The next season of Only Murders In The Building is turning into a Doctor Who reunion

Although “reunion” may not exactly be the right word here: Sure, David Tennant, Jodie Whitaker, and Peter Capaldi all starred on the same show over the span of several years, but it’s not like they were ever even on screen at the same time. (Give or take a second of transition as Capaldi handed the show off to Whitaker back in 2017, who then handed it back to Tennant five years later.) Nevertheless, all three former Doctors will be on call for the new season of Only Murders, which will reportedly take place mostly in London, as the show’s lead trio investigates their latest frenemy to suffer an untimely death.

Given that OMITB has never been averse to a bit of meta comedy, we have to assume that the casting of three Doctor Who stars won’t go unremarked upon by Mabel, Oliver, and Charles. (Less likely: Whitaker and Tennant acknowledging their own criminal investigation history via Broadchurch, which is probably a bit too “Humanity is a broken animal given to untold cruelty” for the show that keeps finding ways to work in Paul Rudd cameos years after his character’s death.) 

On the other hand, it’s possible that the casting directors at the series didn’t even notice the coincidence, since they appear to have called literally every famous British person in their contacts list and asked them to show up in this new season: The guest cast list for OMITB season six includes Nicola Coughlan, Richard Ayoade, Adrian Lukis, Kathryn Hunter, Jennifer Saunders, Sean Teale, Simone Ashley, Amar Chadha-Patel, Rhea Norwood, Matthew Beard, Sharon Horgan, Martin Freeman, Geri Halliwell-Horner, Jamie Demetriou, Anjana Vasan, Jane Horrocks, Derek Jacobi—who had his own short-lived history with Doctor Who—and Lesley Nicol. The season began filming back in May, with no release date yet scheduled.