The BBC have now confirmed Doctor Who will return on New Years Day with the first part of the new series, Spyfall.


Update 3rd Dec: time of broadcast is confirmed as 6:55pm on BBC One. A new, longer trailer for the premiere has now been released:

The BBC's annual fundraising evening for Children in Need took place yesterday, and by the end of the evening raised £47,886,382 for the charity.

The evening featured a special surprise for Anastasia who, having presented a video about the work done by drame group Hackney Shed to boost confidence for herself and others, was then thrilled as her very own heroine the Doctor arrived on stage to meet her!


Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill were all on hand to make it a very special evening for Anastasia, with Jodie also presenting her with her very own sonic screwdriver.


You can still donate to Children in Need via their website.

BBC Books to launch The World Cup of Terrance Dicks social Media tournament on Monday 18 November 2019

BBC Books is to publish a hardback collection of Target novelisations by the late Terrance Dicks next year – and they want Doctor Who fans to help with the selection.

The commemorative single-volume Collected Works of the late Terrance Dicks 2ill be published in 2020. The lavish hardback will include some of the Doctor Who writer's most popular titles from the Target range, a list to which he contributed over 60 books.

So how do you choose the best? How does The Abominable Snowmen rate against Genesis of the Daleks? How do you leave out The Planet of the Spiders to make room for The Auton Invasion? What about The Three Doctors? With so many to choose from, BBC Books is seeking some expert advice from the fans.

On Monday 18 November BBC Books will be offering Doctor Who fans the chance to vote on social media for their favourite works by Terrance Dicks, to be included in the collection.

The World Cup of Terrance Dicks will take place over five days on the Doctor Who BBC Books Twitter account(@DWBBCBooks), where 64 of Terrance’s Doctor Who novelisations will be sorted into 16 groups of 4, and each day fan votes will get us closer to a final winner.

The book will then be based around the 10 novels that make to the top of the tournament. Fans can keep track of the tournament through the hashtag #TerranceDicksWorldCup

BBC Studios have announced that the next missing Patrick Troughton story to receive the animated treatment will be Fury From The Deep, the penultimate adventure from the fifth season which features the departure of travelling companion Victoria.

The release was announced on the Animations Panel at this weekend's London Comic Con, and as well as all six missing episodes being animated in high definition in both colour and black and white it will also include the surviving clips from the serial, a new Making-Of, and other features still be be announced.

The story is due to be relesed on DVD and Blu-ray (including as a steelbook edition) during 2020, following on from The Faceless Ones, which was announced earlier this year, also for 2020.

BBC Books is to publish a new collection of spin-off stories from famous episodes throughout the history of Doctor Who.

In this collection, you’ll find all-new stories spinning off from some of your favourite Doctor Who moments across the history of the series. Learn what happened next, what went on before, and what occurred off-screen in an inventive selection of sequels, side-trips, foreshadowings and first-hand accounts – and also look forward in time, with a brand new adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor.

Each story expands upon aspects of Doctor Who’s enduring legend. The book includes fifteen different stories, with contributions from show luminaries past and present – including Terrance Dicks, Colin Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Mike Tucker, Joy Wilkinson, and Vinay Patel – and bestselling writers such as Jenny T. Colgan, Jacqueline Rayner, Una McCormack, Steve Cole and George Mann. With artwork from Mike Collins and cover art by Anthony Dry.

Doctor Who: The Target Storybook is published on 24th October 2019 by BBC Books, priced £16.99.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Colin Baker is an English actor who became known for playing Paul Merroney in the BBC drama series The Brothers from 1974 to 1976. He went on to play the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the TV series Doctor Who. He reprised the role for the 1993 Children in Need special, Dimensions in Time, and the 1989 stage show Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure. He has also voiced the Doctor for over 140 Doctor Who audio stories for Big Finish Productions.

Steve Cole is an editor and children’s author whose sales exceed three million copies. His hugely successful Astrosaurs young fiction series has been a UK top-ten children’s bestseller. His several original Doctor Who novels have also been bestsellers.

Jenny T. Colgan has written numerous bestselling novels as Jenny Colgan, which have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, been translated into 25 languages, and won both the Melissa Nathan Award and Romantic Novel of the Year 2013. Aged 11, she won a national fan competition to meet Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor).

Susie Day is the author of the Pea's Book and Secrets series from Puffin. Her latest novel for children, Max Kowalski Didn't Mean It, is about dragons and toxic masculinity. Between books, she works as a copywriter in Birmingham. Susie currently lives in Coventry with her partner and two silly cats.

Terrance Dicks worked on scripts for The Avengers as well as other series before becoming full Script Editor of Doctor Who from 1968. Dicks worked on the Jon Pertwee Third Doctor era of the programme, and returned as a writer – scripting Tom Baker's first story as the Fourth Doctor: Robot. Terrance Dicks novelised many of the original Doctor Who stories for Target books, and has written original Doctor Who novels for BBC Books.

Simon Guerrier is co-author of Doctor Who: The Women Who Lived and Whographica for BBC Books, and has written countless Doctor Who books, comics, audio plays and documentaries. He has been a guest on Front Row and The Infinite Monkey Cage on Radio 4 and, with his brother Thomas, makes films and documentaries – most recently Victorian Queens of Ancient Egypt for Radio 3.

George Mann is the author of the bestselling Doctor Who: Engines of War and Newbury & Hobbes steampunk mystery series. He’s also written new adventures for Sherlock Holmes, a collection of Star Wars myths and fables, and the supernatural crime series Wychwood. He lives near Grantham, UK, with his wife, son and daughter.

Una McCormack is a New York Times bestselling author. She has written four Doctor Who novels: The King's Dragon and The Way through the Woods (featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory); Royal Blood (featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara), and Molten Heart (featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham). She is also the author of numerous audio dramas for Big Finish Productions.

Vinay Patel is a playwright and screenwriter. His television debut was the BAFTA-winning Murdered By My Father and for Doctor Who he has written Demons of the Punjab. His latest play, An Adventure, ran at the Bush Theatre in 2018. Elsewhere, he contributed to the bestselling collection of essays, The Good Immigrant.

Jacqueline Rayner is the author of over 40 books and audio plays, including number one bestseller The Stone Rose, the highest-selling Doctor Who novel of all time, and two Doctor Who ‘Quick Reads’ for World Book Day. She lives in Essex with her husband and twin sons, and writes regularly for Doctor Who Magazine.

Beverly Sanford's first Young Adult novel, The Wishing Doll, was published by Badger Learning in 2014, followed by Remember Rosie, Silent Nation and two non-fiction books. A BBC Writer’s Room semi-finalist (2011) and an Editor’s Choice in the Jim Henson Co/Penguin Dark Crystal Author Quest (2014), Bev is currently working on a screenplay for Sun Rocket Films and a children’s fiction series.

Matthew Sweet presents the BBC radio programmes Free Thinking, Sound of Cinema and The Philosopher’s Arms. He has judged the Costa Book Award, edited The Woman in White for Penguin Classics and was Series Consultant on the Showtime/Sky Atlantic series Penny Dreadful. His books include The West End Front and Operation Chaos: The Vietnam Deserters Who Fought the CIA, the Brainwashers and Themselves.

Mike Tucker is a visual effects designer and author who has written several original Doctor Who novels as well as fiction for other shared universes. He has also co-written numerous factual books relating to film and television, including Impossible Worlds and the TARDIS Instruction Manual.

Matthew Waterhouse played Adric, companion to Tom Baker and Peter Davison's Doctors from 1980 to 1982. Since then, he has worked extensively as an actor in theatre. His published writing includes a memoir, Blue Box Boy, three novels and a book of stories. Recently he's appeared in episodes of the audio version of Dark Shadows and numerous Doctor Who audio projects, including an award-winning one-man play, Doctor Who: A Full Life, and a forthcoming quartet of new adventures starring alongside Tom Baker.

Joy Wilkinson is an award-winning writer working across film, television, theatre and radio. She was a Screen International 'Star of Tomorrow', a two-time Brit List nominee and has had her work widely produced in the UK and internationally. For television, Joy has written the Doctor Who episode The Witchfinders, and her other credits include BBC One’s critically-acclaimed drama Nick Nickleby.

BBC Radio 4 Extra will broadcast a special programme celebrating the centenary of Jon Pertwee's birth, presented by his son Sean Pertwee:


The Jon Pertwee Files will be broadcase on BBC Radio 4 Extra on Saturday 6th July at 8:00am, with repeats at 3:00pm and then late evening at 3:00am. It will also be broadcast at 4:00pm on BBC Radio Solent on Sunday (Jon Pertwee was a pupil at Sherborne School in Dorset, and later based at Portsmouth Naval Barracks during WW2)

The show will also be available on BBC Sounds for 30 days after transmission.


Listen to the Trailer:


Listen to a clip:

BBC Books have announced a new hardback fiction book to tie in with the return of Doctor Who in 2020.


Doctor Who: Star Tales will be released on 5th December 2019, and is available to pre-order via our Amazon Shop.

Two chapters will also be made available for download as eshorts during November.

BBC Studios have annnounced that the next release in their Doctor Who: The Collection will be the tenth anniversary series of advantures, starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor:


The six disc Blu-ray collection includes all five of the stories comprising this season, plus a bonus disc of extras. As well as features previously available on the DVD releases, the set will include:

• A brand new feature-length documentary examining the Third Doctor’s Era, with archival contributions from Jon Pertwee, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks plus all-new interviews with Katy Manning, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, presented by Matthew Sweet.
• Updated special effects and surround sound mix for Planet of the Daleks.
• Five new instalments of Behind the Sofa, featuring Katy Manning, Richard Franklin (Captain Yates) and John Levene (Sergeant Benton), along with 21st century Doctor Who panel Phil Collinson (Producer/Executive Producer), Pete McTighe (Writer) and Joy Wilkinson (Writer).
• Looking for Lennie, a documentary investigating the life of director Lennie Mayne.
• Keeping up with the Jones’, which sees Katy Manning with Stewart Bevan (Cliff Jones) pay a return visit to the Welsh locations from The Green Death.
• Plus: a repeat omnibus of The Green Death unseen since Christmas 1973, rare Panopticon convention footage, Blu-ray trailer, HD photo galleries plus scripts, production files and rare documentation provided as PDFs.

The set will also include Death Of The Doctor, which featured Katy Manning reprising her role as Jo in The Sarah Jane Adventures.


Doctor Who: The Collection: Season Ten is due to be released on Monday 8th July 2019 (the day after what would have been Jon Pertwee's 100th birthday), and is available to pre-order in the UK from our Amazon Shop.

BBC Digital have released a trailer for their forthcoming virtual reality film, Doctor Who: The Runaway:



The film will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival next week, and will be coming to UK audiences in the near future.