Former producer Phil Collinson will be joining Russell T Davies for the new Doctor Who series.
It’s like 2005 all over again! Hot on the heels of the announcement that former showrunners Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner are returning for the new Doctor Who series, it has also been announced that ex-producer Phil Collinson will be returning to the fold. Together with Davies and Gardner, Collinson was instrumental in bringing Doctor Who back in 2005, and oversaw the initial series with Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant.
Collinson left the show in 2008 to become the BBC’s head of drama in Manchester. Shortly after, he moved over to ITV to become the producer of the popular British soap opera Coronation Street – a role he held until 2012. During this period, he oversaw the soap’s 50th anniversary which included a celebratory live episode that drew over 14 million viewers – the show’s highest figures in seven years.
But the news that Collinson is returning for the new Doctor Who series is exciting for long-time fans of the show. His stint on Doctor Who is one of the most popular and fondly-regarded in the series’ history, not least for the introduction of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as his companion, which proved to be one of the most successful partnerships of all time.
Meanwhile, the identity of the Fourteenth Doctor remains tightly under wraps, although Davies did recently reveal to The Guardian that he has already written several episodes of the new Doctor Who series, the first of which is scheduled to go out on the programme’s 60th anniversary in November 2023. At the same time, Davies confirmed that he has yet to cast anyone in the titular role.
When it was suggested that Olly Alexander could be the next Doctor, Davies was emphatic. “Behave! Stop it!” he said. “We have genuinely not cast anyone yet. We’re just starting auditions.”
The new Doctor Who series will be co-produced by Bad Wolf and BBC Studios. Interestingly, the former was recently acquired by the tech giant Sony – but what this will mean for the long-term future of Doctor Who remains to be seen.
How do you feel about the return of Phil Collinson to the world of Doctor Who? And who would you most like to see at the controls of the TARDIS? Let me know in the comments below.
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