Huddersfield has joined in a unique tribute to celebrate actor Jodie Whittaker’s time as Doctor Who.
Jodie’s penultimate appearance as the 13th Doctor – and the first woman in the role – will be broadcast on Easter Sunday.
But before that musician and lifelong Doctor Who fan Jo Whitby has brought together ‘The Whovian Ensemble’ to play out the Doctor and say ‘thank you’ to Jodie in unique style, with a video performance of the song ‘Don’t Panic’ by Jodie’s favourite band Coldplay.
The ensemble is a collective of professional and amateur musicians and includes Seylan Baxter, who played the Doctor’s adoptive mother ‘Tecteun’ in ‘The Timeless Children’, on the cello.
Not only that, the video also features fans and friends dancing, singing along and holding up messages for the actor.
Also on the video is a dance routine put together by students at Kirklees College with Jodie’s former dance teacher Maureen Nowodny.
And the Corless family, who run the restaurant Volare in Jodie’s home village of Skelmanthorpe, also get in on the act.
Martin and Nicola and their three sons, Leonardo, Giuseppe and Enrico (main image above) lip-sync to the song outside the restaurant in the village known by locals as Shat.
There is also a nod to Jodie’s favourite football team Huddersfield Town with young fan Charlie strutting his stuff outside John Smith’s Stadium.
Jo said: “Shortly after watching the brilliant ‘Eve of the Daleks’ on New Year’s Day it dawned on me that Jodie only has two more episodes to go as the 13th Doctor.
“I really wanted to say thank you and celebrate such a wonderful interpretation of the classic character.
“Combining my passion for music and Jodie’s well-known love of Coldplay, I decided to put a call out to all my musical Whovian friends via social media and work on a video cover together for Jodie that’s out of this world.
“Another call was put out to fellow Whovians to gather their own creative video contributions to be featured alongside the ‘band.’”
As the project gained momentum, Jo decided, as a member of the LGBTQ+ community and having faced homelessness herself, that the video would also be a great way to shed light on AKT, a charity supporting LGBT+ youth between 16 and 25 who are homeless, facing homelessness or living in a hostile environment, and to help raise funds for the charity.
Jodie has just two specials left before she hands over the keys to the Tardis. ‘Legend of the Sea Devils’ is on BBC1 on Sunday April 17 (7.10pm) Her final appearance will be in the autumn.