Harry Potter star ‘signs’ for Doctor Who 60th specials

Screen OD staff

Veteran actor and Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes is to appear in the 60th anniversary Doctor Who specials in 2023, according to reports.

The 81-year-old, who is best known to fantasy fans as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter movies, has “a substantial guest appearance” in one of the 2023 specials according to the Sun newspaper.

Speaking to the newspaper, a TV insider said: “With an acting career almost as old as Doctor Who itself, it’s a surprise to think she hasn’t already featured in an episode over the past six decades.

“But that only makes her even more of a prestige addition to a cast which already features Neil Patrick Harris and Catherine Tate, who returns to play the Doctor’s assistant Donna Noble.

“The show’s creators felt that she was such a great character in real life that she was a natural choice to play the character she will have on the sci-fi show, which the BBC are keeping a closely guarded secret.

“And at the grand age of 81, her career is enjoying something of a renaissance at the moment.”

As well as the Harry Potter films, Margolyes is well known for her BAFTA-winning performance in Martin Scorsese’s 1993 film The Age of Innocence, her regular role in BBC’s Call The Midwife and numerous voice roles in popular movies.

In 2023, there are scheduled to be three episodes of Doctor Who in November to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the science fiction show. They are being showrun by Russell T Davies and will star David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor alongside Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. Neil Patrick Harris will also feature in the show as an as-yet-unnamed character.

The 2023 specials will be followed by Ncuti Gatwa’s first full show as the Fifteenth Doctor around the festive season with it understood the next full season of the show will air in 2024.

The 2023 specials will be the first Doctor Who episodes to air since the BBC and Disney struck a deal to stream the show globally on Disney+.