The news comes by way of an unofficial leak, with the online CV of television editor Edel McDonnell listing this year’s special as his most recent job.

The credit was originally spotted and posted by @Ruther2 on Twitter.

McDonnell’s page also listed Wayne Yip as director of the special. Yip’s got Doctor Whoprevious, having helmed two series 10 episodes, ‘The Lie of the Land’ and ‘Empress of Mars’.

He also directed two episodes of the spin-off series Class and has worked on Preacher, Cloak & Dagger, Misfits and Utopia.

We did reach out to the BBC, but they’re not officially commenting on the news.

Filming on the closing episodes of series 11 is reaching its final stages, with this year’s special likely to start filming once Jodie Whittaker and cast return from Comic-Con International in San Diego in late July.

It takes about a month to shoot an hour-long Doctor Who, with previous specials having mostly filmed from August to September.

Doctor Who will return to BBC One in the autumn with 10 new episodes – with, it seems, an 11th to follow at Christmas.