Miriam Margolyes will feature in one of the 60th-anniversary episodes of Doctor Who that will air this November, the BBC has announced. Margolyes, 82, who has appeared in Blackadder, Babe and the Harry Potter films, will be the voice behind the Meep – or Beep the Meep – the furry and seemingly adorable alien adapted from the Star Beast comic strip in a special for the series. The creature will feature in an episode with the same name. The Meep, which is small and has large, lemur-like eyes, first appeared in the Doctor Who magazine in the 1980s. It will join the long list of monsters and aliens the Doctor has encountered on his travels, some of the most notorious including Daleks, Weeping Angels and Cybermen. The actor said: “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.” The 60th-anniversary series of specials will also see the 10th Doctor, David Tennant, return to the programme as the 14th Doctor, and Catherine Tate playing his sidekick, Donna Noble, before the Doctor regenerates. Ncuti Gatwa, who rose to prominence for his role as Eric Effiong in the Netflix series Sex Education, will make his highly anticipated debut as the 15th Doctor. The first episode starring Gatwa will air over the festive period, but no date has been announced. The other episodes, also written by Russell T Davies, are titled Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle. Margolyes is best known for her role as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film franchise. She won a Bafta for best supporting actress for her role in Martin Scorsese’s 1993 film The Age of Innocence. She was also featured on the cover of British Vogue’s July 2023 issue.