Peter Capaldi to leave Doctor Who

Actor Peter Capaldi is stepping down from the lead role in the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who.

Capaldi shocked fans by making the announcement during a BBC Radio 2 show with presenter Jo Whiley.

He said he will leave Doctor Who at the end of the year. "I feel it’s time to move on," he said.

The 58-year-old Glasgow-born star became the 12th actor to play the Doctor in 2013.

While speaking about the upcoming 10th series, he said it would be his last.

"I feel sad, I love Doctor Who, it is a fantastic programme to work on," he said. "It can't praise the people I work with more highly, but I have always been someone that did a lot of different things."

He said he was asked to stay on after his contract ran out, but he wanted to move on to other challenges.

The new series airs in spring and Capaldi said his final episode will be shown at Christmas.

The popular sci-fi series, which was first shown on TV in 1963 and underwent a reboot in 2005, features a Time Lord known only as "The Doctor".

The character travels through time and space in a ship called the Tardis, which look likes a 1960s police telephone box from the outside.

The main character has the ability to regenerate, a quality that has allowed a number of actors to have played the role over the years.