An adult spin-off of Doctor Who which contains sex and bad language is set to shock fans of the classic family TV show.

The BBC has commissioned risque new series TORCHWOOD, an anagram of Doctor Who, which will air late at night.

Torchwood is to be written by Doctor Who scriptwriter RUSSELL T DAVIES and will star that programme's John Barrowman. It follows a team investigating crime and alien activities in contemporary Britain.

Davies says, "Torchwood will be a dark, clever, wild, sexy, British crime/sci-fi paranoid thriller cop show with a sense of humour."

BBC3 boss STUART MURPHY adds, "The people have affairs with one another. There will be sex and swearing, I assume.

"I'm quite relaxed about that."