Gents 'plan to regenerate Dr Who'

The League of Gentlemen are reportedly planning to bring Dr Who back to TV screens.

Mark Gatiss, pictured, is said to be playing the Doctor, with Mark Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith expected to play villains.

Reports say that they, and co-writer Jeremy Dyson, have completed scripts and are now in discussions with the BBC.

Gatiss is a lifelong fan of the show, which will be 40 years old this year, and has previously written Dr Who stories. Only last month he hosted a Radio 4 tribute, My Life As A Dalek.

Today's story, in the Sunday Mirror, is the latest of several rumours about the show's return that regularly surface.

The BBC stopped making the show 14 years ago, when Sylvester McCoy was the Time Lord, although there was a one-off TV movie in 1996 starring Paul McGann.

But the fans' dedication to the defunct show is legendary, spawning the joke: "How many Doctor Who fans does it take to change a lightbulb? None, they just sit around and wait for it to come back on."

Published: 16 Mar 2003