Doctor Who news: Jenna Coleman has left the TARDIS

(Image credit: DPA/Press Association Images)

The BBC is reporting that Jenna Coleman is will leave Doctor Who later this year, probably before the Christmas special.

Jenna joined Doctor Who in 2012 and been the companion to two Doctors – Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror reports that her first role post-Doctor Who will be playing Queen Victoria in an ITV drama series.

Jenna, 29, first came to public attention as Jasmine Thomas in Emmerdale in 2005, and is expected to play the Queen from the age of 18, although ITV said it was not making 'any announcements about casting presently'.

ITV announced in May they would be making an eight-part series about the life of Queen Victoria.

Filming starts on the Queen Victoria drama later this month and it's thought that Jenna has already filmed her final scenes for Doctor Who.

The BBC has declined to confirm Jenna's departure from Doctor Who.

Earlier this week, Jenna told Radio Times: "You're in Doctor Who knowing it will never last... It's constantly regenerating, so you want to make your time count and enjoy the adventure for the fleeting time you're here."

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.