PHOTO: FRANTZESCO KANGARIS /EYEVINE
On Saturday 23 April 2016, in the middle of a football match, Pearl Mackie was unveiled as the Doctor’s new companion, Bill. In a specially shot, two-minute scene, Friend from the Future, aired on BBC One. That’s Doctor Who. Interrupting the FA Cup Semi-Final between Everton and Manchester United. The more you think about it, the more brilliantly nuts it seems.
“I find it really exciting, and slightly surreal, and a little bit crazy,” says the man who cast her, Andy Pryor. “It’s so rare for a piece of casting to be announced in that way. I loved the juxtaposition of Doctor Who with football. Traditionally, we don’t imagine Doctor Who fans as being big football fans, and vice versa, but it was a bit of a stroke of genius to do it that way, because the announcement of Pearl’s casting became a national event, whether you’re into football or not. And I’m certainly not,” he adds.