VIRGIN Media has pulled an advertisement featuring former Doctor Who David Tennant following BBC concerns about perceived commercial endorsement.

The advert, which has been running since the start of the month, featured the Scottish actor using Virgin's TiVo service to catch up on old episodes of the popular BBC One show.

It was part of a multimillion-pound campaign which launched last month in which Tennant, who played the Doctor from 2005 until 2010, is seen searching for his past episodes using the TiVo personal video recorder and catch-up service.

However BBC Worldwide complained the ad appeared to be a commercial endorsement of the service, breaking the corporation's guidelines.

They wrote to Virgin asking for the campaign to be suspended.

Virgin Media said yesterday it had agreed to pull the advertisement as "a gesture of goodwill".

In a joint statement, the BBC and Virgin Media said: "Virgin Media has listened to concerns raised by BBC Worldwide about perceived commercial endorsement by the BBC/a BBC brand relating to the recent Virgin Media advertisement.

"As a gesture of goodwill Virgin Media has agreed to withdraw transmission of the advertisement and BBC Worldwide is now satisfied that the issue has been addressed."

Two other Virgin Media ads featuring Tennant will continue to be shown, the company said.