BBC announces Doctor Who 3D special

Doctor Who will be shown on the BBC HD channel

Fans will be able to visit the Tardis in 3D in a special 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who later this year.

The special was announced as part of the BBC's latest round of drama commissions, which will also see Call The Midwife return in 2014.

Atlantis, a new 13-part drama, will also take the Saturday night slot previously held by Merlin.

Controller of drama, Ben Stephenson, said he wanted to make the BBC "more British than ever".

"It is about applying the Danny Boyle vision to our work - a bold, adventurous, authorial approach that exports because of its Britishness not despite it."

Doctor Who celebrates its 50th birthday in November, but it is not the first time viewers have had the chance to see the Time Lord in 3D.

Doctor Who's 30th anniversary was marked in 1993 with a 3D story, Dimensions in Time, broadcast as part of Children In Need.

The two-part adventure was filmed on EastEnders' Albert Square set, and featured Doctor Who stars past and present, as well as cast members from the BBC soap.

Steven Moffat, the show's lead writer and producer said the latest 3D escapade would bring a "whole new dimension of adventure for the Doctor to explore".

Atlantis, penned by Misfits writer and Merlin creator Howard Overman, has been billed as an "action-packed" series to begin in the Autumn.

It centres on the eponymous city - "a mysterious, ancient place; a world of bull leaping, of snake haired goddesses and of palaces so vast it was said they were built by giants".

The series will begin shooting in Wales and Morocco in April.

Other new commissions include Death Comes to Pemberley, a three-part hour-long drama, adapted from PD James' bestselling novel.

Set six years after Pride and Prejudice ends, the book features Jane Austen's best-known characters, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, and combines "classic period drama" with a suspenseful mystery plot.

BBC Four will pair The Wire's Dominic West with Helena Bonham Carter for a 90-minute one-off drama, Burton and Taylor.

They will play the glamorous, volatile ex-lovers in a story of their ill-fated 1983 revival of Noel Coward's stage play, Private Lives.