Doctor Who star in new thriller

Karen Gillan has already appeared in Doctor Who

BBC News
Doctor Who's latest assistant Karen Gillan will be seen in a new thriller set in Edinburgh and due for release in June.

She has the role in New Town Killers, starring fellow Scots Dougray Scott and Alastair Mackenzie.

The 21-year-old will appear alongside new Doctor Who Matt Smith in the new series, to be broadcast next year.

Gillan has already appeared in the drama, having played a Soothsayer in The Fires Of Pompeii in the last run.

News of her high-profile role in the show had notched almost 300,000 page views three hours after the story appeared on the BBC's online Entertainment section.

Gillan, from Inverness, learnt her trade at the Italia Conti drama school in London and landed her first role in the Scottish drama Rebus.

Parts in Channel 4's Stacked, The Kevin Bishop Show and James Nesbitt's forthcoming film Outcast followed, but the role in Doctor Who is her first high-profile role to date.

Horror film

In New Town Killers, a teenager from a housing estate agrees to play a sinister chase game dreamt up by two private bankers, to help his debt-ridden sister.

Gillan plays the role of Young Girl in Bus Station.

The film was given a screening at February's Glasgow Film Festival.

Fife-born Scott has previously appeared in Mission: Impossible II and US series Desperate Housewives, while Mackenzie, from Perthshire, is best known for appearing in Monarch of the Glen.

Outcast is a horror film also set in the Scottish capital.