Russell T Davies admits Doctor Who has "handsome" budget

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 09 January 2023

Doctor Who boss Russell T Davies denies reports that the show has a £10m-an-episode budget but admits that it is "handsome".

Returning Doctor Who boss Russell T Davies has denied reports that the show now has a budget of around £10m an episode.

Filming is now underway on Ncuti Gatwa's first full series as The Doctor, which is due to air in early 2024 on BBC One in the UK and via Disney+ in the rest of the world.

The deal with Disney is understood to have provided significant extra investment for the show, as well as opening up the possibility of new spinoff series, with one report suggesting that the episodic budget for the main series had roughly tripled to around £10m.

Talking about the rumour in Doctor Who Magazine, Davies said: "That has been exaggerated. If that was the budget, I'd be speaking to you from my base on the moon.

"That is not the budget, and I worry that misinformation like that creates false expectation. Nonetheless, we have a lovely, handsome budget, and we're very happy with how we're proceeding with it."

Exec producer Jane Tranter added: "It's a really good budget for us. But we are not Game of Thrones. Or The Rings of Power."

Doctor Who will return this November for three special episodes with David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, with Gatwa assuming the role over Christmas 2023.

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