The Scots actor Peter Capaldi's take on Doctor Who has not garnered him the same laurels as his time-travelling predecessors.

Capaldi is not on the short list for 'top drama performance' at the annual National Television Awards, it was announced last night.

This marks the first time the star of the show has been left off the list since the time-bending drama was revived, to great success, by the BBC in 2005.

His Tardis-dwelling predecessors Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith have all previously triumphed for their role as The Doctor at the annual prize giving.

This year's contenders are Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch and Happy Valley's Sarah Lancashire, as well as Sheridan Smith and Dame Maggie Smith.

Happy Valley has already been hailed as one of the best TV dramas of last year.

Smith, who received an OBE in the New Year honours list, has been included for her lead role in ITV's Cilla, while Dame Maggie is up for her performance as the Dowager Countess in popular period melodrama Downton Abbey.

Doctor Who has not missed out entirely on the short list, as it is up against Sherlock, Downton and Cilla for the best drama award.

Capaldi has just completed his first full season as The Doctor, having taken over from Smith, who twice won the top acting award at the NTAs, and was shortlisted on a further two occasions.

Tennant won for four years consecutively and Eccleston triumphed for his one year in the role.

However, Steven Moffat, executive director of the show, has recently defended the performance of the drama with Capaldi - who portrays a colder, bleaker and older Doctor.

More than seventy million viewers watched the BBC's last series of Doctor Who.

Viewing figures for the first 10 episodes of the series, with Capaldi playing the 12th version of the time travelling Doctor, averaged 7.2m, down slightly from the 7.45m for the previous series.

Moffat said: "Indisputably, without doubt, exactly the same number of people watch Doctor Who now as they ever did,"

"There is no drop off in the ratings but the way people watch it has changed."

He added: "They watch it on catch-up to a far higher degree.

"In the time I have been doing Doctor Who the number of people who watch it on iPlayer has trebled."

Voting for the awards, staged at London's O2 Arena in London and broadcast on ITV, has opened at www.nationaltvawards.com