Dr Who
Peter Capaldi as the 12th TV Doctor BBC

The BBC has announced that the new series of Doctor Who, the first to star new Doctor Peter Capaldi, will start in the UK on 23 August, the UK's final bank holiday weekend of the year.

The corporation has also posted a short new teaser trailer for the forthcoming eighth series of the new Dr Who adventures (below), which suggests that Capaldi's Doctor may be a darker character than the one previously portrayed by Matt Smith.

The series will consist of 13 episodes, though the last of these may turn out to be a Christmas special. Assuming that it transmits every Saturday, the show will finish in early November, close to the 51st anniversary of the very first show's transmission, on 23 November 1963.

Capaldi's Doctor made a brief appearance, post-regeneration, at the end of the final episode of previous Doctor Matt Smith's reign, but we left him and assistant Clara (Jenna Coleman) about to crash in an out-of-control Tardis.

All that is known about the opening story of the series is that it is set in Victorian London, and features a cameo appearance by the previous Doctor, Smith.

Other episodes in the series will feature everything from extraterrestrial mummies (last seen in the classic Dr Who episode, The Pyramids of Mars) to Robin Hood, and guest stars for the series include Keeley Hawes and British comedian Frank Skinner.

As usual, series runner Steven Moffat is remaining tight-lipped about the latest series, though science fiction writer Neil Gaiman and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce (24 Hour Party People, The Railway Man) are known to have been approached for scripts.

Lead actor Capaldi, the 12th man to play the Doctor on TV, is known to be a life-long Who fan, and fans remain curious about his interpretation of the Timelord, especially since he apparently intends to retain his Scottish accent, something that the last Scottish Doctor, David Tennant, decided not to do.

Speaking at a Bafta Awards ceremony earlier this year, writer Mark Gatiss said of Capaldi's performance: "I knew immediately - from watching other things - there was going to be a certain level of twinkly Scottish intensity to him."

In Britain, Capaldi remains best known for his role as the foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker in the political comedy The Thick of It, though he made his film debut in the whimsical 1983 film Local Hero. Most recently, he made a fiendish Cardinal Richelieu in the BBC's The Musketeers.

Watch the new trailer for Doctor Who on YouTube, below: