Digital spy - Moffat: 'Who treatment was shameful'

Steven Moffat has suggested that Doctor Who was badly treated before its relaunch in 2005.

The showrunner made the comments at the BAFTA screening of 'The Pandorica Opens', which airs tomorrow night (Saturday 19 June) on BBC One at 6.40pm.

When it was noted that the show would not have had such a prestigious airing in the past, Moffat said: "And that's shameful actually. It should have had that attention. There's absolutely brilliant stuff.

"I hate this orthodoxy that Doctor Who suddenly became good in 2005 - that's not true. I didn't fall in love with that show because it was rubbish - it was because it was brilliant."

He then drew the audience's attention to Waris Hussein, the director of the first ever Doctor Who episode 'An Unearthly Child', which aired on November 23, 1963.

Moffat added: "A lot of people here will have seen that, but if you haven't and you entertain the idea that Doctor Who was ever anything but brilliant, go and watch it. It's absolutely astonishing - 25 minutes of magical television."

Asked what had changed to alter the perception of the show, he quipped: "All of us who grew up watching nothing but Doctor Who all day long took over television!

"Those of us who grew up venerating it and loving and not regarding it as a silly thing, we became middle-aged and we put our love into this show."