Jodie Whittaker has talked about her reaction to being cast as the thirteenth Doctor.

The actress was talking to BBC 6 Music in her first broadcast interview since her casting was revealed. She described her excitment for the new series led by Chris Chibnall, who worked with Whittaker on Broadchurch.

Whittaker said she had not seen a lot of the reaction to her casting as she is not on any kind of social media, so she has only seen what friends had sent her. One clip she has seen is the reaction to her casting by a young girl in a clip which went viral. Whittaker said she had spoken to a few of the other actors who have played the role and the overwhelming advice was to enjoy the exciting adventure she was embarking on. No person plays the part the same.

The interview was to promote the new BBC One series Trust Me, which starts on 8 August. where she stars as Cath Hardacre, a nurse who loses her job after she turns whistle-blower - and then steals her friend's identity as a senior doctor in an Edinburgh hospital.

Jodie Whittaker has also been talking to BBC News about the new role.

Incoming Doctor Who Showrunner Chris Chibnall has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Edge Hill University.

The award for, services to Literature, was made on Monday 17th July. In a video released by the University, Chibnall talked about how it felt to receive the award and his aspirations for Doctor Who.

BBC Sources have indicated that next year's series of Doctor Who, the first with the thirteenth Doctor, will be broadcast in the Autumn of 2018.

New showrunner Chris Chibnall is currently still working on season three of his ITV crime drama Broadchurch , which is currently being edited and will premiere in the UK on 27 February.

Chibnall told RadioTimes.com that he has not yet been able to fully dedicate himself to Doctor Who. After finishing work on Broadchurch he intends to take a holiday before launching into Doctor Who.

Chibnall will lead the team searching for the new Doctor, although the choice will need to be agreed by the BBC director of content Charlotte Moore and head of drama and former Doctor Who Executive Producer Piers Wenger. It is expected that a new Doctor will not be announced before the Autumn, with the new Doctor making their debut at the end of the 2017 Christmas Special.

Sources told RadioTimes that the first Chibnall series will begin filming at the start of 2018 for transmission in the Autumn.

Series 10 of Doctor Who, the last full series starring Peter Capaldi. is currently in production and will begin transmission on 15th April.

A roundup of competitions that readers may enter over the next couple of weeks:

Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston fronts the latest campaign from Alzheimer’s Research UK #sharetheorange.

The project features stop motion animation from award winning studio Aardman, to demonstrate how the diseases that cause dementia, most commonly Alzheimer’s, physically attack the brain. Through damage caused by the disease, the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s can weigh around 140 grams less than a healthy brain – about the weight of an orange.

Eccleston, whose father Ronnie died with vascular dementia following a 14-year battle with the disease, said

BBC Worldwide have announced a new boxed set of Doctor Who adventures, this time featuring the Christmas Specials that have aired so far...


The set is out in the United Kingdom on DVD and Blu-Ray from 19th October.

Christopher Eccleston has been talking about his time on Doctor Who in a rare interview on BBC Radio 4.

Eccleston was appearing on the Saturday evening discussion programme Loose Ends, primarily to promote his role in Safe House, a four-part drama on ITV from 20 April.

Eccleston was interviewed by Emma Freud in a wide ranging talk about his career. When asked about Doctor Who, he told Freud how he had put himself forward for the role. Freud asked him if he felt he had succeeded. So why did he leave? Freud pushed the point saying it was a big shock to fans when he left, and he had been so successful in the role he could still be playing it now. The full programme can be heard worldwide on the BBC iPlayer for the next four weeks.

Peter Davison, who celebrates his 64th birthday today, is currently appearing in London's West End in the revival of the Musical Gypsy.

Davison plays Herbie in the show, which is based upon the memoirs of the stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, and which is currently previewing at London's Savoy Theatre. The cast is led by BAFTA award winning actress Imelda Staunton who was asked to take on the role of Rose by the play's lyricist Stephen Sondheim, after he saw Staunton's performance as Mrs Lovett in the 2012 production of Sweeney Todd.

The show's cast album, featuring Davison, is released on 27th April.

Davison will take time off from the show to host Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular’s UK tour this May.

NB The first London production of Gypsy in 1973, starring Angela Lansbury, featured a 9 year old Bonnie Langford in the role of Baby June.

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Fortitude, the psychological thriller television series starring Christopher Eccleston, has been renewed for a second 10-part series.

The series, which also stars Michael Gambon airs in the UK on Sky Atlantic, where the first episode was watched by more than 2.5m people and is the channels most successful original commission.

It was ten years ago today, on the 26th March 2005, that Doctor Who was reborn, in a new century, with a new Doctor, for a new generation.

In 2005 the series had been absent from British television screens for most of the previous fifteen years. "Rested" in 1989, the series was a nostalgic memory to a generation who grew up in the 60's, 70's and 80's. To some it was remembered with derision, talk of shaky sets and implausible monsters was apparent when the series was mentioned. But to others it was remembered with great affection, engendering warm feelings of affection with memories of winter evenings spent in the company of childhood friends.

When the series was dropped from the schedules it had very few friends at the top of the BBC. The series was considered past it, had run its course, and was yesterday's news. Very few thought it would ever return. In 1996 an attempt was made to relaunch the series in America. The 90 minute TV movie made by Fox was reasonably well received, but not successful enough for the producers to commission further episodes. To many this was the final nail in the coffin. The series was dead, it would not return.

But things change and the TV landscape in 2003 was now a very different beast. The team at the top had changed and a new generation had taken over. TV was now being run by the people who had grown up with the first few Doctors. Those who remembered how exciting Saturday evening could be, when the good Doctor would battle enemies on a weekly basis, sandwiched between episodes of Basil Brush and The Generation Game. BBC One was now being run by Lorraine Heggessey, a self confessed fan of the series who had stated publically that she wanted the show back on her network. Many doubted it would happen, but on Friday 26th September 2003 it was confirmed. Doctor Who would return.

The man entrusted with the regeneration was Russell T Davies, whose was previously best known for the seminal Channel 4 series Queer as Folk, about gay life in Manchester. He was joined as Executive producer by Julie Gardner, who had just returned to the BBC to produce the David Tennant series Casanova, following a spell working with Davies at London Weekend Television. Also on the team was Mal Young, who was best known for producing the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside. Meanwhile Linda Green producer Phil Collinson was recruited to produce the series.

Once it was known the series was returning, speculation began on just who would play the enigmatic Time Lord. Paul McGann was a tipped contender, having played the Doctor in the 1996 TV Movie, while William Hill made Alan Davies the 8-to-1 favourite to win the role. Richard E. Grant was an option as was Sean Pertwee, son of the late third Doctor. The Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker announced to BBC London News that Eddie Izzard had won the role. According to the Telegraph Bill Nighy was the choice of Davies and had been offered the role, while the Daily Mirror said it was EastEnders actor Shane Richie. Colin Baker weighed in to recommend a female Doctor in the form of Dawn French.

On Friday 19 March 2004 it was announced that acclaimed actor Christopher Eccleston would take on the role, with Davies telling the press:
Two months later Eccleston was joined by Billie Piper who was cast as Rose Tyler. Piper was best known as the youngest artist ever to debut at number one in the UK singles chart. Over the next few months more respected actors joined the cast, Noel Clark would play Micky, Camille Coduri would play Rose's mother while even song and dance man John Barrowman was rumoured to have signed up.

Old monsters would also be returning, with a very public battle taking place over the use of the Daleks in the new series. An agreement was finally reached in August with the Terry Nation estate to allow the infamous pepper pots to meet the new Doctor.

The series launched on BBC One, in ablaze of publicity, on Saturday 26th March. Viewers were warmed up with a preview at 5.25pm when Doctor Who: A New Dimension gave a taste of the series. After Strictly Dance Fever with Graham Norton, the British public finally got to meet the new Doctor at 7pm, when Doctor Who: Rose was screened. A technical error a few minutes into the programme caused audio of Norton to be overlaid on the episode, much to the distress of the production team.

No one knew if it would succeed. There were many who thought it would fail. But succeed it did. Rose achieved 10.81 million viewers, the seventh most watched programme of the week. A new generation took the Doctor to their hearts and in the intervening years the series has grown into one of the BBC's most valuable assets.

Over the past ten years we have travelled with five new Doctors and enjoyed 97 stories across 117 episodes. The series is now made in specially built studios on Cardiff Bay. We have been to concerts, read books, enjoyed quiz shows and visited exhibitions based on the series. The reborn series celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2013, with a massive convention in London, and a record breaking simultaneous transmission of the special anniversary episode was watched by millions around the world.

Series 9 is currently being filmed in Cardiff, the 35th since the series began.

The trip is not over, the adventure goes on...

Ten years ago tonight, Christopher Eccleston undertook his only major inteview to promote the forthcoming new series of Doctor Who on The Jonathan Ross Show. The programme saw him reflect on being a fan of the original run, and how he came to be involved in this new, fresh production under the helm of Russell T Davies, and included an extensive trailer highlighting what was to come over the next few weeks.

However, our Moment in Time recalls Eccleston's surprise as, when discussing forthcoming merchandise to tie in with the show, Ross produces the prototype of a toy expected out for Christmas, and he comes comes face-to-face with a 10" version of himself as the Doctor ...