A number of new publicity images to promote this week's episode of Doctor Who, It Takes You Away

Episode 9 Trailer | It Takes You Away | Doctor Who

This episode will debut on BBC One at 6.30pm.

Main Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sunday 2nd December	6.30pm GMT
United States of America	BBC America	Sunday 2nd December	8.00pm EST
Canada	SPACE	Sunday 2nd December	8.00pm EST
Australia	ABC	Monday 3rd December	6.00pm AEDT

Full listings here

The actor Andrew Burt has died at the age of 73

Andrew Burt played Valgard, one of the Vanir, in the 1983 fifth Doctor story Terminus.

Born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, he trained at Rose Bruford College of Drama.

He was a regular on television throughout the 1970's, 80's and 90's. One of his first TV roles was in 1972, playing Jack Sugden in the new TV soap Emmerdale Farm. He played Captain FitzRoy in the TV drama The Voyage of Charles Darwin.

In 1979 he took the title role in The Legend of King Arthur alongside former Doctor Who companion Maureen O'Brien playing Morgan le Fay. Another folk hero came his way when he starred in Gulliver in Lilliput alongside Elisabeth Sladen. He played Ven Jarvik in a 1980 episode of Blake's 7.

Regular roles in Mystery!: Campion, Angels, Bergerac, The Bill and Oscar Charlie followed. He was the voice of Radio Norwich for both series of I'm Alan Partridge, appearing in one episode as Alan's old Headmaster.

In recent years Burt worked as a counsellor for people with stress-related illnesses.

The BBC have released the first promotional image for the New Year's Day adventure for the Doctor:

Doctor Who: Kerblam! had an official rating of 7.46 million viewers, according to figures released by the Broadcasting Research Audience Board, BARB.

7.23 million watched the episode on a conventional TV set. However the BARB 4-Screen Dashboard shows that an additional 120,000 watched on their PC, 61,000 watched on a Tablet device and 52,000 watched on a smartphone These figures make Doctor Who the 9th most watched programme of the week ending 18th November.

Top for the week was Sundays edition of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here getting 14.17 million watching.

Kerblam! had an Appreciation Index score of 81, again scoring higher with female viewers.

Doctor Who: The Witchfinders was watched by 5.66 million viewers, a share of 27.9% of the total TV audience, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The rating makes Doctor Who the fourth highest rated programme for Sunday and the 19th for the week ending 18th November.

Highest for the day was ITV’s celebrity show, I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here which had 9.73 million watching. Strictly Come Dancing - Results Show had 8.86 million viewers, while Dynasties, the David Attenborough series had 6.79 million. The BBC Drama The Little Drummer Girl had 2.29 million.

The week was dominated by I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, which took seven out of the top ten places for the week, each episode getting over 8 million watching. Strictly Come Dancing still took top position for the Saturday show getting 9.98 million viewers.

Coronation Street and Emmerdale pushed The Doctor down to 19th place on the overnight figures.

Final figures should be available next Monday.

The actor George A Cooper has died at the age of 93.

George A Cooper was known to a whole generation of children for playing the caretaker, Mr Grifiths, in the children's drama Grange Hill, appearing in 103 episodes between 1985 and 1992. He appeared in Doctor Who in 1966, playing Cherub in the First Doctor story The Smugglers.

George Alphonsus Cooper was born in Leeds in 1925. After training as an electrical engineer and architect he was called up for National Service, working for the Royal Artillery in India. During that period he became interested in performing and on his discharge joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in Manchester. To avoid confusion with American actor George Cooper he used his middle initial in his stage name.

His first appearance on television was in 1946. Over the next fifty years, he was a regular on the screen developing a career out of portraying slightly bumbling authoritarian characters. In 1964 he won a recurring role in ITV's Coronation Street playing businessman Willie Piggott who famously tried to bribe Ken Barlow to give his son Brian a pass on his tech exam.

He had regular roles in Z-Cars and Dixon of Dock Green. In 1960 he appeared in the West End play Billy Liar playing the father of the title character, later reprising the role in the 1973 television series. He appeared in comedies such as Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Sykes and Mind Your Language.

In 1985 he took on the role of no-nonsense caretaker Eric Griffiths in the incredibly successful children's drama Grange Hill, playing the role for seven years and earning a place in the hearts of a generation of children.

His last TV appearance was in a 1995 episode of Casualty.

George A Cooper died at a nursing home in Hampshire last Friday. He is survived by his son Adam.

A number of new publicity images to promote this week's episode of Doctor Who, The Witchfinders

Episode 8 Trailer | The Witchfinders | Doctor Who

This episode will debut on BBC One at 6.30pm.

Main Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sunday 25th November	6.30pm BST
United States of America	BBC America	Sunday 25th November	8.00pm EDT
Canada	SPACE	Sunday 25th November	8.00pm EDT
Australia	ABC	Monday 26th November	6.00pm AEST

Full listings here

Doctor Who: Demons Of The Punjab had an official rating of 7.48 million viewers, according to figures released by the Broadcasting Research Audience Board, BARB.

7.23 million watched the episode on a conventional TV set. However the BARB 4-Screen Dashboard shows that an additional 139,000 watched on their PC, 61,000 watched on a Tablet device and 51,000 watched on a smartphone These figures make Doctor Who the 8th most watched programme of the week ending 11th November.

Top for the week was Saturdays edition of Strictly Come Dancing getting 11.55 million watching. The new David Attenborough narated series Dynasties had 7.63 million viewers.

Demons Of The Punjab had an Appreciation Index score of 80, again scoring higher with female viewers.

A number of new publicity images to promote this week's episode of Doctor Who, Kerblam!

Episode 7 Trailer | Kerblam! | Doctor Who

This episode will debut on BBC One at 6.30pm.

Main Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sunday 18th November	6.30pm BST
United States of America	BBC America	Sunday 19th November	8.00pm EDT
Canada	SPACE	Sunday 18th November	8.00pm EDT
Australia	ABC	Monday 19th November	6.00pm AEST

Full listings here

Doctor Who Magazine has confirmed that this year's Christmas Special of Doctor Who will be shown on New Year's Day 2019.

The change is a radical change for the series which has been part of the Christmas Day schedule since the series returned in 2005. The series peaked in 2007 when Kylie Minogue joined the Tenth Doctor in Voyage of the Damned watched by 13.3 million viewers. Last year's Christmas special, Twice Upon A Time, marking the departure of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor, was watched by 7.92 million.

The episode to be shown on New Year's Day will mark the end of Jodie Whittaker's first season as The Doctor. The last episode to be shown on New Year's Day was the second part of The End of Time in 2010 where it had 12.27 million viewers.