Most people got to university ... I went to the Whoniverse!

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Publication: The Sunday Times
Date: 2023-12-17
Author: Liam Kelly
Page: Culture, p. 8
Language: English

The Time Lord's new companion, Millie Gibson, 19, is braced for a trip in the Tardis that will change her life, says Liam Kelly

The Tardis can take the Doctor anywhere, from faraway planets to the furthest reaches of the future. For the young actors playing his companions, it is a guaranteed one-way ticket to stardom.

Just look at the trajectory of the Doctor's sidekicks since the show was rebooted in 2005. Karen Gillan has become a Marvel hero and Hollywood mainstay. Her successor, Jenna Coleman, starred as Queen Victoria and then as a femme fatale in The Serpent. Billie Piper was catapulted from child pop star to serious actress. Catherine Tate enjoyed travelling with David Tennant so much that she has returned to the series after 15 years away.

Millie Gibson is the latest name added to that illustrious list. The 19-year-old from Oldham will make her debut as Ruby Sunday, the companion to Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor, in the Christmas special before joining him for a full series in the spring.

So, is the former Coronation Street star ready for global fame? "No, it doesn't seem real. It feels like we've made a lovely little project and it's never going to be released to the world - but it is. I've got to wrap my head around that," Gibson says. "I'm bracing myself."

As soon as she was announced as Ruby last year, Jodie Whittaker, who played the 13th Doctor, and Mandip Gill, who spent three seasons as the companion Yasmin Khan, texted their support.

Gillan, 36, who played Amy Pond opposite Matt Smith's Time Lord, told her: "It's only going to get crazier from here."

The new series promises to be the biggest yet as the BBC has partnered with Disney. Disney+ will also broadcast the show, which is once again helmed by RticsP11 T Davies, everywhere outside the UK and Ireland.

"So many people have sat me down and said, 'Look, your life will change: It is hard to accept that," Gibson says. "It's a baffling thing to be told, to be honest. The first part was actually doing the job, preparing for that. And then the second part will be preparing for when it comes out."

Gibson has already filmed a full series opposite Gatwa, the Sex Education and Barbie star, and when we speak she is in Cardiff shooting a second. Who is Ruby Sunday? "She's very bubbly, very positive and ,she has a certain innocence to her," Gibson says. "She's also my age, which is a cool thing to play because most actors play younger."

While filming her first series of Doctor Who, Gibson went home most weekends to be with her family, but she has just bought her own home in Manchester. "Most people my age go to university - I went to the Whoniverse!"

Gibson was not even a teenager when she was spotted by a talent agent in an Oldham Theatre Workshop play and started working professionally. Her first on-screen role came in 2017, when she was just 13, in the CBBC series Jamie Johnson. Two years later she started walking the cobbles of Coronation Street as the troubled Kelly Neelan.

Gibson spent four years on Corrie, a show that Davies, 60, has long admired. "He's a Corrie fan, thank God," she says. Yet despite winning best young actor at last year's British Soap awards, she decided to quit the show. "It's really easy to get too comfy there and a part of me was like, 'If I don't leave now, I won't leave for a while,'" she admits. "They didn't kill me off, which is lovely. So if it all goes wrong I can come crawling back."

On the day she filmed her last Corrie scenes she was told she had earned an audition to play the new Doctor's companion. "My auntie is quite superstitious. She was like, 'That's fate and you're going to get it:" Gibson says. The day after her last episode aired she auditioned in person with Gatwa, 31, and got the part.

Gibson says working on a show as relentless as Coffie, producing six episodes each week, helped to hone her craft. "People don't have enough respect for soap actors. Before I went in I was like, 'Well, how hard can it be?' But it's really hard. I mean, they work so quickly," she says. "There was one point when Kelly's storyline was so big we were doing ten scenes a day. That's lot of dialogue, a lot of turning on the tears in two seconds."

Gibson's own favourite Doctor is Matt Smith, but she is already an admirer of Gatwa. "It was like a masterclass eve day with Ncuti. There's a scene in the Christmas episode where I was watching him perform and I just started to cry. I wasn't even on camera, so it was a wasted performance. He's my Doctor now, and I think so many people will connect with him."

Doctor Who is on BBC1 on Christmas Day at 5.55pm

Caption: Who's who Millie Gibson with Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor. Below: Karen Gillan and Jenna Coleman

Most people got to university ... I went to the Whoniverse!

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