Radio Times celebrates 20 years of “New Doctor Who”

By John Freeman on March 19, 2025

This week’s Radio Times, on sale now, is a tribute to the last 20 years of Doctor Who since its revival, with six variant covers to choose from, each featuring one of the actors who have played the “modern” fugitive Time Lord on television.

Radio Times cover dated 22nd – 28th March 2025 - Christopher Eccleston Cover — The Radio Times cover dated 22nd – 28th March 2025, the six variant Doctor Who themed covers and feature inside designed by Mark Taylor, cover images photographed by Colin Bell (Christopher Eccleston), Matt Hollyoak (David Tennant), Mark Harrison (Matt Smith), Richard Grassie (Peter Capaldi), Ray Burmiston (Jodie Whittaker) and James Pardon (Ncuti Gatwa)

Radio Times cover dated 22nd – 28th March 2025 - David Tennant Cover — The Radio Times cover dated 22nd – 28th March 2025, the six variant Doctor Who themed covers and feature inside designed by Mark Taylor, cover images photographed by Colin Bell (Christopher Eccleston), Matt Hollyoak (David Tennant), Mark Harrison (Matt Smith), Richard Grassie (Peter Capaldi), Ray Burmiston (Jodie Whittaker) and James Pardon (Ncuti Gatwa)

Inside, you’ll find features with showrunners Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall, and interviews with some of the recent Doctors, and a preview of the new season of Doctor Who, which returns to BBC One on Saturday 12th April.

It’s not the first time Radio Times has led the charge to promote Doctor Who down the years, of course, with many covers to choose promotions for the show across the decades, along with anniversary specials, its own comic strip when Paul McGann looked set to lead a previous revival of the show, and more.

Radio Times cover dated January 20 -26th 1968 featuring Doctor Who - Patrick Troughton cover — *Some past Radio Times covers promoting Doctor Who down the years, including Andrew Skilleter’s art cover to announce The Five Doctors special back in 1983, available from the artist as a print*

Radio Times cover dated January 3rd - 9th 1970 featuring Doctor Who - Jon Pertwee cover (London and South-East Edition) — *Some past Radio Times covers promoting Doctor Who down the years, including Andrew Skilleter’s art cover to announce The Five Doctors special back in 1983, available from the artist as a print*

In this week’s issue, Huw Fullerton, soon to take on the the role of one of the magazine’s Commissioning Editors, interviews current showrunner Russell T Davies and others who’ve led the show about bringing the show back, the article available to read online here, and together they run down the last 20 years in 20 episodes. “Specifically, it’s one episode per calendar year,” he explains in a thread on X, “including the years there was only one episode – telling the story of New Who. Not “20 best!” Don’t write in!”

But wait, there’s more! “Ncuti Gatwa tells us what to expect from the new series, and some new pictures. Lots of fun pulling this together, especially seeing all the covers come into the office. Technically, I have now cheated myself into doing a Matt Smith-era cover story, living the dream.”

The extensive celebratory coverage was assembled with help from mentioned Mark Broxton, Ed Grenby, Stephen P. Kelly (culture writer for The Guardian), Patrick Mulkern, Aneesha Thakur, and the Doctor Who production team.

• Radio Times is online at radiotimes.com | Subscribe

• Doctor Who will return to BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Saturday 12th April, while previous seasons are available to stream now on BBC iPlayer

*Art to promote the first screening of The Genesis of the Daleks in 1975 by Frank Bellamy*

• Check out the Radio Times Doctor Who story guide: reviews of every episode since 1963, plus cast and crew listings, production trivia, and exclusive material from the Radio Times archive

• Andrew Skilleter’s “The Five Doctors” Radio Times cover, published in 1983 is available as a print direct from the artist

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.