A new 10-part podcast adventure series, Doctor Who: Redacted will begin on BBC Sounds on Easter Sunday, 17 April.
Bestselling author Juno Dawson leads the group of new and experienced writing talent for the new audio adventures, with a strong emphasis on diversity and regionality. The series entangles past and current storylines, cameos from the Doctor’s friends and allies, as well as appearances from familiar Doctor Who monsters and aliens.
The series follows Cleo, Abby and Shawna – three broke university drop-outs from different cities across the UK who remain connected via their paranormal conspiracy podcast, The Blue Box Files. The trio speculate over Abby’s favourite conspiracy theory – intent on finding out the truth behind the mysterious ‘Blue Box’ that keeps cropping up across history. What if this random police public call box was actually an alien ship?
They don’t know who the Doctor is, or if aliens are real, but soon find themselves caught in a supernatural conspiracy as they learn that everyone who’s ever met the Doctor is disappearing and being forgotten. Essentially, they’re being redacted from reality. The Blue Box Files is so unsuccessful that our heroes are the last ones to be affected by the redaction, making Cleo, Abby and Shawna the world’s only hope. Now it’s a race against time to uncover the truth.
When Cleo’s brother Jordan, (played by comedian Jacob Hawley), gets redacted, they spend the rest of the series trying to find him. In the meantime Cleo is dealing with a mother who kicked her out for being trans when she was 16, whilst trying to find out what happened to her Dad – who mysteriously ‘disappeared’ when she was a kid. As the series unfolds we find Abby – the resident believer and Shawna – the sceptic, grapple with their own tribulations on the edge of a will-they, won’t-they romance, despite Abby’s controlling boyfriend.
Lead writer Juno Dawson says:
“Doctor Who was my first love, and it’s an absolute thrill to add to the ever-expanding mythology in podcast form for the first time ever. What a total privilege to write for something so beloved, and put my own little flag on the landscape.”
The cast includes Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor, Jemma Redgrave as UNIT Chief Scientific Officer Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as UNIT scientist Petronella Osgood, Anjli Mohindra as Rani Chandra from The Sarah Jane Adventures, Doon Mackichan as Madame Vastra, along with Charlie Craggs, Lois Chimimba, Holly Quin-Ankrah, Jacob Hawley, Sarah Thom, Alasdair Beckett-King and more.
A trailer featuring Jodie Whittaker was released by BBC Sounds.
The first weekly episode of Doctor Who: Redacted will be available on BBC Sounds at 8pm BST, directly after the Doctor Who Easter special Legend of the Sea Devils airs on BBC One on Easter Sunday, 17 April.