Steven Moffat has spoken about his future on Doctor Who and indicates that the right person to take over has still not emerged.

“That is an issue and one I’m actively engaged in but I can’t say much about that,” he told the Radio Times. “Everything is difficult in Doctor Who, including leaving, and I would never do anything to harm it. I would never leave it in the lurch because it means too much to me. Yes, it’s a problem. Let’s not pretend it’s not a big problem. But there will be a solution.

“In terms of the emotional difficulty of leaving, it’s hard … I take it a year at a time and that’s the only answer I’ll ever give on that one. How hard [will it be to give up], I don’t know … I won’t be leaving because I’m suddenly miserable. It’ll be because I want to do something else. ”

On whether he will continue to write for the show once he has left: “I’ve no idea until I’m there. I mean, I can understand Russell [T Davies not doing it]. I’m gobsmacked by how much Doctor Who I’ve written – an insane amount.”

He also spoke about this year’s ratings taking a hit: “I don’t want to get on anyone’s case but that wasn’t our best-run launch. This year is not a new Doctor year, it’s not an anniversary, or a new companion year. We can just concentrate on making Doctor Who, which is quite nice in a way. But it’s dangerous when you don’t have that special extra bit to launch a show with. The way it always goes is our highest episode is the first one, but this is the first year we’ve gone up mid-season – after the rugby died down. Our ratings went up with episode five. ”

On the next companion: “I’m beginning to have an idea of the kind of person, specific ideas but not a specific actress. A new companion gives us the chance to launch the show again. It began in 1963 with the story of Ian and Barbara and then in 2005 with Rose Tyler. Arguably it begins again with the story of Amy Pond. You can recruit new viewers when somebody else meets the Doctor. And I think we’ve got a really cool new idea about how to do that. “