Doctor Who star Mandip Gill is immensely proud to have helped teach young fans more about world history with one of her episodes.

Gill's character Yasmin Khan was central to series 11's 'Demons of the Punjab', where she traveled back to visit her grandmother during the conflict over the partition of India.

In Digital Spy's recent interview with the Doctor Who cast, Gill spoke about how the story hit home for her own family.

BBC

"I think being a part of – I didn't write it, obviously, but 'Demons of the Punjab'. To put something like that on mainstream televisions, in a sci-fi genre, is quite a big deal," she told us. "Because obviously my family watch it. We haven't seen anything like that.

"We read about it. We know about our history. But we didn't see about that. And just to see the effects of that episode, like Rosa Parks, and the effect it had on other people who didn't know about certain things like that – I saw the reaction because of Twitter.

"And it just felt like, 'Oh, I was part of that. I was part of a really iconic episode that also looked beautiful'."

BBC

Her co-stars Tosin Cole and Jodie Whittaker agreed that episodes like 'Demons of the Punjab' and 'Rosa' harken back to Doctor Who's original remit in the '60s for educating its viewers.

"Just being part of the show, man, and being able to be a part of something of such history and, you know, with a great team as well," Cole said. "And doing that, and being able to entertain people, and educate people, and to make people feel they're a part of something. So, yeah, just being a part of the show."

BBC

Whittaker added: "I think as well from knowing that there are so many platforms that people can access this show on now – so it comes with new Whovians.

"And to know that for some little kids out there, or big kids out there, that we're potentially their first – and everybody's got their first, and we could be theirs. I think if this was their way into this kind of amazing history and amazing box-set after box-set after box-set after box-set to catch-up on, then that's really incredible as well."

Doctor Who returns on New Year's Day on BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the US.

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