Matt Smith

Matt Smith wants to star in ‘Doctor Who’ until at least 2014, he has said.

The 29-year-old actor revealed his wish after programme chief Steven Moffat impressed him with “brilliant” and “mental” ideas for new episodes.

Smith said: “His first episode sounds great. It hasn’t been written yet but the idea is as brilliant and as mental as you’d expect from Steven. So there’s a lot to look forward to.

“When Steven was going to pitch the next season to me not long ago, he said, ‘Are you ready to cry?’“

Smith admitted it was tough to replace David Tennant as the Time Lord in 2010.

“If you remember, when I took over, no one thought it would work. I was ‘too young’. David [Tennant] had come from a stellar era. I was unknown.

“For a month or two when I started I was like, ‘This is impossible. I can’t’ -- just the pressure of it. Everyone was sort of going, ‘Go on, show us what you’ve got.’ I told myself, ‘If I can get through this I can get through anything’,” Smith told The Sun.