City actress's role in Dr Who

A YOUNG Inverness actress will join BBC's time traveller Doctor Who on Saturday as the primetime series heads back to Roman times.

Trailers for the upcoming episode feature Karen Gillan, a former pupil at Charleston Academy. But former schoolmates might struggle to identify Karen at first, as she's dressed in a dramatic red cloak with her face painted white!

Cast as a soothsayer, Karen is predicting doom as the doctor and his new companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) arrive in Pompeii, just as volcano Vesuvius is about to blow.

"I play someone having visions," said Karen. "It was so much fun playing a villain – you can really go over the top."

Karen won the role in second episode, The Fires Of Pompeii, and filmed it last year on the series' regular set in Cardiff.

But lucky Karen was also whisked off to Rome with the current Doctor Who, David Tennant, Catherine Tate and a handful of other central characters to complete the episode there.

Karen explained: "There were only about five of us who went out there. The BBC was filming the series Rome at the time, so because our episode was set in Roman times we were taken over there to use the set."

Karen, who has now moved to London to be on call for auditions, first appeared on TV two years ago. She left her drama course at the Italia Conti Stage School early for the chance to appear as a teen gone of the rails in hit ITV detective series Rebus alongside Ken Stott.

"I had a bit of a quiet time after that," Karen revealed.

But she is certainly making up for it now.

"I've got a small part in the film Hippie Hippie Shake about the 60s hippy revolution which tells the story of a guy called Richard Neville who was behind the magazine Oz," said Karen, who plays a groupie in the movie due for 2009 release and starring Sienna Miller.

"I play an anorexic nun from the 1600s in a short film called Thinspiration for a Channel 4 series being shown in November called Coming Up. And I'm playing a self-harming model in a new medical drama for ITV called Harley Street!".
She looks great
Please comment
Thank you
The tardis newsroom