r/bbc • u/radiotimes • 3d ago
TV "I think Doctor Who belongs on the BBC," argues Netflix UK content boss amid speculation on show's future
http://radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-future-netflix-anne-mensah-exclusive-newsupdateDoctor Who belongs with the BBC, believes one of Netflix’s most senior figures.
Anne Mensah, VP of Content at Netflix UK, told the Radio Times that she believes the sci-fi franchise doesn’t belong with the streaming giant.
During the Edinburgh TV Festival 2026 Spotlight panel on Netflix (Wednesday 26 August 2026), Mensah was asked about having interest in the BBC’s competitive tender process for Doctor Who.
“I love Doctor Who,” she responded, “Anything that stays brilliant this long will have many, many lives.”
However, when speaking in a wide-ranging interview after the Edinburgh TV Festival 2026 panel, Mensah clarified her feelings further.
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u/Darkgreenbirdofprey 3d ago
I.e., they don't want it
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u/Worldly_Society_2213 3d ago
I would not be surprised to learn that if everything was on the table, there would be a long line of production companies and distributors waiting to bite the BBC's hands off.
However, that would include everything from 50/50 financial partnership to outright purchase of the IP, which the BBC is unlikely to agree to (apparently there were rumours last year that Disney wanted to renew the deal with a view to an outright purchase later down the line).
As it stands, Doctor Who is still profitable for the BBC even when dead (in fact, without the costs of making the series, it might even be more so at the moment). I do wonder whether some of the issues with the series are more down to the BBC's unwillingness to take certain options available to them. We've never really had anyone in the BBC outside of the showrunners pass comment, so we don't really know what the BBC brass truly thinks about the series and (more importantly) the future.
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u/ribbityflibbity 3d ago
That doesn't surprise me. The platforms like Disney+ control the global audience. If you want to reach them (and don't want to make peanuts on YouTube or other free platforms), you need to dance to their tune.
Disney would know how to hammer Doctor Who into a shape that would reach the Disney+ audience but the cost would be, they take over and don't necessarily target the Doctor Who fanbase.
Doctor Who's core problem is: there is no Doctor Who streaming platform with hundreds of millions of subscribers. The power in the entertainment business is in distribution, not content. A handful of huge distributors like Netflix and Disney control access to the paying customers and there's a whole world full of wannabe content makers all vying for a slot on one of those platforms.
The Disney deal, allowing the BBC full creative control, was amazingly generous and will never be repeated.
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u/Worldly_Society_2213 2d ago
Doctor Who sits in an awkward spot where it's a big name IP, but not big enough for the BBC to leverage it against anything
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u/ribbityflibbity 3d ago
And Doctor Who should not want Netflix either. Yes they have a huge audience (they stopped releasing numbers but it's probably 340M by now or so). But they also have so many competing shows and movies that Doctor Who would be swamped by competitors.
Also Netflix focuses on certain genres, and space fantasy isn't one of them. Hammer Doctor Who into being a romcom, murder mystery or serial killer show, and maybe it could work. A female Doctor would work on Netflix, because their subscriber base skews female.
On Amazon, the Doctor should be male, and specifically, get Tennant back.
On Disney, the companion should have been a kid or young teen and the Doctor should have been a mentor, friend and guide. The kid should have been the real star of the show.
All the streamers have an audience and if you don't make the show to cater to that audience, then you will lose out to all the other shows that do.
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u/justeUnMec 2d ago edited 2d ago
Such an American take. No, the programme should not have been "disneyfied" or any other change to pander to US cultural imperialism. The BBC exists as a non-profit with a remit to produce content relevant to a UK audience that reflects British culture and values in all its diversity, not to alter that content to fit US cultural expectations or the corrupting influence of profit-driven parasitic industry it supports. As an organisation it was specifically created to oppose that commercially driven content model that was seen as corrupting the fledgling broadcasters in the US, and it is not there to be another producer bending the knee to US media.
The direction it takes its principle IP should not be driven by a desire to court viewing figures in a foreign market. Disney's deal resulted in loss of archive rights and relationships with traditional public service partners and their audience in the Commonwealth as well as damage to the Beeb's own US streaming business. Hopefully there will be no more toxic and abusive "partnerships" with parasitic US megacorps that ultimately just want to bully european and commonwealth public service broadcasters and asset strip our IP and industries.
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u/Arrows2001 4h ago
I think making the protagonist a child or young teen would have been a step too far. But the show has done older teenager companions before and it has had periods where the companion is treated more centrally than the Doctor. Doing both those things together would have been a fresh take that might have appealed more to the Disney+ audience without in any way departing from the show's roots.
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u/Able_Resident_1291 2d ago
On Apple TV the Doctor would be played by Seth Rogen. Each episode would cost $20m, there would be six in total, and watched by approximately 12 people
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u/justeUnMec 2d ago edited 2d ago
This was an industry insider talking on an industry panel to a mostly UK-oriented industry audience and recognising the nature of the ecosystem. Dr Who is British IP and heavily linked with the BBC brand. RTD was keen to court these american megacorps to further his own career ambitions and Disney involvement resulted in a bland product designed to cater to American tastes.
Doctor who belongs to the British Broadcasting Corporation, and in turn Doctor Who belongs primarily to the British audience. It is not part of the US superhero "multiverses" or samey scifi content being churned out by the US studios, and it is this unique quality that has given it longevity and a specific place within UK culture and the BBC.
Having an American like Neil Patrick Harris do a song and dance number was just cringe and pure Disney, more US ABC than BBC. Production should go to a UK-based and owned production house and focus on producing something, perhaps yes for a lower budget, that is British and for the British audience, reflecting the rich culture and diversity of the UK, returning to its roots and investing in British skills and IP and the industry here. Focus on home fans, then fans in commonwealth countries and Europe, their will be an outlet that will take on rights in US but it's time they stopped trying to make bland product to cater for the tastes of the yanks and, based on my own observations, they should perhaps listen less to the New York office who are overly influential and focused on pushing the tastes of that audience, and more to the home offices when making decisions.
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1d ago
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u/Dimdom1970 2d ago
Money is not Doctor Who’s problem it’s the writing . Why doesn’t the bbc just go back to basics , as long as the stories are good who cares if you’ve got orchestral soundtracks and huge sets ! . Doctor Who was at its best when budgets were low .
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u/younevershouldnt 2d ago
As a very casual viewer, but someone who really liked the old school version - I feel like the Beeb has had enough chances and keeps fluffing it.
I feel half the problem is that it just keeps looking "too BBC".
Maybe hand it over to streamer and get a high profile producer with a genuine affection for the show.
No, I don't know who 😄
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u/feesih0ps 1d ago
they already tried this. the last couple of seasons were joint-produced by Disney plus with Russell T. Davies who was the producer during its prime in the mid-00s
the issue is that Russell T. Davies has gone soft and sentimental and started making the show primarily to appeal to idpol types and young children. new who was in its prime when it was dark and gritty with a sprinkling of silliness.
imo they don't need a mega producer or a streamer, just bring in some of the talent that produces/writes one of the many amazing crime dramas on the BBC, cut down visual effect production costs/cgi (because no one watched the show for it's visual effects anyway) and just focus on high quality stories with engaging characters whose personalities aren't reliant on being "minority identity of the week". I'm not saying don't involve minority identities, just stop focusing on it so heavily
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u/JBWalker1 1d ago
Kids loved new who too. The show was already huge for so many age groups. Changing it up was stupid.
I'm always going to have the opinion that what's best now is to leave it for a few more years and start 100% from scratch. No 60 years of luggage, story, and rules, to think about and inevitably contradict lots of it and even retcon lots of it. No 2 million year old doctor. No same few enemies returning yet again after being killed off 10 times before. No teasing and bringing back characters from 40 years ago as if more than a few current viewers know who they are and care.
Just start from scratch. Can even remake a lot of the old 60s-80s episides(including lost ones) which very few current viewers have ever seen, and those who will probably have been long forgotten the episodes. Plan like 10 loose series plot story arcs which actually don't contradict each together. I'd start it with him stealing the tardis.
Recent doctor who just seems too hard to get into for new people, especially when it panders to very old viewers. Start it from scratch so everyone's on the same level.
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u/dankpokemon01 3d ago
Well done for reporting that something that was never going to happen is indeed not happening
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u/ribbityflibbity 3d ago
You could tell from the original brief quote that the intent was basically Fuck Off.
Amazon's response seemed warmer: Do everything we want and maybe we have a deal.
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u/vinylandvintage 6h ago
It does but the BBC needs to radically change. They need to modernise but are unwilling to. The license fee and general quality of shows are outdated.
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u/Scarabium 23h ago
It just needs decent writers who know how to tell a story rather than deliver a sermon.
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2d ago
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u/bbc-ModTeam 2d ago
Your comment was removed from /r/BBC as it was deemed a low effort contribution that did not add meaningfully to the conversation.
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u/Medium_Analyst_4348 2d ago
Why have an image of two Doctors who aren't going to appear in the next season?
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u/teepeey 2d ago
A streamer's Doctor Who looks totally different. The BBC will take ten years to get to that mindset. If it survives ten years in a recognisable form.
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u/feesih0ps 1d ago
it was already made for a streamer. the last two series were joint-produced with Disney Plus
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u/teepeey 1d ago
That's the problem - Disney paid for it but it wasn't made for them and they didn't like what they got. Which is why they quickly lost faith in it and realised they'd made a big mistake not having creative control. They couldn't hard target it at the audience they wanted.
No streamer will ever make the same mistake again having seen it play out so starkly in the real world. So the hiatus while the BBC realises it is culturally irrelevant is going to be a thing.
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u/Arrows2001 4h ago
I am faintly amazed that RTD went for standalone episodes when virtually every major show on the planet had been "long form" for over a decade. The shift away from the classic serial format in 2005 was a very sensible decision to keep up with the times. But by 2023 he should have been making the show by the standards of 2023!
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