Quote:
Emmerdale star to play new Doctor Who sidekick

(AFP) – 29 minutes ago

LONDON — A former Emmerdale actress was on Wednesday given the keys to the Tardis after she was named Doctor Who's new time-travelling companion in the BBC's sci-fi show.

Jenna-Louise Coleman, 25, will appear in a special Christmas episode alongside Matt Smith -- who plays the 11th incarnation of the Time Lord.

Coleman will replace Karen Gillan -- who plays the Doctor's popular sidekick Amy Pond -- when she leaves the show in what the BBC describes as a "heart-breaking" exit from the long-running show first screened in 1963.

"I'm beyond excited, I can't wait to get cracking; working alongside Matt I know is going to be enormous fun and a huge adventure," said the Blackpool-based actress, who has also appeared in Waterloo Road.

The show?s executive producer Steven Moffat was full of praise for Coleman -- who will be the Doctor's 36th companion.

He said she was "funny and clever and exactly mad enough to step on board the Tardis ? a time machine that appears to the outside world as a police telephone box from the late 1950s.

"It's not often the doctor meets someone who can talk even faster than he does, but it's about to happen. Jenna is going to lead him his merriest dance yet," joked Moffat, who remained tight-lipped about the new series of the show, which is screened in more than 50 countries.

He did however reveal that Gillan would be written out in the fifth episode of 2012 in a "final encounter" with weeping angels.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.


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