Having joined Doctor Who alongside Piers Wenger and showrunner Steven Moffat in April 2009, Willis has left the show to return to Kudos Film And Television, the makers of Spooks and Hustle. Piers Wenger also announced his plans to leave the BBC to join Film4 in May.

Caroline Skinner has previously worked as a producer on BBC One’s Five Days and BBC Three’s upcoming horror series The Fades. She also worked as a script editor on Billie Piper’s The Ruby In The Smoke.

Writing on the show’s official website about the announcement, Steven Moffat commented on Skinner’s new role on Doctor Who: “Somewhere between me laughing in a basement and choosing planets to invade, and Marcus Wilson raising armies, there has to be a Prime Minister actually running the whole thing. That’s the job Piers Wenger and Beth Willis have been doing so wonderfully for the last few years. Now that Piers is off to movie land, that’s the furnace Caroline will be walking into.”

Moffat continued: “It takes a particular kind of person to work on this show – you have to be prepared to work every day of the week, laugh in the face of holidays, and above all, understand that Doctor Who is completely impossible to make and then make it anyway. I could see all that in Caroline – so off we go!”

Teasing this year’s Christmas Special, he added: “I think I spent the entire budget on the first page. A baptism of fire for Caroline Skinner. Literally fire. And aliens!”

Filming on Series 6 was completed last week and the show will return with ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ in the autumn.

> Order the Series 6 Part 1 DVD on Amazon.

> Order the Series 6 Part 1 Blu-ray on Amazon.

Watch a preview clip for Series 6 Part 2…

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