stories between 1981-85. 

Chris Mason (John Lennon) Born Feb 14 1991

Career highlights

Chris debuted in Justice (2011), then The Fades (2011), Lightfields (2013), Vampire Academy (2014), Our World War (2014), Legend (2015), Between Two Worlds (2016), Wonderkid (2016), Broadchurch (2017), The Resident (2020), Dirty John (2020), Riverdale (2021), Killing It (2022), FBI: Most Wanted (2022) and Dune: The Sisterhood (2024).

Facts

His wife is Spencer Locke, the American actor best known for playing Kylie in Cougar Town.

Jinkx Monsoon (Maestro) Born Sep 18 1987

Career highlights

Jinkx is the stage name of Hera Hoffer, a drag queen, actor, singer and comedian who rose to fame after winning RuPaul's Drag Race in 2013. Subsequent TV appearances include Blue Bloods (2014), Blame the Hero (2019), AJ and the Queen (2020), HouseBroken (2023), Teenage Euthanasia (2023) and Adventure Time (2023), as well as many returns to various series of Drag Race. Jinkx's musical strand includes appearances in videos from Blondie (2017's Doom or Destiny) and Blair St Clair (2018's Now or Never), as well as her own albums such as The Inevitable Album (2014) and The Ginger Snapped (2018), and many music videos. Jinkx has also appeared on stage, and on Broadway in Chicago playing Mama Morton.

Facts

Hera stated in 2017 that she identified as non-gendered/ non-binary and went by singular 'they' pronouns when not in drag. In 2024 she stated that she identified as trans-femme and used she/ her pronouns. Hera suffers with narcolepsy.

Johannes Radebe (Johannes Radebe) Born Apr 27 1987

Career highlights

South African born Johannes has been a ballroom dancer since an early age, later a choreographer, and is best known for working in those capacities on Strictly Come Dancing since 2018. Before that, he'd been a professional dancer on the South African versions of Strictly and Dancing with the Stars since 2014. Before finding fame, he's danced on cruise ships, and competed in the Professional South African Latin Championships, becoming Amateur Latin South African Champion three times.

Kit Rakusen (Henry Arbinger) Born 2012

Career highlights

Kit's earliest work was in four episodes of Isolation: The Series (2020), followed by Belfast (2021), PAW Patrol (2021), The Midwich Cuckoos (2022), Cupid (2022), Consecration (2023) and Knuckles (2024). His most high profile roles were playing Josiah in Foundation (2023) and Dick Barnard in The Famous Five (2023-24).

Josie Sedgwick-Davies (Cilla Black) Born 1992

Career highlights

Josie's other work includes The Hound and the Rabbit (2015) and providing the voice of Frizzle in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023).

Chan Shoker (Studio producer)

Career highlights

Chan debuted in Doctors (2018), then Is This Sexual Harassment? (2019), Emmerdale (2015/19), Ackley Bridge (2021) and Phoenix Rise (2023).

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

Ed White (George Martin)

Career highlights

Debuting in Mamma Mia! (2008), Ed's further work includes Man in an Orange Shirt (2017), Home Alone (2017), Hollyoaks (2019), Krypton (2019), Midsomer Murders (2021), The Pope's Exorcist (2023), Doctors (2023), Maryland (2023) and Under the Blue (2024).

CREW

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

Ben Chessell (director)

Doctor Who credits

Directed: The Devil's Chord (2024), Rogue (2024)

Career highlights

Australian Ben's earliest directing work was for the 2002 short The Only Person in the World, followed by Heartworm (2004), Little Deaths (2007), Dance Academy (2010), Rescue Special Ops (2011), Rush (2010-11), Camp (2013), Sucker (2015), Offspring (2012-17), Doctor Doctor (2017-18), The Family Law (2017-19), Girl/ Haji (2019), The Great (2020), Surviving Summer (2022) and Deadloch (2023).

Facts

Ben studied ecology and medieval history at university in Melbourne.