WHO WANTS DOCTOR WHO: British TV's Heavyweights Enter the Fray

The deadline for Doctor Who production bids has passed, and we're finally getting some names. Not just the usual speculation about who might fancy a crack at the TARDIS, but actual production companies reportedly putting proposals in front of the BBC. And the list is rather more interesting than expected.

Deadline reports that Hat Trick Mercurio, World Productions and STV Studios are among the companies bidding to produce the next era of the series, while two separate BBC Studios labels are also expected to be in contention. It's not necessarily the complete list, but it gives us our first proper look at the competition.

Perhaps the most recognizable name is Jed Mercurio, the writer behind Line of Duty, Bodyguard and the medical dramas Cardiac Arrest and Bodies. He's involved through Hat Trick Mercurio, the production company he established with Jimmy Mulville, whose original Hat Trick Productions is responsible for programmes including Have I Got News for You, Father Ted and Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Hat Trick Mercurio itself has produced dramas including Bloodlands, starring James Nesbitt, and DI Ray, starring Parminder Nagra. Mercurio also has a history with science fiction, having created the BBC's 1998 alien invasion drama Invasion: Earth. So while his name is more readily associated with corrupt police officers and government conspiracies, he's hardly a stranger to the genre.

Mercurio is reportedly attached to the proposal as an executive producer. That doesn't make him the next Doctor Who showrunner, despite how quickly that assumption has spread. There is, at present, no confirmed new showrunner attached to the series.

Then there's World Productions, another company with Line of Duty on its CV. Unlike Hat Trick Mercurio, World actually produced the series, along with dramas such as Vigil, Karen Pirie, Showtrial, Malpractice and The Bombing of Pan Am 103. The company is part of ITV Studios and is reportedly leading the wider group's bid for Doctor Who.

World's CEO and creative director, Simon Heath, had already expressed an interest in the programme before the tender deadline. Speaking to Radio Times at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Heath acknowledged that Doctor Who comes with its own challenges and that any company taking it on would need a proper plan.

He also admitted he had some ideas of his own, although understandably declined to explain them before the bidding process had even begun.

Now, according to Deadline, World has submitted a proposal. What that proposal contains remains unknown, but it would bring the resources of ITV Studios and the experience of a company responsible for some of Britain's most successful contemporary dramas.

STV Studios is another contender, and its bid may be the most disruptive of the lot.

The Scottish production group has been behind programmes including Blue Lights, the Belfast-set police drama that became a substantial BBC success, and the Apple TV+ thriller Criminal Record, starring Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo.

STV Studios is reportedly working with Screen Scotland on a proposal that would move Doctor Who production to Scotland for its next season.

That's quite a proposition for a programme which has been based in Wales since its revival in 2005.

For more than twenty years, Cardiff has been the production centre of modern Doctor Who, with Welsh studios, locations and crews helping bring the series to life. The programme has become a significant part of the country's television industry, so relocating it would have consequences well beyond a different backdrop for the next alien invasion.

The BBC's tender requires production outside London and expresses a preference for Wales, although it doesn't rule out other locations. STV's proposal would therefore represent a genuine departure from the established production arrangement, rather than simply another company taking over the same operation.

BBC Studios is also expected to be involved, reportedly through two separate in-house labels, although their identities haven't been confirmed.

That's worth distinguishing from the BBC itself. The broadcaster owns Doctor Who and is commissioning its next incarnation, while BBC Studios is its commercial production and distribution arm. BBC Studios has been closely involved in making the modern series and will continue handling the programme's international distribution, licensing and merchandise regardless of which company wins the production contract.

Jamie Hall, BBC Studios' scripted chief, has previously discussed the ambition to recapture the mainstream popularity associated with the David Tennant and Matt Smith eras.

It's easy to see the attraction. Those were years when Doctor Who occupied a particularly prominent place in British popular culture, drawing audiences well beyond the dedicated science-fiction crowd. But television has moved on considerably since then, and there's no guarantee that revisiting an earlier formula would produce the same results.

What's interesting is that BBC Studios could be competing against companies with very different backgrounds, from established drama specialists to a Scottish production group proposing a substantial relocation.

And there are some notable absences.

Deadline reports that A24 UK, Playground, Mammoth Screen, New Pictures, Big Talk Studios, Expectation and Quay Street are among the companies that have decided not to bid.

That's a considerable collection of production talent. Mammoth Screen has made Poldark and Endeavour, Playground was behind Wolf Hall and All Creatures Great and Small, while Quay Street Productions produced Fool Me Once and Missing You. These are hardly companies unfamiliar with expensive, high-profile television. Their absence is a reminder that Doctor Who isn't necessarily an irresistible opportunity for every producer. It's a demanding programme, with substantial production requirements, an established identity and a particularly vocal audience. The BBC also retains ownership of the intellectual property, meaning the successful company would be producing the series without acquiring the franchise itself.

There's considerable prestige in making Doctor Who, but prestige alone doesn't pay for a complicated science-fiction production.

The tender follows the departure of Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf from the series, with the BBC deciding to pursue a new production arrangement rather than proceed with the previously announced Christmas special.

The new contract covers a multi-episode series, including specials, intended for transmission in 2028 or 2029, with the BBC retaining the option to commission a second series.

The successful bidder is expected to be selected in spring 2027, with March identified as the anticipated decision point.

There's still an awful lot we don't know. None of the reported proposals has been made public in full, and the companies involved have largely declined to comment on the details. We don't know who would write the next series, who might serve as showrunner or whether any of the bids include a proposed cast.

Nor should we assume that the most famous name attached to a proposal will necessarily be the person making the creative decisions. A production company winning the contract and a writer being appointed to run the series are two different things, even if the two roles sometimes overlap.

The BBC has attracted interest from some substantial names in British television, each with a different history and set of resources. There are established drama producers, a possible Scottish relocation, an in-house contender with decades of experience on the programme and several major companies that have decided the job isn't for them.

It's a more revealing picture than the endless conversations about which actor should play the Doctor next. The people behind these bids will be responsible for the machinery that makes the programme possible in the first place.

And while fans can spend the next few months imagining what a Mercurio-associated Doctor Who might look like, or whether Scotland could become the show's new home, the BBC has the rather less entertaining task of deciding which proposal is actually capable of delivering it.

For now, nobody has won the contract, and the reported contenders may not be the only ones.

But at least we finally know some of the people who want the job.

Whether they'll still want it once they're dealing with the budgets, schedules and logistics of making Doctor Who is another question entirely.