Doctor Who - The Crimson Horror - 8:25 pm Saturday, April 4 on BBC Three

Matt Smith (Actor) .. The Doctor

Born: October 28, 1982 in Northampton

Best Known For: Being the current Doctor Who.

Early-life: Matthew Robert Smith was born on October 28, 1982, in Northampton. A promising footballer from a young age, he played for the youth teams at Northampton Town, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City. He looked set for a professional career until a back injury scuppered his chances. A teacher encouraged him to act, and although reluctant at first, he eventually joined the National Youth Theatre. He also studied drama and creative writing at the University of East Anglia. At the same time, his professional stage career began to take off, and he was allowed to miss lectures during his final year so that he could work.

Career: Smith's first professional roles came in the plays Fresh Kills, opposite Christian Slater, and On the Shore of the Wide World. He appeared with Slater again in Swimming with Sharks, and also featured in The History Boys. He was part of the Olivier Award-nominated cast of That Face. His TV roles include The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North and Secret Diary of a Call Girl, all alongside ex-Doctor Who assistant Billie Piper. He also starred in political drama Party Animals, and made his debut as the 11th Doctor Who in 2010. He was the youngest actor to play the part, but will bow out at Christmas, when he'll be replaced by Peter Capaldi. Other projects include Christopher and His Kind, Bert and Dickie, Womb, and the forthcoming How to Catch a Monster. He will return to the West End stage in 2014 to play the lead in a musical version of American Psycho.

Quote: 'I'm tired of television that's patronising and silly. I think Doctor Who is brave and it's inviting, challenging. For me anyway; I can only speak personally.'

Trivia: He's a Blackburn Rovers supporter and loves the band Radiohead.

Jenna Coleman (Actor) .. Clara

Born: April 27, 1986 in Blackpool

Best Known For: Playing Clara in Doctor Who.

Early-life: Born Jenna-Louise Coleman in Blackpool on April 27, 1986. She has an older brother called Ben and was head girl at her comprehensive school. While still at school she began appearing with local theatre group Yer Space, and won an award at the Edinburgh Festival for her performance in one of the organisation's plays. Jenna was auditioning for drama schools when she landed the part of Jasmine Thomas in Emmerdale in 2005. She relocated to Leeds and ended up staying on the soap for nearly four years, appearing in 168 episodes.

Career: Coleman went on to have a recurring role in Waterloo Road, but claims that playing a schoolgirl at the age of 23 was 'surreal'. She went on to appear in Julian Fellowes' ITV mini-series Titanic and starred in a BBC Four adaptation of John Braine's novel Room at the Top. She made her film debut in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). Her profile increased significantly in 2012 when it was announced that she would play the companion in Doctor Who. Away from the sci-fi drama, she has starred in Stephen Poliakoff's Dancing on the Edge and the three-part drama Death Comes to Pemberley. In 2013 she dropped 'Louise' from her name and is now known as Jenna Coleman.

Quote: 'I'd love to work across all three fields - theatre, film and TV.'

Trivia: Coleman was nominated for a number of soap awards during her time on Emmerdale, including Most Popular Newcomer at the 2007 National Television Awards.

Diana Rigg (Actor) .. Mrs Gillyflower

Born: July 20, 1938 in Doncaster

Best Known For: Being a 1960s icon.

Early-life: Born Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg on July 20, 1938, in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, but spent her early years in India. At the age of eight she was sent back to England to attend boarding school in Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire. She later transferred to Fulneck School in West Yorkshire where she developed her love of acting, inspiring her to audition for a place at RADA in 1955; she made her professional stage debut the same year.

Career: In 1959, Rigg signed a five-year contract with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her move to TV came in 1965 when she was offered the role of Emma Peel in The Avengers, but the demand for interviews and photographs proved too much, forcing her to quit in 1967. She went on to star in various movies, including On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Julius Caesar and The Great Muppet Caper, but by the 1980s her screen success was fading. However, she returned to form in 1989 in the award-winning miniseries Mother Love, and has appeared continually on stage, film and TV ever since. In 2013, she made a memorable Doctor Who villain alongside Matt Smith and her real-life daughter Rachael Stirling, and has a regular role in the acclaimed Game of Thrones.

Quote: 'You go your own way - you think, ‘That's what I want to do, it gives me pleasure' - the rest of the world can swing on by.'

Trivia: She was made a Dame in 1994.

Rachael Stirling (Actor) .. Ada

Best Known For: Tipping the Velvet.

Early-life: Rachael Atlanta Stirling was born on May 30, 1977, in London. She's the daughter of actress Diana Rigg and her second husband, Archibald Stirling, a theatre producer and Laird of the Keir estate in Stirling, Scotland. She has two older half-brothers from her father's first marriage, and a younger half-brother from his third. Rachael studied art history at Edinburgh University, where she also appeared on stage with its theatre company. She can also speak Russian and is a skilled equestrian.

Career: Stirling's first major stage role was a 1996 National Youth Theatre production of Othello, in which she played Desdemona opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor. Two years later she made her film debut in the British comedy Still Crazy, opposite Bill Nighy and Jimmy Nail. In 2000, she featured as the young Rebeccah in the miniseries In the Beginning; her mother played the character at an older age. But it was the BBC's 2002 adaptation of Sarah Waters' novel Tipping the Velvet that made her a star. Since then Stirling has appeared on stage in Theatre of Blood (playing the same character her mother portrayed in the 1971 film version), Look Back in Anger, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Priory and An Ideal Husband. Films include Maybe Baby, Complicity, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Snow White and the Huntsman.

Quote: "I was only vaguely aware when I was little that Ma was famous. I can remember people pointing at her in Marks & Spencer. But she kept work and home very separate."

Trivia: In 2012, Stirling appeared alongside Mark Gatiss at the Donmar Warehouse in The Recruiting Officer. He'd already starred with her mother in a stage version of All About My Mother. He then wrote an episode of Doctor Who entitled The Crimson Horror, with parts especially written for them both - it aired in May 2013 and was the first time the two actresses had appeared on screen together.

Catrin Stewart (Actor) .. Jenny

Neve McIntosh (Actor) .. Madame Vastra

Dan Starkey (Actor) .. Strax

Eve De Leon Allen (Actor) .. Angie

Kassius Carey Johnson (Actor) .. Artie

Brendan Patricks (Actor) .. Edmund & Mr Thursday

Graham Turner (Actor) .. Amos

Olivia Vinall (Actor) .. Effie

Michelle Tate (Actor) .. Abigail

Jack Oliver Hudson (Actor) .. Urchin boy

Marcus Wilson (Producer)

Saul Metzstein (Director)

Mark Gatiss (Writer)

Born: October 17, 1966 in Sedgefield, County Durham

Best Known For: The League of Gentlemen.

Early-life: Born October 17, 1966, in Sedgefield, County Durham. He grew up opposite a Victorian psychiatric hospital, where both his parents worked. While at college, he had a job there as a gardener. Gatiss claims he always wanted to escape from what he regarded as a grim, northern childhood, although now accepts that Heighington, where he lived, is actually a pleasant village. After school, he took a year out to travel around Europe, then began a drama course at Bretton Hall near Leeds.

Career: Gatiss eventually settled in London, where he hoped to earn a living as an actor but made ends meet writing Doctor Who books. He and friends Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson formed The League of Gentlemen in 1995, which had successful stints on stage, radio, TV and film. Since then he's appeared in Bright Young Things, Marple, The Quatermass Experiment, Nighty Night and Jekyll. Gatiss was also script editor on the first Little Britain series, and has penned episodes of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Doctor Who (in which he's also appeared). He portrayed Malcolm MacLaren in the 2010 drama Worried About the Boy and co-created Sherlock with Steven Moffat.

Quote: 'I've done lots of acting and been very pleased with the response to what I've done. I'd like to do a lot more.'

Trivia: Gatiss has also written several novels and appeared regularly on the stage.

Steven Moffat (Executive producer)

Caroline Skinner (Executive producer)

Doctor Who: The Crimson Horror

8:25 pm - 9:10 pm, Saturday, April 4 on BBC Three (23)

About this Broadcast

The Crimson Horror
Season 7, Episode 12

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