ANS11 Character Notes

A vegetarian computer science student from North London, with a thing for peanut butter. He studied at the University of York from 1997, and has undergone a series of regenerations over the course of the series on account of being a Time Lord. He was involved in the Toshist coup and was last seen (in the form of Colin Baker) exiting the Chockablock reality at the end of Ep10. The John Heffernan face is new.

ALEX JEFFERSON (Aiden Turner)

Previously played by Vincent Perez, Alex was a moody, French-Canadian astrophysics student at the University of York from 1997. In Ep0 he had a girlfriend, MIDGE, who burnt his toes for him at night, and he has had a longstanding disagreement with Death over the ownership of a scythe. After losing Midge to a Starship crew, Alex had an on-off relationship with ALANA until she disappeared from reality and memory. After being killed in Ep7, Alex ended up in Hell. He received serious lacerations to the stomach in Ep9 which were aggravated in BS 6 when he was caught in the crossfire while serving as God's driver on the day God was assassinated. Alex's wounds were treated by John Barrett (aka SIDDOR) in Ep10, and Alex was instrumental in bringing about a fateful coup in the Afterlife. He was last seen exiting the Chockablock reality at the end of Ep10.

STEW JESTER (Ewan McGregor)

A hairy, nocturnal philosophy student from Sheffield, who studied at the University of York from 1997, and had something of a Jesus complex. He's died three times, but has a habit of coming back. His last death was at the hands of BABYSHAM in Ep10, as part of an elaborate coup, before an earlier, Biblical Stew was brought in to assist said coup. This Stew was last seen at the end of Ep10, exiting the Chockablock reality.

BABYSHAM (Guy Pearce)

A Nottingham-born computer science student at the University of York from 1997. He's also a (sometimes deranged) cyborg, running the Windows operating system. In Ep1 he killed the hierarchy of MI7, as well as some treasure hunters, before hosting a game of "Fifteen to One". In Ep2 he was working in Heaven, and in Ep7 he found hismelf in Hell. There he had his own spin-off series, working as a detective, and got caught up in at least one plot to overthrow God. Divided in two by the Stargate, one version of himself was lost in a diversion while the other was last seen exiting the Chockablock reality.

KAT

A 2nd year student at the University of York in 2015/6. She comes from somewhere between Liverpool and Manchester, and lives in a shared house on Heslington Road, in the room previously occupied by STEW (and briefly SALLY) 16 years earlier. This is her first appearance in ANS.

BEENA (Amjili Mohindra)

A 2nd year student at the University of York in 2015/6. She comes from somewhere in the Midlands, and lives in a shared house on Heslington Road, in the room previously occupied by JIM 16 years earlier. This is her first appearance in ANS.

MILLS

A 2nd year student at the University of York in 2015/6. She comes from somewhere to the south west of Edinburgh, and lives in a shared house on Heslington Road, in the room previously occupied by ALEX 16 years earlier. This is her first appearance in ANS.

TING-YING (Jing Lusi)

A 2nd year student at the University of York in 2015/6. She comes from somewhere in China, and lives in a shared house on Heslington Road, in the room previously occupied by LEON (or was it BABYSHAM?) 16 years earlier. This is her first appearance in ANS.

HELEN (Rachel Friend)
Worked under MARTY at the police station in Hell during the BABYSHAM spin-off series.

ALAN QUINN (Paddy Considine)

A bespectacled philosophy student from Carlisle who studied at the University of York from 1997. He was employed by MI7 and killed by BABYSHAM in Ep1, only to be killed again at SIDDOR's hand in Ep7. He ended up in Hell, where, due to a latent streak of Christianity, he had a fairly rough time. In Ep8, he persuaded MI7 to mount a rescue bid for him, but their audacious plan ended up in the destruction of the Earth. Fortunately, by opening the Stargate, they were able to correct things, and Alan spent a time as a lawyer in Hell, helping out Babysham. In Ep10 he led MI7's failed attempt at revolution in the Afterlife. He was last seen exiting the Chockablock reality at the end of that episode. Of course, in those days he looked like Hugh Hopper.

KAREN (Helen Atkinson-Wood)

A Luxembourgian secret agent and the most senior known member of a group called MI7. Most of her previous appearances have been somewhat enigmatic, and usually include the words "Hello. Hello? Are you there? Hello?".

CAM (Simon Amstell)

A student at the University of York in 2015/6. He lives in the room previously occupied by LEON 18 years earlier. This is his first appearance in ANS.

BARNIE (Pam Ferris)
A cleaning lady at the University of York who was found dead on one of the corridors in 1998, perhaps at the hands of ANT, perhaps at the hands of LEON, perhaps at the hands of someone else. In Hell she rented out a ramshackled office property to BABYSHAM.

MARTY (Neil Dudgeon), SPILLAINE (Darrell D'Silva) and MADISON (Stephen Billington)

Three members of Hell's police force in the BABYSHAM spin-off series. Marty has some new crew this time around, in the form of: O'DELL (Orla Brady) and PACKER (Lennie James).

LEON PROTZNEDVIC (Matthew Baynton)

A bespectacled Yugoslavian music student at the University of York from 1997, though some speculated that he was actually training to be an assassin. In fact he was an alien observer from a planet called Gleceon 7: a planet populated entirely by Leons, after an ordinary postman - turned order-guarding Postman of the Apocalypse - turned assassin, got caught in a cloning machine. In Ep7, one of the Leons killed SIDDOR. That Leon later died and ended up running a bookshop in Heaven with STEW. In BS 6 this Leon assassinated God, and played a major role during the revolutionary activities of Ep10. However, he was absent for God's funeral and the escape from Chockablock at the close of that episode, choosing instead to take advantage of the last moments of the Stargate in order to travel back in time and seemingly destroy an infant version of himself. In previous encounters he's looked like Jean Reno.

CAROL LEADER (herself)
Presenter of Play School. This is her first appearance in ANS.

SALLY ANNE YORKE (Deborah McAndrew)

STEW's half or step sister (the exact relationship is no longer clear), and the daughter of the same God that was assassinated by LEON in BS 6. After one of STEW's brief deaths, SALLY lived with the other students on Heslington Road, before being killed in the fight against SIDDOR in Ep7. Sally and her husband, Zed, were seeingly destroyed beyond recovery in a Tardis materialisation accident in Hell in Ep9.

PEGS (Ben Whishaw), BEN (Andrew Garfield) and POLLY (Carey Mulligan)

Three students at the University of York in 1984. They live on the same corridor that everyone else seems to live on later. This is their first appearance in ANS.

SIDDOR aka Jack Barrett / John Pendlebury (Mark Curry)

A high-ranking member of MI7, he was seemingly driven insane by his desire for the Crystal of Enderon, and ended up being killed by BABYSHAM. He's subsequently been killed again by Fred Harris and LEON. In Ep5 we learnt that Siddor (formerly Jack Barrett (and also later John Pendlebury)) was JIM's father, and in Ep10, it transpired that his desire for the Crystal of Enderon was in the interests of the Toshist conspiracy and our heroes' ultimate escape from the Chockablock reality.

CHRIS (Alan Carr), TOMY (James Corden) and MIDGE (Laura Solon)
Three more students from the 1997 cohort who crop up now and again, previously played by Christian Slater, Robbie Coltraine and Mel Giedroyc respectively.

JEMIMAH (Janet Ellis)
Assistant at MI7 in the late '90s.

TRIX (Colin Morgan), BRIAN (Andrew O'Neill), TONE (Shazad Latif), EM (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and MARK (Jacob Anderson)

Presumably all students and members of the DocSoc (Doctor Who Society) at the University of York in 2015. This is their first appearance in ANS...

ANT WALDEN (Ben Kingsley)

A computer science student from North London who studied at the University of York from 1997. He was a high-ranking member of MI7 and has a habit of turning up at frequent intervals, often in a mask, to enact some usually rather unpleasant and unorthodox scheme (including the two attempts to rescue ALAN from Hell).

ELIXIR aka ALANA COX (Shirley Manson)
Alana was an old friend of ALEX who joined the students on their journey through Heaven, only to disappear under mysterious circumstances during a retune of the television dimension. She cropped up again as Alex's girlfriend in Hell in Ep7, by which point the two of them had gone increasingly weird, but she disappeared again in Ep9, with only STEW having any recollection of her existence.

MORTEN HARKET (himself)
The lead singer from A-ha has a tendency to appear whenever someone says "aha!".

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