Actress Jenna Coleman ‘Doctor Who never leaves you’

Say a celebrity name and you can probably attribute a TV show, film, or football club to them and Jenne Coleman fit’s into this scenario perfectly.

It’s been a decade since Jenna Coleman made her Doctor Who debut as companion Clara Oswald – and now, the star has explained how the show “never leaves you”.

Coleman was asked if she still keeps up to date with things in the Whoniverse and whether she was excited about incoming Doctor Ncuti Gatwa.

“Yeah, very excited,” was her response. “And obviously to see Russell T Davies back at the helm.

“I still speak to Matt [Smith] and Peter [Capaldi],” she added. “I got a really nice message from Steven [Moffat] the other day saying it was 10 years since I’d been on [Doctor Who], which was terrifying.

“But yeah, it’s very much like a family. I feel like it’s one of those jobs that never leaves you.”

Although Coleman is not one of the stars returning in the upcoming centenary or 60th anniversary specials, earlier this year she teased that she could reprise her role as Clara somewhere down the line.

“It could happen in the future, who knows?” she told Best magazine. “I think, at least for a good while, Clara is probably broken down somewhere in time and space, trying to understand how to work a TARDIS!”

March 2012, producer Steven Moffat confirmed at a press conference that Jenna Coleman would be the next regular in Doctor Who, saying he chose her for the role because she worked the best alongside Matt Smith and could talk faster than him! As with previous casting, auditions had been shrouded in secrecy, with the series being referred to as Men on Waves (an anagram for “Woman Seven”).

Although announced to be joining in that year’s Christmas Special, Coleman made a surprise first appearance in Series Seven’s opener Asylum of the Daleks as Oswin Oswald, thus creating a thread about “The Impossible Girl” that would be taken up with her first full story The Snowmen through to the series finale The Name of the Doctor.

She continued in the role of Clara as new Doctor Peter Capaldi arrived, and remained the series for a further two years before bowing out in the Series Nine finale Hell Bent.

In 2013 she altered her Equity-registered name to be simply Jenna Coleman (her first credit under this name being on Doctor Who Live which introduced Capaldi to the nation as the new Doctor. In 2014 her role as Clara saw her win the Glamour Award for UK TV Actress.

During her stint in Doctor Who she also appeared as Lydia Wickham in the BBC drama Death Comes to Pemberley, and upon leaving the show she took on the role as the young queen Victoria for the 2016 ITV series of that name. She has also provided the voice of Baines in animated series Thunderbirds Are Go.

Outside of television, Coleman has been involved with charity work in South Africa raising awareness of HIV, and is ambassador to the One To One Children’s Fund.

She has been in a relationship with Richard Madden since late 2011.

Back in August the Sandman’s Jenna Coleman has hinted that her tenure on Doctor Who might not be completely over.

Coleman played Clara Oswald, the companion to both the Eleventh (Matt Smith) and Twelfth (Peter Capaldi) Doctor, from 2012 to 2015.

She returned for the Christmas special, ‘Twice Upon a Time’, in 2017 but hasn’t made an appearance since.