The Big Picture

• Millie Gibson, known for her work on Coronation Street and Doctor Who, will now star in PBS Masterpiece's adaptation of The Forsyte Saga.
• The new series will center on the women of the Forsyte family, with Gibson playing Irene who falls in love with Soames in a tragic love story.
• Gibson's role on Doctor Who will continue into Season 2, where she will travel with the Doctor and a new companion played by Verada Sethu.

British audiences are already fairly familiar with up-and-comer Millie Gibson, who spent three years on one of the UK’s foremost soap operas, Coronation Street. On the heels of the start of her journey through space and time across the next two seasons of Doctor Who, it was recently announced that Gibson would be starring in PBS Masterpiece’s new series adaptation of The Forsyte Saga.

A series of British novels, The Forsyte Saga highs and lows of three generations of a new money, upper-middle-class family. While this is hardly the first time the Saga has been adapted for television, writer and executive producer Debbie Horsfield explained that the new series will not be as straightforward an adaptation as those done in the past. "Our show is in part a prequel to the events of the first book, but also an opportunity to expand the world and place the women of the family centre stage,” she explained. “It’s a love letter to the original story while offering an exciting new perspective."

One of those women taking center stage will be Gibson. Chatting with her about the upcoming season of Doctor Who, I took a moment to ask Gibson about her role in the latest adaptation. She revealed that she’ll be playing Irene a character who married into the Forsyte family — twice! Here’s what she had to say about Irene:

“Well, I play Irene and it's an adaptation. It's been done twice but the most recent one was in 2002. So it's an adaptation again on John Galsworthy's book called The Forsyte Saga. Irene's a ballet dancer in this version and she falls in love with Soames, who is very infatuated with her — obviously, that's why I've been cast as her. [Laughs] It's a beautiful love story, but also a tragic one, I’d say. I mean, to be honest, it's not like Doctor Who where I'm like, hush-hush, it's like, “Read the book and then you'll find what happens.” [Laughs] But yeah, I'll say that the version is quite different, though, that we're doing. Debbie Horsfield writes it.”

Millie Gibson’s Future on ‘Doctor Who’

Earlier this year it was rumored that we would only be seeing Gibson on Doctor Who for one season as paparazzi spotted Ncuti Gatwa filming Season 2 adventures with a new companion played by Verada Sethu. Thankfully, Davies dissuaded those rumors last month, confirming that Gibson’s arc spans both seasons and that Season 2 will see her and Sethu both traveling with the Doctor.

While she’s pulling double duty, Gibson explained that she’s “not met the cast yet,” for her new series. “They've been doing rehearsal week whilst I've been here, so I'm like, ‘Guys, how's it going,’” she said. While Gibson knows when she starts filming, she wasn’t able to share her start date with us, but she did express her excitement to tackle the new challenge, saying: “So I'm not actually sure how it's all going at the minute, but I'm very, very excited to start. It's very different.”

The Forsyte Saga does not yet have a release date but you can catch Gibson in the new season of Doctor Who airing Fridays on Disney+ at 7 PM ET and Saturdays at midnight on the BBC iPlayer.

Watch on Disney+