Family affair in Doctor Who episode

The new series of Doctor Who will be a family affair after it was announced Avengers star Dame Diana Rigg is teaming up with her daughter Rachael Stirling in one episode.

The pair will play a mother and daughter with a dark secret in the episode written by Mark Gatiss which will be shown next year.

Dame Diana, who played Emma Peel in The Avengers and a Bond girl in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, said: "The first time Rachie and I will be working together is on an episode of Doctor Who specially written for us by Mark Gatiss. How lucky is that?"

Rachael, who has had a distinguished stage career and appeared on television in shows including Tipping The Velvet, said she was looking forward to it "enormously".

She said: "Mark Gatiss has written a gift of a script and an on-screen relationship between Ma and I that is truly delicious. We have never before worked together because the offers have not been tempting, but when such a funny and original script comes through you know the time has come."

Fans will see six episodes of the long-running sci-fi show this year with eight more in 2013.

Show supremo Steven Moffat said it was "a combination of talents you could only get in Doctor Who".

He said: "Frankly, I'm terrified already."