A DECADE ago yesterday, the first episode of the revived Doctor Who was officially launched with a preview screening in Cardiff.

It marked the end of a 16-year hiatus, or nine years if one counted the brief Paul McGann TV move incarnation of 1996.

Who-centric stories popped up continuously in news broadcasts and national newspaper headlines.

Local newspapers across the country struggled for a home town angle, but there were no such problems at the Swindon Advertiser, thanks to a certain Billie Piper.

We said: “The new 13-part series starring Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor, with singer turned actress Billie as his sidekick, Rose Tyler, starts at the end of the month.

“And the former Bradon Forest pupil says she likes the stronger female role created for Rose.”

Billie, 22, told us: “I found the other doctors slightly chauvinistic, slightly patronising, but this time they are on a par, they work together and they educate each other.”

Billie would go on to appear throughout the first two series of the revived programme, which are already regarded as classics. There were also appearances in 2008, 2010 and 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor.

Back in 2005, though, she had a confession to make about her own childhood memories of Doctor Who.

She said: “It was in our house and I remember freaky music and a man running around in a long scarf, but I could never make head nor tail of it.”

Christopher Eccleston said Billie brought a sense of feisty independence to the role of companion.

He added: “There has been no heroine for 12-year-old girls before, and Billie pulled that off just like that.

“She saves the Doctor in the first episode. She is a heroine.”

Celebrities attending the screening in Cardiff included Charlotte Church, Robson Green and Matt Lucas.

The new programme gave us the opportunity to mention the Swindon area’s earlier claim to Whovian fame.

In 1971, when Jon Pertwee was the Doctor, one of his adventures brought him to Aldbourne.

In a story called The Daemons, the picturesque village doubled as the fictional Devil’s End, scene of a plot by the Doctor’s arch-foe, The Master, to summon an all-powerful alien creature.

Local pub The Blue Boar was pressed into service as sinister fictional inn The Cloven Hoof, and Jon Pertwee happily signed autographs on the village green between takes.

The actor returned to the village in 1996, not long before his death, aged 76, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of what was by then a well-established fan favourite.