Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien) and Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair) are set to make an emotional departure during the Doctor Who New Year’s special Revolution of the Daleks.
Both joined the show back in 2017 and have starred in series 11, 12 and the previous special Resolution.
Showrunner Chris Chibnall warned to prepare for some emotional goodbyes.
“I can tell you that it’s very emotional, I think we’ve all been in tears watching it. It’s a really important part of the mix of the special, where you get lots of thrills, lots of spills, lots of humour, lots of Daleks, and lots of emotion. It’s hard, but we don’t shy away from what it means for this family to have its final moments together. And it was emotional off screen, it’s emotional on screen, and it’s an incredible thing.”
Chibnall would not say whether the special’s narrative would leave the door open for Graham and Ryan’s return.
“I hope it feels like a good send off for those two characters whatever happens to them.”
Bradley Walsh spoke of what we can expect from his last Doctor Who episode,
“You can expect old enemies, spectacular scenes, a surprising ending and a heart-warming story.”
“It is very, very dramatic. It is very sad. It is quite sad and poignant is the word. You can expect a lot of poignancy from the episode.”
When Walsh was asked about his favourite memories, he replied:
“Happy days. Fantastic memories. Our times abroad, when we were in Spain, South Africa. I just loved it.”
“Working in Wales with everyone on the crew. I have absolutely loved it, loved it. Wales has become like a second home to me and being included in something so iconic and ground-breaking with the advent of having a female Doctor, that whole thing where Chibnall sold that to me, it didn’t disappoint, and I loved working with those guys.”
“I love working with Chris Chibnall, that man is a genius but to also be working with Mandip and Tosin and of course Jodie is just extraordinary.”
When Cole was asked the same question, he replied:
“There are too many things to list here, but it has to be the team on the screen and behind it as well as the amazing fans. It’s been an honour to work on such a cultural institution with fans across the world. The people like me on the screen come and go, but it’s the people behind the scenes and the fans that will always be there keeping the Doctor Who world alive and exciting.”
“Well as the Doctor, I will say that the fam as a four is no more,” Jodie Whittaker (the Doctor) commented wistfully.
“On a personal note, absolutely devasted! Both of them had to carry me to my trailer, I haven’t cried like that for such a long time. Brad couldn’t cope with it at all! Tosin was like ‘I really can’t cope with you getting this upset’.”
The “fam” stays in touch, despite having ended their Doctor Who working relationship at the end of October 2019.
“We are now in constant contact, texting, Whatsapping,” Bradley Walsh explained. “I miss them all. I was texting the location guys across the airwaves.”
“I’m not really an emotional person, but even I was like ‘this is really sad I’ll never see you again, you’re so busy Brad always filming’,” Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan) said. “But it’s been too soon to miss them, we have this WhatsApp group that’s pinging all the time, and obviously because of the lockdown we wouldn’t have seen each other anyway in that time, so it’s too soon to realise the impact of not having them, because we’re constantly sending memes or a message.”
Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Lee Haven Jones, Revolution of the Daleks will air January 1, New Year’s Day 2021 on BBC One and BBC America.