The BBC have released a photo of Matt Smith as the Doctor as part of the publicity for this Friday's Children In Need on BBC1.
The segment is due to appear during the 8:30-9:00pm slot of the evening, though timings are invariably estimates due to the live nature of the programme.

The BBC have announced that, as with many years in the past, Doctor Who will feature as a part of its annual Children in Need fund-raising evening:


Last year, the Doctor's costume was auctioned for the charity, raising £50,000.


Children in Need takes place this year on Friday 16th November.

It might seem enshrined in tradition, but the Christmas Special is seldom confirmed to be on Christmas Day itself until just a few weeks before broadcast. This year, however, the BBC have announced some ten weeks in advance that Doctor Who will indeed feature in the line-up for the festive evening, which it hopes will help settle the audience in front of BBC1 with their turkey sandwiches for the duration!

The time of the episode has yet to be announced, but will slot into the usual late afternoon/early evening line-up, which this year includes the Pixar Oscar-winning film Up as well as the usual instalment of Walford mayhem in EastEnders. The prime-time 9:00pm slot this year falls to the popular new series Call the Midwife, which is expected to go head-to-head with the ratings winner of last Christmas, ITV1's Downton Abbey. The main evening viewing on BBC1 is rounded off with The Royle Family at 10:00pm.

The as-yet-untitled hour-long special set in Victorian times will be Matt Smith's third Christmas outing, and sees the debut of Jenna-Louise Coleman as the new regular co-star; the episode also guest stars Richard E Grant. In addition, the episode will see the return of several of the Doctor's compatriots from last year's A Good Man Goes To War, with Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart and Dan Starkey reprising their roles of Vastra, Jenny and Strax respectively. The episode is written by Steven Moffat and directed by Saul Metzstein.

Into 2013 ...

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine has summarised the expected running order of the remaining eight episodes of the current series to be broadcast in 2013, and also confirmed that fantasy author Neil Gaiman - who suggested he was writing a script last month - has indeed done so.

Episode	Writer	Director	Guest stars
2013 #1 |	Steven Moffat |	Colm McCarthy
2013 #2 |	Neil Cross |	Farren Blackburn
2013 #3 |	Mark Gatiss |	Douglas Mackinnon |	David Warner and Liam Cunningham
2013 #4 |	Neil Cross |	Jamie Payne |	Dougray Scott and Jessica Raine
2013 #5 |	Steve Thompson |	Mat King |	Ashley Walters
2013 #6 |	Mark Gatiss |	Saul Metzstein |	Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling
2013 #7 |	Neil Gaiman |	Stephen Wolfenden
2013 #8 |	Steven Moffat |	tbc

The final part of Pond Life has now been released by the BBC.


Further details about the mini-adventures are available from the Pond Life page on the BBC website.

Part Four of Pond Life has now been released by the BBC.


Further details about the mini-adventures are available from the Pond Life page on the BBC website.

Part Three of Pond Life has now been released by the BBC.


Further details about the mini-adventures are available from the Pond Life page on the BBC website.

Part Two of Pond Life has now been released by the BBC.


Further details about the mini-adventures are available from the Pond Life page on the BBC website.

The first part of the Doctor Who mini-adventure, Pond Life, has now been released by the BBC. Each of the five parts will be shown online over the next few days, leading into the the broadcast of Asylum of the Daleks on Saturday.


Further details are available from the Pond Life page on the BBC website.

More details have been released regarding the special online story Pond Life.

The mini-adventure, starring Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, will be available from the BBC's website from Monday 27th August, with each of the five parts expected around midday on consecutive days throughout the week; the entire story will then be made available on the BBC's digital television Red Button service on Saturday, 1st September.

The story is directed by Saul Metzstein, and written by Chris Chibnall, who said:

Executive producer Caroline Skinner added:

Some Publicity photos have been released for the special:

The BBC have also released a video featuring Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill introducing the story: