Doctor Who lead Ncuti Gatwa has confirmed that his third series of the show will be filmed next year, despite indications that it would be delayed until 2026 at the earliest.

The actor took over the role of the iconic Time Lord from David Tennant last year and went on to appear in a Christmas special and a full-length series, with another Christmas special and full-length series already in the can and due to be broadcast this festive season and next spring respectively.

Showrunner Russell T Davies has previously asserted that production partner Disney+ will wait to assess the performance of the next series before deciding to proceed with another - with production timescales therefore suggesting filming in 2025 and into 2026.

Speaking on last week's edition of The Graham Norton Show, however, Gatwa claimed that he would be filming his third run in 2025.

"It is all going well," he said. "We did the second series this year, the Christmas special is coming up, and we are filming a third series next year."

In a further twist, although Gatwa made the comments while filming the chat show, his remarks were cut from the final edit of the episode.