Thousands of Doctor Who fans have seen the first episode of the new series, after it was leaked on the internet.
The BBC's multi-million pound revival was thought to have been downloaded by a Canadian broadcaster from a copy of a DVD sent ahead of tonight's press launch in Cardiff. BBC bosses have kept the show a closely guarded secret and the leak was believed to have caused embarrassment to the corporation's executives.
The first new episode for 15 years, starring Christopher Ecclestone as the time travelling doctor and former pop star Billie Piper as his sidekick, will be shown later this month. But tens of thousands of fans have already seen the show by downloading it using a program called Bit-Torrent, which breaks up television shows into fragments, shares them across the internet and then puts them back together on the down-loader's computer.
Annie Fredericks, BBC drama spokesman, said the significant breach of copyright was under investigation.
Online reviews claim the first episode features the return of The Autons, an alien villain from the John Pertwee era of the show, which inhabited inanimate objects like shop dummies.
Spelling correction: Jon Pertwee
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