The man who revived Doctor Who for the BBC has created a spin-off show for children featuring the timelord's companion Sarah Jane Smith.

Russell T Davies, whose incarnation of the classic series has been near-universally hailed, has now written The Sarah Jane Adventures for CBBC.

Filming for the show, whose announcement follows the adult spin-off Torchwood, starts next month in Wales and it is set to hit screens early next year with an hour-long special.

Elisabeth Sladen played Sarah Jane, an investigative journalist, in the 1970s programmes, and is set to return to the show. "I left Sarah Jane but she never left me," said Sladen, welcoming the news. "I can't wait to return to Cardiff to find out what's going to happen to her next."

Davies said he had enjoyed working on the new production. "Children's TV has a fine history of fantasy thrillers - I loved them as a kid, and they were the very first things I ever wrote," he commented. "So it's brilliant to return to such a vivid and imaginative area of television."