Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston's 'mid-2000s-inspired' Doctor Who story lands first look

Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston are returning to the Doctor Who franchise once again, with the pair set to reprise their respective roles in a brand-new audio drama from Big Finish Productions.

The duo, who play Rose Tyler and the Time Lord, will star in The Ninth Doctor Adventures: The Rag Man, which serves as the ninth of 12 planned instalments in the ongoing sci-fi saga.

"The Doctor and Rose return to the Powell Estate to find a Victorian rag and bone cart parked in the middle of it," reads the logline. "Jackie recognises the figure from the cautionary tale she used to tell young Rose, passed down from her own mother."

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The villain is now no longer a children's story, and is ready to "feed on the lost and lonely". In his sights is the "paranoid" Mrs Bickerton, but can the Doctor and Rose save her in the nick of time?

Ahead of its release in December, Big Finish Productions has now unveiled a first-look trailer for the audio drama, while the cover showcases the heroic duo alongside their villainous new foe.

In addition to Piper and Eccleston, the supporting voice cast for The Rag Man includes Camille Coduri, Lesley Joseph and Amerjit Deu. The script has been written by Stewart Pringle and Lauren Mooney, while Helen Goldwyn is the director.

Speaking about the audio drama, Pringle said: "We really wanted to lean into the horror aspect and create something that felt akin to what [Steven] Moffat was doing in 'The Empty Child' and those really creepy episodes of the mid-2000s run."

"There's something innately frightening about the idea of a figure out of time, like a Victorian-style rag and bone cart pulling up in the middle of the Powell Estate," he continued. "From there, we thought about those cautionary tales that you're told as a kid."

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Mooney, meanwhile, said: "We've already got the nostalgia of getting to write for the Ninth Doctor, Rose and Jackie, and then to have Lesley Joseph in it as well – she's a brilliant comic actor, and I just can't wait to hear what she does for Mrs Bickerton."

Joseph, who is known for her role in Birds of a Feather, said: "I think it's a wonderful script. As I read it, I thought: 'I really want to do this'. I've never done Doctor Who before, and it's really exciting. This story's extreme, but at the same time, it's quite moving."

The Ninth Doctor Adventures: The Rag Man will be released in December.

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Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media.  His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.