Miriam Margolyes joins Doctor Who as the voice of infamous comics character The Meep
The character was co-created by Watchmen's Dave Gibbons
We've known for a while now that fondly-remembered Doctor Who comics character Beep the Meep is making the leap from page to screen for the sci-fi show's upcoming 60th anniversary. Now it's finally been revealed who will be voicing the cute little critter: Miriam Margolyes.
The veteran actor will appear in The Star Beast, the first of three special episodes starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Her character - now seemingly simply known as The Meep - was created in 1980 in Doctor Who and the Star Beast, a comic strip for Doctor Who Weekly, written by Pat Mills and John Wagner, and drawn by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons.
Margolyes said, with typically amusing candour, "I'm relieved I got to work on Doctor Who before I died. With sci-fi you never know. Thank you for making an old woman very happy."
Possible Doctor Who anniversary spoilers ahead
In the original strip Beep is the leader of the Meeps - a once peaceful race who have now turned nasty. Beep's cutesy outside appearance masks a malevolent streak and a cunning intellect.
We already know that his enemies from the comic, The Wrarth Warriors, will also be making an appearance in the episode - they're the bug looking creatures in the trailer - and it will be interesting to see if the rest of The Star Beast is a direct remake of the classic comic.
There's no word as of yet on exactly when the new episode will air, though sometime in November is a safe bet. Until then, you can read Doctor Who and the Star Beast in the Iron Legion trade paperback, published by Panini.
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Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.