As talk continues to swirl around Doctor Who’s upcoming tender process, Simon Heath, CEO and creative director of World Productions, has revealed that his company may enter a bid.
World Productions is perhaps best known for its work on Line of Duty, but the company has also been behind shows including Vigil, Karen Pirie, The Bombing of Pan Am 103, Malpractice, Showtrial and upcoming ITV series The Party, amongst many other series.
Heath was speaking with Radio Times exclusively at the 2026 Edinburgh TV Festival, when he was asked whether he had any interest in entering the Doctor Who tender process.
“It’s interesting, isn’t it?,” Heath responded. “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.”
When asked what it was that he would do with it, Heath said: “Well, I don’t want to give that away really, before the tender process. But look, I don’t know. 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.”
World Productions wouldn’t be first production company to have expressed interest in entering the process, which will determine which company makes future seasons of the long-running sci-fi show.
BBC Studios, Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment and Prime Video are amongst the company’s to have been vocal about being interested in the process, while Anne Mensah, VP of Content at Netflix UK, has said that while she loves the show, “it belongs on the BBC”.
The tender process has not yet begun and there’s not currently a timeline as to when it will happen.
When the BBC announced that the series would be put out to tender, the broadcaster said in a statement: “Doctor Who remains an important part of the BBC and this tender underpins the BBC’s continued commitment to Doctor Who ensuring audiences will enjoy the show for years to come.”
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