The BBC has confirmed that Doctor Who will return with a new season on 12 April after a surprise announcement that appeared on the broadcaster’s iPlayer service on Friday.
Sex Education actor, Ncuti Gatwa made his debut as the Time Lord in December 2023. The new season will also star Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday.
Also joining the cast is Strictly Come Dancing star Rose Ayling-Ellis, who won the BBC dancing competition as the show’s first ever deaf contestant in 2021.
Russell T Davies – who rebooted the cult series back in 2005 – returned to write and executive produce the new seasons, which marked the first time Doctor Who was aired internationally on Disney Plus and on the BBC in the UK.
Gatwa’s second season as the Doctor was expected to air later this year but it appears that the announcement has taken fans by surprise after the news was revealed during the BBC’s coverage of the U20s Six Nations Rugby match between England and Scotland.
A trailer had been previously released at Christmas but the new clip now confirms the show will air on the BBC on Saturday 12 April.
The manner of the announcement has raised some eyebrows among fans, especially as the rugby game in question wasn’t considered to be a high-profile encounter.
TV journalist Scott Bryan said: “Quite a random place to drop such a big announcement.”
“I find it hilarious that it was a totally unrelated rugby match that announced the release date of the next season and not, you know, the BBC itself, any of Doctor Who’s social media pages, the Doctor himself, or even the showrunner. No, a trailer in a random rugby match,” another fan wrote.
A third person said: “The way zero fans saw this because in what world do rugby and Doctor Who fans overlap.”
It comes after it was announced that fan favourites, Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper will be reuniting for a new Doctor Who audio drama series
“Back to the Powell Estate, where the Doctor’s past returns to haunt him, and out into the universe where enemies old and new are waiting,” reads a synopsis for Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures, out later this year. The show will be made up of 12 hour-long episodes and is the fourth season of the audio drama.
