British actress Miriam Margolyes' long list of credits include Yentyl, Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, and the Harry Potter films, in which she played Professor Sprout. Remarkably, no one had ever cast the 82-year-old on Doctor Who, but that egregious oversight has now been rectified in time for November's trio of 60th anniversary episodes.
The BBC announced today that Margolyes will voice the alien Meep, an intergalactic criminal first featured in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine at the start of the '80s.
"I'm relieved I got to work on Doctor Who before I died," Margolyes said in a statement. "With sci-fi you never know. Thank you for making an old woman very happy."
The special episodes of Doctor Who see the return of David Tennant, who played the titular two-hearted time-traveler for several years, leaving the show in 2010.
Tennant described filming the anniversary episodes as "joyous" when speaking with EW in an interview conducted prior to the SAG strike. "Just an unexpected treat to get to revisit something that had been such a lovely wonderful experience 15 years ago," he said. "To get to have another proper runaround, in an albeit slightly different long coat, was a joy I never really imagined."
The cast also includes Catherine Tate, Neil Patrick Harris, and Yasmin Finney. The episodes premiere on Disney+ in November.
Make sure to check out EW's Fall TV Preview cover story on Gen V — as well as all of our 2023 Fall TV Preview content, releasing through Sept. 21.
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