Gibson’s most recognisable role to date is as Kelly Neelan on the soap opera Coronation Street, who she portrayed from June 2019 to September 2022. For this role, she received the Best Young Actor award at this year’s British Soap Awards. She also appeared in the first three seasons of the CBBC show Jamie Johnson, as Indira, and as Lily Duffy in the ITV series Butterfly.
In a statement, eighteen-year-old Gibson said, “It is a gift of a role, and a dream come true, and I will do everything to try and fill the boots of the fellow companions who have travelled in before me.” Many of the actors who have played the Doctor’s companion in recent years have achieved great success since. Karen Gillan, who played Amy Pond alongside Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, went on to star as Nebula in a number of Marvel Studios' films. Jenna Coleman, whose character Clara Oswald accompanied the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors, has also starred as the eponymous queen in ITV’s Victoria, and more recently featured as Johanna Constantine in the Netflix adaptation of the Neil Gaiman comic book series The Sandman.
She will embark on adventures in time and space at the end of next year
The companion that Gibson’s casting brings to mind for many, perhaps, is Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper. Rose was nineteen when she met the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston – only a year older than Gibson herself, suggesting that Ruby Sunday will be written as a similar age. As is the case with many of Doctor Who’s iconic companions, Piper’s shoes are not small ones to fill - with the heart-wrenching moment she shared with the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) at the end of ‘Doomsday’ topping a 2014 SFX poll for the greatest sci-fi scene of all time.
Many of the actors who have played the Doctor’s companion in recent years have achieved great success since
Gibson will star alongside Ncuti Gatwa, who was announced earlier this year as the Fifteenth Doctor. Gatwa is familiar to many as Eric Effiong from the widely popular Netflix series Sex Education, a role for which he received three BAFTA nominations for Best Male Comedy Performance. The two will embark on their adventures in time and space at the end of next year, after a series of specials starring returning fan-favourites Tennant as the now-Fourteenth Doctor, and Catherine Tate as his third companion, Donna Noble.