Doctor Who is to enjoy a teenage makeover with a new spin-off series.
London-based American author Patrick Ness, who wrote the Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls, will make his television screenwriting debut with Class, a drama set in a school in contemporary London.
Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, who will be an executive producer on the programme, said: "No one has documented the dark and exhilarating world of the teenager like Patrick Ness, and now we're bringing his brilliant story-telling into Doctor Who."
He teased: "This is growing up in modern Britain - but with monsters!"
Class, which will consist of eight 45-minute episodes, will film in and around Wales from next spring before being shown on BBC Three later in the year.
Ness said: "I'm astounded and thrilled to be entering the Doctor Who universe, which is as vast as time and space itself. There's so much room there for all kinds of amazing stories, and to work with Steven Moffat and (producer) Brian Minchin to find a place to tell one of my own has been an absolute joy.
"I can't wait for people to meet the heroes of Class, to meet the all-new villains and aliens, to remember that the horrors of the darkest corners of existence are just about on par with having to pass your A-levels."
This will not be the first official spin-off for Doctor Who's younger audiences.
The late Elisabeth Sladen starred as an investigative journalist who had numerous adventures across time and space in The Sarah Jane Adventures, which ran from 2007 to 2011.
Totally Doctor Who - which aired from 2006 to 2007 and accompanied the second and third revived series of the BBC sci-fi show - featured stars such as David Tennant as the Time Lord, Freema Agyeman as his companion Martha Jones, and Noel Clarke.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here