‘Doctor Who’ spin-off ‘Class’ is returning – as an audio series.
The BBC axed the show – which follows a group of teenagers at a London school where the Time Lord’s former companion Clara Oswald, played by Jenna Coleman, worked – after the first series, but it has now been revealed original cast members will voice their respective characters.
Fans will be able to get their ears around six brand new tales based on the Coal School Academy students, Charlie (Greg Austin), Ram (Fady Elsayed), April (Sophie Hopkins), Tanya (Vivian Oparah), and Jordan Renzo (Matteusz Andrzejewski), who fend off extraterrestrial monsters along with their teacher Miss Quill (Katherine Kelly).
Doctor Who magazine have also confirmed that the pupils will come face-to-face with the Seventh Doctor’s (Sylvester McCoy) companion Ace (Sophie Aldred).
Director-and-producer Scott Handcock said: "We’ve had a great deal of fun reuniting the original cast for the audio series, telling brand-new stories set within the TV run whilst tackling a host of alien menaces.
"I couldn’t resist linking up the ‘Doctor Who’ universe – bringing Ace and the Daleks into the world of Class has been an absolute treat. And for full authenticity, we’re lucky to have series composer Blair Mowat return to the world of Class as well."
The audio books will be released in two parts, the first contains the stories ‘Gifted’ by Roy Gill, ‘Life Experience’ by Jenny T Colgan and ‘Tell Me You Love Me’ by Handcock.
The second half is comprised of ‘Everyone Loves Reagan’ by Tom Foley, ‘Now You Know…’ by Tim Leng and ‘In Remembrance’ by Guy Adams.
On why the TV series was axed, BBC Three controller Damian Kavanagh said at the time: "There was nothing wrong with it. I thought [lead writer] Patrick Ness did a great job, he explored an amazing world.
"In all honesty it didn’t really land for us on BBC Three; some shows don’t and I have to make decisions about what we’re going to do from a drama point of view, and what we did after ‘Class’ was ‘Clique’ which worked really well for us."
The first series of the spin-off left fans with a cliffhanger after the fan-favourite villains the Weeping Angels plotted world domination inside the school.
The first episode was watched by one million viewers but by the end of the season, it had dropped to 300,000.
‘Class’ was the fourth TV spin-off from ‘Doctor Who’ following ‘K9 and Company’, ‘Torchwood’ and ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’.
‘Class: The Audio Adventures’ will be available to download this August.