This series marks the arrival of Jodie Whittaker, the Thirteenth Doctor - a super-smart force of nature, alongside a team of new and delightful characters. This series is full of action and adventure, humour and thrills - an unmissable drama everyone will enjoy.

Alongside Jodie’s Thirteenth Doctor, is an all new cast with Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole.

Showrunner, Chris Chibnall, said: “Finally – Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor is about to crash land on to the nation’s screens. It’s thrilling to think, in the next few weeks and months, there will be children encountering Jodie’s Doctor in the next few weeks who’ve never seen the show before. She’ll be forever their Doctor: you never forget your first.

Alongside Jodie, we have a delightful ensemble of new characters for the audience to fall in love with, led by the incomparable Bradley Walsh.

So break out the popcorn and hunker down for Sunday night adventures in space and time, with the Thirteenth Doctor and her new best friends. The journey’s about to begin.”

Episode One - The Woman Who Fell To Earth

Action-adventure for all the family, starring Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill.

“We don’t get aliens in Sheffield.” In a South Yorkshire city, Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan and Graham O’Brien are about to have their lives changed forever, as a mysterious woman, unable to remember her own name, falls from the night sky. Can they believe a word she says? And can she help solve the strange events taking place across the city?

Guest starring Sharon D Clarke, Johnny Dixon and Samuel Oatley. Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Jamie Childs.

Episode Two - The Ghost Monument

Action-adventure for all the family, starring Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill.

Still reeling from their first encounter, can the Doctor and her new friends stay alive long enough, in a hostile alien environment , to solve the mystery of Desolation? And just who are Angstrom and Epzo?

Guest starring Shaun Dooley, Susan Lynch and Art Malik. Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Mark Tonderai.

Jodie Whittaker - The Doctor

Why should viewers tune in this series?

If you’ve never seen the show before this is a great season to start with. It doesn’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of Doctor Who to get into it.

The show has a very rich history of about 55 years. The wonderful thing about this is every time there’s new cast members, and new Doctors or new companions, the show is regenerated in a literal sense with the character. New energy is brought into it.

We wanted to make a series that was very inclusive because for people like me, we’re all very new Whovians as well. We’re introduced into this world as new fans will be on this season.

What do fans have to look forward to this series?

If you’re a fan of the show already, it’s got everything you expect. It’s got new monsters, it’s got fantastic new worlds. It’s also got worlds that we’re familiar with, but are maybe seen from different points of view. It honours everything that has gone before, but it then has a different burst of energy with all the new cast members. Doctor Who is for everyone and anyone.

What journey do the characters go on this series?

This season is ten stand­alone episodes so you have contained storylines within every episode. So you have a huge series character arc for many of the characters. But if you come in at episode five, you’ll get a stand-alone story which feels like a film, and which stands up amongst all the television that’s available to anyone now.

What themes do you think are important this series?

Friendship and loyalty and survival. All things that are very human, interlaced with things that are very far from human and familiar. It’s a very inclusive world.

When I watch TV and film I want to feel engrossed and excited, particularly in this world and genre. Doctor Who in itself is its own genre. I suppose you want it to feel like a roller coaster ride!

Chris Chibnall - Showrunner

Do viewers need to have seen Doctor Who before to enjoy this series?

Not at all. This series is the perfect stepping on point.

With the new Doctor you’ve got a new beginning, a new opportunity for people to join the show as viewers, for people who might have drifted away or haven’t seen the show for a few years, or 10 years or 20 years; it’s a great time to remind people of how amazing Doctor Who is and to have a restart. But also, it’s a great time for a new generation of children and families to start the habit of gathering around the television together to watch this funny, scary, extraordinary show!

It’s not a reboot it’s just that great, unique thing which is built into Doctor Who: a fresh start happens every few years. This is no different to when Tom Baker changed to Peter Davison, or when the show went from black and white to colour, with Patrick Troughton handing over to Jon Pertwee. The show has a history of renewal, while also staying faithful to what it is.

It’s the amazing thing about Doctor Who is this fresh start every few years which brings a whole new jolt of energy to the show. And hopefully encourages the next generation of audiences to try the show, while also reminding existing audiences why they love it.

Casting a new actor also brings in new opportunities to think about where the show is, think about where the world is, think about where you might want the stories to go. I hope we’ve got a fresh set of stories that are engaged with, and resonate with, the world we live in now.

What can viewers expect this series?

You can expect emotion, you can expect action and adventure and monsters and far ­off planets and huge alien vistas. You can expect a lot of humour, a lot of warmth and some great characters.

Four great new friends for you to meet as they go through past, present and future and meet some incredible people from history and go and battle on alien planets and fight threats closer to home.

It’s really a whole array of different stories. Ten individual stories that show off the range of the Thirteenth Doctor and her friends but also of the show as a whole. I hope you can expect everything you’ve ever loved about Doctor Who.

More than anything, it’s hopefully incredibly entertaining and I think this series has something for absolutely everyone. If you’ve seen Doctor Who before I hope we’re going to be giving you all the stuff you love. If you’ve never seen it before, this is the place to start and I think you’re in for a rollicking ride.

Bradley Walsh is Graham O’Brien

Have you enjoyed being part of this year’s ensemble cast?

I love being part of an ensemble. I love it. Jodie leads from the front and she’s fun and she’s upbeat and she keeps it all together – it’s great.

Working with Jodie, Mandip and Tosin and the different directors that are coming in, and this fantastic crew – that’s the thing I’m enjoying most about being on Doctor Who.

How do you think audiences will react to the Thirteenth Doctor?

I think they’re going to be excited by Jodie and I’ll tell you for why... Not only is she an exceptional actress, the energy she brings, because she’s still so young, the energy she brings is extraordinary. To keep up with her is hard work!

Describe the show in a sentence.

This new dawn for Doctor Who will be ground­ breaking and exciting and fantastic and unpredictable and beautiful and timeless.

I’m telling you now, this is going to be so brilliant. Jodie is fantastic! She works so hard and is so enthusiastic. She leads from the front and she’ll trailblaze for a lot of other shows. The new series of Doctor Who in a sentence is forward thinking, innovative, bold and brave.

The new series of Doctor Who returns on Sunday 7th October 2018.

On Monday 24th September Doctor Who will be coming to Sheffield for the Premiere of the brand new series.

At this unmissable red carpet event the attending cast will include Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole as well as new showrunner Chris Chibnall.

Bigger and bolder than ever, this series marks the arrival of Jodie Whittaker, the Thirteenth Doctor - a super-smart force of nature, alongside a team of new and delightful characters. The show will be full of action and adventure, humour and thrills. An unmissable high-end drama everyone will enjoy.

Ticket winners will be able to watch the live red carpet arrivals and have an opportunity to see the cast up close and personal.

For more details on how to apply, please click here. 

DOCTOR WHO TO LAND ON SUNDAY 7th OCTOBER 2018.

THE WOMAN WHO FELL TO EARTH.

The last time viewers saw the Doctor, she was falling from her TARDIS so it’s about time for the Doctor to land. This time it’s all change, as Doctor Who is moving to Sunday nights, launching on Sunday 7th October.

Never before in the show’s history has an entire series descended to earth on a Sunday. This year marks a brand new era with a new Showrunner, a new Doctor, new friends and a whole host of new monsters – so it’s only fitting that the new Time Lord will land in a new time zone on BBC One.

Chris Chibnall, Showrunner said “New Doctor, new home! Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor is about to burst into Sunday nights — and make the end of the weekend so much more exciting. Get everybody’s homework done, sort out your Monday clothes, then grab some special Sunday night popcorn, and settle down with all of the family for Sunday night adventures across space and time. (Also, move the sofa away from the wall so parents can hide behind it during the scary bits). The Thirteenth Doctor is falling from the sky and it’s going to be a blast.”

Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content said: “With Chris Chibnall at the helm and Jodie Whittaker’s arrival as the new Doctor we are heralding a brand new era for the show and so it feels only right to give it a new home on Sunday nights at the heart of BBC One’s Autumn schedule. ”

Showrunner Chris Chibnall has written the first episode of the brand new series which is titled “The Woman Who Fell to Earth”. With the Doctor on her way it’s only a matter of time before viewers can enjoy being transported out of this world this autumn.

We are sad to report that Production Designer Michael Pickwoad has died at the age of 73.

A highly respected, BAFTA-nominated Production Designer, Michael joined the Doctor Who team back in 2010, taking over from Edward Thomas and marking the first new Production Designer since ‘Rose’. Throughout his time on the show he worked across five series, eight Christmas Specials and the 50th Special; making 71 episodes in total. His unique artistic style was felt from his very first episode, the Dickens’ inspired Christmas Special: A Christmas Carol, all the way through Peter Capaldi’s final episode in 2017.

Steven Moffat, who worked with Michael during his time as Production Designer has said:

“The first time I met Michael Pickwoad properly, I laughed, and you probably would have too. We were both heading to Michael’s first Doctor Who tone meeting, and he’d arrived wearing a tweed jacket and a bow tie. “In costume, I see!” I said. He gave me a bemused smile (I’d get very used to that smile) and we went into a dull white room and discussed flying sharks and cryo-pods for the Doctor Who Christmas special. Some time during the meeting, it occurred to me that Michael hadn’t understood why I’d laughed, and the more I listened to him talking the clearer it became that he wasn’t in costume at all: I was dealing with a designer who dressed exactly like Doctor Who by accident. Clearly, this man was born for this show. I’ve never been more right.

It wasn’t just the outfit either. Never have I met a man with such fund of knowledge, about … well, everything. Literally everything. If there’s a university somewhere that confers degrees in Everything, then that’s the one Michael got. Every tone meeting, without exception, yet another nugget of learning would emerge. He was never showing off, of course, never parading his learning - just off-handedly mentioning another arcane branch of knowledge he happened to have mastered. Submarines! Roman Centurians! The interior stairs of large chimneys over history (no, really.) Once, during the Tone for The Magician’s Apprentice, he looked up from the script with that gentle frown which meant he had a question. It was the scene where Peter Capaldi’s Doctor rolled into a castle courtyard on a tank, playing an electric guitar. Now, you might think he was worried about creating an entire castle courtyard for what was, in all honesty, one gag, but no. His question was: “Are you sure you mean a Centurian tank? They’re the trickiest to drive.”

“How many lives has he led? I asked Brian Minchin, my co-exec, as we left the meeting.

I’m still learning from him this morning, as I type this. I looked up some old interviews with him, and found this gem: “A production designer should think like a director and behave like a producer.” Well that’s it exactly, of course - a typical piece of Pickwoad wisdom (I imagine his next sentence would have been about the correcting weighting of duelling pistols, or which sea has the most fish.) He had exquisite visual sense, of course, but like a director he always saw everything through the lens. It didn’t matter how it looked in the studio, it mattered how it looked on the screen. He nailed that every time. And yes, he behaved like a producer. Doctor Who never had the movie-scale budget it needed, and our secret weapon for hiding that was Michael Pickwoad. In no time flat, with next to no money, he gave us arctic vistas, Viking villages, the sheriff of Nottingham’s castle, any number of spaceships, the best submarine I’ve ever seen on screen and the finest ever version of the TARDIS control room. And through it all, he was kind, and courteous, and funny.

The only downside of great men, is that they make terrible losses, and we’ve lost Michael far too soon. He was a genius and a gentleman and we will all miss him. Looking back on all those mad, happy years, I think he was right to wear that tweed jacket and bow tie. More than that, he was entitled. If Doctor Who had been a designer, instead of a rebel Time Lord, she’d have been Michael Pickwoad.”

Doctor Who fans will remember Michael as the man who designed the Eleventh (and Twelfth!) Doctor’s TARDIS.

Doctor Who Showrunner, Chris Chibnall, has said:

“Everyone at Doctor Who is incredibly saddened to learn that Michael Pickwoad has died. His contribution to the show during Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi’s era was immense and varied, conjuring up distant galaxies and historical eras - as well as an iconic TARDIS interior - with equal brilliance. He was a beloved member of the Doctor Who team and we send our sympathy and love to his family.”

Before joining the Doctor Who team. Michael had a long and established career. He studied BSc Civil and Environmental Engineering, in 1967 at Southampton University, but subsequently decided to turn his attention to film design. His career on Doctor Who seemed destined as his father William Mervyn (Pickwoad), acted in Doctor Who (The War Machines) with William Hartnell, who played the first doctor.

His varied career includes classic British films such as Withnail & I, the Krays and shows including, Poirot, The Prisoner, Marple, Lost in Austen and more recently Russell T. Davies’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Doctor Who spin-off, Class.

Michael’s effect on the show will always be remembered and everyone from the Doctor Who family will miss him.

Showrunner Chris Chibnall introduces the team behind the new series launching this autumn on BBC One.

Chris says: “We have a team of writers who’ve been working quietly and secretly for a long time now, crafting characters, worlds and stories to excite and move you. A set of directors who stood those scripts up on their feet, bringing those ideas, visuals and emotions into existence with bravura and fun.

“Hailing from a range of backgrounds, tastes and styles, here’s what unites them: they are awesome people as well as brilliant at their job. (It matters!) They love Doctor Who. And they’ve all worked above and beyond the call of duty in an effort to bring audiences something special, later this year.”

Writers

Former Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman has written over 60 books for children and young adults including the Noughts and Crosses series of novels, and her book Pig-Heart Boy, which was adapted into a BAFTA-winning, six-part TV serial.

Malorie says: “I’ve always loved Doctor Who. Getting the chance to write for this series has definitely been a dream come true.”

Ed Hime was nominated for a Craft BAFTA for his first episode of Skins, and won the Prix Italia for his radio play The Incomplete Recorded Works of a Dead Body.

Ed says: “Writing for this series comes down to the adventure really, and telling emotionally engaging stories to bring everyone along with you.”

Playwright and screenwriter Vinay Patel’s television debut, Murdered By My Father, won the 2016 Royal Television Society Award for Best Single Drama and was nominated for three BAFTAs.

Vinay says: “I grew up watching shows like Star Trek and Quantum Leap on the edge of my dad’s bed, and I loved how they managed to capture the imagination of a kid like me as well as acting as a moral compass. I never imagined that I’d get to write for Doctor Who – I was pretty thrilled.”

Pete McTighe is the originating writer of Wentworth, the female prison drama that has sold to over 150 countries. He’s written over a hundred hours of TV drama and been nominated for five Writers Guild Awards.

Pete says: My entire television career has quite literally been an elaborate plan to get to write Doctor Who – and no one is more shocked than me that it paid off. I've been having the time of my life working with Chris, and writing for Jodie and the new team, and can't wait for everyone to see what we've been up to."

Joy Wilkinson has been selected as a Screen International Star of Tomorrow and has had two screenplays featured on the Brit List. Her TV scripts include the critically-acclaimed BBC five-parter The Life and Adventures of Nick Nickleby, while her theatre work has won prizes including the Verity Bargate Award.

Joy says: “I loved the show and felt like it might be a good fit for me, but I knew it was really hard to get onto. So quite frankly I’m still pinching myself to be here!”

Directors

Sallie Aprahamian has been directing television for over two decades with critically acclaimed shows including: Extremely Dangerous, The Sins, Real Men, The Lakes, Teachers and This Life.

Sallie’s memories of Doctor Who go right back to the 1960s, when William Hartnell created the role. She says: “I watched the First Doctor from behind the sofa through my fingers, frightened and exhilarated. I was really delighted, as a fan and as a director, to be invited to work on the first female Doctor’s series. What a brilliant time to be on the show!”

Jamie Childs, who directed Jodie Whittaker’s reveal as the Thirteenth Doctor, returns for the opening episode of the new series.

Jamie says Doctor Who represents an important part of our television landscape. “We tend to avoid making many shows in Britain that really allow the audience to properly escape, and Doctor Who has been doing this for decades. So yes, sign me up – I’ve always wanted to be part of that! There really aren’t many shows made over here that allow the viewer to travel to another universe.”

Jennifer Perrott wrote, directed, produced and executive produced her award-winning 35mm short film The Ravens. Since finishing Doctor Who she has been directing Gentleman Jack, a forthcoming BBC One/HBO historical drama series created by Sally Wainwright.

Jennifer says: “Doctor Who is an iconic show and one I’d loved as a child, especially when Tom Baker was the Doctor. Space travel has become more a part of modern life and this has opened the door for more human stories to be told amidst the escapist fantasy of saving the world from alien invasion. The aliens are now as emotionally complex as the humans, and I was really excited by that.”

Mark Tonderai went to school in Zimbabwe and architecture school in Kingston, before landing a job at the BBC as a trainee presenter. Mark has directed the full season of The Five, Impulse, Lucifer, Gotham, Black Lightning, George RR Martin’s Nightflyers and Jennifer Lawrence thriller House at the End of the Street.

Mark says: “What was really crucial in my decision to direct the show was Chris Chibnall. I’m a huge fan of his and I like the way he sees the world. He has this ability to entertain and also deliver truths – questions, too – about who we are. And he does it all with a hint of a smile.”

The new series of Doctor Who begins on BBC One this autumn, made by BBC Studios in Wales.