A new composition has been unveiled today to commemorate the BBC's historic Bush House, which ceased broadcasting in July. It was composed by Matthew Herbert, who has been appointed the creative director of the New Radiophonic Workshop, the successor to the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop that itself closed some fourteen years ago.

The piece was commissioned as the former World Service headquarters sees much of its old equipment being sold off in auction over the coming week; talking about the closure and its relevance to the Radiophonic Workshop, Herbert said:
The piece can be listened to via the right button, or on THE SPACE website.


The New Radiophonic Workshop was formed this year as part of an initiative undertaken by THE SPACE, an experimental digital Arts portal managed by Arts Council England and developed in partnership with the BBC. The workshop's first commission was The Sound of The Space, a compilation that brings together some twenty-five themes from across the portal, and can be listened to via their website.

An accomplished musician and contributor to fellow artists' projects and films, Matthew Herbert has also been credited with pioneering the use of 'found' sound in modern electronic music, that is, the integration of naturally occurring sound within compositions.

Joining him in the new Workshop initiative are music/sound designer Yann Seznec, composer Max de Wardener, broadcast technologist Tony Churnside, musician Mica Levi, theatre director Lyndsey Turner, and creative technologist Patrick Bergel.

Unlike the original workshop, which was based in Maida Vale, the new one is described as "a virtual institution, an online portal and forum for discussion around the challenges of creating new sounds, and bringing together music composition and software design."

Speaking of the resurrection of a pioneering institution, Herbert said:

BBC Radiophonic Workshop

The inspiration of "radiophonic" aware BBC producers such as Desmond Briscoe and Daphne Oram, the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop was founded in 1958, headed by Briscoe with technical assistant Dick Mills. The Workshop was at the cutting edge of electronic sound and music development, and attracted the talents of composers including Delia Derbyshire (who realised the original Doctor Who theme tune) and Brian Hodgson (who created many of the special sounds heard in the early years of the show).

THE SPACE have provided a short video interview with the Radiophonic Workshop team, which originates from a Tomorrow's World from 1965.

Doctor Who scooped the Best Family Drama title last night for the third year in a row at the TV Choice Awards.

Series Six saw off stiff competition from Merlin, Glee, and Waterloo Road to take the prize, with showrunner Steven Moffat accepting the honour at the ceremony, which was held at The Dorchester in London.

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, who had been nominated in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories, lost out to, respectively, Benedict Cumberbatch (for Sherlock) and Miranda Hart. Gillan was named Best Actress last year but it was a successive disappointment for Smith, who in 2011 was beaten in the Best Actor category by David Tennant for Single Father.

Sherlock, created by Moffat and Mark Gatiss, was named Best Drama Series at last night's awards.

Big Finish have released the covers for some of the forthcoming stories due towards the end of the year.

November sees the release of a sequel, as producer David Richardson comments:

December's regular adventure stars Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, 1001 Nights will comprise four one-episode stories with a linking theme. Guest stars include Alexander Siddig (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Nadim Sawalha (Syriana) and Malcolm Tierney (Terror of the Vervoids).

Subscribers to the regular range that includes 1001 Nights will be eligible for this year's free adventure, Night of the Stormcrow, which stars Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela. David says:
The story will be released commercially in December 2013.

The BBC have released a variety of photos to promote A Town Called Mercy, which will premiere on BBC1 next Saturday at 7:35pm.


A Town Called Mercy is due to be broadcast at these times around the world:

United Kingdom : Saturday 15th September, 7:35pm BST   BBC1
United States  : Saturday 15th September, 9:00pm ET    BBC America
Canada         : Saturday 15th September, 9:00pm ET    SPACE
Australia      : Saturday 22nd September, 7:30pm AEST  ABC (also on iView from 16th Sept)
New Zealand    : Thursday 27th September, 8:30pm NZST  Prime

Radio Times visits A Town Called Mercy

This week's Radio Times features an interview with the cast, who talk about their Wild West adventure.

Matt Smith:
Arthur Darvill:
Karen Gillan:

The full interview can be read in the latest edition, out today.
(with thanks to Radio Times)

Coming Soon: The Power of Three

Meanwhile, Radio Times has listed The Power of Three to remain in the 7:35-8:20pm timeslot on 22nd September; BBC Programme Information has yet to confirm the time, which will be finalised later in the week.

Both Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures have been nominated in this year's BAFTA Cymru Awards.

The Doctor Who Series 6 opening episode The Impossible Astronaut is in the running for the Television Drama title, while the Series 6 finale The Wedding of River Song is up for a gong in the Sound category. The Curse of Clyde Langer, from the fifth and final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, is nominated for the Children's Programme award.

The Doctor Who Adventure Game The Gunpowder Plot - available free to TV licence-holders in the UK and for sale elsewhere globally - is up for the Digital Creativity And Games title.

Meanwhile, Eve Myles is nominated for the Actress award for Baker Boys - a programme for which Helen Raynor is co-nominated (with Gary Owen) for the Writer prize.

Last year, Doctor Who won two of its categories and The Sarah Jane Adventures was presented with the Children's Programme honour.

This year's winners will be announced at a ceremony to be hosted by Alex Jones at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Sunday 30th September. A limited number of tickets are available to the public and are on sale from the centre.

The following round-up includes interview discussion of the current series which may be considered spoilers for upcoming episodes.


Matt Smith talks about the speculation over a future female Doctor: "I think there are many actresses that could play it because there are so many wonderful actresses. I mean, it would change the role because she would be a woman so when you put her in a room full of men, it's a different scenario than if you put a man in a room full of men, because she's a different sex. Would it change the fundamentals of the character? No. But it's an interesting idea, if the Doctor's a woman, does she have a Doctor baby? Is there a mini-Doctor? I don't know, who knows? What actresses could play her? Oh gosh, so many, so many could play her. It depends on what age you would want. It could be... Charlize Theron is pretty kick ass, isn’t she? They just have to find a brilliant actress. I never see that happening any time soon to be honest. I don’t think it will happen. And I'm not turning into a woman. [The Mary Sue, 1 Sep 2012]

Arthur Darvill talks about his decision to leave the show this series: "It does feel like the right time to move on. The worst thing you can do is outstay your welcome on something like this. We've had such a good run and such good stories, but the whole program is about change. It's about things changing and evolving. So it's sad to leave, but it feels like the right thing to do. ... It's one of the best things I've ever done in my life," said Darvill. "I think people, when they leave a show, they can kind of separate themselves from what they've done. But I'll always be proud of the work that I've done on Doctor Who. I've learned so much doing it and had such an amazing time doing it. It's given me such a great start in everything. I still feel fairly early on in my career, and it's a really good foundation." [Blastr, 31 Aug 2012]

Writer Chris Chibnall talks about bringing dinosaurs to the screen: "There were two sides to it, one of which was, you know going in that it’s not a Michael Bay budget. It’s a Doctor Who budget. A BBC budget, although a very good one. But you know you can’t do dinosaurs endlessly for 45 minutes, so there has to be a big ‘other’ story going on. That was my job really, to go, ‘Okay, this is the story I want to tell around the dinosaurs, why they’re there and who’s with the Doctor’ and all that kind of stuff." [SFX, 3 Sep 2012]

Steven Moffat talks about the introduction of a new companion for the Doctor: "“We are going to do the story properly of the Doctor having lost a friend and making a new one. We’re not taking that lightly. It's not in one door out the other. It’s the story of how all that affects him, why he engages with somebody else and what’s going on with that – that’s all important." [SFX, 3 Sep 2012]

Tom MacRae hinted about his forthcoming Doctor Who story: "I don’t know when you’ll see it, but you definitely will!" [On The Box, 7 Sep 2012]

Young actor Cameron Strefford landed a role in the Christmas Special, which has recently been filming. The ten year old's mother Anthea said: "I watched his takes on the monitor and members of the crew said he came over very well. It's not the way he says his lines, it is the way he comes over on camera. He is quite intuitive and has a good feel for the part." [This is Wiltshire, 30 Aug 2012]

Karen Gillan has been involved in a photo-shoot for fashion magazine Marie Claire in a project alongside This is Great Britain to place the UK's brightest stars in London's most historic locations. Karen appears in front of 10 Downing Street! Editor-in-chief Trish Halpin said: "To be the first fashion magazine granted access to these amazing London landmarks was a real honour." A video of the shoot is also available to watch. [Marie Claire, 5 Sep 2012]

The actress has also paid for her father to record an album. She said: "He's a singer, not professional, he just loves doing it. I got it as a Father's Day present. I'm thinking of doing a duet with him but he's far better than me." [Daily Record, 4 Sep 2012]

Matt Smith mentions one of his experiences in New York recently: In New York, Karen and I walked into this 'Doctor Who'-themed bar. It shows the appalling limits of our vanity that we wanted to go to a 'Doctor Who' bar. But our curiosity got the better of us. You could have heard a pin drop when we strolled in." [FemaleFirst, 3 Sep 2012]

Smith will be a guest on the Channel 4 chat show Alan Carr: Chatty Man on Friday 21st September at 10pm, according to a tweet by the programme's official Twitter feed.

Arthur Darvill talks about his departure from Doctor Who, and onto new projects such as the West End show Our Boys: "We all met up on Monday to do a publicity photoshoot for that, all in army gear. Everyone else had these really sharp uniforms and I was in cold weather gear, so I had a shirt, a polo neck, a jumper, a massive jacket on the hottest day of the year!" [GT Magazine, Oct 2012]

A host of photos during rehearsals and further information on the play can be found via the play's official Facebook page.

The first episode of the two-part BBC Four adaptation of Room At The Top starring Jenna-Louise Coleman as Susan Brown is set to air during the week beginning Saturday 22nd September. The drama, which co-stars Kevin McNally, was made in 2010 and should have been broadcast in April 2011 but the BBC was prevented from showing it because of a copyright wrangle, which was finally resolved earlier this year. The day and time of transmission is yet to be confirmed. [BBC Programme Information]

Alex Kingston traces her family history in a forthcoming edition of Who Do You Think You Are? on BBC One. It is likely to be shown on Wednesday 19th September at 9pm.

David Tennant discussed how important the works of Shakespeare are: "I am on the board of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a huge part of what they do is education and outreach -- partly just to educate an audience for themselves but also just to teach that sort of language so kids can appreciate it. I think Shakespeare is one of those things that you get very excited about when you do it and when you love it and when you feel like you own that language. Often it's a difficult thing to teach to kids because it can feel like a slow and a difficult thing, but it can be really inspiring!" [TheaterMania, 29 Aug 2012]

The actor has also donated a signed copy of the Complete Second Series of Doctor Who an auction on behalf of The Alzheimer's Society - potential bidders can find the item on Ebay here over the next eight days. [Alzeimer's Society, 7 Sep 2012]

Digital Theatre and Routledge Publishing have made theatre performanances from the Routledge Performance Archive online; amongst the shows available for download/rental is David Tennant's Much Ado About Nothing, which co-starred Catherine Tate. [Standard, 6 Sep 2012]

John Barrowman commented on gay representation on American television: "America has the most gay men represented on television than any country in the world. The only thing I wish they would do more often is not stereotype those gay men and women. It's always the same type they choose. Rather than seeing camp, flouncy, girly men and butch heavy women, it would be nice to see other types. There are 'lipstick lesbians,' pretty girls. There are butch guys, guys who are into sports." [Desert Outlook, 4 Sep 2012]

Eve Myles has won the title role in the new six-part BBC One series Frankie, which will see her reunited with Torchwood director Mark Everest. The drama is described as "a modern and redemptive take on the life and work of a dedicated district nurse [Frankie Maddox] whose patients matter more to her than her personal life." Also appearing in it are Dean Lennox Kelly and Derek Riddell. Filming will take place in Bristol, where the series is set, with the drama due to air next spring. [BBC Media Centre, 6 Sep 2012]

Former executive producer and current Head of Drama at Channel 4 Piers Wenger has announced a new initiative to seek out original drama ideas for development on E4: "This is an exciting first step in the development of a slate of new drama series for E4. There is a wealth of British drama talent out there and I am thrilled to be able to green-light a drama pilot season and invite new and established writers to come to us with their big ideas. In the last few years, E4 has established an unrivalled reputation for launching young, ground-breaking drama series and we are looking for a range of original drama ideas which will allow audiences to connect with the channel now. We don't want to be prescriptive on genre, format or length of episode - the aim is to see a variety of home-grown and innovative drama on E4 in 2013 and beyond." [Televisual, 6 Sep 2012]

Legacy Games have announced their intention to make the fifth instalment of the Doctor Who Adventure Games, The Gunpowder Plot, available through Valve's Steam gaming platform.

The company, which sells the games outside the United Kingdom (where they are free to TV licencees via the BBC) have listed the item on the Steam website, which requires its community to 'greenlight' the item to be made available through the gaming system.

BBC Worldwide Americas have licensed online apparel distributor CafePress to sell official Doctor Who merchandise.

The viewing figure for last Saturday's premiere of Asylum of the Daleks on BBC America has been released, indicating that over 1.5 million tuned in to watch the Doctor's latest adventure with his arch-enemy - giving the episode the highest audience for Doctor Who on the channel so far!

BBC America reported:

The figure comfortably overtook the previous highest rating of 1.268m achieved by last year's series opener, The Impossible Astronaut.