Strictly Come Dancing judge in new career change with surprise BBC Doctor Who cameo

BBC Strictly Come Dancing’s Shirley Ballas is set to appear in a shock Doctor Who cameo.

Russell T Davies has revealed that the Strictly judge is due to make a guest appearance in the upcoming series of Doctor Who. The head judge said she is “very excited” for the public to see her in the iconic show.

Appearing alongside the screenwriter and producer Davies on BBC Morning Live on Wednesday, the pair talked about the upcoming episodes. The new series of the long-running BBC show is due to start over the festive period, with Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor and Millie Gibson playing his companion Ruby Sunday.

Morning Live presenter Gethin Jones teased Davies that there was someone else in the studio who could “potentially” be on Doctor Who. He then replied: “Do you mean the top secret information that Shirley Ballas is going to appear in Doctor Who?”

Shirley then said: “The filming was one of the best days of my life. We’re doing a guest appearance with Jojo (Strictly professional Johannes Radebe) where I actually get to perform with Jojo and so many other dancers on the show, so I’m very, very excited for people to watch.”

Russell joked that he made sure he was there on set on the day Shirley was filming as there was “no way” that he could miss the iconic moment. Ahead of the new series, three special episodes will be aired to mark the 60th anniversary of the show.

Actor David Tennant is due to come back as the Time Lord alongside his former companion Donna Noble, played by comedian Catherine Tate. The first special, titled The Star Beast, will air on November 25 on BBC One and will be followed by Wild Blue Yonder on December 2 and The Giggle on December 9.

After a trailer was showed of the upcoming special episodes, Russell said he is “excited” for them to finally come out. He said: “I feel like we’ve been previewing it for years, it’s finally on this Saturday, at last, we’re there.”

The trio then discussed the fact that David Tenant, despite being the 10th Doctor, he is now appearing as the 14th. Russell said that nothing “massively different” can be expected as he is set to play the role how he used to.

He added: “It’s not massively different, you don’t get David Tennant to come be different because he’s loved and we want him to be the Doctor of old.”

Russell went on to tease that there is a special reason why they chose David to come back. He added: “But he is 15 years older and there are certain moments where you’ll see more human touches sometimes, but you keep watching… you get to the third special and there’s kind of a reason why that face comes back.”