New Radio Times

The latest issue of the BBC's ever Who-friendly Radio Times listings magazine is released in the UK today, and contains various items of interest to Doctor Who fans.

Billie Piper is the issue's cover star and the subject of an interview inside the magazine, promoting her new ITV2 drama series The Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Interviewer Zoe Williams writes: "She won't be drawn on Doctor Who (will she return before David Tennant departs?) - for personal or contractual reasons, we can only guess."

On page three, Radio Times editor Gill Hudson asks her readers to guess what connects three of the major television events of the week - Billie Piper's new role, the first appearance of Christopher Eccleston in BBC Two's run of the US fantasy series Heroes, and the return of Sarah Jane Smith. "Right first time!" Hudson tells her readers.

The Sarah Jane Adventures is listed as one of the picks of the week on page four, and on page 31 is given a one-page preview feature, in which Gareth McLean interviews Russell T Davies about the show and his return to children's television, where he started out with dramas such as Dark Season in 1991, from which a photo of Kate Winslet and Jacqueline Pearce is shown.

"I loved the sort of dramas that were set in this world, but had an otherworldliness to them," Davies tells McLean. "They had all this possibility that there were fantastic forces at work beneath the ordinariness of the world. How marvellous!" Davies also reflects on how he never felt children were his natural audience, and on the changes to children's television since he worked in it. He concludes that "With the likes of Disney investing so much money in children's TV, I do feel optimistic about its future."

The Sarah Jane Adventures is one 'Today's Choices' for Monday September 24th, with reviewer Mark Braxton commenting: "The show looks perfect for cheering up Mondays; it confirms the promise of the pilot and has its heart in exactly the right place."

The magazine also confirms that the next episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures will follow on the CBBC Channel at 5.30pm on Monday, immediately following the previous episode's BBC One premiere.