Original subtitles

Hello, faithful viewer. I am Russell T Davies, I'm the writer.

But I'm sitting here with...

Millie Gibson, who plays Ruby Sunday.

Chris May, who produced this episode.

With blood, sweat and tears.

Yes, all of those things.

So, Millie, presumably this... We are... This is Christmas Day.

People have seen this on Christmas Day.

I think some people will be listening to this commentary

on Christmas Day.

For the love of God, go back to your families, people!

Go and embrace your children!

Stop locking yourself in the attic with your little portable telly!

At least finish the Christmas pudding and then go.

So, Millie, you only saw this properly...

We were shooting this in November.

And you saw it yesterday?

I saw it yesterday. So this is my second time watching it,

so I'm still like...eyes peeled.

Wow. What are you like at watching yourself?

I think... I think I'm getting better.

I think, definitely...

I mean, even when we do ADR, it's quite daunting.

But, yeah, it's definitely getting there

with trying not to be too vain.

Aw, no! It's not vain at all.

I think you should take pride in yourself, darling.

I suppose, because with Coronation Street, you were on all the time,

so I bet you didn't even watch every episode, did you? No, no.

And also... Yeah, yeah, you never look.

Look, it's your name!

I know. Big letters!

That's what was lacking on Coronation Street!

Should've had that cat and the cobbles and "Millie Gibson".

I'll have a word with them - don't worry!

Doctor Who...

This wasn't even part of your audition, was it, this?

What... A lot of your audition

was episode one. Yeah, my audition was episode one,

and I don't even think

that scene was used. No. No. We dropped some of it.

We dropped some of it. You talked about going...

You and the Doctor talked about going to Glastonbury.

Do you remember? Yes. Yeah, yeah! I liked that.

Episode one ended up too long. There's a fair bit

on the cutting room floor, which... That's all right.

..the people making this commentary will probably salvage from the floor

and put together into a package.

Tell us about Davina!

Davina!

Aw, I love her. We love Davina. I love her. We just love her.

Please get her back. I love her so much.

She does get mentioned again, doesn't she? Yeah, yeah.

She was amazing. Yeah. Just a delight on that day.

Oh, my gosh. In the middle of Cardiff. That funny...

Yeah. She had a terrible... Yeah, she had a really sore throat.

She had a terrible sore throat. Yes. She rang me...

We spoke about revoicing some of her stuff but it wasn't needed.

No, it wasn't. She was like, "I'm so sorry."

She rang me on the Sunday before... We were due to do it on the Monday.

She rang me on the Sunday night and said, "I'm really worried."

"Everything's going to be fine." Emails were flying.

"Can we move this day?" No!

As soon as it went "action", she was great.

Yeah, she was amazing. Showbiz. Yeah.

..foundling, do you? It's just...

Cos I always said... I wrote her into this.

I've got to say I wrote her into this because

I love Long Lost Family,

and Long Lost Family started doing foundling shows,

where there's...which is different from their normal adoption shows,

where there's no trace whatsoever. That's so clever.

And now DNA is unwrapping families.

So that literally inspired this story. Mm.

And I thought, "That's so fascinating. What great story

"we could get out of this." So, we contacted Davina. Yeah. And...

We had to be quite careful not to mention Long Lost Family itself.

They were very... They were very supportive of the show, though.

Supportive. Yeah. OK. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Cool. Yeah.

But it's kind of a copyright thing

that we couldn't actually say. Yeah. Yeah.

She's so gorgeous. Aw, she's fab. Just such a lovely person.

Oh, my gosh, the nicest person ever.

See, I knew she could act. She did a sitcom called Sam.

Oh! It only ran for one season. She was the lead.

It was built around her and she was great.

It was kind of a Friends-type thing. Yeah, yeah.

Davina and her mates... Well, Sam and her mates, and it was great.

But, yeah, I knew she'd be good. Mmm.

Can I ask you something?

Didn't expect her to be such a delight. She's like a lucky charm.

When Doctor Who won a Bafta in 2006...

Because she'd been in it before. She was the presenter.

Her voice had been in it. Oh, no way!

Yeah, so she was onstage with us when we won, like, "Hi, Davina."

So, she's kind of like... She's our good-luck charm.

Yeah. I love this bit.

Yeah. I love this cut too.

There's a really lovely moment here. Here we go.

Bosh! Yeah. Bosh.

Davina's head. Loving it!

Becky Trotman, editor, everyone. What a genius!

Yes. Becky Trotman. Lovely, lovely edit.

Great, great, great edit.

These captions were the last thing to be edited.

It didn't originally have captions spelling out the dates,

but we thought...

Look who's the man! Here he is! We ignored him on the pre-titles.

Hello, Ncuti.

That's Mary. Mary. Mary Malone.

I'm so not playing that piano!

You learned a bit. Look!

You know I've got that piano now? Oh, really?

I'm trying to teach myself piano. I wondered where it went.

It's in my flat in Cardiff. It disappeared from my trailer!

You're piano mad, because you bought me...

I know. ..a "how to play the piano" book.

I'm waiting... One day we'll do a duet!

You came to my house... I've got a piano in my house because

the previous owners had one and they couldn't

be bothered moving it. Ohhh! I can't play the piano.

But I look like a great musician!

He came round and said, "Give us a tune."

I said, "I can't! It's just there!"

It's not a grand piano. It's like a school upright piano kind of thing.

Yeah. Now he's bought me a book on how play the piano.

I have not got very far. No. I will tell my children.

I think I've done a Millie on that!

Um, Doctor dancing.

Dancing. Beautiful.

This was the best. I mean...

Such a great day. Was it?

Yeah, I wasn't even on camera and it moved me to tears

watching Ncuti doing his dance. Oh, really? He was just...

You could just feel the energy in the room.

Even the crew was like, "Oh, my God, this is so emotional."

Really? It was like... this is a new era.

We had a fab choreographer, Jack... Yeah.

..who even before Ncuti did the scene,

he had all the extras in another room rehearsing

and he worked with them.

I think, the whole thing, the energy of it all was so incredible

by the time it happened.

Jack Murphy, whose work you will see throughout the series.

Amazing. Indeed.

Thank you. But you were just over there.

Health and safety. Gin and tonic division.

Can I ask, does that happen to you a lot?

Knocking things over? Oh, all the time.

But I'm just clumsy.

No. No, you're not.

It's worse than that.

Merry Christmas.

Oh!

Ooh, I haven't seen this scene.

Watch. This is so good.

This was the very last scene. I'll put my headphones in.

I haven't seen this one.

Cables creaking.

So, this was the very last scene to be added.

I'll tell you why - because Disney always test a first episode,

and they tested this and people wanted to see the Doctor earlier,

simple as that. They came back with that note,

and I was like, "Well, actually, OK, who doesn't want to see Ncuti?"

You're busy listening to it for the first time. I was like...

I know. I'm sorry...

All right, Russell, shut up. I'm like, "Shh!"

People have abandoned their families to sit and watch this.

Aww.

It's good. So, anyway, I'm going to whisper.

So, I invented this with the falling snowman.

In the very first draft of the script

there was a sequence here of decorations falling, so...

I feel like I should shut up now.

Mary laughing.

It's great, isn't it? It's so good. It's like the Manchester...

It's based on the Manchester Santa. Oh, is it?

That's what I thought of. Really?

They said, "What can you do? What kind of disaster can you do?"

Manchester Town Hall, faithful listeners,

has a giant Santa in lots of different shapes over the years

that's been strapped to the town hall clock and I thought of that.

That's literally what inspired it.

I love this woman with the pram.

Yeah, she's so funny.

She's so rude to him. Yeah.

She's really brilliant.

That's a great effect.

It's beautifully done, this sequence. Yeah.

Are you all right?

She's got shopping in there.

Oh... The Americans said, "What's a pram?"

They don't use the word pram.

Oh, they don't use the word pram? It's a stroller, I think.

In the script, they're like, "Who's this woman? Why's she got a pram?

"What's a pram?" That's funny, isn't it?

Well, I heard that they didn't...

Cos I said fit and they didn't know what fit was.

No. It's... They recognise hot, but not fit.

Yeah, but why? But like, that's...

What else does fit mean? Exactly.

Do you know what I mean? It's crazy!

They're very good at our transatlantic translations

and things. In fact, they just always ask,

and it's always fine, and they enjoy learning.

I know, cos it's like I couldn't say...

No-one actually mentions the pram in dialogue

but you couldn't say stroller, could you?

It's like in Britain you'd be like, "What? What the hell is that?"

Great policeman here. Barney. Love him. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So funny. Aw, that was such a good scene.

It's not finished yet. It's still going!

It's still going. It's still going. This is all one night.

Was it one night or was it two? Two. Two. It was two.

It's a bit much for one, isn't it?

And we wanted to have a proper little introduction

of the sonic screwdriver, cos for some people,

especially a big Disney audience,

this could be the very first time.

So actually, there never had been a proper introduction

of the sonic screwdriver, and we get to see it.

Yeah, I was going to say, cos it's a completely different design, innit?

Yes, it is! Oh, God, I love that thing. Yeah.

That's my favourite sonic by a million miles. Really?

Yeah. Cool. I love it.

I really think it's extraordinary.

We don't actually see enough of it on-screen. No.

I'm going to have to write episodes one day

where he sits down and examines it.

Look at that snowman's head. I just love it.

Aw, that's proper magic!

Off he goes.

So, for a new audience, they're really intrigued now.

Who is he? Why is he following Ruby? So, it's just that extra level.

Yeah. Yeah. And off goes Barney... I completely get that.

..to be happy. Aw! Nice, isn't it?

And he lived happily ever after! The end!

Here we go, December 24th.

So back to the normal script now and...

Is that really Notting Hill, Millie?

No. That is Bris... Shh, shh, shh!

..stol! Bristol.

Bristol. Am I not allowed to say that?

Of course you are! We're joking!

That was a joke.

Oh, yeah.

It's Bristol and, yeah, wee used the same street in Bristol

that whole time we did any London scenes, really. Yeah.

It's beautiful, I think. It's beautiful. It's great.

Yeah, it really works.

Here she is! Oh, my gosh. She's my favourite.

I'm putting this in again. She's a legend.

I mean, there's a woman with a soap opera history.

Yes, of course. Anita Dobson.

Lady... Lady May? Lady... Lady Anita?

Yeah. Indeed. Indeed.

Bless her. Not that she insists we call her that.

She's good, isn't she? Yeah.

A little bit of ADR here, Millie,

where you go, "Did that mean me?"

"Oh, you don't mean me." That wasn't in originally.

It was just irresistible, cos she's looking,

calling it "that big thing" and she's looking at you.

So, I had to put it in just to make sense.

Aw, was this a nice day shoot? Was it sunny?

What time of year are we in?

God, I think this was February.

It was February. Yeah. Yeah. It's still cold.

Yeah, it was freezing. Yeah.

You had a lot of freezing, didn't you? I did, I did.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

You can see my thermal tights.

My tights are so thick cos they're thermal.

But that's what Ruby Sunday would be wearing! I know!

Look how thick they are! Yeah.

Cos it is risky, this episode. It takes a good 20 minutes

until the Doctor comes into orbit.

Yeah. And I like that.

But I can see why some people scratch at it sometimes,

cos you of course had shot an awful lot without Ncuti.

Yes. Yeah.

Without giving away secrets about the season to come,

but I think it's quite well known that Ncuti,

when we started shooting, was still on Sex Education.

So it was... It was the Millie Gibson show for ages.

Happy days. It didn't feel like Doctor Who.

It was so... Happy days before he came on. It was such fun.

It was funny, though, wasn't it? It was strange. Yeah.

Strange way to start off the series, wasn't it, I think? Yeah.

And you are, let me say this, you are brilliant.

Aw. You are. No, you are...

You are, though. You are. Aw, thank you so much.

The story that we're kicking off here about the adoption

and having been fostered and then adopted and being a foundling

actually runs through the entire series.

You're absolutely magnificent. Aw, thank you so much.

You probably haven't seen episode eight yet, have you?

I haven't seen any, really. Oh, my God. Episode eight!

I have to do ADR on that later. It's a masterpiece. Aw.

The end of that... You remember the end of that? I do know the end.

Faithful viewers, without giving away... Oh, my God.

Yeah, it's beautiful. Aw, thank you so much.

You've so delivered that. Thank you.

It's brilliant. I can't wait for you to see it. Stay tuned!

Here's lovely Michelle. Wahey! Aw, Mama Michelle.

I should say, we are, of course, shooting this...

The Sundays had two visitors today in their flat.

This is us sitting in it! Yes, we're here.

Oh, yes, sorry!

Hello! Us on camera. You can probably just about see the kitchen,

can't you, and the bedroom? Yeah.

What with this camera work? No chance!

This lot? All out of focus!

We're actually in there somewhere. Just...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aw, this scene's dead emosh.

Yeah. Yeah.

And this sets the bedrock. I love the way Ruby's so...

I love the way Ruby doesn't go emosh. No.

She stops her mum going down.

She's like, "Come on." Yeah. Lifts it.

I think that's brilliant.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lulubelle. How did you come up with Lulubelle?

I literally...

I never... I never pause over naming characters.

I just name them straight away and I just...

I wanted it to have a ridiculous name. Yeah, yeah.

It? Her! Sorry. Sorry, little baby!

I was thinking of it as a plot device then! It.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, and also, it's sweet.

And also, it can be Lulu, which is a nice name.

Yeah, Lulu is cute.

But she's gorgeous, isn't she?

Beautiful stuff.

This, of course, is all a set, what we're sitting on now.

The... And none of the walls can come out,

so it's quite cramped for the cameras. Yeah.

It was like squeezing through.

The art department decided to build it as much like

being in an attic as possible, so it's, actually...

Oddly, we're kind of up on some decks. Yeah.

It all was quite challenging.

It works, though, cos you can feel the claustrophobia.

And the height! Like a cooped-up family home.

I completely agree. What happens...

I mean, we were all part of those discussions.

What we're talking about, faithful viewers,

is sometimes with sets you can fly walls in,

and that means you can remove them.

So, you know, you could remove this wall facing us here

to get the cameras in.

But actually, when you can fly walls, then you do fly walls,

and things end up looking artificially big. Yeah.

I'm a real fan of just keeping your cameras within a space

and making it look like you would in a real house.

Yeah. No, it really worked. I think so.

And you also save an awful lot of studio time.

When you fly walls in and out, it takes for ever, doesn't it?

Yeah. Yeah, that's the other part.

But this feels... Here we are today.

We've come to do this commentary. I love this place. It feels like home.

I know, it does, it does.

I mean, the whole of Christmas was filmed here,

so every time I come back, it does remind me of Christmas.

Yeah. It's nice that we're doing it in here. Yeah.

Also, I think that's the loveliest kitchen. I love a yellow kitchen.

It's so cute. The yellow? I love it. Yeah.

I've never seen a yellow kitchen on TV before.

We've got such a great design department, led by Phil Sims

and all his team - Robyn, Adrian and everyone.

And, um, I love it.

Yeah, the colours are dead iconic.

It's a little bit...

Those sloping shelves, those drawers that are sloping... Yeah.

It's odd. Yeah. It's fantastic.

Yeah, but, like, the family's odd - in a beautiful way.

Yeah. It's like, you know, the house suits them. Yeah.

Absolutely. Were you like thrown together?

Did you have any rehearsal time with Michelle and Angela?

No. No. It just... It all just happened, didn't it?

Yeah, I literally saw them at the read-through, and that was it.

Davina! Davina...

Are we just going to sigh every time Davina comes on-screen? Davina...

It's funny isn't it? You can supersize a programme,

you can increase the budget, all sorts of things,

but never more rehearsal time. Yeah. Never. And it's a real shame.

Not that, you know... You get on beautifully.

I mean, even me and Ncuti, we only had a chemistry test..

Yeah. ..in the audition and then that was it. It was like...

That was quite a chemistry test, though. Aw!

You just... I was there. You just...

Me and Phil and Andy Pryor sat there. You sizzled.

Aw, thank you! Didn't you? You must've felt it.

Well... Oh, my God, I've never been so nervous for an audition,

honestly. But then when I got in there,

it was like, "Ahh, I can relax a bit now." Yeah.

I remember being in the waiting room and just hearing Ncuti's laugh.

I was like, "Yep that's Ncuti!"

Wasn't it...the night...?

It was a Saturday morning,

and the night before had been your last Coronation Street? Yeah.

I watched it in a Premier Inn by myself. Oh, no.

I was like, "Oh, that's it, then."

Up on that rooftop. Aw. Early night for the audition!

Yeah. There's the glamour! It was a weird few days.

And you came in just quite tough. Yeah. I like that.

You put on kind of like... leggings. Oh, did I?

You were quite Rubyish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Aw, was I?

Was that not deliberate? I dress quite Rubyish, I felt.

I was wearing, like, a pinafore dress,

which is kind of chequered...

Yeah, Yeah. ..like...colours. Like a school...

It was very instant, Millie.

It was like... You just worked.

Well, you can see it on-screen. Thank you. You just worked.

and bounced off each other. Aw.

"Fell off a boat on dry land." That's one of my favourite lines.

I love that one!

And when she goes, "I was trampled by a moose."

I fell off a boat - on dry land.

I've been in accidents, collisions.

I've even been trampled by a moose!

This is such a laugh, this scene. Yeah, it's brilliant.

Word up, actually, we've not mentioned lovely Mark Tonderai,

who directed this, and this is...

Oh, my God. This is shot-by-shot perfect.

The reveal of that broken leg, the reveal of the tree.

This is really classy stuff.

It's hard to do comedy. I think comedy's harder than drama.

When you're being chased by monsters, OK, just run, run, run.

This is hard. And Mark shot himself sometimes.

So like, whenever Mark was like, "Oh, I'm going to do the shot."

it was like, "OK, Mark's doing the shot."

What? He'd demonstrate it on himself? No. Like he'd...

..hold the camera. Yeah, yeah. Oh, God, yes.

Yeah. Oh, no, Davina!

Do you know, I've seen this episode like 100 times.

I laugh every single time. Really? Yeah, the tree falls on her.

I never not laugh at it. It just makes me laugh so much,

if I say so myself. Yeah! It's my own joke!

Yes, your own joke.

She's a good sport, though, isn't she? Yeah, she's sick.

I love this, though. I love the way it changes. It's so...

That's why this episode is so brilliant -

you go from comedy... We've kind of had 15 minutes of calm.

Yeah. Yeah. Now it never stops.

No. It's one of them where you can't really go to the loo without

missing something... No.

..because it just changes every... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you remember how much palaver we had to get you into that jacket?

Because you're going to go up the rope ladder... I know.

..and you had to be on wires, so you had to wear a jacket. Yeah.

So, I had to invent that entire little plot twist where Ruby says,

"I'll go get some nappies for the baby," and Carla says,

"No, I'll go instead," so you just had time to put on the jacket,

and then the phone rings, so you can't take your jacket off,

so you're wearing the jacket to go up the rope ladder!

Sometimes it's like bleeding from the eyes, Millie!

Bleeding from the eyes, going, "How do I get Ruby Sunday

"into a jacket?" Yeah. Like that.

It was good old Pam, down in Costume and her team.

And this ladder... The story of the ladder.

It was so heavy. Oh, yeah.

Oh, this ladder? Yeah, yeah. It was so heavy!

Never mind the rope ladder, the step ladder!

Yeah!

Here we go. So, this is in the backlot.

Yes. That's not really in Notting Hill or Bristol.

And this is my stunt double.

Totally not me.

Good double! I know.

Oh, good double, Mills. I know.

Oh, I love this line. I love...

What I love about this is...is it's mad,

and she's on top of a building

and there are goblins,

but you wouldn't back away, because they've got the baby.

Yeah. Mm. There's no way... Yeah.

..Ruby Sunday would say, "I'm scared, I'm not doing that..."

Yeah, yeah. ..because it's all for the baby's sake.

And it's also...it's just mad.

Yeah.

She hasn't got time to think. No. Exactly. No time.

Yeah. Just goes to it straight away.

So, this is shot in...

This is on the backlot of Wolf Studios.

I loved doing this!

Did you? Did you? Yeah, I felt like a superwoman.

I loved it. Yeah. That's great, isn't it? It was so much fun.

We had about 1,000 cranes. Yes.

I remember all the cranes and telehandlers.

I love that shot. That's my favourite shot.

How he jumped over those...

We built all this.

This is all... The top of the roof is a set on the backlot.

Yeah.

But we also, once he gets on the ladder now, we've...

Where did you hang off that ladder? That was, um...

That wasteland... The wasteland. Yeah, yeah.

Next door to the helipad. We were just on that ladder all day.

It was! Chatting! These bits here, yeah.

So, what? You're wired onto it, really? Yeah, we're wired there.

Um...

So you're saying you don't end up with sore arms, sore legs?

I remember having a sore waist cos the cor...

Not the corset! The harness. The harness was really tight.

Well, thank God, it was tight.

But, like, it really pressed down on you, so...

Yeah, you couldn't really walk.

A million actors who have been in stunt movies nodding.

They'll be like, "I know what she's talking about."

That's really part of it. Green screen, wires,

screaming at monsters.

Yeah, I know. We've done it all in this series.

Oh, God, you did it all straight away!

I'm perfectly trained for whatever else I do.

It's true. It is the best training, this. It is. It is.

Here's the intelligent gloves... Yeah.

..which kind of like... They're kind of hidden as a joke here.

I love this. It's a nice shot, isn't it? Oh!

Yeah. Beautiful.

You hide them away as a joke and then they end up solving the plot.

You know, you don't think they're that important at this stage. Yeah.

But at the end, it's like, ba-ba-bah, they will save the day.

We really wanted them to be like...

It looks so real. It's so great, isn't it?

Oh, thank God! Imagine if that was real.

Hanging underneath a plane.

There was a lot of talk about the gloves,

whether they'd be like Star Wars - metal gloves. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I said, "It's Doctor Who. They're just a pair..."

You always want a kid to put their gloves on... Yeah. Yeah.

I love that thing you said about a kid wants to...

..if a child wants to play with them. Yes. Yeah.

That's...impossible! It's beautiful.

Isn't it beautiful?

It's so, so cool. That's good, isn't it? It's like...

I think once we're getting...

I told you last night, Millie, I think this is my favourite episode.

And I think... I love this. I love how that's your favourite episode.

And I think it's partly... It's you, obviously. Yeah.

But it's...it's this whole ship and the goblins.

I never thought, because this is, you know, let's be honest,

it's an increase in budget for Doctor Who, so we're realising

things we would never have been able to achieve. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We'd never have been able to do a race of creatures that are smaller

than human. I mean, you see it every few shots,

when you stand next to each other. Yeah.

But it would have been impossible.

We're literally telling a story that's impossible and I think

we tell it beautifully and actually, all of that's irrelevant

because the real drama is when we get you and Ncuti,

dialogue for five pages like this.

I know. Five pages, yeah, this was...

But never lose sight of that, that this is what it's all about.

It's you two. Yeah, yeah.

Because the whole time, all those scenes with the goblins,

they were never there. There was nothing for you to look at.

The whole thing was done... No, we had little stick cut-outs of them...

Yeah. Yeah! ..which was actually helpful.

They're still around the place, those things. Yeah. Yeah.

We could see how small they were.

But to be fair, though, we did have the Goblin King.

Oh, OK! That's real, yes. We had everything...

I love that thing. Yeah, that's no CGI. That is... Absolutely...

That is a Goblin King. Yeah.

A word up here for our colourist, Gareth, who...

All these beams of light... Yes, they were. Yeah.

..moving as the ship's... Have been added. So beautiful.

It's been added in post-production.

There was light shining through, obviously, but all the movement

of this, because it's a ship, it's tilting to and fro... Yeah.

..is all in post-production. He's a genius. Gareth's actually been

the colourist on Doctor Who for years, actually.

He goes way back to the Chris Chibnall series and things.

When Chris Chibnall left and I took over, Chris gave me

a list of staff to keep on, all of whom, well,

Sandra in the office and also Gareth, same. Yeah.

He's the best colourist you'll ever work with. And it's right!

And this set's beautiful. The set was ti...

I mean, I'm small, I'm five foot, but this set was tiny. Yes.

It's like, you couldn't stand up.

The amount of people that whacked their heads

coming into the decks and stuff...

Yeah! It was so small. Oh, my God.

Was it uncomfortable sitting, doing all this dialogue?

To be fair, this bit was all right. It was OK?

And it was fun because like, you know,

dialogue's so fun to work with. Yeah. Yeah.

It's such... It's their first sort of...

It's such a sparky scene, isn't it?

Yeah, this is the time they're talking where it's not big hectic.

Yeah. What I like about this is, you have to fight for eye contact.

Yeah. Yeah! That's what we liked. You're just talking normally,

but you have to actually make an effort to look at each other...

Yeah. ..choose when to look at each other

and I think that kind of brings it alive in a way.

You're actually talking, you're in your own world.

Ncuti's funny here, as well! He's glowing. Yes!

He's just... So gorgeous.

You're both gorgeous, darling! Oh! No, he's glowing.

Let it be said, yeah, he's done well for an ugly fella.

I've got to say, we've tarted him up quite well!

Scrubs up all right, doesn't he? Yeah.

Five hours of make-up every morning.

You know I'm joking, faithful viewer.

Oh, ah, there we go, hands free.

Nice bit of acting, testing your wrists. Like, "Ah!"

Not everyone would have done that.

Most people would have just gone, "Bang, I'm free!"

Gorgeous.

It's all building up to the song. Mm, oh, the song.

Look at this, just sitting there going, "Come on, get to the song."

So that's where the sonic was originally first mentioned. Yes.

And you get a good close-up of it, there.

He didn't... Actually, we don't, um...

We've cut the bit with psychic paper, haven't we? Yeah.

What did he originally use the psychic paper for,

and you said, "What's that?"

and he explained the psychic paper to you, and it's been cut.

I thought that was in the club, where he goes...

It is in the club! Gin and tonic division. Gin and tonic division.

Then later on in the flat, he explains it to you. Do you remember?

Oh, yes, I do remember. Well, that's been cut. Oh, it has been cut.

Once you get back to the flat, before we get to the ending

where Ruby's disappeared, everyone thought it was a bit long.

It was a bit long, an awful lot to chat about and stuff like that.

So they said, "Lose a couple of minutes there." Yeah.

So I have to hack through the dialogue, darling. Yeah.

And that was one of the things that went.

It'll be somewhere on a missing scene or something.

Yeah. Don't worry.

And I like the way the Doctor and companion

don't always get on at first. Yeah.

They're cross with each other. Yeah.

You have to kind of find that friendship together.

Well, Ruby's still got that purpose, hasn't she? She wants the baby.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's faffing about!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly!

It is awful. It's quite like sibling...

Yeah. Yeah. ..you know, squabble.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I love that glance you give him

when he says he has a hot summer with Houdini. Yeah.

It's got a little moment of like, "I needn't bother, then." Yeah!

"We can just stop that." Yeah, I was like...

Brilliant. Here we go.

Oh. Song time. Actually, the whole song sequence was easy for you.

You just to had to crawl along the corridor. It's poor Chris

who had to... Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. ..shoot an empty set...

Yeah, well... and a singer, yeah.

You did... Other than the bit where you joined in and sang.

Oh, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Song by Murray Gold, starting up here in the background now,

song by Murray Gold. Yeah.

Aw, Murray Gold. Lovely Murray, yeah, was a genius.

I've got kneepads on here. Have you?

This floor was actually that, like, rough

that it ripped my thermal tights. Did it?

Yeah, cos we were crawling that much.

Oh, we're tough on you. Yeah.

So you've literally got pads on in these scenes? I know, yeah! Ha!

But these look so sick. Ah, goblins. They're amazing, aren't they?

I mean, that's so good. Yeah. Yeah.

And so many effects shots. I mean, Mr Chris May, producer,

well done. Well done, yeah.

Ooh, this is.. Breathe!

I love these ones that swing across.

If I had any hair left, it would be gone, yeah.

I love the band! Oh, yeah.

Yeah, they're hilarious. This scene is great.

But, like, there was people walking around with these goblin masks on.

Yeah. And I remember, I was having lunch in my trailer

and I was on the step because it was quite a nice day, and this guy just

with a massive goblin mask came up and went, "Hiya, you all right?"

I was like, "Hiya!" It was bizarre!

It is weird because you don't quite know how to talk to them, do you?

No, I know. I was like, I don't know who I'm looking at here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it's... Yeah, complicated.

So all the things... Because the goblins are all three feet high

and because some of the band were real and some of them were post,

so all the props were made to be big. Yeah. You probably

weren't there, so we had the band,

they were all shot real size with these big instruments

we then shrank. We had all these conversations about scale.

Lots of duplication of goblins, so... Yeah. Yeah.

..Pam Downe and her team have all sorts of different costumes.

Yeah, all the costumes. We had long talks about costumes,

where they came from. Yeah. So much work went into this.

Yeah. Yeah. Originally a lot of them were going to be salvaged

from the world down below. But they all ended up looking a bit odd then.

Yeah. They'd have buttons that were like the size of a dinner plate.

Too big, yeah. Oh, I see. And it was kind of distracting. Yeah.

Like, actually... I don't like that. Oh, here he comes.

There's the King. Yeah. Here I am. This is my starring role.

I've got a selfie with him. Have you? Have you? Yeah.

Oh, my God, I could not believe it when they unveiled that thing.

I know. It is fab. It's insane.

And there's five people in that guy... Yeah. Yeah. ..working him.

That must've been a sweat box. To be on set with him was good

because no goblins were there. No.

But I just... I kept popping down every day.

I just couldn't help going down for a little photo. I bet.

I have photos with the Goblin King. It's astonishing.

And he's had little tiny CG enhancements now,

so he frowns more, which was always the plan. Yeah.

He's now got a little bit of a frown, a little bit more.

That's the way... But all the saliva was there on the day.

Yeah, all the goo, yeah! You could see it, yeah, it was horrible.

"A bit more goo, please!" And, like, his fingers wiggled as well.

It was grim. Think of that baby's family watching this

on Christmas Day. Yeah! I thought that!

Cos that baba must be, like, what, two now?

Poor little... I know, imagine that!

Having strange dreams. Yeah, so true! I wonder if it does go in...

Yeah. ..into the subconscious?

And again, Mark Tonderai, this is a masterpiece. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, you talk... Remember, we did concept art of this,

which had you and Ncuti and all the goblins. And I'm looking

at the artwork and thinking, "Oh, my God, that's impossible."

Yeah. How do...? I'd never shot...

But one of the reasons I came back to Doctor Who, Millie,

was cos I'd never made things on this scale. Oh, really?

So I wanted to learn how to do it and my God, it's a learning process.

Yeah, yeah. Well, it was all pre-viz'd.

There was a whole sequence that we... You know,

all the shots were planned... Yeah. ..as well as they could be.

You plan to death to spend the money correctly.

I guess it's all worth it. Yeah. Yes.

Cos what we don't do is waste a single penny.

No. And that's all in the planning.

That's why the scripts are in so early.

Janice. This makes me laugh... So now you had to sing!

I love this. He's so cute!

You know what, towards the end of the day,

the Goblin King really warmed to us. Actually, he's so sweet.

He is sweet. He kind of gets into it.

He's just got like a really cute face.

He kind of has a horrible death, I think. Oh, my God!

Can I just talk about his death? When I watched it yesterday,

I did not know that happened! Oh... It's awful!

I literally went...

It was horrible! It is quite a shock, isn't it?

Yeah, it's brutal! Bang!

I was like, surely not? Sympathy for the Goblin King.

Yeah, I know. he was going to eat you! I know, but still.

But Ruby would have ceased to exist.

Well, you know...

There must have been another way!

Yeah, there must have been another way. He's a vengeful Doctor

by then, isn't he? He's quite...

Yes, exactly. Goes for it. Yeah, yeah, he does.

It's why he needs a human.

I just want to say, obviously, the singing, amazing!

I was just about to say, I've skipped my solo. Fantastic, yeah,

the singing... You are on Doctor Who Unleashed talking about the singing.

I can't even remember what I said. Which we did on the day,

ear pieces in... Oh, yeah. ..and it was brilliant. It was funny,

Mark was like, "Just come over here and we can practise

"with no-one listening," and, like, everyone was around me...

Like, this is just, you can't... But it's brilliant.

It's good. I mean, auto-tune is brilliant.

Stop it! You were fantastic. They'll be after you for Cabaret.

Oh, my God, don't say that!

God, you should do that! Oh, I'd love that. You heard it here first,

there you go. I'd love that. Oh, you should, you should.

And now look, they're friends. The whole point is, you go through

adversity and trouble and strife and...friends. I loved doing that.

Worship for Angela. Yep.

Angela turned up at a read-through yesterday,

we've just done a read-through for the second season,

and she, she won't mind me telling you this story,

she sat in the read-through and went...

Opened her script, "Oh, have I got lines?"

And I said "well, why are you here?"

And she went, "I like coming here,"

which she does. She probably loves coming up and spending time with us.

She was so, so cute! That was the maddest read-through in the world,

and she had never read it. She's so... I know!

Yeah, cos we got to her lines... Yeah, it got to her lines and there

was silence! ..and someone else read in for her. And actually,

that is, without spoilers, folks,

that's episode four of next year, which is shocking. Yeah.

Really shocking, and I was watching Angela's face,

as things happened in it cos I knew she didn't know what was going

to happen. Yeah. She was properly amazed. That is the most shocking

read-through I've been to. Yeah, it was electrifying, wasn't it? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So good. We're talking about things that won't be on air,

faithful viewers, for another 18 months? Sorry! Two years.

Not two years. Yeah, 18. No, not two years. 18 months, 14 months,

something like that. Anyway, back to the plot here.

So this is a long sequence. Do you remember the original script

with the goblin attack, the Goblin King attack?

Mm. Did you ever read that? Yeah, and I... you fought him off with...

..the scratchcards. With the scratchcards. Oh, I...

And he was like, "Good luck!" Yeah. I actually quite liked that.

There was a great... Money, it was money. If you think...

I do think this sequence now, as a script,

is a bit talky for the next ten minutes, cos originally, they got

back to the flat and everything was fine, and then the Goblin King

attacked, and he arrived in the bedroom

and came down the hall, so it was brilliant. Oh...

Sorry, it was brilliant. He was coming down the hall.

But earlier on we'd established that Carla gives everyone

a scratchcard for Christmas, like when the social workers are there.

"Oh, have a scratchcard, have a scratchcard. Hope you win."

So there's a pile of scratchcards in the kitchen.

So Ruby fought off the Goblin King with luck.

She kept scratching them... Oh, yes, I remember.

..until she won. It was bad luck, bad luck, bad luck.

Then she got to like the 15th card and she won £10.

And she went "Good luck!" like that, and the Goblin King vanished.

And then what we've replaced that with is a crack in the roof.

Thank you, Chris! Yeah! You're welcome.

The lower budget option. Not your fault at all.

No, you really set the scene there.

It was good, though.

This is brilliant because this was...

The photos on the fridge was the art department's idea.

This wasn't in the original script. Oh, really?

And they said, "Oh, would you like photos?" You know what's funny?

There's photos of every other kid apart from me.

Yeah. I was looking, like, "Where's my baby pic on this fridge?"

Not there.

That's like... Yeah. ..a glimpse of the future

where the Goblin King has removed you. Mm. I'm making it up now.

God, the running I did across this floor. I know.

But that's... So the attack of the Goblin King...

..is why the entire set is built on a long corridor. Yes.

Yeah. It's quite an unnatural shape, this flat. You wouldn't...

I love it. You wouldn't fit down that corridor. It's like...

It would cost two houses. Oh, OK. That's a whole other conversation.

That's partly why, it was so expensive,

because he was literally, like, a wall of flesh coming down.

All the walls were buckling and the ceiling...

It was going to be brilliant.

And all the step-ladders... But because of Chris...

It was literally me! It's not because of Chris.

It's because of everyone! "No, no, no, no, no, Russell!"

There was a very, very good pre-viz of that sequence,

done by Dan May, that someone should release as an extra.

Eat your packet of humbugs...like Scrooge.

'Tis the season!

Their relationship though is so adorable. Yeah. Yeah,

the humbugs. It's really funny. Cos Angela's read the script.

That was so funny yesterday.

Oh, my God.

You two are very funny in that doorway. That was hilarious.

That was a bit of improvising. That was improvised? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That wasn't in the script at all and I love it. Yeah. It's very funny.

You know, as a production, we're watching you two just getting on

with each other, it's lovely.

Yeah, finding our friendship. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

It's really joyous to watch.

I like this.

This is kind of, not improvised, but you've got this comedy feel to this.

Yeah.

It's nice.

Good ol' Michelle. Poor Michelle having to be the straight woman.

Yeah. Course, I worked with Michelle on It's A Sin. She was

Omari Douglas's mother, Roscoe's mother

in It's A Sin. She's gorgeous.

Love working with her. Oh, she's fantastic. Michelle's amazing.

She couldn't make it to the read through...

She was so motherly and maternal, especially in this scene.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Because this is, you know, we can talk about goblins,

you can talk about special effects, but it's all about Ruby.

And it's so clever. It looks like I'm about to say, "Look, he's..."

Yeah. Yeah. "We were just on a goblin ship." Yeah! But actually,

there's something much more important going on. Yeah.

It's Davina McCall. Yeah.

But who is...

Who is her mother, Millie?

Hmm. Hmm.

Hmmmm.

Comment below.

Exactly!

I wonder how I managed to fit all this dialogue in

with an attack of the Goblin King as well.

Actually, this episode does come in slightly under.

We don't make the full hour, this. Yeah, it's a bit shorter, isn't it?

They could have had it in. I'm joking!

All right! Let's blame Chris for everything.

We'll go back and do that too, it's fine. Yeah.

Good. Bless her.

And this is vital stuff now, where actually the Doctor starts being...

This has never been done on Doctor Who before,

the Doctor does start talking about being adopted. Yeah.

Yeah, he's a lot more open, this Doctor. Yeah.

You see, I know you miss the king, but I actually, oddly,

I love all this. I think it contains a load of new things to it

that are so interesting. This wasn't not in though, was it? Was it?

No, but the whole bit with the crack and that sort of stuff,

I think it's really... I just... I really enjoy it.

You know, isn't there like a crack in Matt Smith's season?

Yes. And I was like, "Ooh, what if the cracks are linked?"

Oh. Well, actually, that crack is, is, is a kind of gap in time

that's taking away memories and things,

and actually, that is what happens, yeah, they forget. Do you know,

I'd never thought of that. There we are. That's why I'm here.

Faithful viewer, it's the same crack or a niece of the crack,

or a nephew.

A crack nephew. Or a cousin, yeah. Yeah.

But it's nice to... And that's why...

The whole of Ruby is a foundling.

Fosters, adopted - I so wanted to make sure that

her adoption was happy. Yeah.

Carla's a great mum. Cherry's a great grandmother. Yeah.

But it's a nice bed of emotion...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. ..for the whole show.

And now, Ruby, you're about to vanish.

So once you vanish, you can be as critical as you like.

Yeah!

I know! I can, I can really sit back and relax.

Call that a crack in the ceiling?

There it is, Matt Smith's crack in the ceiling.

Amazing. What I love there, can I just say that you think...

My big crack?

Your last words to your mother there are, "Don't move."

So, she never moves. It's like... It's like some part of her brain,

Carla's brain heard that in the timeline without Ruby.

So when we, as we discover that she's now alone,

but she never left this flat. She never did anything with herself,

she never fostered much. So some...

Ruby's words somehow got through to her. Yeah.

And that's how she lived her life. I like that point.

I love that point. Yeah,

I should have maybe pointed it out to you at the time. Yeah!

Instead of, instead of a year later! A year later.

But Ruby would've known that. But it's fine. It's fine.

Yeah.

It's tricky, this, because you have to...

..slow down the Doctor's reaction.

Sometimes the problem with the Doctor is

that he'll turn around go, "Oh, right, time is being changed.

"I'm off in the TARDIS." Yeah.

The flat slowly changes, if you notice,

the colours are starting to change... Yeah, the colours

go more blue and cold. You have the Christmas decorations come down,

like, she's not so Christmasy without Ruby. Yeah.

She's not got like her patterned... Yeah. Yeah. ..clothing on.

It's clever, I think. It's so brilliant.

The design department... So in filming in this set, you had to have

a normal set with normal ceiling.

Normal set with cracked ceiling. Yeah. Dark set with cracked ceiling.

Yeah, I remember when there was a crack, yeah.

Oh, it was not easy. Yes, it felt like we were filming...

How did you actually heal up the crack?

Like you would a normal crack? Yeah. Yeah. Actually, you can just see

on the ceiling... Oh, yes! ..you can see the plaster.

Oh, that's cute. Yeah. Oh, they literally...

I thought they'd just fly in two different ceilings.

No. Wow. They did a heal and reveal, so I think they...

Well done. There we are. This used to be Donna Noble's house.

Yes. No way! Yeah.

Oh, I did not know that.

It's like we've got a domestic set...

Yeah, look at all the colours. ..that we will use forever.

So now you see how the interiors change.

The Christmas lights have come down. Yeah, it's all very dull.

Her clothes have changed, look. It's all a bit flatter.

Even Michelle's just... Yeah. She's not... Beautiful,

beautiful performance from Michelle. Yeah. Amazing. So, so clever.

She's just so subtly different, just all the life's just gone out of her.

Yeah. Everything. And all shot and lit differently and, I guess,

graded differently as well. Yeah. It's very, very clever.

I think, like I say, this is a really... Christmas television,

I think, you know, It's A Wonderful Life. Yes.

A Christmas Carol. Yeah. All these ideas about what would happen if...

That's what I love about this sequence. It's like a really,

a really lovely twist on Christmas stories. Yeah.

It's fab. I, literally - I've never done this before

in my life and I sound a bit mad - I dreamt this plot twist.

I literally woke up at four in the morning and went,

"Oh, she vanishes." I knew, I knew there'd be goblins,

I knew... Well, I always kind of knew we would end up at the church

at the end, because we had to. Yeah.

But I couldn't work out why the Doctor ended up

back at the church at the end, or why the goblins would be after Ruby.

And then, literally, at four in the morning, I went,

"Oh, she gets taken out of time." Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, now I go to

bed every night going, "Please think of another one."

It's never happened since! That was it!

I do, sometimes when I'm really stuck, I go, "Please, please, please

"let me do The Church On Ruby Road again. Let it happen."

You were my lucky charm.

You wrote this script really quickly, didn't you? Did I?

Yeah, I remember you saying... I did cos it was so clear.

Actually, I wrote it in seven days. Yes, yes, yes.

Seven days?! It's like, when you know what a story is...

The time it takes in writing the script is when you don't know what

the story is, so you have to find it.

You look at this, I knew absolutely what the story is. If you look

at this, there's no other things that could happen in it.

Yeah. You haven't got many choices.

This is the route of accidents, follow Ruby around.

You discover the Doctor, the babies, the goblins,

bop-bop-bop, all the way through,

then Ruby's kidnapped. It just all...

God! Seven days. That's insane.

Seven mad days.

Did you leave the house? If you saw me...

I probably didn't leave the house actually, no.

Did you write it during Christmas-time or was it... No.

It would have been... Who knows? Who knows? Who knows?

We'd have to look up dates for that. Ooh, I don't know. Yeah.

Be good if we could, but... And, look, the performance of these two.

Oh, gosh. She is so, so subtle and so beautiful.

Mm. And it's right what you're saying, Chris,

never mind Goblin Kings and special effects, it's about two actors.

That's what I think. So true.

And she literally cries on cue. Yeah. Yeah.

Maybe she did it in the audition. In the audition, yeah.

That's what I was going to say. Got to this line... A single tear.

Hello, you've got the part. Oh, my God! It was amazing. That's amazing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

She's a lovely woman. Hmm. And then Ncuti.

This is what Ncuti...

This is the newest thing he brings to the Doctor, I think,

which is to be so emotional. Yeah. Which I love.

Oh, it's amazing. I do. Yeah, I think it's fantastic.

He plays it so well because it's,

it's almost like someone's inside of him,

fighting those emotions through and he's trying to hold them back.

Yes. It's his humanity.

It's almost like he's crying independently of his thought

processes. Yeah. And it's like, "No, what am I doing?"

Yeah, I was arguing with a writer the other day,

who was kind of going... Not arguing,

but the writer said, "The Doctor wouldn't do that."

And I was going, "No, this Doctor does." Yeah. Look at him.

Look at him, look at him.

He's so much more full of... And I love it. Yeah.

And yet he still manages to do stuff where he's not telling you

things, where you hug him... Yeah. ..at the end of episode six.

Yes! You hug him, but he won't give anything away,

so he gets the best of both worlds. Yes.

He gets that closed side of the Doctor and...

I love this bit. Yeah!

There she goes.

Give us a reaction, Neets!

All of this, all of that we filmed later, didn't we?

Because we didn't have Ncuti the day that you did...

The whole time you were at Ruby Road, we didn't have Ncuti

because he was still filming Sex Education... Oh, yes, of course.

And so that we all had to come back and do another time. Of course.

Mad, innit? Another time. The longest shoot ever,

Christmas 2023.

Look, it's little baby you!

Yeah, we had loads of pick ups to do as well. Yeah.

But we knew. Because of Ncuti's availability,

we knew that's going to be a thing. Yeah.

They've kidnapped you, darling. I know!

How did you cast the baby?

We looked for the most beautiful baby we could possibly find!

I don't know, has she got the right colour eyes?

Did we do all that, Chris? Does she have green eyes?

I think she must have done. We must have gone into it.

Well, she was crying the whole time, you wouldn't even tell.

And this scene. Of course this sequence looks so beautiful.

Oh, evil goblins.

The exterior of the ship. This ship...

And we have to say, that set - beautiful.

Kartik, our art director who designed it.

Not a single right angle anywhere, he quite proudly tells us.

Oh! Is that a thing? It's a beautiful thing.

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. So cool.

And we built this, this church tower is built-in studio.

Yeah.

Oh, I wasn't in for this bit. Is this a studio?

Yeah. It's in studio four? Yeah. Three?

There they are, look, the little devil.

They're going to eat Ruby Sunday!

Eww, that slobber! It's horrible!

It was horrible! It's no wonder Ruby grew up.

That poor bubba! Poor little soul.

It's kind of vicious, isn't it? I know.

It is the stuff of Christmas stories, goblins and monsters. Yeah.

Look, at that shot. I love that, the ship in the clouds.

That's my favourite shot. I love that.

I think it's so beautiful. Eeee, his tongue!

And word up for our effects people. Yeah.

So, this is the death will haunt me forever. Yeah, this one.

I don't think there's a worser one, I don't know why.

Do you think? Look, Little Mermaid,

what happens to Ursula? She gets stabbed by the ship.

Oh! It is based on The Little Mermaid actually. Is it?!

When you watch the cartoon of The Little Mermaid,

you work out that she's going to be stabbed by the prow of that ship

six seconds before it happens. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Exactly. It's one of the cleverest bits of writing I've ever seen.

This is my homage to it. Bang! Look, here we go!

Whoa!

It is horrible, isn't it? It's horrible! I can't believe

you're feeling sorry for the Goblin King.

I know!

He was going to eat you!

Oh, I love it. Beautiful. Look at that. Oh, my God.

I'm not cry... I'm moving my mascara.

I'm not, like, wiping tears away.

I love that shot. I love the shot of the baby falling. Yeah, brilliant.

Seb and his team from his effects house

is like, absolutely the best. Aww!

You've been saved, look. Hooray.

I mean, many nights here, how many nights were you at this church?

Two or three, I think, yeah. Oh. Yeah.

It's OK.

Happy Birthday, Ruby.

I know he loves you. We talk about bonding...

Yeah, I know. They're wedded for life, aren't they?

He's seen me since birth. He literally.... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's beautiful. He plays it so beautifully.

And I love the...

Yeah, Carol Of The Bells, yeah.

I hope the vicar comes out soon, cos it's cold on that step! Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe he should have knocked on the door? I know, could've sped

the process along. I'm thinking of a rewrite now.

No, he knows that the vicar comes out at midnight. He knows. He knows,

he knows, he knows. Beautiful.

What a beautiful shot that is.

Stunning. Good ol' Mark. It's all...

Finding this church was wonderful, wasn't it? It was just like,

"Wow. That's it." It was so magical there. Yeah.

When the snow machine was blowing... For days in advance, yes.

..it was so magical. Yeah.

We have a lot of trouble with snow on this series,

because it's like, they've changed the way they make artificial snow.

What did it used to be? It used to be... It used to be paper

and now that's not allowed. Yes, that's right.

Oh, because it's a waste.

So, making artificial snow, worldwide,

there's a new regulation, so it's a lot harder now. Yes.

Used to be much easier.

Strange foam machines. Who's the mother?

I don't know what you mean, Millie.

What mother? I don't... What mother? What are you on about?

Oh, well, all right.

Don't know. We'll probably never know, I think.

Never know. Never find out. No, leave it there. No.

Gorgeous, back to Notting Hill. Oh, Anita.

And now Anita's like settled in, I love that.

I love how she sits there!

With her little flask. It's brilliant.

And it's amazing that Anita Dobson... Back in the old days,

when EastEnders was at its height,

one of the highest viewing figures in all of history, was Anita... Wow!

It was Angie, her character, and Dirty Den

getting divorced on Christmas Day. No!

29 million viewers or so, 26, 29. 29 million?!

That was on Christmas Day and now she's back on Christmas Day

in Doctor Who. That's so cool!

You wouldn't get figures for anything like that any more, but...

The crack's back.

So, it's lovely. It's a really lovely thing to... I remember

someone, must've been Andy Pryor, suggested Anita Dobson and I was

like, "My God, that's so perfect for this part of Mrs Flood,"

who you might see again, I don't know. Maybe. Once or twice. Maybe.

And now's the scene.

This is the best bit, going back to save Davina.

Really. It's got to be done.

There's no Christmas without Davina. I love what you do here at the door.

I love this.

And turn around and a little stamp.

That's literally one of my favourite moments!

I keep saying to people, can they put that on the trailers?

I think it's so Ruby.

She's like, like that. You're not going to give up your name easily.

I love how she's got a flask.

Yes, whisky. Whisky.

Hooray, Davina's saved!

By Ncuti's stunt double. Yes, exactly.

Oh, sometimes these commentaries spoil things, don't they?

Yeah, yeah.

Awfully sorry, but Ncuti wasn't free on that day. Yeah.

Because of Sex Ed. Yeah.

I remember there were so many fans on the other side of that street.

Yeah.

Is that strange?

Erm, cos... Well, yeah, cos Corrie was always filmed inside.

On the odd occasion... You go out sometimes though.

Do you get... People in Manchester are just used to it.

Yeah, yeah. Like, it was rare to go on location,

unless it was like a big thing, but cos, we had the street

and then we had the set, so... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Even at the end, you all did that big green screen rooftop....

Yeah, Volume Wall, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was amazing. That was... So much fun.

That was an amazing thing to do for soap opera. Stunning.

I know. I was buzzing! Oh, it was epic!

They did it brilliantly.

Feels like a proper soap full moon.

Yeah. Yeah. We know how much that costs,

so that was a lot of money for a soap opera to spend

and I love the fact that ITV loves Coronation Street so much

and loved your character so much, that they gave you that exit.

Thank you. Brilliant. And you lived. I love that.

I know, I lived and I didn't go in a taxi, I walked off!

I walked off. Really brilliant. Love it.

I love how Ruby is so much different to Kelly, as well.

Such a nice thing to play. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, we knew you'd be so different. Yes, much more.

I mean, poor Kelly, but no, the lovely thing is, she's so...

I mean, Kelly was strong, but Ruby was so...

Ruby's a different type of strong. Ruby's loved. Ruby's loved.

The difference is she grew up with that mum and that grandmother. Yeah.

And that gave her all the strength in the world.

Let me just say, I know people who've grown up without those things

who turn out to be the most marvellous people, but truly,

people who have grown up in care,

who have made fantastic things of themselves,

but having a Carla and a Cherry doesn't half help.

Doesn't half help. Yeah. It's given her that grounding.

It gave her a personality, really. Yeah.

And now she's clever.

I love this. It's a clever... She works it all out.

Everything the Doctor said to her all episode, like, "Houdini?"

I love, the necklace I wear is Pam, head of costumes,

personal necklace and she gave... Is it? Yeah, gave it to Ruby to wear.

Oh, wait till you see the bill she gives you for that.

It would've paid for that bloomin' Goblin King, wouldn't it?

That's what it would've done. Thanks, Pam, it's your fault.

Aww, that's lovely! Yeah, so she was like, "You know what?"

"I know what necklace is for Ruby." And I was like, "Ah!

"I'll have that." You must have been thinking, "Don't lose it." I know.

Oh, gosh.

Oh, that's beautiful, though.

We love Pam and her team, and I think it's such a good-looking show.

I think everyone looks gorgeous. Yeah.

And I love this because Ruby's worked it out.

She doesn't need a Time Lord...

She doesn't stop, does she? I've not seen her sit down this episode.

Oh, look, get the jacket.

Ah, the jacket. Get the jacket, cos it's linked to...

Do you need the jacket in the next episode? You do! I do,

that's why. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, I love this bit. This is my favourite scene.

The music. Oh, I don't know what's playing. Oh, it's lovely.

It's Murray. Oh, yeah.

It becomes a little bit more folksy almost,

sort of epic at the same time. More streetside.

Mm. Yeah.

I love it, I love it, love it. I love that bit.

Look, Anita knows.

Yeah, the guitar.

Oh, and the violin. Yeah. Oh, there it is.

We talked about adding London backgrounds into these shots,

didn't we? And ran out of money.

Some of these shots were going to be more like London.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter for a second from that angle.

This bit always gives me goose bumps. Does it? It's amazing. Aww!

On the day, you just walk into a plain old box.

I know. Yeah. I know, with the green screen inside. Yeah.

And Phil. And Phil like that!

Oh, and she goes straight back out again.

No-one's done this since Rose Tyler, many years ago.

Good ol' Billie... Really? ..did a circuit of the TARDIS

and wouldn't you? Yeah, you would!

I think it's the important thing to do. Yeah.

There's no tricks, there's no traps, there's no...

Your face!

What you do, Millie, amongst many, many things, you do

comedy beautifully, darling. Aww, thank you.

You're not afraid of pushing things in a comic direction

and that's the real beauty about you. I love it. Love it, love it.

Thank you. No, I really enjoy playing comedy. Yeah.

I mean, Kelly didn't get to do it much, so it's been lovely doing it.

Yes, cos, actually, we had no idea. Yeah. I don't think I'd ever seen

you be in comedy and so, when you hit that audition, it was like,

"God, she's funny!" It was brilliant.

It was one of the clinchers, darling. Oh, thank you.

Because Doctor Who always has, you know, even when their life's in

danger, there's always an element of fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.

Yeah. But I think, again, it's the same,

it's being able to jump between, I think that's the trick. Yeah.

It's going from comedy to something very serious, to threat to...

It's amazing. To running away from monsters. Exactly.

Look at him, standing there, come on.

Mm, the Doctor!

Gorgeous. Bang!

Off we go!

Oh, I love it! Gorgeous.

Now this scene! And then... Yeah.

Of course. I love this bit.

There they go.

This bit gave everyone goose bumps, didn't it?

Everyone was like, "Ah!"

I wonder how many people will miss it though and switch channels? Yeah.

That's so true, yeah. I do wonder,

because it's a Marvel movies-type thing. Yeah, that's so true.

A little postscript scene and...

They'll be drunk, it's fine, they'll keep it going.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's Christmas Day.

And it's marvellous Anita's final reveal.

What does she mean? How does she know?

"Never seen a TARDIS before?" Great, isn't it?

That wink is perfect.

Bang! Oh!

First time the fourth wall's been broken. No. No?

Under my watch, probably not!

No. Do you not like a fourth wall? No, I love it!

I love it when it does things like that.

We are now allowed to say on Christmas Day that this

is coming back for your full series in May.

May, that has been officially allowed.

Don't worry, folks. Oh, my God! May!

That'll be said on Christmas Day, that it's coming back in May, so...

Another six months to wait. Yeah.

Five! Five, five, five! Well, OK. Six. Yeah, it's slightly...

But is it going to be good?

Oh, my gosh, yeah. It's so good. So amazing.

Thank you for doing this, Millie. We adore you!

No, don't be daft. I love just sitting on the couch.

It's quite nice doing it in the living room because I've probably

watched more of it. I'm really pleased to do this with you

because I love working with you. Oh, thank you. And this is, literally,

one of my favourite episodes. Thank you for giving me this.

It's a joy. Thank you, darling.

I love Ruby. What an introduction to a character.

Whoo! Stay tuned.

Hooray.