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Post-2005 Doctor Who main TV-show companions. That’s the first qualifier to add to the following list. For now at least, we’re celebrating only the Nu-Who main companions who had their own proper stint travelling in the TARDIS (i.e. not your Adam Mitchells, Mickey Smiths, Captain Jacks, Jackson Lakes, River Songs, Nardoles etc.), or any of the many wonderful actors who preceded them in the classic era.
Now that the rationale has been set out, join us to round up some of the best after-Who roles from the likes of Billie Piper, Freema Agyeman, Catherine Tate, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Jenna Coleman, Pearl Mackie, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole. It’s too early to add Millie Gibson to this gang (and anyway, her time in the TARDIS isn’t yet over) but look out for her in rebooted period drama The Forsyte Saga when it arrives.
Billie Piper – Suzie in I Hate Suzie (2020)
Thanks to her teen pop career and personal life, Billie Piper was already a famous name in the UK before she played Rose Tyler, the first companion of the revived Doctor Who in 2005. Straight out of the TARDIS, Piper’s 2007 TV role as high-end escort Belle in ITV drama Secret Diary of a Call Girl, kept her profile high and her name in the headlines. Who better then, to reunite with Call Girl-writer Lucy Prebble, and tell a story about womanhood, celebrity, press intrusion, relationships and mental health? Colourful, inventive and acerbic Sky drama I Hate Suzie was the result of a collaboration between Prebble and Piper, a fruitful pairing of which we hopefully haven’t seen the last. Piper is iridescent as Suzie, a singer-turned-actor whose life goes into a tailspin when her nudes are leaked online. It’s a brilliant show, full of wit and pain and truth and invention, and the second series is just as good as the first.
See also: Piper’s 2021 directorial and screenwriting debut, psychological satire/anti-rom-com feature film Rare Beasts, attracted plenty of deserved praise on release. And don’t miss her next role as Cassandra in Netflix Greek myth series KAOS.
Freema Agyeman – Amanita in Sense8 (2015 – 2018)
After leaving the role of Tenth Doctor ‘rebound’ companion Dr Martha Jones, Freema Agyeman went into a regular part on future Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall’s Law & Order remake. After that, Agyeman travelled stateside, where she was snapped up for two long-running roles: Amanita Caplan in the Wachowskis sisters’ Netflix sci-fi Sense8, and Dr Helen Sharpe in NBC medical drama New Amsterdam. It’s as “Neets” in Sense8 that Agyeman really made her mark on US drama. Amanita’s on-screen relationship with girlfriend Nomi (Jamie Clayton), one of the eight homo sensorium who discover a telepathic link that crosses continents, made her a fan favourite.
See also: Sky comedy Dreamland, from Sharon Horgan’s production company Merman, added another string to Agyeman’s bow. She played expectant mother Trish opposite Lily Allen as her sister Mel in the Margate-set Sky comedy-drama.
Catherine Tate – Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (2011)
This one’s a bit of a cheat, because Catherine Tate was only recently back in the TARDIS as Donna Noble, Chiswick temp-turned-lottery-winner and enemy to both Davros and Nerys. It’s also a bit of a cheat because writer-actor Tate is properly huge in the UK for her self-titled sketch show characters Lauren and Nan, and it’s hard for her to eclipse either of those on-screen with other performances.
So seeing as she’s also a stage actor, why not revisit a non-screen role? Tate was acclaimed for her performance as Beatrice in this 2011 West End production of Shakespearean comedy Much Ado About Nothing, opposite, that’s right, David Tennant as Benedict. Great for comedy fans, and great for anyone who loves seeing those two verbally sparring. The recorded performance is not currently available to stream, but the DVD (remember those?) is out there.
See also: Tate’s stint in The Office (US) as special projects manager Nellie Bertram, a cameo role that was later expanded and brought back after Steve Carrell left the series.
Karen Gillan – Nebula in the MCU (2014 – )
Karen Gillan has shown real range across countless roles since she played Amy Pond, the Eleventh Doctor’s Girl Who Waited. To pick her most high-profile gig as her best then, might seem lazy but Gillan really is remarkable as the MCU’s Nebula across the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers films. As the deadly assassin adopted by Thanos as a daughter, she’s scary, moving and has great comic timing.
See also: Gillan was also solid in 2014 horror Oculus, impressed in her 2018 screenwriting and directing feature debut The Party’s Just Beginning, and recently did excellent work in 2024 Steven Moffat comedy-drama Douglas is Cancelled.
Arthur Darvill – Richard Madoc in The Sandman (2022)
Since playing Rory Williams (aka Mr Amy Pond) in Doctor Who, Arthur Darvill has been killing it in musicals. As Guy in Once, and as Curley in the recent revival of stage musical Oklahoma! (for which he won the prestigious Olivier award for Best Actor in 2023) Darvill combined his singing and acting talents to great success. This guest spot in the “Calliope” standalone episode of Netflix’s The Sandman though, is another terrific recent showcase. Darvill plays a writer who presents as a good guy but who is prepared to go to very dark places to get inspiration from his muse.
See also: In the US, Darvill will always be time-travelling Rip Hunter in the Arrowverse series Legends of Tomorrow, while he left his mark in the UK in his role as trendy young vicar Rev. Coates in crime drama Broadchurch.
Jenna Coleman – Joanna in The Cry (2018)
After playing Clara Oswald opposite Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi’s Doctors, Jenna Coleman has been the definition of booked and busy. Standout on-screen roles include the lead in ITV royal period drama Victoria, and accomplice/victim Marie in real-life serial killer series The Serpent. It was as a distraught mother in 2018 Australian-set psychological drama The Cry though, that Coleman really stole the show. Coleman and Ewen Leslie played Joanna and Alistair, parents at the centre of a nationwide search for their missing infant son. The story unfurls with devastating twists and powerful emotional scenes, and Coleman is equal to it all.
See also: Coleman makes a great crime drama lead as DC Ember Manning in recent BBC detective series The Jetty. Let’s have another series, please.
Pearl Mackie – Pan in Forest 404 (2019)
Mackie’s theatre work has dominated much of her post-Who career, kicking off with the role of Lulu in an acclaimed 2018 production of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, and continuing this year with Lucy Kirkwood’s birth-of-the-NHS drama The Human Body. In between stage and screen projects, the Bill Potts actor has also done some niche and experimental work in audio drama, one of which is particularly worthy of highlight. Forest 404 is a dystopian sci-fi audio drama broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2019, and available now in the UK on BBC Sounds. In it, Mackie played Pan, an archivist tasked with deleting soundscapes after an apocalyptic event. Mackie’s roles in crime drama The Long Call and thriller The Diplomat were higher-profile, but not quite as ambitious or mysterious.
See also: Gwyneth Hughes’ adaptation of Tom Fielding classic Tom Jones stars Mackie as Honour Newton, a revised take on the novel’s maid character that Mackie makes her own (clip above).
Mandip Gill – Leila in This Time Next Year (2024)
Gill was barely out of the role of Thirteen’s companion Yasmin Khan when her Big Finish return was announced. In 2025, she and Jodie Whittaker will return for a series of Thirteenth Doctor audio adventures, three years after their final TV special The Power of the Doctor. That hasn’t left her with much time for new roles, but she’s appeared in Apple TV+ thriller Suspicion and was charming in the role of Leila in the feature adaptation of Sophie Cousens’ hit romance novel This Time Next Year. There’ll be plenty more from her coming up too.
See also: Coming up, Gill will star in Paramount TV+ sci-fi Curfew, a murder mystery set in a world where men are forced to obey a nightly curfew.
Bradley Walsh – Pop Larkin in The Larkins (2021-2022)
Unlike the other actors on this list, Bradley Walsh is a fixture on Saturday night TV in the UK separately from his time as Graham in Doctor Who‘s TARDIS. As the host of, among others, The Chase, Blankety Blank and the excellent Gladiators revival, like Catherine Tate before him, he certainly didn’t need Doctor Who to launch or cement his career. (He did it partly as a pal of former showrunner Chris Chibnall, with whom he’d worked on the UK version of Law & Order.) That career has since included taking on David Jason’s beloved role of Pa Larkin in the revived TV adaptation of H.E. Bates’ quintet of novels. Walsh is great in the part and manages to make it his own – no mean feat.
See also: It’s got to be Gladiators – a shot of pure joy.
Tosin Cole – Michael in Supacell (2024)
Tosin Cole has been no slouch since waving goodbye to the role of Ryan Sinclair in Doctor Who, and it already feels as though he’s destined for big things. Cole found early successes in the US (where he was born and lived until the age of eight) in AMC police corruption drama 61st Street, and as real-life civil rights activist Medgar Evans in 2022 feature film Till. It was back in the UK though, making Rapman’s excellent London-set superpower sci-fi drama Supacell, that he really shone. Cole plays Michael, one of five Black Londoners who develop superpowers and have to team up for a dangerous time-travelling rescue mission. If you haven’t yet seen it, catch up.
See also: How could we not mention an upcoming role in Three Bags Full, an adaptation of Leonie Swann’s celebrated novel about a flock of anthropomorphic sheep who solve a murder? It sounds pleasingly nuts. Musicals fans should also look out for Cole in Bob Dylan-song film version of Girl From the North Country.
The post Doctor Who Companions’ Best Post-TARDIS Roles appeared first on Den of Geek.
