MORE than seventy million viewers have watched the BBC's current series of Doctor Who, starring ­Scottish actor Peter Capaldi, which comes to an end tonight.

Viewing figures for the first 10 episodes of this series, with Capaldi playing the 12th version of the time travelling Doctor, have averaged 7.2 million.

The first episode of the series had the most viewers so far, with Deep Breath drawing 9.17 million viewers in total, including people watching the shows real-time and recorded on digital boxes.

Full viewing figures, including iPlayer figures, will be available next week.

Dark Water, the 11th and last episode broadcast, attracted 5.3 million viewers, but that figure does not included recorded or "time shifted" views, which will boost that total.

The final episode of this run is tonight on BBC 1, entitled Death In Heaven.

Capaldi, 56, was the successor to Matt Smith in the role of the Doctor.

Earlier this year he said: "I love being Doctor Who. I wake up in the morning and I'm Doctor Who, and when I go out to the shops and buy a pint of milk, I'm Doctor Who.

"Everywhere I go I am The Doctor and everyone smiles at me - they are pleased to see Doctor Who, who's far more exciting than I am."

The BBC has defended the dark themes of its most recent storyline.