Entertainment

Pearl Mackie swaps the Tardis for the Story Seat on CBeebies

The actress – who shot to fame as Bill Potts in Doctor Who – will read children a bedtime story.
The actress – who shot to fame as Bill Potts in Doctor Who – will read children a bedtime story. The actress – who shot to fame as Bill Potts in Doctor Who – will read children a bedtime story.

Doctor Who star Pearl Mackie will be hoping viewers won’t hide behind the sofa for her latest role.

The actress is the latest name to sign up to read a CBeebies Bedtime Story, this time on Christmas Eve.

A pre-school audience will hear the 30-year-old read Interstellar Cinderella, a retelling of the fairytale with a heroine who dreams of fixing space rockets, by Deborah Underwood and‎ Meg Hunt.

Mackie will play companion Bill Potts for the last time in the BBC’s Christmas Doctor Who special.

The sci-fi show, said to have been frightening enough to send children behind the sofa, is returning with Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor and Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole also appearing.

Other names reading stories on CBeebies over Christmas and New Year include singer Dolly Parton, actor Mark Bonnar and Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme.

Tom Hardy, David Hasselhoff, Sir Derek Jacobi and Suranne Jones are among other stars who have appeared on the channel.