Doctor Who Christmas special: When and where to watch the time traveller's adventure

Doctor Who's Christmas Day episode will premiere on BBC One at 5.15pm. Alex Kingston will return to reprise her character of River Song, who will reunite with her former husband the Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi.

The special episode begins with the 12th Time Lord hiding in his Tardis in order to avoid Christmas joy. But fate will play its own game when Nardole will seek his help, and eventually Capaldi's character will meet Song.

Though the Time Lord will identify River, she fails to recognize him. The episode will also reveal that she is married to someone else. The show's writer Steven Moffat hinted that the reunion between the time traveller and River Song will be a steamy affair.

"I had sort of thought we were done with River. But Russell [T Davies, former executive producer] and I had been emailing about River. He was always saying, 'You can't not bring her back because she's got to be together with Capaldi – it will be a sex storm!'" he told Yahoo, adding that "It's the most Christmassy Doctor Who ever!"

Kingston added: "There have been moments on set where we've started to call it 'Doctor Blue'. Say no more."

The synopsis of the upcoming episode reads: "It's Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas Carols and Comedy Antlers. But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song's squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy."

The Doctor Who Christmas special episode is produced by Nikki Wilson and directed by Douglas Mackinnon.