Russell T.Davies, the creative force behind the return of Doctor Who to BBC television, has anointed a young British stage actor to replace David Tennant and become the eleventh Doctor in the programme's history.

In e-mails serialised exclusively in The Times, Davies, who will stand down as lead writer and executive producer of the show next year, says that he favours Russell Tovey, who appeared in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys, for the role.

The correspondence, between Davies and Benjamin Cook, a journalist, also reveals that the writer wanted J.K.Rowling to star in a Doctor Who Christmas special, but Tennant vetoed the idea, fearing that it would come across as a spoof.

Tovey, 26, had a part in last year's Christmas Doctor Who special as Midshipman Frame. He is best known for his role as Rudge, the least intellectual of the boys in the stage and screen versions of The History Boys.

In an e-mail written in June last year, Davies tells Cook that he has cast Tovey as Midshipman Frame, “which is my favourite casting of the lot, because he's going to be huge, that man”. He adds: “He's amazing. I think I'd make him the eleventh Doctor.”

The e-mails, the first extracts of which appear in today's times2, provide a touching insight into Davies's working practices and mental state as he prepares to scale back his involvement with Doctor Who after overseeing its return to the BBC in 2005.

In another e-mail, sent in late July 2007, he returns to the notion of involving Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, in the programme, remembering how she “politely declined” the chance to write an episode.

He tells Cook: “I was in the shower on Saturday morning (you may avert your eyes), thinking about how much I'd enjoyed that last Harry Potter book, how I'd love to write something like that, remembering that, back in 2004, I asked J.K.Rowling to write an episode of Doctor Who, though she politely declined, and reflecting that we can't possibly get someone to star in next year's Christmas Special who's as famous as Kylie... when all those things coalesced.

“BAM! I thought, don't ask J.K. to write a Doctor Who, ask her to be in a Doctor Who! Imagine it. A cold Edinburgh Christmas Eve. J.K. Rowling walking through the snow, pursued by a journalist. ‘What are you going to write after Harry Potter?' Later, J.K. sits down to write. At the same time, a Space Bug, probably put there by the Rita Skeeter-type journalist [a character in Harry Potter], leaps on to her back. ZAP! J.K.'s imagination becomes real! A world of Victorian magic replaces the present-day world. The Doctor arrives and has to battle through a world of witches and wizards, with wands and spells and CGI wonders, to reach J.K. Rowling at the heart of it all.”

It was not to be, however. In an e-mail three weeks later, Davies says that Tennant has other ideas. “David doesn't like the J.K. idea,” he writes. “He thinks it sounds like a spoof, so we've paused slightly, wondering whether to win him round or just abandon something that he's not going to be happy with. We've got to keep him happy. He keeps us happy. Plus, he might be right. So that idea has parked.”

Today's extracts also reveal that Dennis Hopper, the Hollywood actor, was keen to appear in Doctor Who, and document the friction between Davies and his BBC paymasters. Further correspondence, in The Times tomorrow, reveals the identity of a “wife” for the Doctor.

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