No full series for Doctor Who in 2012
Tuesday, 14 June 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
BBC1 Controller Danny Cohen today revealed that, after much speculation generated since the Private Eye article and subsequent BBC announcements last week, Doctor Who will indeed be returning in a curtailed form during 2012.Speaking at the Church and Media Conference this afternoon, he answered a number of questions relating to Doctor Who and Sherlock:
The tricky thing to explain to your kids - who I'm very glad are fans of it - is that the same man who writes Doctor Who also writes Sherlock, and there's only so many hours a day he can be awake. We're very keen that Sherlock comes back too, and it will be back as another three parts next year, so he needs enough time to get that done and then start work on the next series of Doctor Who.
There will be some episodes but there won't be a full series, so we won't have a thirteen part run ... but you know the man has to sleep, he's got a family! That's the genuine reason, it's about Steven Moffat - who's the creative drive force behind Doctor Who at the moment and he also rather magically at the same time created and got to air Sherlock - we have to get that balance right. There will be episodes, but there won't be as many, and there'll be more episodes again in 2013 - which I think is the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, so that's a big year.
It's a very special programme, it's one of the programmes that we feel is so special that we plan for on Christmas Day.
You can listen to the whole of Danny Cohen's presentation via the Church and Media website - the Doctor Who related comments occur at 49:10, 56:30.
There will be some episodes but there won't be a full series, so we won't have a thirteen part run ... but you know the man has to sleep, he's got a family! That's the genuine reason, it's about Steven Moffat - who's the creative drive force behind Doctor Who at the moment and he also rather magically at the same time created and got to air Sherlock - we have to get that balance right. There will be episodes, but there won't be as many, and there'll be more episodes again in 2013 - which I think is the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, so that's a big year.
It's a very special programme, it's one of the programmes that we feel is so special that we plan for on Christmas Day.
You can listen to the whole of Danny Cohen's presentation via the Church and Media website - the Doctor Who related comments occur at 49:10, 56:30.
The BBC's Entertainment Correspondent Lizo Mzimba later confirmed the comments in the evening, but added that the BBC had said those made by Cohen on the decision being made to enable head writer Steven Moffat more time to write his other hit series Sherlock were light-hearted and not meant to be taken seriously.
No other details are known on how many episodes will comprise the 2012 run at present; Sam Hodges, who confirmed the commissioning last week, re-iterated: "situation stays the same - 14 episodes commissioned, starting in 2012. How they will play out will be revealed at a later date.
Later, commenting on the various media stories circulating over Cohen's announcement, Steven Moffat said: "Dr Who: misquotes and misunderstandings. But I'm not being bounced into announcing the cool stuff before we're ready. Hush, and patience."
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