Doctor Who spin-off with Inside No. 9 star announced by Big Finish

Of course, this is not Shearsmith's first foray into the Whoniverse as the actor and writer has previously starred in season 9 episode Sleep No More as Gagan Rassmussen.

The episode saw Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor and Jenna Coleman's Clara Oswald take on Shearsmith's character, who was a space station crew member left orbiting Neptune in the 38th century.

Now, Shearsmith will be starring in this new audio series, which will also feature a classic Doctor Who body horror monster – the eponymous man-absorbing alien plant creature that was first seen on our screens in the 1976 Tom Baker story The Seeds of Doom.

In the new adventure, Shearsmith will play Robert Hodan, the governor of Sunlight, "a paradise planet infested by the Krynoid", according to the synopsis. It continues: "When two seed pods are discovered lodged in a satellite, things swiftly go from bad to worse..."

On the announcement of his role in the series, Shearsmith said: "I know a lot of actors on Big Finish’s roster – David Warner was a great friend, and he used to love doing them and would tell me about them: 'Why haven't you done one?'

"So I was thrilled to be asked to be in this. It’s a really huge drama, it feels a proper disaster movie of the 1970s, like The Poseidon Adventure – things just get worse and worse."

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As well as Shearsmith's governor, the characters for the new audio series include xenobiologist Bryn Forrester (Melody Chikakane Brown) and the impoverished Hart family comprised of Sarah Whitehouse, Ian Conningham, and Nye Occomore.

And there's also a special appearance in the second episode of the series, with Paul McGann (aka the Eighth Doctor) set to be included. The series will be made up of three episodes: Sunlight by Jonathan Morris, Sunset by Jonathan S Powell and Darkness by Chris Chapman.

On the announcement of the series, producer Jonathan S Powell said: "Planet Krynoid is Doctor Who’s answer to The Last of Us and The Walking Dead, a heart-stopping vision of society's collapse under the weight of one of television's most terrifying creations: the Krynoid.

"The Krynoids themselves are terrifying because they do that great sci-fi thing of inverting the ordinary and making you petrified of pot plants. More than that though, they're a sentient infection utterly antithetical to our existence, for which we are woefully unprepared, which makes them the perfect monster to explore today, half a century on from their debut.

"I adore The Seeds of Doom – not just for its B-movie brilliance, but for the creeping feeling it evokes that this time, for the first time, the Doctor really might lose. That's what we've tried to convey in this set, that the gloves are off and nobody is safe."

The Worlds of Doctor Who – Planet Krynoid: Nightfall is now available to pre-order at BigFinish.com and the box set is due for release in April 2025.

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