Press Clippings

Tom Baker is Everywhere

There's more coverage of Tom Baker's return as the voice of British Telecom's text-to-voice service, and the novelty single in which Baker "sings" "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks, at The Mirror, The Scotsman and Metro.

Baker is also providing his voice to Little Britain the Video Game, which is covered at PSP World, Pro-G,WorthPlaying.com and Games Asylum.

People

Catherine Tate is profiled in The Sunday Times, in advance of her appearance in The Runaway Bride on Christmas Day.

An interview with Sophia Myles in The Independent mentions her relationship with David Tennant, and the Tenth Doctor action figure she keeps in her purse when the two are separated: "I'm pretty excited about the fact that my boyfriend has an action doll. How cool is that? Now, all I'm waiting for is for the Doctor Who people to make a Madame de Pompadour doll so I can do a bit of Barbie and Ken action with them ... You know what I'm talking about." Myles is appearing in Dracula on BBC One opposite Love and Monsters' Marc Warren.

Paul Cornell mentions on his blog that he'll be watching his next Doctor Who story being filmed this Thursday.

The Observer asks Torchwood's Naoko Mori what she would save if her house was burning down. (The answer: Kermit the Frog and family photos.)

John Barrowman is supporting the canine charity Dogs Trust in their campaign against giving dogs or puppies as presents. Barrowman made an appearance at Dogs Trust West London Rehoming Centre as part of the campaign, titled "A Dog is for Life, Not Just for Christmas." Covered at the Dogs Trust website and (appropriately enough) at K9 Magazine. (Who knew the tin dog had his own magazine?)

And it seems that Victoria Beckham (who famously bought her husband Doctor Who: The Complete Shooting Scriptsfor Christmas last year) may be buying Billie Piper's old house in Los Angeles. The story, with mention of Piper, is popping up everywhere from Canada to India to New Zealand.

Miscellaneous mentions

The UK Sunday Express newspaper has printed praise for both Doctor Who and Torchwood as part of a front-page article claiming that "Ten million families have switched off their TVs because of the diet of sex and violence." The piece, by journalist David Stephenson, carries a quote from a spokeswoman for Tessa Jowell, the UK government's Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which praises Torchwood as being at the head of digital television programming, along with the sketch show Little Britain and US import Curb Your Enthusiasm. "Increasingly programmes on digital channels are giving those on their terrestrial neighbours a run for their money," the spokeswoman said. Praise for Doctor Who itself comes in a quote from BBC Director of Vision Jana Bennett, responding to comments from the actor David Jason that it was one of the few programmes he was happy for his daughter to watch. "We’re delighted that David Jason appreciates Doctor Who and Robin Hood," the American executive said, "because we created them as programmes we hoped the whole family would enjoy, along with others like Planet Earth, Strictly Come Dancing and How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?"

Scotland on Sunday has a review of the bestselling Doctor Who Annual 2007.

Jed Mercurio, writer of the medical drama Bodies, complained to The Times about the current vogue for family drama, or, as he described it, "juvenilia, things that are really children’s drama dressed up a bit for an adult audience."Bodies lost to Doctor Who at the BAFTAs this year, and Mercurio seems to be referring to Doctor Who in his commentary. He concludes, "If I give it a year people will have seen how boring it is to have endless Doctor Who spin-offs. Then, hopefully, people will go ‘we’ve made idiots of ourselves, let’s make something good again'." The Stage responds to Mercurio, calling him "bitter" and mentions in passing, "While I have my own feelings about Torchwood (i.e., it isn't very good), from the clips disc that just landed on my desk of the forthcoming Sarah Jane Adventures, I'm personally glad that somebody's making a bit of exciting drama for a bona fide children’s audience."

Also at The Stage, ITV's Controller of Drama mentions David Tennant and Billie Piper as examples of the type of "new talent" ITV hopes to show more of in the future: "Look at Billie Piper and David Tennant - even though they have worked before - the viewers feel like they have been in on their transition to mainstream television. They feel like they have been involved in the process and that’s what we are trying to do with more of our drama and new talent."

(Additional material by Kenny Davidson and Paul Hayes; thanks to "Russwhover" of the YaWho discussion group.)