The actor Nigel Terry has died at the age of 69.

Nigel Terry played General Cobb in the 2008 Tenth Doctor story The Doctor's Daughter.

Terry has a long career both on stage and screen and worked extensively for both the National Theatre and theRoyal Shakespeare Company.

He is best known for playing King Arthur in John Boorman’s 1981 film Excalibur. Other movie roles include playing Prince John in Anthony Harvey’s The Lion in Winter and playing the title role of Caravaggio in the Derek Jarman film. On television he appeared in Agatha Christie's Marple, MI-5, Foyle's War, Holby City, Mortimer's Law, Resort to Murder, Highlander, The Orchid House, Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Denys Villiers, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Sherlock Holmes and Kenilworth.

Nigel Terry died last Thursday after contracting emphysema.

BBC Worldwide have signed a deal to bring Doctor Who to the Indian channel FX.

All eight post 2005 series of the show will be screened starting 15th May 2015. The deal marks largest volume sale of the BBC series in the country. FX is owned by Star India Private Limited and is available in a million homes in the country.

Myleeta Aga, SVP and GM of BBC Worldwide in India said A Star India spokesperson commented: Brian Minchin, Executive Producer, Doctor Who says:

Doctor Who has won the British Academy Television Craft Award for Best Special, Visual & Graphic Effects in 2015

The award goes to Milk VFX, Real SFX and BBC Wales VFX for their work on the 2014 series.

It is the second year running Doctor Who has won this award, this year beating the nominees for Atlantis, David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies 3D, and Ripper Street.

Danny Hargreaves of RealSFX tweetedThe winners were announced Sunday evening at the Brewery in East London.

Doctor Who has become an issue in the British General Election with the Independent reporting that the leader of the UK Independence party is calling on the BBC to stop making popular entertainment programming.

Nigel Farage told a public meeting in Rochester that the BBC should be "cut back to the bone". He said the licence fee should be cut to a third of its current value and the Corporation should be "purely a public service broadcaster with an international reach". Examples of public service broadcasting include local news coverage, arts programmes and religious broadcasts, but does not include programmes such as Doctor Who, Strictly Come Dancing, and Top Gear.

Meanwhile the Mirror, a Labour supporting paper, is reporting that Doctor Who is better under Labour governments. The paper reckons that episodes shown when the Conservatives are in power, score lower appreciation figures on IMDB than episodes shown when Labour are in charge.

The series was created in 1963 under a Conservative Government, and returned in 2005 under a Labour administration.

The latest documents released by WikiLeaks reveal the desire of Sony and BBC Worldwide to make a Doctor Who movie.

Wikileaks has just published thousands of emails and documents that it obtained following a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment last year. Included in the release are discussions between Sony executives about working with BBC Worldwide to produce a Doctor Who movie.

In an email to Sony Pictures Entertainment chief executive Michael Lynton, sent in January 2014, Sony's president of international production Andrea Wong said although the BBC were interested in the project it was the wrong time to push it. She said she had had discussions with Danny Cohen, the Director of BBC Television. Lynton asked if it would help if he met the showrunners when he visited the UK in March, but Wong advised him against the meeting. Neither Sony or the BBC have responded to the specific leak. Sony has strongly condemned the release of material by Wikileaks saying "We vehemently disagree with WikiLeaks' assertion that this material belongs in the public domain."

Milk VFX, Real SFX and BBC Wales VFX have been nominated for a 2015 BAFTA Craft Award for their work on Doctor Who.

The teams are nominated in the category Television Craft | Special, Visual & Graphic Effects in 2015. Other nominees are the teams from Atlantis, David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies 3D and Ripper Street.

Danny Hargreaves of RealSFX tweeted "Very proud of my team today"

Doctor Who won the award last year for the work on the fiftieth anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor.

The winners will be announced on Sunday 26 April at the Brewery in East London.

The 41st Annual Saturn Award nominations have been announced, and sees Doctor Who up for two awards for this year.

The show itself is listed in the Best Youth-Oriented Television Series category. Other nominations include The 100, Pretty Little Liars, Supernatural, Teen Wolf and The Vampire Diaries.

Jenna Coleman has also been nominated in the Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series category. Her competition is in the form of Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Caroline Dhavernas (Hannibal), Lexa Doig (Continuum), Emily Kinney (The Walking Dead) and Melissa McBride (also The Walking Dead).

The Saturn Awards are presented by the The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, and will take place this year on 25th June 2015.


Previously, Doctor Who won Best Television in 1997, and Best International Series in 2008; in 2010 the spin-off series Torchwood: Children of Earth won the Best Presentation on Television category.

This Easter a college in Manchester is offering a crash course in the history of Doctor Who.

Historian Michael Herbert will be teaching an 11 week evening class on the history of the television programme, starting on 14 April 2015, at Aquinas College , Stockport.

This course will look at the creation of Doctor Who by BBC’s head of drama, Sydney Newman, and producer Verity Lambert, in the early months of 1963. The course will then follow its history over the following five decades, including the Twelve Doctors from William Hartnell to Peter Capaldi; the many companions from Susan to Clara; and the role of producers and script editors in the programme such as Verity Lambert, Terrance Dicks, Barry Letts, John Nathan Turner, Andrew Cartmel and Russell T Davies.

The course will examine why Doctor Who was taken off air in 1989 and how, it returned in 2005 to critical acclaim and is now watched by millions, both in Britain and abroad. Each week the course will view a number of classic episodes from each Doctor’s era.

The course will be led by historian Michael Herbert who watched the first episode, aged 8. His pamphlet “Doctor Who and the Communist” : the television career of Malcolm Hulke was published by Five Leaves Press in January 2015.

Herbert said For more information or to book places on the course, please contact Sheila Lahan at Aquinas College.

Doctor Who will not be disappearing from Netflix in the United States, despite recent rumours that the contract with BBC Worldwide to show the programme on the streaming service was ending.

Netflix has told Variety that the rumours were false and that it would retain access to many of its most popular UK shows.

The rumours of Doctor Who's departure caused much angst amongst supporters of the show in the states, with online petitions being started to try to save the show.

Both the classic and revived versions of the show will be available, alongside Torchwood, as well as other British stalwarts such as Top Gear, Wallander, Keeping Up Appearances, Monarch of the Glen, with Tom Baker, and the original Office and House of Cards trilogy.

Doctor Who has been nominated for Best Drama in the final round of the 2015 National Television Awards.

The show is up against its fellow Cardiff produced rival Sherlock as well as period stalwart Downton Abbey and the Cilla Black bio-pic Cilla.

The star of Cilla, former Big Finish actress Sheridan Smith has been nominated for Best Drama Performance, however no actors from Doctor Who made the shortlist this year.

Votes can be cast by the public until midday on Wednesday 21st January via this link. The awards ceremony will take place at the 02 in London later the same day, being broadcast live on ITV from 7.30pm.

Doctor Who won the award for Best Drama in 2014, regaining a title it held from 2005-2010.