The BBC will celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who with a 90-minute documentary focusing on the history of the show.
An Adventure in Space and Time will tell the story of the genesis of the BBC sci-fi show in the early 1960s.
“This is the story of how an unlikely set of brilliant people created a true television original,” said its writer Mark Gatiss.
The 90-minute drama will air on BBC Two next year.
Gatiss said the drama would also examine how actor William Hartnell – who played the first incarnation of the Doctor – moved from hard-man roles to become “a hero to millions of children”.
“I’ve wanted to tell this story this for more years than I can remember! To make it happen for Doctor Who‘s 50th birthday is quite simply a dream come true,” he said.
Steven Moffat, the current executive producer, said: “The story of Doctor Who is the story of television – so it’s fitting in the anniversary year that we make our most important journey back in time to see how the Tardis was launched.”
Further details about the production, including the casting, will be confirmed next year.
So unlike the so-called “Ultimate Guide To Doctor Who” which only covered the the new series this will actually cover the whole thing?
The film will be a drama, not a documentary, and it will not be a history of the whole show, but a dramatization of the birth of it. The BBC are very good at these types of show. They did brilliant ones about Steptoe & Son, and Coronation Street, both iconic British shows.