Doctor Who Spinoff Redacted Featuring Jodie Whittaker Announced
Jodie Whittaker has added one more stop on her Doctor Who farewell tour with Doctor Who: Redacted, the upcoming spinoff scripted podcast from BBC Sounds. Doctor Who: Redacted is a 10-part series launching on April 17th, the same day as Doctor Who's Easter special, "Legend of the Sea Devils." The series follows new characters Cleo Proctor (Charlie Craggs), Abby McPhail (Lois Chimimba), and Shawna Thompson (Holly Quin-Ankrah) on adventures "left" of the main Doctor Who television series. They'll bump into some familiar characters, including Rani Chandra, Kate Stewart, Petronella Osgood, Madame Vastra, and, of course, the Doctor herself, with Whittaker reprising the role. Here's the official synopsis from the BBC:
"Doctor Who: Redacted follows Cleo, Abby and Shawna – three broke university drop-outs from different cities across the UK who remain connected via their paranormal conspiracy podcast, 'The Blue Box Files'. The trio speculate over Abby's favourite conspiracy theory – intent on finding out the truth behind the mysterious 'Blue Box' that keeps cropping up across history. What if this random police public call box was actually an alien ship?
"They don't know who the Doctor is, or if aliens are real, but soon find themselves caught in a supernatural conspiracy as they learn that everyone who's ever met the Doctor is disappearing and being forgotten. Essentially, they're being redacted from reality. The Blue Box Files is so unsuccessful that our heroes are the last ones to be affected by the redaction, making Cleo, Abby and Shawna the world's only hope. Now it's a race against time to uncover the truth."
Bestselling author Juno Dawson is the lead writer on Doctor Who: Redacted. She says in the press release, "Doctor Who was my first love, and it's an absolute thrill to add to the ever-expanding mythology in podcast form for the first time ever. What a total privilege to write for something so beloved, and put my own little flag on the landscape."
Doctor Who: Redacted's cast includes Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who), Charlie Craggs, Jacob Hawley, Lois Chimimba (Doctor Who, Vigil), Holly Quin-Ankrah (Coronation Street, Grange Hill), Ken Cheng, Jemma Redgrave (Doctor Who), Ingrid Oliver (Doctor Who), Doon Mackichan (Good Omens, Smack The Pony) and more. Episodes will be available first on BBC Sounds weekly starting April 17th. The first episode of the series will be available following Doctor Who's "Legend of the Sea Devils" on Easter Sunday.