Pete McTighe has addressed rumours that he’ll become the new Doctor Who showrunner after Russell T Davies steps away from the show.

Speaking at the Gallifrey One convention, McTighe was asked whether he’d take on the role. He replied:

“It’s not for me to say. It’s not my decision. I will give you my party line, which is that position is not vacant. Russell is the showrunner and he’s a friend of mine and whenever he calls, I will come running but he’s the showrunner and I’m fine with that.”

Of course, there’s a lot of speculation that, yes, Russell is the showrunner at the moment, but won’t be for too long: rumour has it that he’ll step down after the next episode, due to air at Christmas 2026.

McTighe wrote Lucky Day under Davies’ reign, as well as episodes of the spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea, and he goes on to say:

“At the stage where I am, I had been creating my own shows for a while, and I kind of want to do that. So I’m not really a writer for hire any more. I don’t go in to do other shows. Not because I wouldn’t because I’m too snobbish for it but purely because there’s a limited amount of time I have and I need to concentrate on my own shows. But one exception to that rule is Doctor Who. When Russell said ‘I want you back’, I was like, ‘Yes. Absolutely. I’ll be there.’ So, yeah, Doctor Who is the only exception.”

That does sound a bit like McTighe wouldn’t want to be tied up in a show that he hasn’t created… but if there’s something that could tempt him, it’s Doctor Who. And that’s much the same as Davies and other showrunners, Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall.

Pete McTighe made his Who debut with Kerblam! before scripting Praxeus, both for Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor, but he also wrote for The Collection Blu-ray sets, which fans absolutely loved. So he certainly knows the sort of thing we all want!

So his answer isn’t a yes or no — meaning we’ll just have to wait and see…