Call the Midwife's Jessica Raine to take on Doctor Who role to celebrate its 50th anniversary

 
30 January 2013
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Call The Midwife star Jessica Raine will play the woman who brought Doctor Who to television in a one-off show.

Jessica has signed up to play television producer Verity Lambert in the 90-minute BBC2 drama An Adventure In Space And Time, marking the 50th anniversary of the Doctor Who series.

She is joined by Harry Potter star David Bradley, who will play the first doctor - William Hartnell.

Bradley, who said he took the role after being approached by the show's writer Mark Gatiss, said he was "absolutely thrilled".

He said: "I first heard about this role from Mark while watching the Diamond Jubilee flotilla from the roof of the National Theatre. When he asked if I would be interested, I almost bit his hand off.

"Mark has written such a wonderful script, not only about the birth of a cultural phenomenon, but a moment in television's history.

"William Hartnell was one of the finest character actors of our time and as a fan I want to make sure that I do him justice. I'm so looking forward to getting started."

Bourne Supremacy actor Brian Cox has been cast as BBC head of drama Sydney Newman, who is credited with inventing the show, and Waris Hussein, who directed the first episode - An Unearthly Child - will be played by Sacha Dhawan.

Gatiss said: "What a cast. I'm utterly delighted that everyone's favourite Time Lord will be in such brilliant and stellar company.

"We have a terrific team who can't wait to tell the fascinating and surprising story of how the Doctor began his journey through space and time."

Filming starts next month.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in