The CEO of World Productions, production team on a number of high-profile dramas like Line of Duty and Karen Pirie, has confirmed that there are people in the company who are interested in bidding for Doctor Who when it goes out to tender.

Simon Heath, CEO and creative director of World Productions, enthused:

“There’s definitely people in my team who are really interested in it, but I imagine there’ll be lots of companies interested. It’s a discussion point, isn’t it? I grew up on it and then my my kids were brought up on the new iteration. But it’s a show that has its challenges, so you have to think very carefully.

“I think you have to go into it knowing you’ve got a plan. I think I know what I would do with it, but whether that means anyone would listen, I don’t know.”

But does that mean World Productions would in fact bid to make Doctor Who? Heath isn’t sure, as he explains:

“We may go for it, we may not. It’s not decided yet. The process hasn’t been outlined yet, to see what we’d have to go through. You want to take a look at that really before you make any decision.”

It is a tad infuriating that there’s a lot of coverage around Doctor Who right now, but the BBC hasn’t actually put it out to tender yet; we’ve been assured that it will happen at some point this year, but you have to wonder what’s taking so long.

Many parties have expressed an interest publicly, so presumably there are even more behind the scenes wanting to take it on.

Something has to be happening at the BBC that we don’t know about — that’s understandable and fair enough, but it does still make us a bit itchy. The longer we wait for the tender process to be announced, the longer we wait for Doctor Who to come back to TV…