The Snowmen, will make its Australian debut on Boxing Day, Wednesday 26 December 2012 at 7.30pm on ABC1.

The previous two Christmas specials, A Christmas Carol and The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, also debuted in Australia on Boxing Day.

BBC America have published a press release for this year's Christmas Special, which will be broadcast on the channel on Christmas Day at 9:00pm ET/PT.


The BBC have also published a press release for the Special, though unlike the United States the time of transmission has yet to be confirmed.

The BBC have released a new promotional image for this year's Christmas Special, featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor and Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara:


A photo of the Doctor in front of the TARDIS was released during the week as part of the publicity for Children in Need, and during this evening's charity show the special's first full trailer was broadcast, introducing Coleman's character and revealing the title as The Snowmen.

The title of this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special has been revealed on Children in Need to be:


A trailer for the episode was broadcast tonight, which also introduced the Doctor's new friend-to-be, Clara (as played by Jenna-Louise Coleman). In addition, a special minisode was broadcast earlier in the evening to introduce the episode - The Great Detective featured the Doctor's old friends Vastra, Jenny and Strax in their attempts to coax him out of retirement ...

The title of this year's Doctor Who Christmas special will be revealed tonight during the Children In Need telethon on BBC One.

As previously reported, the fund-raiser will be showing a bespoke storyline as a prequel to the special, as well as giving viewers a sneak preview of the special itself.

Now, in addition, the official site said today that the story title would be revealed and a glimpse would be given of what the Doctor will be facing in the Christmas episode.

The Children In Need broadcast begins at 7.30pm, with the prequel scheduled to air between then and 8pm and the trailer set to go out at some point between 8.30pm and 9pm, although these timings may change.

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 BBC have released a special scene that tells the tale of what happened to Brian Williams after the departure of his son Rory and wife Amy at the end of The Power of Three. The scene was written by Chris Chibnall but never recorded, and is presented now through the use of animated storyboards, featuring the voice of Arthur Darvill.

Executive Producer Caroline Skinner said:

BBC America are to show a special documentary that examines the Doctor's fascination with the United States:
The documentary is being shown immediately before the broadcast of The Angels Take Manhattan, tonight at 9pm ET.