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Back on Tardis duty, writer who revived Doctor Who

By Eleanor Sharples TV & Radio Correspondent

HE WAS behind the big revival in 2005. And now award-winning screenwriter Russell T Davies is returning to Doctor Who as the show’s supremo.

Davies, who left the sci-fi drama in 200 , will replace Chris Chibnall next autumn – at the same time as Jodie Whittaker, pictured, leaves her role as the 13th Doctor.

The Welsh screenwriter, 58, will make his return to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who in 2023. He will hope to improve its dismal viewing figures, which in March last year slumped to its lowest ratings since it was revived. Davies’s credits include A Very English Scandal, and Years And Years. His most recent drama, It’s A Sin, on Channel 4, explores the HIV/Aids crisis in the 1 80s. Davies said: ‘I’m beyond excited to be back on my favourite show. But we’re time-travelling too fast, there’s a whole series of Jodie Whittaker’s brilliant Doctor for me to enjoy, with my friend and hero Chris Chibnall at the helm, I’m still a viewer for now.’

Miss Whittaker will make her final appearances in a trio of specials next year, the last of which will see the Doctor regenerate.

One of Davies’s first responsibilities as showrunner will be choosing her successor. Chibnall took over from Steven Moffat in 2017 and was responsible for casting Miss Whittaker, 3 . He said: ‘It’s monumentally exciting and fitting that Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary will see one of Britain’s screenwriting diamonds return home.

‘Russell built the baton that is about to be handed back to him – Doctor Who, the BBC, the screen industry in Wales, and, let’s be honest, everyone in the whole world, have so many reasons to be very excited indeed about what lies ahead.’

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2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

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