Rigsy

Rigsy was a graffiti artist from Bristol. His criminal activity saw him sentenced to community service. He helped Clara Oswald fight the Boneless. Rigsy's aunt was one of many people in Bristol who had been experimented upon by the Boneless. Rigsy attempted to sacrifice himself by ramming an empty subway commuter train into them. The train needed a person to hold the dead man's lever in place in order to run. Clara, however, used a headband to restrain the lever allowing the train to run with nobody inside and saved Rigsy from an unnecessary demise. Rigsy later used his artistic skills to create a fake door, tricking the Boneless into charging the TARDIS. Later, he bid farewell to the Doctor and Clara, going off to see his gran. (TV: Flatline)

Clara gave him the TARDIS phone number to use for emergencies. Rigsy later moved to central London, where he lived with Jen and had a child called Lucy. He used the TARDIS telephone number to call Clara, telling her that a tattoo had appeared on his back and was counting down. On the trail of the person who placed the tattoo on Rigsy's neck, the Doctor started a search for a "trap street", a hidden street harbouring alien refugees in the heart of London. During the search, the Doctor, who often referred to Rigsy by dismissive nicknames such as "Local Knowledge", actually allowed him to take control of the TARDIS for a short time.

The trio eventually found the street, and the community's mayor, Ashildr, who had been forced to place the tattoo on Rigsy's neck as punishment for murder that he didn't remember committing.

The tattoo was a chronolock, a countdown to Rigsy's death by Quantum Shade, a powerful creature that had taken the form of a raven that Ashildr used to keep order. Anyone who broke the rules of the secret trap street would be forced to face the raven.

Whilst the Doctor set about proving Rigsy's innocence, Clara, moved by the thought that Rigsy's new baby Lucy might grow up without a father, offered to take the chronolock from him as a means of insuring no one would die should their hunt for the killer fail. To Rigsy's horror, although the "murder" was proved to be an elaborate trap laid by Ashildr for the Doctor, there was no way to cheat the death promised to the raven and Clara had to die. With the Doctor teleported away, it was left to Rigsy to commemorate Clara's death by painting a mural in her memory on the side of the forgotten TARDIS. (TV: Face the Raven)

Behind the scenes

 * The shooting script for Face the Raven reveals that Rigsy's full name is Christopher Riggins. It also includes a cut scene wherein the Doctor tasks Rigsy with taking Clara's body back to her family and informing Coal Hill School of her death. If these scenes were shot, they have never been released. The Series 9 DVD set does include a further deleted scene in which Rigsy has an emotional reunion with his wife after Clara's death.