It was just announced that ‘Doctor Who’ is returning for its 12th season on New Years Day, Wednesday, January 1, 2020. The new episodes will deliver some older fan favorites that were missing from Season 11, like the Cybermen and the Daleks, with the latter reportedly turning up in the Christmas Special slated for next December. But there will be some illustrious new faces that will turn up as well.
The esteemed Stephen Fry and Sir Lenny Henry CBE (he’s a knight, people!) are confirmed to be joining the adventures of Jodie Whitaker’s 13th Doctor in the first new episode of Season 12.
Fry reacted by saying:
“Short of being picked for a British space exploration programme and I readily concede that I’m past the age where I’d be considered (if I was ever the right age for such a posting) – then being in an episode of Doctor Who will certainly do as a very sweet second-place excitement.”
Fry is not a ‘Doctor Who’ virgin. He lent his voice to The Minister of Chance in the 2001-02 audio/limited animation miniseries ‘Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time’.
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With Hugh Laurie, Fry forms the comedy duo, Fry & Laurie. Together, the duo starred on the shows ‘A Bit of Fry & Laurie’ and ‘Jeeves and Wooster’. He has done countless things, but he may be recognized for reading the ‘Harry Potter’ novels for the British audiobooks or narrating various ‘Potter’ video games. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for portraying Oscar Wilde in the 1997 biopic ‘Wilde’, and has also starred in films such as ‘Gosford Park’, ‘V For Vendetta’, and narrated ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. He starred as Peter Kingdom on the TV series ‘Kingdom’, Prime Minister Alastair Davies on ’24: Live Another Day’, and Dr. Gordon Wyatt on ‘Bones’.
It was not mentioned whether or not Fry would be reprising his role from ‘Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time’ or if he would be playing a new role. It sort of sounds like it’s the latter, though.
Henry added:
“It was absolutely brilliant to be welcomed into the fantastical world of Doctor Who. The nearest I have been to the TARDIS was when I played the Caribbean Doctor in the Lenny Henry Show , so as a life-long (hiding behind the sofa type) Doctor Who fan this is a very special moment for me.”
Henry portrayed Ed Burnett on ‘Broadchurch’, a series that was created by current ‘Doctor Who’ showrunner Chris Chibnall and also co-starred Jodie Whitaker, the 13th Doctor.
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Henry is a renown comedian and actor. He is a co-founder of the Comic Relief charity and was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1999 and knighted by the Queen in 2015. He starred as Gareth on ‘Chef!’ and appeared in ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ as the Shrunken Head.
Regarding the appearances of Fry and Henry, Chibnall declared:
“Doctor Who is coming back with a bang – with two great British icons in major roles. One of the great joys of Doctor Who is getting to work with actors from your wish list. Stephen and Lenny are two of my absolute favourite actors – and to be able to bring them into Doctor Who, in one of our biggest ever stories to kick off the new series, is an absolute thrill.”
As stated, ‘Doctor Who’ returns on Wednesday, January 1, 2020.
Source: BBC
