Russell T Davies says demise of BBC is ‘undoubtedly on its way’

Screenwriter said without help of Disney show would become ‘claustrophobic ghost stories’

Russell T Davies says the end of the BBC is “undoubtedly on its way”.

The Doctor Who showrunner, who oversaw the successful revival of the sci-fi series in the mid-2000s, warned that decline was already setting in and pointed to Disney’s involvement in the new series as evidence.

“You’ve got to look in the long term at the end of the BBC, which is undoubtedly on its way in some shape or form,” he said on theThey Like To Watch podcast.

“Is Doctor Who going to die then? No! You’ve got to prepare for that kind of stuff.”

With high-budget productions dominating the market, Davies believes that the BBC is no longer capable of keeping up on its own.

“If Disney collapsed tomorrow and we had to go back to making Doctor Who on a normal BBC budget, you know what? We’d all rally round and make it and suddenly the stories would become claustrophobic ghost stories,” he said.

However, he believes that Doctor Who needs to “be up there with the big hitters”.

Davies previously liked social media posts criticising the BBC’s release plan (Getty)

His remarks come just days after the producer liked posts complaining about the BBC’s release plan for the series.

On 15 March it was revealed that the sci-fi adventure will return for a new outing in May, which will be the first full run of episodes led by new Time Lord star Ncuti Gatwa.

However, the announcement was a bittersweet moment for fans as it was confirmed that new episodes of the series will debut at midnight on BBC iPlayer before airing in its usual time slot on a Saturday night.

The move came after the series struck a deal with Disney+, where new episodes will become available globally at the same time as the UK.