Clearly Minty.

TV Shockwaves through the Twittersphere this morning as Doctor Who's official account this morning posted:


The instareaction under that tweet ranged between "OMG this is the most exciting thing ever!" (I'm paraphrasing) to agreement with my reaction of "Who?"

This was quickly followed by a quote and photo:


Which is in truth when I noticed this happening and when I asked "Who?"

The replies under that are even harsher asking why they're hiring someone making their acting debut when there are quote "thousands of excellent experienced actors out there. Why go with a novice in a high profile series?"

Why indeed, though some people have short memories. People said much the same thing when Billie Piper was hired and look what happened there.

Anyway, let's work the story:

Who?

In the world where Wikipedia exists it's easy to find these things out. It says:

"Louisa Rose Allen, better known by her stage name Foxes, is a British singer and songwriter originally from Southampton and now based in London. She is best known for her featured vocals on Zedd's song "Clarity", which peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number one on the US Hot Dance Club Songs, and "Let Go for Tonight" which entered the UK Singles Chart at number seven on 8 March 2014. On 26 January 2014, she won her first Grammy Award: Best Dance Recording at the 56th Grammy Awards for "Clarity"."

So she's a bit like Peter Davison, forced to change her name from Louise Allen because there was already someone around with a similar name (and the same middle name).

What?

She's a musician. I'm listening to the album on the Spotifys and it's a bit Gildaire, bit Lena, bit Kate Bush, bit Little Boots and lots of might just grow on me. Here's one of her pop videos. On reflection, I do recognise it from somewhere.  I'll now spend the rest of the day trying to remind myself as to exactly where:



Where?

No idea on the actual episode yet, who she'll be playing or how the big the role is. For all we know it might be as small as Mike Skinner's cameo.

When?

Series begins transmitting in August but lord knows what order the recording blocks are in this time.  Actually it's probably in Doctor Who Magazine but I can't remember where I left it and there's no way I'm visiting Gallifrey Base to check.

Why?

Aha. Well, the above video has 9,915,826 views on YouTube so she's not unknown. The single reached number seven in the pop charts in the UK. But she's won a Grammy which puts her in the area of being successful in the US and my guess is that there's a certain element of international casting in this, that it'll be a much bigger story across the atlantic.  In other words, she the Peri of the Moffat era.  Ish.

How?

How do these things happen?  Kylie was cast because she's Kylie and because her friend/employee Will was a massive Who fan.  Plus as the wikipage for her album says: "Foxes is currently on a 16-date tour in England, Scotland and Ireland, which started 24 February 2014 and will end on 24 May."  So that explains some of the scheduling...

Updated 10:26am: The BBC programme page has a quote:
"I can't believe I’m actually going to be in an episode of Doctor Who! Especially as it all came about from a chance meeting. I was playing a gig and got chatting to the show’s production team who’d been watching my performance. I was telling them how much I loved Doctor Who and next thing they invited me to be on it. I couldn’t think of a better place to make my acting debut than on one of the UK’s most iconic shows!"
Amazing. There's also a Moffaty quote:
"We are completely thrilled that the amazingly talented Foxes is joining us on board ... well, you'll see. Let’s just say, the Doctor is finally catching up on his phone calls."
"D'jar wanner kum wiv me?" etc.
on

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