The BBC has confirmed that Series Eleven of Doctor Who will be scored by composer Segun Akinola.

Segun Akinola, who trained at The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, will take over from Murray Gold, supplying the incidental music for the series as well as providing a fresh take on the legendary theme tune.

As part of the BAFTA Breakthrough Brit program in 2017, Segun has already been recognised as one of the rising stars among British composers.

Segun’s other work includes scoring BBC Two’s landmark four-part series Black and British: A Forgotten History, written and presented by Historian David Olusoga. He also scored Shola Amoo’s debut feature film A Moving Image, which had its world premiere at the 2016 LA Film Festival, won the Special Recognition in Narrative Directing award at BlackStar Film Festival 2016 and had its European premiere at the 60th BFI London Film Festival in 2016. His score for Dear Mr Shakespeare received an Honourable Mention for the 2017 BSO Jerry Goldsmith Award for ‘Best Original Score for a Short Film’. Recently, he completed the scores for the major three-part series The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed and two-part series Expedition Volcano, both for BBC Two and PBS.

Chris Chibnal Doctor Who showrunner said: Segun Akinola, said:.

Big Finish has announced Torchwood is returning in a new series of audio plays, but is the team ready for its greatest threat to date…? They’ll be fighting an alien god in the fiery start to series 6 of Torchwood – God Among Us.

Torchwood, the cult television show created by Russell T Davies, ran from 2006–2011 as a spin-off from Doctor Who, with Big Finish continuing their adventures on audio.

In Series 5 - Aliens Among Us, Torchwood returned to Cardiff. The team dealt with an alien occupation, terrorists, and the surprising resurrection of Yvonne Hartman. This year they face an alien god.

God Among Us kicks off a few days after the Aliens Among Us finale, but not everyone has made it out alive...

John Barrowman returns as Captain Jack Harkness, joined by Tracy-Ann Oberman as Yvonne Hartman, Paul Clayton as Mr Colchester, Alexandria Riley as Ng, Samantha Béart as Oor, Jonny Green as Tyler Steele and Tom Price as Sergeant Andy Davison. Leading the Sorvix is Rachel Atkins returning as Ro-Jedda.

Four new episodes of the sixth series of Torchwood will be available from October 2018.

When a god comes to Cardiff, the world goes to Hell.

• 6.1 Future Pain by James Goss
• 6.2 The Man Who Destroyed Torchwood by Guy Adams
• 6.3 See No Evil by John Dorney
• 6.4 Night Watch by Tim Foley

Producer of the series and episode one writer, James Goss, tells us more about the return of the Torchwood team: John Barrowman shared in the studio his thoughts on Torchwood and Series 6, Executive producer, Jason Haigh-Ellery, adds: Torchwood Series 6 Part 1 kicks off this next set of adventures in October 2018. Part 2 will follow in February 2019, and part 3 will complete the season in June 2019.

All three parts can be pre-ordered today individually for £25 on download or £28 on CD, or you can save money in a specially-priced Torchwood series 6 bundle with all three parts at £60 on download or £75 on CD.

Candy Jar Books have made a second set of their Lethbridge-Stewart novels available to freely download via Kindle over the next five days:

The actor Leslie Grantham has died at the age of 71.

Leslie Grantham had a small role in the 1984 story Resurrection of the Daleks playing Kiston, a member of Lytton's mercenary company. He will be best remembered for creating the role of Den Watts in the hugely successful soap opera EastEnders.

Born in Camberwell, south London, after leaving school, Grantham joined the Royal Fusiliers becoming a lance corporal. He was 18 when serving in Germany he bungled a robbery. During a struggle, he shot and killed a taxi driver, Felix Reese. Grantham insisted he did not know the gun was loaded and it had gone off by accident. The jury didn't believe him and convicted him of murder.

The next 11 years were spent in British jails. It was while serving in Leyhill Prison in Gloucestershire that he met actress Louise Jameson, who was working as a prison visitor. She encouraged him to take up acting and on his release, he was offered a place at drama school

Leslie Grantham's big break came in 1984 when he was offered the role of the pub landlord in the BBC's new gritty drama, EastEnders, set in the working class area of East London. The director of the show's first episode, Matthew Robinson, had also helmed his appearance in Doctor Who.

His was the first voice heard in the show. The character was immoral, unscrupulous and cruel and it gripped the imagination of the British public. When the character made his daughters schoolgirl friend pregnant he was dubbed Dirty Den by the tabloids.

The Christmas 1986 episode, in which Den handed divorce papers to his wife Angie, was watched by 30 million viewers, half the population of the UK.

Grantham left the series in 1989. Other roles followed but he never achieved the success enjoyed while in EastEnders. He was lured back in 2003 for an 18 month stint.

Grantham has lived in Bulgaria for the last few years. He recently retured to the UK for medical treatment He died on Friday morning

He is survived by his three children, Michael (“Spike”), Jake and Danny

The new Doctor Who cast will make their first-ever panel appearance at this year's Comic-Con International held at San Diego 2018 this July.

The Doctor Who panel will feature new Doctor Jodie Whittaker alongside two of her Doctor Who co-stars Tosin Cole, and Mandip Gill. They will be joined by Showrunner Chris Chibnall and Executive Producer Matt Strevens.

The panel will be moderated by legendary Doctor Who fan, comedian Chris Hardwick (The Talking Dead, Talking with Chris Hardwick).

The panel will be the cast’s first-ever panel appearance ahead of Doctor Who returning this Autumn on BBC One and BBC America. .

Temporal Logbook II: Further Journeys from Pencil Tip Publishing, has been officially released. Contributors include Hamish Crawford, Nic Ford, Russell McGee, Richard Peevers, Tony Jones, Rob Nisbet, R.P. Fox, Kate Coleman, Kevin Mason, Frank Danes, David Smith and Violet Addison, J.E. Remy, Fionna MacDonald and Nick Mellish.

All proceeds from this publication will be donated in support of the Mood Disorders Association of British Columbia (MDABC) which is a non-profit organization that provides treatment, support, education, and hope of recovery for people living with a mood disorder.

To order a copy click here

Candy Jar Books have made a number of their Lethbridge-Stewart novels available to freely download via Kindle this weekend:

Comedian Rob Lloyd is bringing his Doctor Who themed one man show to the UK this Summer.

The show sees Lloyd using a fake courtroom setting to analyse whether Doctor Who has made him an obsessive or a better person, with stories and photos from his childhood. Tour Schedule

• Exeter 27 June 
• Borden 29 June 
• Southport 30 June 
• Chipping Norton 4 July 
• Norwich 5 July 
• Salford 7 July 
• Inverness 8 July

The BBC is to close its Madia Vale studios, the former home of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and the place where many of the iconic sounds used in Doctor Who were created.

The studios, based in west London, have been used by the BBC since 1933 when the corporation took over the former Maida Vale Roller Skating Palace and Club and converted it to music studios. Since then it has hosted tens of thousands of recordings, from grand orchestral performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra to rock recordings by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Jay-Z, The Beatles and David Bowie, to popular artists such as Bing Crosby, who, in 1977, made his last recording in the studios, three days before he died.

From 1958 until 1998 it was the home of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the body charged with producing most of the music and special sounds when a new science fiction series was launched in 1963.

It was in this building that the sheet music for the new Doctor Who Theme music, written by Ron Grainer, arrived, leaving workshop staff Delia Derbyshire and Dick Mills to render the tune electronically. This they achieved by generating each note separately and physically splicing them together on quarter-inch magnetic tape. The resulting music has become one of television's most recognisable and iconic theme tunes.

It was in this building that Brian Hodgson, charged with finding a sound for the new spaceship, ran his keys across a set of piano strings and gave birth to the wheezing groaning sound of the TARDIS dematerialising. It was here the sounds of the Dalek Ship, the Sonic Screwdriver and so many more were created, some of which are still used in the series today.

The closure of the studios, after over 80 years, was announced by BBC Director general Tony Hall. He said the complex would be replaced by a new, state-of-the-art facility at the former Olympic Park in east London.

This week sees the return of the Seventh Doctor in comic form, for a set of all-new adventures.

Written by Andrew Cartmel and Executive produced by Ben Aaronovitch, the powers behind the Doctor Who episode Remembrance of the Daleks – which celebrates its 30th Anniversary in 2018!

Seventh Doctor #1

Writer: Andrew Cartmel
Artist: Christopher Jones
COVER A: Alice X. Zhang COVER B: Photo - Will Brooks COVER C: Christopher Jones COVER D: Simon Myers