Neil Gaiman will be in Tasmania next month as part of the music-and-arts-centred Mona Foma Festival. An Evening With Neil Gaiman is to be held at the Theatre Royal in Hobart on Sunday 20th January. (NB: Although the event is described as being suitable for all ages, explicit language is used in the theatre's web page about the show.)

In addition, Gaiman's urban fantasy TV series Neverwhere, which aired on BBC Two in 1996 and had an accompanying novelisation, is currently being made for BBC Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra. Adapted by Dirk Maggs, who is also co-directing it, and with a cast that includes Christopher Lee, Bernard Cribbins, Anthony Head, Yasmin Paige, David Harewood, Sophie Okonedo, Don Gilet, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Andrew Sachs, the six-parter is scheduled to be broadcast during the early part of 2013. [neilgaiman.com, 28 Nov 2012]

Sheila Hancock and Lee Evans are to star in a new comedy at Wyndham's Theatre in London next year. Barking In Essex tells the tale of a gangster fresh out of jail and returning to his dysfunctional family to retrieve more than £3.5m. It has been written by Clive Exton and will be directed by Harry Burton, with Evans playing the "dim-witted idiot of the criminal underbelly" Darnley and Hancock playing Emmie, described as Darnley's "Rottweiler mother". The production previews from Friday 6th September, opening on Monday 16th September. [BBC News, 30 Nov 2012]

A new play by David Haig that was due to open at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh next May before transferring to Chichester Festival Theatre has run into casting problems. Pressure, which is about the meteorologist Captain James Stagg, who had the task of predicting the weather ahead of the D-Day landings in the Second World War, has been postponed until spring 2014 while the search to find "the right person" to play Stagg continues. [The Stage, 30 Nov 2012]

Jessica Hynes and Olivia Colman have both been nominated as Best TV Comedy Actress in this year's British Comedy Awards. Colman has, in fact, been nominated twice - firstly for Rev and secondly for Twenty Twelve, with Hynes's nomination also being for Twenty Twelve. The spoof "mockumentary" about this year's London Olympics, which had a voiceover commentary by David Tennant, is itself up for Best Sitcom against, among others, The Thick Of It, which starred Peter Capaldi, and both Capaldi and Hugh Bonneville are vying for the title of Best TV Comedy Actor for their roles in those two respective shows. Meanwhile, David Mitchell is in the running for Best Male Television Comic and he is also among the nominees for the publicly-voted King and Queen of Comedy. The ceremony will be shown live on Channel 4 on Wednesday 12th December. [BBC News, 2 Dec 2012]

Tamsin Greig and Anne Reid will be among the guest stars appearing in a new darkly comic anthology that has just started filming for BBC Two. Written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, the six-part series, which has the working title of Inside No 9, will take a look at what goes on behind closed doors at six very different residences sharing the number 9. [BBC Media Centre, 3 Dec 2012]

Sheridan Smith - companion Lucie Miller to the Eighth Doctor in the Big Finish audio dramas - is to return as mystery-solver Jonathan Creek's sidekick Joey Ross in a new episode of the BBC One crime-comedy-drama. Filming on The Clue of the Savant's Thumb, written by David Renwick, starts later this month, with the 90-minute Jonathan Creek special due to air next Easter. [BBC Media Centre, 5 Dec 2012]

Doctor Who is once again up for one of the American People's Choice Awards after making it on to the 2013 short list of nominees for Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Show.

It faces competition from Once Upon A Time, Supernatural (which beat Doctor Who last year in the same category), The Vampire Diaries, and The Walking Dead. The nominees for all 48 categories in the CBS awards show honouring TV, film, and music were announced yesterday at The Paley Center in Beverly Hills.

People can vote as often they like until Thursday 13th December, and the award winners will be revealed on CBS on Wednesday 9th January 2013.

Both The Sarah Jane Adventures and Steven Moffat were winners at The Writers' Guild Of Great Britain Awards today.

The Curse of Clyde Langer, which was written by Phil Ford and featured in the final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, was named Best Children's TV Script, beating fellow nominees 4 O'Clock Club: Maths and Horrible Histories.

And although Sherlock lost out to Appropriate Adult in the Best Short-Form TV Drama category, co-creator Steven Moffat, who was cited alongside Mark Gatiss and Stephen Thompson for the reimagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective classic, was given the Writers' Guild Special Award For Outstanding Writing.

Today's event took place at The Tabernacle in London.

The Doctor Who Adventure Game The Gunpowder Plot triumphed at this evening's BAFTA Cymru Awards.

It won the Digital Creativity And Games prize, with the combined effort of the BBC Wales Interactive Team, Sumo Digital, and Revolution Software beating Becoming Human and Coridor 5.

However, both Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures lost out in all the categories for which they had been nominated.

The Impossible Astronaut, which opened Series 6 of Doctor Who, was beaten to the Television Drama title by Shirley, the BBC Two production directed by Colin Teague and with music by Ben Foster that charted the rise to fame of Shirley Bassey, and the Series 6 finale The Wedding of River Song, which was up for a gong in the Sound category, was trumped by the Matthew Rhys film Patagonia. Meanwhile, The Curse of Clyde Langer, from the fifth and final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, saw the Children's Programme title go to S4C's Dim Byd.

Also missing out were Eve Myles for Actress in Baker Boys and Helen Raynor, who was co-nominated (with Gary Owen) for the Writer prize, again for Baker Boys. Those categories went to, respectively, Sharon Morgan for the film Resistance and Eddie Butler for Lions '71.

Tonight's ceremony was hosted by Alex Jones at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

Karen Gillan has moved back to Scotland and back home with her parents: "It's a really funny thought having all these crazy experiences on Doctor Who, then always seeming to end up back in my old childhood bedroom, with my childhood posters. I've got a Muse one, from when I was like an angsty teen. And I've got a Daniel O'Donnell calendar, which I thought would be really funny when I was younger, from 2004 or something. I lie there and I am like, has all that just really happened? Or did I just imagine it?" [Daily Record, 24 Sep 2012]

Arthur Darvill, currently appearing in Our Boys at The Duchess Theatre in London, recalls his first theatre appearance: "I was confronted with 1,000 people. I thought, 'Oh my God, what am I doing?' I've been so nervous during shows that I've walked offstage at the end and immediately forgotten everything that I've just done. You hear stories about stage fright, but if you know that someone's experienced it, you don't mention it – just in case. You never know what can set it off. It is a terrifying thing walking out for the first time, but it's funny how quickly that fades. Later, you start to crave that fear." [Guardian, 21 Sep 2012]

Colin Baker is to appear as Nurse Nellie in this year's Sleeping Beauty pantomime at Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre: "Nurse Nellie is a dame, and dames do what dames do which is to be 'mumsy', and inept, and funny, and hopefully create a few laughs along the way. I did dame three or four times before they asked me to do villain again, which I've been doing for the last six or seven years. I've been asking Martin Dodd (of UK Productions) if I can do dame again, and he said how do you fancy doing it in Bournemouth? I said, yes please!" He also commented on how much he likes the current Doctor: "I love Matt Smith. When I heard they were casting a 12-year-old I got very depressed as I like my old Doctors. He may only be 12, but inside there is a 900-year-old Time Lord and I absolutely believe it. I think he's fantastic and I love watching it." [What's On Stage, 24 Sep 2012]

Former actor Michael Cashman received the Lifetime Achievement honour at the European Diversity Awards 2012, held at The Savoy in London. Cashman, now a Labour MEP for the West Midlands and the party's human-rights spokesman in the European Parliament, said he was "very happy and humbled" to accept it.

Hugh Bonneville is to play the title role of Mr Stink in a BBC One adaptation of the children's novel by David Walliams. The one-hour family comedy, adapted by Walliams and Simon Nye, begins filming in October and is set to be transmitted later this year. Bonneville said: "I'm delighted to be adding my own whiff to the odour that emanates from David Walliams... and his very funny, touching, and thought-provoking story." Walliams, who will play the Prime Minister in it, added: "I am thrilled that Hugh is playing Mr Stink. He is one of the most popular and talented actors around, and is the perfect person to bring out the character's humour and sadness." [BBC Media Centre, 21 Sep 2012]

Make-up designer Neill Gorton explains what led him to take up the career of creating prosthetics: "We used to do family trips to Blackpool where they had a Doctor Who exhibition. Now, when, as a kid, I saw Davros on the TV, I remember thinking, 'Where did they get this incredibly ugly old man?' Then, at the exhibition, they had a Davros mask on display. That was when it dawned on me... it was a mask! Then it sank in that someone had to make it, and that is my earliest recollection of wanting to do what I do." [Scotsman, 27 Sep 2012]

With the imminent return of cult sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf to our TV screens, two of its stars have spoken of their wish for a Doctor Who crossover. Craig Charles, aka Dave Lister, said: "I think it'd be great if, for one scene, we could be beaming somewhere and suddenly we'd be on the Tardis with the Doctor. Then we could shake our heads, say 'nah', and just beam back out again." Fellow Dwarfer Danny John-Jules, who plays The Cat, added: "I think Doug Naylor should write in one of the old Doctors. Sylvester McCoy or someone. And then we could have an episode with one of those guys in it. It would be funny." [Radio Times, 25 Sep 2012]

Imelda Staunton and Tim Pigott-Smith are up for gongs in this year's Theatre Awards UK. Staunton is nominated for Best Performance In A Musical (Sweeney Todd) and Pigott-Smith is in the running for Best Performance In A Play (King Lear). The awards ceremony takes place on Sunday 28th October at the Guildhall in London. [The Stage, 27 Sep 2012]

Voting has now opened for the eighteenth National Television Awards, and as per the norm Doctor Who and its stars have been nominated for awards.

The show itself has been nominated for the Drama category, but is up against a formidable number of shows this year, with some 35 to choose from. The list includes the other Steven Moffat success Sherlock, BBC medical stalwarts Casualty and Holby City, Merlin, and last Christmas's showpiece drama Great Expectations. ITV1's contributions include Lewis, Whitechapel, Law & Order UK and last year's winner Downton Abbey.

Matt Smith is up for Drama Performance: Male; there are 29 nominations in this category, which include Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman (Sherlock), Kevin Whately (Lewis) and Sir Kenneth Branagh (Wallander). Other Who-related nominees include Marc Warren (Without You), Colin Morgan (Merlin), Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), Daniel Mays (Mrs Biggs), and Martin Clunes (A Mother's Son).

Karen Gillan has slightly less to contend with for the Drama Performance: Female, with "just" 25 nominees, including Gillian Anderson (Great Expectations), Claire Danes (Homeland) and Emilia Fox (Silent Witness). Other Who-related names include Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones (Scott and Bailey), and Sunetra Sarker (Casualty).

Who-related actors in other categories include Nina Wadia (Eastenders) in Serial Drama Performance, and Alexander Armstrong, Reggie Yates and Bradley Walsh as Entertainment Presenter.


Voting for the awards is made by the public, and takes place until Thursday 11th October. Up to four nominees from each of the categories with the most votes will then go forward to be included in the shortlist voting round (date to be announced). The ceremony itself will take place live from the O2 on ITV1 on 23rd January 2013.

The Sarah Jane Adventures is in the running for an award this year from The Writers' Guild of Great Britain.

The Curse of Clyde Langer, which was written by Phil Ford and was in the final series of the show, is nominated in the Best Children's TV Script category, facing competition from 4 O'Clock Club: Maths and Horrible Histories. The same SJA story is also up for a BAFTA Cymru award later this month.

Doctor Who failed to make the shortlist this year. It was nominated for Best TV Drama Series in 2009, 2010, and 2011 but didn't win in any of those years. However, Being Human, created and co-written by Toby Whithouse and which beat Doctor Who in 2009 and 2010, is once again nominated in that category. It is pitted against Scott & Bailey (starring Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones) and Prisoners' Wives (whose supporting cast includes Iain Glen).

Meanwhile, Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, and Stephen Thompson are in the running to walk away with the Best Short-Form TV Drama trophy for Sherlock, which is up against Appropriate Adult and This Is England '88.

This year's awards ceremony takes place on Wednesday 14th November at The Tabernacle in London.

In 1975, Season 11 of Doctor Who won a guild award for best writing in a children's serial, and Series Three was named best TV series in the guild awards of 2007. The guild is a trade union for professional writers and the awards are regarded as special because they are from peers and colleagues.

Doctor Who scooped the Best Family Drama title last night for the third year in a row at the TV Choice Awards.

Series Six saw off stiff competition from Merlin, Glee, and Waterloo Road to take the prize, with showrunner Steven Moffat accepting the honour at the ceremony, which was held at The Dorchester in London.

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, who had been nominated in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories, lost out to, respectively, Benedict Cumberbatch (for Sherlock) and Miranda Hart. Gillan was named Best Actress last year but it was a successive disappointment for Smith, who in 2011 was beaten in the Best Actor category by David Tennant for Single Father.

Sherlock, created by Moffat and Mark Gatiss, was named Best Drama Series at last night's awards.

Both Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures have been nominated in this year's BAFTA Cymru Awards.

The Doctor Who Series 6 opening episode The Impossible Astronaut is in the running for the Television Drama title, while the Series 6 finale The Wedding of River Song is up for a gong in the Sound category. The Curse of Clyde Langer, from the fifth and final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, is nominated for the Children's Programme award.

The Doctor Who Adventure Game The Gunpowder Plot - available free to TV licence-holders in the UK and for sale elsewhere globally - is up for the Digital Creativity And Games title.

Meanwhile, Eve Myles is nominated for the Actress award for Baker Boys - a programme for which Helen Raynor is co-nominated (with Gary Owen) for the Writer prize.

Last year, Doctor Who won two of its categories and The Sarah Jane Adventures was presented with the Children's Programme honour.

This year's winners will be announced at a ceremony to be hosted by Alex Jones at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Sunday 30th September. A limited number of tickets are available to the public and are on sale from the centre.

Author Neil Gaiman won a Hugo Award for The Doctor's Wife last night - and revealed that he was working on another Doctor Who script.

His Series 6 story won in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category, beating four other nominations that included The Girl Who Waited, by Tom MacRae, and A Good Man Goes To War, by Steven Moffat.

During his acceptance speech, Gaiman said: "Only a fool or a mad man would try to do it again . . . so I'm on the third draft."

Just when this episode might air is, of course, open to speculation. The Doctor's Wife had originally been scheduled for Series 5 but was pushed back a year because of budget pressures.

The Doctor's Wife, which was directed by Richard Clark, also won the 2011 Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation in this year's Nebula Awards.

It is the sixth Hugo for Doctor Who since the series returned in 2005. Other winners this year included Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell, who was part of the team that won the Best Fancast award.

The Hugo Awards were presented at Chicon 7 - the 70th World Science Fiction Convention - held at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.

Moffat tweeted a congratulatory message to Gaiman and Clark, saying: "Huge congratulations to @neilhimself and @rclarkie as The Doctor's Wife bags Doctor Who's SIXTH Hugo. Not boasting or nuffing. But SIXTH!!", and Gaiman tweeted a picture of himself with his award (shown below).