Karen's 'relief' about Doctor Who departure

Karen Gillan has expressed her 'massive relief' that it's public knowledge she's leaving Doctor Who.

The Scottish actress, who plays The Doctor's companion Amy Pond, tells The Graham Norton Show tonight: “I have known for ages that I am leaving and it’s such a massive relief that it is out and I can speak freely about it.

Karen continued: "I'm back next year for a few episodes, but it's not actually confirmed when I go."

Asked if she knows how she'll be written out, and whether Amy Pond could die, she said: “I don’t know - it could be possible.”

Karen is about to star in the BBC4 biopic about iconic 60s model Jean Shrimpton in We'll Take Manhattan. She said: "She (Shrimpton) gave her consent to having it made, but then didn’t want anything to do with it because she is quite reclusive. But she saw it and she really liked it and left a voicemail saying she thought it was really accurate. That was the best compliment I could have got.”

Asked whether playing Jean Shrimpton made her miss her own modelling days, Karen said: "It was an OK way to earn money because I had been working in a pub before that, but it’s not something I ever aspired to do in life. Some of the things I had to do were weird – for one job I had to wear a bucket on my head."