A batch of nine lost episodes of iconic sci-fi show Doctor Who have been unearthed in Nigeria.

The tapes, which feature second Time Lord Patrick Troughton, were tracked down to a Tv station in the African country after half a century, and now Bbc bosses have remastered them to sell to devoted fans.

Phillip Morris, director of a company called Television International Enterprises Archive, who located the episodes, says, "The tapes had been left gathering dust in a storeroom at a television relay station in Nigeria.

"I remember wiping the dust off the masking tape on the canisters and my heart missed a beat as I saw the words, Doctor Who. When I read the story code I realised I'd found something pretty special."

The Bbc destroyed many original transmission tapes from the 1960s and '70s, but some were sold on to foreign broadcasters.