Samantha Spiro opens up about her mysterious Doctor Who series 10 finale character

But now the truth is out, and having spoken to Spiro, RadioTimes.com can confirm that she’s playing neither of those powerful Time Lords – instead, she’s playing a rather different new character for series 10 finale The Doctor Falls named Hazran.

“As far as she's concerned she lives on a farm, and it’s a very beautiful rural setting,” Spiro told RadioTimes.com.

“The farmhouse where they live, she is protecting and looking after quite a few children, and there are adults who work the land as well. It's fairly idyllic, usually, but where we catch her and their life they are under attack from the Cybermen – so thing's aren't great currently for Hazran.

“She's the sort of person who's trying to hold it all together and probably wouldn't be successful if it wasn't for a bit of help that we get from the Doctor.”

Based on previous episode World Enough and Time, this description would suggest that Hazran and her charges are citizens of the time-slowed colony spaceship first seen in the penultimate episode, who come under attack when the Mondasian Cybermen begin converting the entire populace.

Samantha Spiro as Hazran in The Doctor Falls

Spiro’s character can actually be glimpsed in the trailer (above) for the finale fighting off the Cybermen with a gun, in scenes that she says were “really good fun” to film and that suggests not all the humans will be going quietly into their new Cyber-lives. Hooray!

Of course, for some fans Spiro’s character reveal will be a little less exciting than the idea that she’s an iconic Time Lord in disguise, but the actor says she has no hard feelings about the media speculation surrounding her role.

“It was after I'd already finished filming it so I knew I wasn't going to be the next Doctor,” she laughed.

“It's always fun when there's speculation like that, and because nobody knows who the next Doctor is at the moment, you let people run with these things – so it's all good fun!”

She added: “It was brilliant for someone like me who probably didn't think they'd be doing much more of this kind of stuff to be there with a gun shooting Cybermen – lovely!”

Doctor Who series 10 concludes on BBC1 this Saturday 1st July