Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper's "creepy" next Doctor Who story gets first-look trailer - as writer compares it to fan-favourite episode

Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper are back in action and set to face a terrifying foe in new Doctor Who audio drama, The Ninth Doctor Adventures: The Rag Man.

In a chilling trailer for the upcoming series by Big Finish, The Doctor and Rose Tyler find themselves in trouble when they return to London to discover a strange Victorian rag and bone cart – and a creepy cloaked man in charge of it.

With the cart right in the middle of the estate, it looks like the man, who is followed by a cloud of flies, has fallen into the modern day from the wrong time.

While the time-travelling duo are confused, Rose’s mum Jackie (Camille Coduri) knows exactly who it is: the Rag Man, a villain from an old story she used to tell Rose as a child.

In the tale, which was passed down from her own mum, the Rag Man will come to take you away with the rubbish if you don’t behave.

However, now the Rag Man is very real – and is feeding off the lost and lonely, with Birds of a Feather star Lesley Joseph joining the cast as Mrs Bickerton, a paranoid woman who the Rag Man has in his sights.

Teasing her new role, Joseph 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."

Writer Stewart Pringle added that this scary new tale – the ninth of 12 planned adventures for the Ninth Doctor and Rose – was heavily influenced by some of the most terrifying fan favourites.

He said: "We really wanted to lean into the horror aspect and create something that felt akin to what 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. And then from there, we thought about those cautionary tales that you’re told as a kid.

"This bogeyman idea also gave us a way to see a little bit of Rose’s childhood and a little bit of the mum Jackie was."

The full adventure will be released by BigFinish in December 2026 – with a limited collector’s edition CD.

It’s now available for pre-order for just £9.99 (download to own) or £11.99 (download to own + collector’s edition CD), exclusively at BigFinish.com

You can also check out the trailer for the audio series here:

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The Ninth Doctor Adventures: The Rag Man starts in December 2026 via Big Finish.

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Authors

Tilly Pearce is a freelance TV journalist whose coverage ranges from reality shows like Love Is Blind to sci-fi shows like Fallout. She is an NCTJ Gold Standard accredited journalist, who has previously worked as Deputy TV Editor (maternity cover) at Digital Spy, and Deputy TV & Showbiz Editor at Daily Express US.