Ben Chessell has been announced as director of Block Four of the next season of Doctor Who. What’s more, we’re promised that his episodes will take the programme into “genuinely new territory”…
Executive producer, Phil Collinson revealed:
“Our search for directors reached all the way to Australia, to find Ben.
“One of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen on television is Joe Barton’s Giri/Haji for the BBC, with the spectacular finale directed by Ben. It broke all the rules of what television can achieve, so we knew he was a perfect fit for this two-episode block, which takes the whole show into genuinely new territory. We were all wondering how to achieve what’s on the page, but Ben has marched in to show us how!”
Ben first came to prominence with his 2002 short, The Only Person in the World, and has since directed Dance Academy, Rush, The Great, and Doctor Doctor — sadly not a spin-off series about a certain Time Lord.
Chessell joins previously-announced directors of Series 14, Mark Tonderai (Rosa), Dylan Holmes Williams, and most recently, Julie Anne Robinson, who will helm Block Three.
Doctor Who Series 14 will be the first full run of episodes with new Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, alongside Millie Gibson as companion, Ruby Sunday; Russell T Davies returns as showrunner, writing the majority of the season alongside some as-yet-unannounced screenwriters who can only speculate about right now.
Series 14 will air next year, with the Fifteenth Doctor expected to debut properly this Christmas (although he made a surprise cameo in the 60th anniversary trailer, so we will see him before that…).
