British actress Katherine Kelly, formerly a star of ‘Coronation Street’ and more recently of BBC drama ‘The Night Manager’, has been cast in the forthcoming ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off series called ‘Class’.

Kelly is joined by four newcomers, according to the BBC’s casting announcement made on Monday (April 4th), in the form of Greg Austin, Sophie Hopkins, Fady Elsayed and Vivian Oparah. They will play sixth formers at Coal Hill School, set in modern London.

‘Doctor Who’ aficionados will know that Coal Hill School has a special part in the series’ mythology, as it was the setting for the first ever episode back in 1963.

Katherine KellyKatherine Kelly is due to star in 'Class', a 'Doctor Who' spin-off coming to BBC Three

The spin-off’s creator, the award winning young adult author Patrick Ness, has stated: “How lucky we are to get Katherine Kelly! She's been stunning in ‘Happy Valley’, ‘The Night Manager’ and ‘Mr. Selfridge’, just wait until you see her here.”

It will be the first ever TV screenwriting project for the American writer, who is best known for his book ‘A Monster Calls’. He has also adapted that novel into a script for a movie adaptation, due for release in October this year.

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The series, commissioned for eight episodes and due to make its debut on BBC Three later in 2016, is just one of many sub-programmes spawned from ‘Doctor Who’ designed to appeal to a younger audience.

Steven Moffat, the executive producer of ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Class’, added his reaction to the casting announcement. “There's nothing more exciting than meeting stars that nobody's heard of yet. We had the read-through of the first few episodes last week, and there was a whole row of them.”

“Coal Hill School has been part of ‘Doctor Who’ since the very first shoot in 1963, but this new show is anything but history. Class is dark and sexy and right now. I've always wondered if there could be a ‘British Buffy’ - it's taken the brilliant Patrick Ness to figure out how to make it happen.”

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