BBC America have released the first official publicity photograph of the new Doctor Who co-star Jenna-Louise Coleman, here pictured in front of the TARDIS:

Originally expected this month, the new game from BBC Worldwide, Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, has been delayed, with the game's official Twitter feed stating: "Finishing touches just being added to Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock with the release now set for April – believe us, it’s worth the wait!"

The release will initially be for the Sony PS3 and Sony PS Vita platforms, with a PC version due to be released at a later, currently unconfirmed date.

The BBC have announced that the new co-star to appear alongside Matt Smith in Doctor Who is to be Jenna-Louise Coleman, who joins the show in the sixth episode this year, due to be shown at Christmas.

The actress was announced via the BBC's Doctor Who feed on Twitter, which also included some quotes. Jenna-Louise said: "I want to get started already. I'm a huge fan of the show.« Matt Smith did my audition with me. It was fun and I felt like we were in it together.«"; and on her favourite companion, "Between Billie Piper and Karen Gillan". Lead writer Steven Moffat said: "We saw a lot of brilliant actresses. But Jenna was the only person going faster than Matt - he had to keep up!«"

Expanding on this in the press release, he said:
Danny Cohen, the Controller for BBC One, added:

The BBC's One O'Clock News included an item on the casting, with the actress describing when she found out she had won the part:
A full version of the interview with Entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba can be watched via the BBC News site.


The twenty-five-year-old first came to public attention playing Jasmine Thomas in the long-running soap Emmerdale between 2005 and 2009. She then went on to appear in series five of the BBC's award-winning Waterloo Road as Lindsay Jones, and will be seen on television this coming Sunday in the ITV mini-series Titanic as Annie Desmond. Her debut in film came with the role of Connie in Captain America: The First Avenger, and she has also lent her voice to the English version of the game Xenoblade Chronicles.


NB: The BBC have confirmed that Jenna-Louise Coleman does not have, and does not plan to have, a Twitter account.

Production:

It was also confirmed this morning when Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill will depart, with Steven Moffat saying: "Amy and Rory will leave in the fifth episode that goes out, and it will be a final encounter with the Weeping Angels, and not everybody gets out alive - and I mean it this time!"

As well as the lonely assassins, Doctor Who Magazine have also reported that the Daleks, too, will feature during the first half of the series this Autumn.

Speaking to the Radio Times at the Royal Television Society awards last night, Moffat explained the style of story-telling for the next series:

After the six episodes broadcast in the Autumn/Christmas this year, the remaining eight will be shown next year, with Moffat adding: "Oh, there'll be more episodes than just those eight, but these are the ones we're making right now." No other details of when and what else will occur during the 50th Anniversary have been revealed as yet.

Paul McGann has joined the list of former Doctors and companions who have indicated an interest in being involved in Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary: "Being Doctor Who, there's always anniversaries looming large - celebration programmes and episodes. I'm often asked, 'If they get the five Doctors together, would you do it?' and of course, I'd do it. They've just got to ring me up! Although I was [in] Doctor Who for six weeks, sixteen years ago, it never goes away - it only ever seems to get stronger - I'd love to do that again, but that's not up to me." [Digital Spy, 15 Mar 2012]

Three Doctor Who-related names join the principal cast of What The Butler Saw, which opens in the West End in May. The lead character of Dr. Prentice will be played by Tim McInnerny, with his wife to be played by Samantha Bond and secretary by Georgia Moffett. [Playbill, 15 Mar 2012]

Mark Gatiss talks about creating his appearance for his character Mr Snow in Being Human: "I wanted to have red hair, because you never have ginger vampires, and terrible teeth, and these really dirty fingernails. And they gave me everything I wanted. So there's lots of lovely close-ups of my filthy hands and terrible teeth. He's about 3000 years old, he's literally rotting from the inside." [Guardian, 15th Mar 2012]

The Fourth Doctor, aka Tom Baker, was the subject of a Forbes "Geek Picture of the Day", depicting him in costume with two Daleks for a publicity photo in 1975. [Forbes, 16 Mar 2012]

Maureen Lipman is to be one of the guests in Matt Lucas's new comedy show The Matt Lucas Awards. It will air on BBC One in the spring. [BBC Media Centre, 16 Mar 2012]

Talking of awards, June Whitfield was honoured with a proper one at this year's TRIC Awards. The Television and Radio Industries Club event, held at the Grosvenor House in London, saw her given the TRIC Special Award. Sian Williams was named Best Newscaster/Reporter. [BBC News, 14 Mar 2012]

Steven Moffat, John Simm, James Corden and The Sarah Jane Adventures lost out last night in their respective categories at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards, but Moffat's mother-in-law, Beryl Vertue, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. While representing writers at Associated London Scripts, Vertue negotiated Terry Nation's partial rights deal for the Daleks. Among her many other achievements, she founded the production company Hartswood Films, which makes the BBC One series Sherlock, co-created by Moffat and Mark Gatiss. At the awards ceremony, Russell Tovey jointly won (with Sarah Solemani) the Best Comedy Performance prize for the BBC Three anti-romantic comedy Him And Her. Full details of the awards ceremony - which, as with the TRIC Awards, was held at the Grosvenor House in London - are online here.

Michael E Briant is to publish his memoirs about his time on Doctor Who. The director's connection with the show stretches back to the 1965 story The Crusade, for which he was assistant floor manager. He was subsequently production assistant on a number of stories before notching up his first directorial credit on Colony In Space in 1971. Briant directed five more stories, finishing with The Robots of Death in 1977. Who Is Michael E Briant?, to be published by Classic TV Press, comes in at 216 pages and is due out on 4th May 2012. It can be pre-ordered here.

Talking of memoirs, a heartfelt and public thank-you has been said via one to Janet Fielding by writer Grant Gordon. In a piece taken from his forthcoming memoir Cobras In The Rough, Gordon recalls being a 12-year-old desperate to see the actress at the 1983 Longleat convention and how ensuring that he got his wish proved to be his father's salvation, following financial and personal problems. [Independent, 17 Mar 2012]

The BBC are to announce the new co-star to join Matt Smith headlining Doctor Who tomorrow at a press conference.

Lead writer Steven Moffat first indicated that a new companion / assistant / sidekick / talking cabbage (delete as applicable) would feature in the new series back at the Q&A session for the BFI preview of The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe, when he said:

This evening Steven Moffat has told reporters he got who he "wanted" to play Doctor's new companion but stayed tight-lipped about their identity. Speaking backstage at the Royal Television Society Awards in central London, he said The announcement will also be made online via the BBC's official Doctor Who Twitter feed.

Following on from their successful re-launch last year, BBC Books are to release a further six reprints of the classic series Target novelisations in May, based upon a reader poll via Doctor Who on Facebook. The novelisations will once again feature their original cover artwork, plus a new introduction from 'modern' day authors.


The books are due to be published on 10th May.

The TARDIS has once again been spotted out and about, this time materialising at the Welsh National Assembly! The police box prop has been in residence in the Senedd building at Cardiff Bay over the last week.

Photo: Ceri-Anne, 13th March 2012

Photo: Jess Blair, 13th March 2012

Photo: Lee Tucker, 18th March 2012

The nearby Wales Millennium Centre plays host next weekend to the official Doctor Who Convention.

Tom Baker's novel The Boy Who Kicked Pigs is being adapted for the stage.

The book, first published in 1999 and subtitled "A grotesque masterpiece", will be presented by theatre company Kill The Beast, receiving its world premiere at The Lowry arts and entertainment complex at Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, this June.

Directed by Clem Garritty, the cast will comprise Natasha Hodgson, Oliver Jones, and Zoe Bob Roberts. It is being adapted by the four of them as a development project with The Lowry and in conjunction with Arts Collective.

The black farce centres on 13-year-old Robert Caligari and features - among other things - talking piggybanks, shark mutilation, and weedkiller-cornflakes.

Porl Cooper, theatres programmer at The Lowry, said:He added that the production also had Baker's full backing.

Suitable for people aged 12 upwards, it will be at the Lowry Studio from Thursday 21st June to Saturday 23rd June. It is hoped that the production will also go on tour this year and in 2013.

Production:

Filming has now completed in Spain, with the cast and crew having returned to the UK on Thursday; cast-member Rob Cavazos commented: "Back in London. Muchas gracias, Almería. We had fun.«". The BBC have released an official photo of Karen Gillan on location at Fort Bravo Studios via Facebook, noting:"Olé! It’s a wrap as cast and crew prepare to depart sunny Spain. Back to Cardiff on Monday morning for more filming of Series 7."

Filming attracted media attention, though this was more focussed on the social activities of the cast during their free time, with coverage of shopping etc. by The Sun and Daily Mail on the 13th, and on socialising by The Sun and Daily Mail again a day later.

A number of Spanish blogs also picked up on filming, including a set report from Dos de Adobe, and the shoot was also reported by local newspapers El Almeria and The Olive Press (in English).

Cast:

Actor Andrew Brooke is to appear in Doctor Who playing a character known as The Reckoner, according to his online CV. The actor was also spotted socially in Spain with Karen, which was again reported via The Sun and Daily Mail.

Brooke has appeared in a number of television shows, including The I.T. Crowd, The Inbetweeners, and My Family, with more substantial roles as Oleg in Pulling, Alan Clacy in Collision, and more recently as Ashley in Phoneshop.


Members of the background cast have provided an album of themselves dressed in their western attire on Facebook, with the photos providing a glimpse into how the Wild West will look, Doctor Who style!

The Rumour Zone:

Back in January, Steven Moffat had made an enigmatic comment about following Sophia Myles on Twitter, saying "I'll explain later. Or not.«". That statement led to widespread speculation as to whether the actress would be returning to Doctor Who, and whilst the lead writer has yet to say anything else to confirm or deny this, the actress herself mentioned being in Spain on Monday at the same time as production was taking place in Almeria: "My bag has just been located at Malaga airport. Hope it gets to me tomorrow.«" Further fuel for the fire appeared on Friday with Arthur Darvill saying to her: "great to meet you. I think I ran off at the end. Good times.«".

It remains to be seen whether the actress really will re-appear in Doctor Who or if these are just coincidences!

Sponsorship is being sought for the new home of the Doctor Who Experience.

As reported earlier this week, the attraction will be a permanent fixture in Cardiff Bay for five years when it opens this summer. More than 1.25 million visitors are expected through its doors over that time and brands are now being offered a potentially lucrative tie-in opportunity by communications specialist Orchard Media and Events Group.

Orchard director Jim Carpenter said:
The sponsorship deal is being offered via online media ideas database Getmemedia.com, which says the anticipated investment for the five-year association is £200,000 plus VAT per year.

Getmemedia.com managing director Pete Davis said: