He's no friend of Dorothy

As the other-worldly hero of the longest running science fiction show of all time, Doctor Who has faced his fair share of unbelievable nemeses. Over the years he's done regular battle with the Daleks, who manage to pose a threat to humanity despite looking like giant cruet, as well as fighting all manner of weird and wonderful beasts.

But even gastropods, sentient trees and blue gaseous life-forms are nothing compared with the time-traveller's latest foe - a little gyrating gay Irishman.

Last week's episode featured the long-awaited return of Alex Kingston's character River Song, but the show's exciting climax was tarnished with the appearance of a pop-up trailer for Graham Norton's latest West-End casting-call talent show 'Over The Rainbow'.

Viewers still trying to get used to new Doctor Matt Smith were treated to the sight of a cartoon caricature of the Irish comic wiggling his hips all over Matt's face. There are some things that even a sonic screwdriver can't fix.

Doctor Who might depict other-worldy invasions on a weekly basis, but this was clearly a step too far. Fans were suitably apoplectic about the interruption to their favourite show, with Matthew Graham, who also happens to be the executive producer of Ashes to Ashes, tweeting his disgust at the intrusion: "Please BBC - you're not a US network, you're so much better than they are. Don't cheapen yourself. The public know what's up next."

The Daily Telegraph later reported that the BBC received 5,583 complaints about the trailer, and apologised for its unfortunate timing: "The Over The Rainbow trail in Doctor Who should not have been played out on Saturday and we apologise to all Doctor Who fans whose enjoyment of the show was disrupted."

With attention spans diminishing, and audiences needing recaps and teasers every few minutes, it's hardly surprising that the BBC has started creating mini-trailers for upcoming shows. It's just unfortunate that they opted to interrupt a show with a notoriously loyal fanbase.

Most Saturday evening shows are so stultifyingly unwatchable that audiences wouldn't even notice if Graham Norton crawled out of their screen, like the lank-haired ghost in Ringu, and slapped them around the face. And even that would be preferable to sitting through 'Over The Rainbow'.