It appears that Pat Downe will be the new Costume Designer on Doctor Who.

Downe is set to take on the role from the show’s 60th anniversary special(s), working alongside showrunner, Russell T Davies, and producers, Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson, for Bad Wolf, the new production company. The series was listed on Downe’s online CV last week, although the credit has since disappeared (so presumably someone jumped the gun in updating that page).

Downe began her career as assistant to award-winning costume designer, Sandy Powell on The Last of England, Derek Jarman’s 1987 film railing against Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.

Her extensive credits include The Trial of Christine Keeler, Funny Girl, The Enfield Haunting, Episodes, and The Night Watch starring Jodie Whittaker.

When asked in 2020 what she’d like to do in future, Downe said:

“Sci-fi would be fantastic, and so would 1920s and 1930s America – think of Boardwalk Empire – if you had the budget and time to do it richly.”

That certainly bodes well!

Presumably, she’ll be advising Ncuti Gatwa on his Doctor’s outfit — although we don’t actually know if it’s a role she’ll share with others. Ray Holman, for instance, has been costume designer on many Doctor Who episodes, but there have been numerous designers over the years including Howard Burden, Louise Page, Hayley Nebauer, and even Barbara Kidd, who returned for Doctor Who Series 6, beginning with A Christmas Carol, after working on stories featuring the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Doctors, like Frontier in Space, Genesis of the Daleks, and Kinda.

Hopefully, we’ll soon find out a lot more about the upcoming new era of Doctor Who…!