Ironically, the Blue Box Files is so unsuccessful that our heroines are the last names on the hitlist, making Cleo, Abby and Shawna the world’s only hope.
It’s more about a threat hanging over the world.” But, I would say to the listener: it’s Doctor Who, don’t read too much into it. “The notion of being silenced or erased feels part of the online language nowadays. Is there an allegorical significance here? “Somewhat,” says Dawson. “The three loser-teers”, as they self-deprecatingly style themselves, discover that everyone who has ever met the Doctor is disappearing, their very existence being forgotten. Juno Dawson: ‘Doctor Who has always appealed to LGBTQ+ people’ Photograph: Simone Padovani/Awakening/Getty Images Shawna was specified in the script as being a black or mixed-race woman from the north, whereas Abby was always going to be from Glasgow, which is one of my favourite cities.” So, before I even thought about their gender or sexual identity, it was important to me that they were from different parts of the UK. That regionality isn’t there enough in BBC drama, which is often kind of placeless. “I love that Doctor Who has lived its life in Cardiff, Sheffield and Liverpool in recent years. “Being from Bradford myself, I adore hearing regional accents on the BBC,” she says. Interestingly, this regional diversity is what came first for Dawson. The lineup is completed by sceptical Shawna (Grange Hill’s Holly Quin-Ankrah), an out-and-proud lesbian studying computing at her local college in Sheffield. When it came to casting, I said to Ella: ‘Look, we can either audition Charlie Craggs or find a trans actor and tell her to play it like Charlie Craggs.’ There were some nerves at the BBC about hiring someone untrained but I’m so glad we stuck to our guns.”įounder of the podcast-within-a-podcast is devoted “boxspotter” and resident believer Abby ( Vigil’s Lois Chimimba), who is bisexual and a full-time carer for her sick mother in Glasgow. It’s a dehumanising term, but Charlie uses her voice so cleverly – with humour and honesty. “The label “trans activist” can be a club with which to beat trans people. Juno Dawson always had Craggs in mind to play her protagonist. I’m so honoured to be part of something so sacred to so many”.
She’s played by transgender activist Charlie Craggs, a scene-stealer in her first ever acting role, who describes her casting as “a huge step for the trans community. The leader of the gang (and the drama) is a trans woman, Cleo, who works as a theatre usher, lives on a south London estate and is saving up for surgery. The friends are university dropouts, who now live in different UK cities but stay connected via their hobby podcast. The cat is FINALLY out of the bag: I produced and directed a very gay, very trans OFFICIAL fiction podcast by starring and and it comes out next sunday! #DoctorWhoRedacted ?️⚧️?️? /7fFIg4XIoE- Ella is making #DoctorWhoRedacted ?? April 8, 2022