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Today also saw the first read-through for the series take place:

The BBC have announced that Rebecca Front is to appear in Doctor Who, featuring in the story currently being filmed for the next series, due to air this Autumn.

The actress will be re-united with Peter Capaldi, with whom she co-starred in the political satire comedy The Thick Of It - and for which both won BAFTA awards in 2010 for best Male/Female performance in a comedy role.

As previously reported the episode, written by Peter Harness and directed by Daniel Nettheim, features the return of the Zygons and of UNIT, with both Jemma Redgrave and Ingrid Oliver reprising their roles of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Osgood respectively.

The BBC has confirmed that actor and comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar is to guest star in the final episode of the upcoming episode of Doctor Who.

The actor is best known for his work on the BBC series Goodness Gracious Me which ran on Radio 4 from 1996-1998 before transferring to BBC Two in 1998. He later became the host of The Kumars at No. 42. He also presented and starred in a documentary series called India with Sanjeev Bhaskar in which he travelled India and visited his ancestral home in today's Pakistan.

Speaking about the role, Bhaskar said: Steven Moffat, lead writer and Executive Producer, said:Guest stars confirmed to join Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman in the new series include Michelle Gomez, Frank Skinner, Ben Miller, Tom Riley, Keeley Hawes and Hermione Norris.

The BBC has announced that Michelle Gomez will join the cast of Doctor Who, playing the Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere in the new series.

Gomez is best known for her performances in Green Wing, The Book Group, and Bad Education. In 2008 she performed as Kate in Royal Shakespeare Company's production The Taming of the Shrew. Doctor Who fans may know her from her role as Jevvan in the 2007 Big Finish audio Valhalla.

Speaking about the role, Gomez said:Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat added: Filming on Series 8 is nearing its conclusion with the crew believed to be based at a central Cardiff location, working on the series finale, directed by Rachel Talalay.

Guest stars confirmed to join Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman in the new series, which starts on BBC One on Saturday 23rd August, include Frank Skinner, Ben Miller, Tom Riley, Keeley Hawes and Hermione Norris.

The BBC today announced that comedian Frank Skinner will be playing a role in the new series of Doctor Who. The Room 101 presenter, who previously cameoed in Peter Davison's 50th Anniversary's tribute The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, is to feature in the episode written by Jamie Mathieson, whose story is in the current filming block directed by Paul Wilmshurst.

Skinner, a long-term fan, said:
Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat commented:
Mathieson commented on the casting on his blog:

The episode will also feature the return of two more 'classic' series guest stars: Janet Henfrey appeared as Mrs Hardaker in the seventh Doctor adventure The Curse of Fenric in 1989; and Christopher Villiers hails back to the fifth Doctor era, appearing as Hugh in 1983's The King's Demons. Other guest stars announced include David Bamber (Rome, What Remains) and Daisy Beaumont (The Armstrong and Miller Show, A Touch of Cloth, You, Me, and Them).

The BBC today announced that Hermione Norris has been cast in the new series of Doctor Who. The actress will appear in the latest episode to be filmed, written by Peter Harness and directed by Paul Wilmshurst, which will also see filming undertaken at a location previously seen in the fifth Doctor adventure, Planet of Fire.

Lead writer/Executive Producer Steven Moffat said:
Norris said:

The actress has had a number of memorable roles on television, including Ros Myers in Spooks, Beatrice in Kingdom, and DCI Carol Jordan in Wire in the Blood; her sci-fi credentials include playing Stella Isen in Outcasts. She can currently be seen in the BBC drama The Crimson Field.

Also announced for this episode is Tony Osoba, joining the relatively small 'club' of actors to appear in both the 'classic' and new series of Doctor Who. This will be his third appearance (and Doctor!) in the series: the actor previously appeared as the Movellan Lan in fourth Doctor adventure Destiny of the Daleks and as Kracauer in seventh Doctor tale Dragonfire.

The BBC announced today that Ben Miller will be appearing in an episode of the currently filming eighth series of Doctor Who.

The actor said:
Executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat observed:
The Armstrong and Miller and Death in Paradise actor is the latest guest star to have been recently announced, joining a line-up this year that includes Tony Way, Keeley Hawes, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, and Tom Riley.

The BBC have confirmed the actor Tom Riley is to appear in the third episode of the new series of Doctor Who.

The actor played Leonardo da Vinci in Da Vinci's Demons, the American historical fantasy drama series which presented a fictional account of Leonardo da Vinci's early life. Other roles include playing Romeo in St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold alongside David Tennant, Raymond Boynton in Agatha Christie's Poirot: Appointment with Death, Dave Beethoven in the BBC's Freezing and Dr Laurence Shepherd in Monroe the ITV British medical drama series.

The new edition of Doctor Who Magazine reveals that joining Riley in the episode will be actor Trevor Cooper, who last appeared in Doctor Who in 1985 when he played Takis in the Sixth Doctor story Revelation of the Daleks. Other guest stars include Ian Halland, who played director Richard Martin in last year's docu-drama An Adventure in Space and Time; David Benson, who played Noël Coward in the 1998 comedy Goodnight Sweetheart; Sabrina Bartlett, who plays Hannah in Channel 5's Suspects; and Roger Ashton-Griffiths, best known for numerous film roles, including Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm and Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York.

The episode will be written by Mark Gatiss, who recently confirmed he has been commissioned to write two new episodes. It will form part of the third production block of the series, directed by Paul Murphy, whose work includes Wizards vs Aliens, Trollied, Casualty, Waterloo Road and Grange Hill.

The second episode of the third production block is episode 6, which will be written by Gareth Roberts, whose previous stories include The Shakespeare Code, The Unicorn and the Wasp, Planet of the Dead, The Lodger, and Closing Time as well as a number of episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Guest stars in episode 6 include Nigel Betts, who played Eddie Hope in Emmerdale, Edward Harrison, who has appeared in many stage roles as well as appearing in Doctors; Andy Gillies, who appeared in Love Soup, Ellis George and Jimmy Vee, a veteran of Doctor Who whose previous roles include the Graske, the Moxx of Balhoon and Bannakaffalatta in Voyage of the Damned.

The readthrough for the episodes took place on Thursday 20th March in Cardiff, with recording now taking place.

The BBC have announced that actress Keeley Hawes is to join the cast of Doctor Who playing a villain.

Hawes will play Ms Delphox, a powerful out-of-this-world character with a dark secret. Travelling across space and time, the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and his companion, Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), will come face to face with the mysterious Ms Delphox, when they arrive on a strange and puzzling planet.

The character will appear in the fifth episode of the series, written by Steve Thompson and directed by Douglas Mackinnon, which is currently being filmed in south Wales.

Hawes is best known for roles in The Last September, an adaptation of Elizabeth Bowen's 1929 novel, as well as playing Zoe Reynolds in Spooks, Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes and Lady Agnes in Upstairs, Downstairs. She is currently playing Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton on the second series of the BBC Two drama Line of Duty. She was the voice of Lara Croft in several Tomb Raider video games.

Commenting on her role, Hawes said: Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat added:

Richard E Grant is to be a guest star in the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas Special, the BBC announced today.

First announced on Twitter just after midnight, in the later press release Grant said:

No information has been released about his role as yet, though the Sun newspaper has suggested that he will play the Doctor's adversary.

An actor with a lengthy career in film and television, Grant is best known for the film Withnail and I in which he starred alongside former Doctor Paul McGann. Grant is not a stranger to Doctor Who either, having played the Doctor himself on two occasions: he first appeared as the "Quite Handsome" Tenth Doctor in the Steven Moffat-penned Comic Relief special The Curse of Fatal Death in 1999; as mentioned above, the actor then had a brief spell as the official Ninth Doctor for the online adventure Scream of the Shalka by Paul Cornell in 2003 - until the television series was announced with Christopher Eccleston at the helm.

The Christmas Special starts filming this week and is directed by Saul Metzstein, who worked on the Blue Peter special, Good as Gold and the first two stories recorded for the next series (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and A Town called Mercy).


Another actor announced for the Special is Tom Ward, who is best known for playing Harry Cunningham in the series Silent Witness.