Big Finish have made two major announcements today regarding companions for Colin Baker’s Doctor.

Nicola Bryant’s character, Peri, will be getting a companion of her own in the new release next month.

Blood on Santa’s Claw introduces a new companion for Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor, a famous pop star whom Peri meets after travelling back in time to attend a studio recording of Top of the Pops (inspired by Bryant’s own encounter with Gary Davies during the filming of the show).

Joe Carnaby is the lead singer of the 1980s’ hottest new synth band, Arcadia Rising. He is played by actor Luke Allen-Gale who said, of becoming Peri’s boyfriend: “They are very much enamoured with each other in that young love kind of way. It’s exciting and new and adventurous and there’s lots of laughter. Joe wants to have a good time and enjoy himself.”

Actor Nicola Bryant added: “I am very excited that Peri is finally going to get the lovely boyfriend that she deserves.  It’s nice that she has someone she feels responsible for. I also like the fact she takes on more of the Doctor’s role in these stories and teaches Joe how to be a companion.

“The fact that it is music that brings them together makes it all the more wonderful. Peri’s not had much luck with husbands in the past (Davey Silverman in The Piscon Paradox and Ycarnos in Widow’s Assassin), so it’s very much third time lucky for her. Fingers crossed!”

Nev Fountain, one of the four authors of these festive fables, explained how the brief for the new companion came about: “I was simply asked to make it Christmassy!  Oh yes, and I was told that Peri’s boyfriend was now travelling with them. Is this the first time there’s been implied hanky-panky in the TARDIS during the time of a ‘classic’ Doctor? 

“The idea of introducing him by just throwing him into a box set of short stories was an interesting one and I think it worked. We meet the Doctor, Peri and new TARDIS traveller Joe Carnaby as they journey through the 59th century, an annoyingly silly time in Earth’s history. I look forward to writing for the Doctor, Peri and Joe in their next series of adventures!”

Producer and director, John Ainsworth added: “I was delighted when I was told that this year’s Christmas release would be featuring the Sixth Doctor, and therefore fell to me to produce. It’s hard to come up with a new spin on the Christmas theme and tell exciting Doctor Who stories at the same time, but I think our four stories in this anthology tick all the boxes – tinsel, carols, Dickens, reindeer, and even Santa himself. But this is still Doctor Who, and there’s plenty to keep the Doctor, Peri and her new beau on their toes. The stories actually get quite dark in places, and Peri in particular has to live through some quite traumatic events.”

Meanwhile, elsewhen in the Sixth Doctor’s convoluted timeline, his popular companion duo, Mrs Constance Clarke and Phillipa ‘Flip’ Jackson, are set to return in a trilogy of exciting four-part adventures in 2020. 

Story titles and details are still under wraps.

“Their backgrounds are so different,” explained executive producer Nicholas Briggs, “but they just hit it off. Constance is a very prim and proper and from World War Two. Flip is a proper Cockney from the early 2000s.”

Miranda Raison (Spooks, Dirk Gently, Nightflyers) who plays wartime heroine Mrs Constance Clarke recalled: “It must be over two years since we’ve been in a Big Finish studio, because the last time I was here I was eight months pregnant, and now my daughter is over two years old!”

Lisa Greenwood (The Hour, Call The Midwife, Top Boy), who plays streetwise Flip, says, “It’s great to be back! I love playing Flip and it’s lovely to be working with Miranda and Colin again.”

Flip’s journey with the Doctor started way back in 2011 with The Crimes of Thomas Brewster. Back then, she wasn’t a companion, but producers David Richardson and Nicholas Briggs spotted her potential and immediately asked writer Jonathan Morris and Lisa herself if they’d like her to become a regular. This led to The Curse of Davros in 2012 and since then she’s never looked back, battling Doctor Who foes old and new.

In 2015, Flip was joined by Constance Clarke. “Miranda joined us in Colin Baker’s finale box set The Last Adventure,” explained Nicholas. “But her real origins were revealed in a different story, Criss-Cross, later that year. She’s an extraordinary character played by a brilliant actor — who’s also a remarkably lovely person.”

Briggs also confirmed what fun it is working with Lisa. “She calls me Dalek-face!” he laughed. “Lisa and I have become great chums, having spent a lot of time together at big Doctor Who conventions.”

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