Doctor Who Casts The Teletubbies' Po Star In The Most Charming Role
Rachelle Beinart is a staple talent in the BBC's acting pool. Best known for starring as Po in the 2015 reboot of "Teletubbies," the stunt woman and puppeteer has now added another iconic television property to her resume — "Doctor Who." In the 2023 Christmas special entitled "The Church on Ruby Road," Beinart portrays a goblin. The goblins that appear in the episode aren't what fans of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings might consider typical for the race, but rather are a time-traveling band of tiny pirates that create and feast upon bad luck. Yes, they eat people, but they're surprisingly cute for carnivorous ankle-biters.
More charming still is how the goblins share a noticeable resemblance to the Teletubbies — a connection that goes deeper than Beinart's inclusion. Both alien races feature bulbous heads with vacuous black eyes and pointed ears, and neither displays their onscreen talent as human-sized. In "Teletubbies," the costumes worn by the main cast transform them into these giant mascot monsters, although it's nearly impossible to tell from a viewer's standpoint. In "Doctor Who," the goblins are primarily created with makeup and fabric, but their heads seem to be prosthetic and similar in size to the mascot heads worn by the "Teletubbies" cast.
Being an alien is wildly uncomfortable
The BBC published a TikTok with Rachelle Beinhart dressed to the nines in her goblin costume. During the video interview, she admitted to another connection between her work on "Doctor Who" and her work on "Teletubbies," although not directly. After noting that her prosthetic makeup took approximately four hours to apply, the interviewer asked her if she was uncomfortable. She was, but Beinart answered the question with grace. "We can't take this off all day, so it is quite compressing," she said. "But it's not the worst I've had. It'll be nice to remove it for lunch, but it's not the end of the world."
One of the many dark "Teletubbies" facts that may crush your childhood is that those costumes are deceptively heavy and warm. In 2021, actor John Simmit told the Huffington Post that being inside a Teletubby costume was like drowning in one's own sweat. "We had to wear really ugly underwear like those old Western long johns, which was essentially a onesie, but it was so it could absorb the sweat," he said. "When we were out of costume, you'd have to turn your face the other way and speak to us at a distance because we were reeking and so sweaty you could wring us out."
Beinart didn't mention "Teletubbies" by name when she said that she'd had it worse, but she didn't need to. And if she can handle years of an alien sauna suit, then a few days trapped inside a goblin head must seem like a walk in the park.