Doctor Who Magazine has revealed the names of the actors playing The Beatles in the second episode of Doctor Who Series 14, The Devil’s Chord.
It’s previously been confirmed that the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) would be visiting Abbey Road to meet the Fab Four and come up against Jinkx Monsoon’s enigmatic music-related villain, Maestro. But the identities of those playing John, Paul, George, and Ringo have remained a mystery — until now.
Here’s who’s playing The Beatles:
- Paul McCartney: George Caple
- Ringo Starr: James Hoyles
- George Harrison: Philip Davies
- John Lennon: Chris Mason
Caple previously appeared as Alfie in the 2021 story, Survivors of the Flux, and has also been in Doctors, Tin Star, and Lethal Love. Hoyles has been in a short film, is a content creator on TikTok, and is writing scripts for an anthology of short films set to be filmed later in 2024. Davies has similarly been in a short film, as well as 2015’s Snow. And out of the foursome, Mason has the most credits to his name, including The Fades, Legend, and Killing It — and most notably the third season of the Chris Chibnall-penned drama, Broadchurch, in which he played Leo Humphries.
Mason, Caple, and Hoyles are all appropriately from Liverpool!
It would appear that The Beatles are, ironically, not the stars of their episode, per se, at least not in the same way that, say, Agatha Christie took the focus of The Unicorn and the Wasp or Vincent Van Gogh in Vincent and the Doctor. That’s a shame, but hopefully, the story is all about their music and legacy nonetheless.
Doctor Who Series 14 starts on 11th May 2024 at midnight (or on 10th May at 7pm ET), streaming on BBC iPlayer and Disney+. That’s also when The Devil’s Chord premieres, and is expected to follow Space Babies in being broadcast later that night on BBC1.
