Davies: 'Dr Who will be on air for 20 years'

Doctor Who's executive producer Russell T Davies believes that the science fiction show can run for at least twenty more years, if handled correctly by the BBC.

Speaking to SFX magazine, Davies said: "Doctor Who is now one of the BBC's biggest flagship shows and this sort of pattern will guarantee it being on air for twenty years. It's no good looking at that American pattern of making seven years if you're lucky - that's just not going to work. Who wants it to die after seven years? It's much bigger than that."

Davies subsequently explained why four specials in 2009, with no fifth series until the following year, is a key part of securing the show's longevity: "It needs looking after, in the sense that it needs pauses, it needs its legend revamping every so often. If you build these pauses in now and say this will always happen, that's part of the plan now - it's literally a twenty year plan, which can't be guaranteed, because different people will be in charge in years to come - but if you present them with something rock solid, that is working, and has a unique transmission pattern that shouldn't be interfered with, then it will stay."

> Click here for our look at the scheduling of Doctor Who over the years