Jenna Louise Coleman has one of the toughest tasks in TV ahead of her, replacing not one, but a pair of the longest running and well-rounded Doctor Who companions of all time.
She makes her first true appearance on Doctor Who tomorrow night as the time-traveller’s newest companion Clara, with fans all around the world wanting to know just what sort of traveller she’ll be. With this in mind, we’ve decided gaze over her TV CV and see what we might have in store.
Coleman’s is name most known by soap lovers here in the UK, with the Blackpool born actress making her debut as Jasmine Thomas, bar-girl turned journalist on long running soap Emmerdale.
Despite being her first acting job, she was a revelation on the show, nominated for Best Newcomer in 2006 at both the National Television Awards and the British Soap Awards before receiving a series of award nominations in 2009 when she left the left the show.
With her having left stage school to take part in the show, her cracking debut was made all the more impressive.
After a brief spell on school-based drama Waterloo Road, Coleman finally found her way onto the big screen as the effervesant Connie in a small role in the blockbuster adaptation of comic-book hero Captain America. Even in her brief time on screen, Coleman’s energy was infectious.
From there she returned to bigger budget TV drama with period novel adaptation Room At The Top, a show blighted by rights issues and yet to see the light of day. She did hit our screens though in both 1930s drama Dancing On The Edge and last year’s big budget Christmas stocking filler Titanic, where she once again showed off a consummate ease in making herself utterly charming.
It’s something that Coleman’s possessed throughout her acting career so far, and will surely fair her well inside the TARDIS.
Period drama is something that Coleman must be getting horribly familiar with, as even in Doctor Who, we’ll be getting to know her as a Victorian governess.
This is easily her biggest role to date, with Doctor Who now not just a UK curio, but a worldwide cult hit. Coleman’s already proved herself on the show though with her completely signposted appearance in the first episode of the series ‘Asylum Of The Daleks’.
While this raised all sorts of brain melting questions, Coleman was utterly superb in the role of the cheeky and oh so bright Oswin. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are a tough act to follow, but Coleman definitely seems up for the challenge as the go-getting Clara.
Here’s to the beginning of a bright new TV friendship.
Doctor Who is on at 5:15 on BBC One on Christmas Day.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
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