DOCTOR WHO star Peter Capaldi appears to have confirmed that the next Doctor Who companion has been cast.

Following the exit of Jenna Coleman, whose on-screen alter ego Clara Oswald departed the series late last year, it seems the replacement assistant for the Time Lord has been finalised.

“We will have a new companion, and I’m excited because obviously I know who this person is,” Peter told Brazilian website Omlette.

The former The Thick Of It actor is alleged to have added that the actress is someone he has worked with in the past – although it seems the character will know “very little about the Doctor”.

He elaborated: “Clara had prior knowledge of the Doctor. It was conceived as a human connection to your timeline, and so had access to the cosmic nature of the Doctor.

“She understood a little about how he was. And as she was already with Matt [Smith], she knew the Daleks and the TARDIS.

“Now we have someone who knows very little about the Doctor.”

It’s already been confirmed that there will be no full new series airing in 2016, with fans instead having to wait until next year for a new block of episodes.

When it returns, it seems Peter will be keen for bosses to give it a regular timeslot, after it was relentlessly shuffled about in the weekly schedules in 2015.

“The BBC is an incredible organisation, but… sometimes people there think, ‘That’s looking after itself’. And it’s not being looked after,” he told Newsweek.”I think maybe their eye was taken off the ball, or the show was seen as a thing they could just push around. It’s not. It’s a special thing.”

The programme’s ratings were up and down last year but its catch-up numbers remain strong.

The actor continued: “I have to pay attention to ratings – I’d rather not – but it’s the way the business is. I think overnight ratings are a thing of the past.

“You can’t really measure the success of the show by its overnight ratings, which is what the papers do. But there’s still a place for families to sit down and watch the show – that’s still a great, fun thing to do.”