Doctor Who is celebrated in a new set of commemorative medals struck by the Royal Mint.

The limited edition, gold and silver, medals feature the likeness of David Tennant as well as the Daleks, K-9 and the Tardis.

The Royal Mint of the United Kingdom was founded over 1,100 years ago and is the body permitted to manufacture, coins in the United Kingdom. As well as minting coins for the UK, it also mints and exports coins to many other countries, and produces military medals and commemorative medals. This is the first time that television characters have featured on a Royal Mint medal.

Dave Knight, Director of Commemorative Coin, praised the show's "enduring appeal", calling the Doctor "timeless" while the head of UK Licensing at BBC Worldwide, Richard Hollis said: "David Tennant's performance as the Doctor has been applauded and celebrated across the country and these medals are a fantastic way for fans to collect a lasting memento."

According to the Reader's Digest, David Tennant has admitted he has “nothing to say” to new Doctor Matt Smith.

Tennant told Reader’s Digest, in an interview for the December issue, that he’d spoken to his successor several times “but there’s nothing to say. I think we both thought we’d be able to exchange lots of ideas. But actually it’s none of my business how Matt does it and nothing I say can really help him.”

Talking about his final foray as the Doctor in this year’s Christmas special, Tennant says “This year we’ve done something different. It is still set in Christmas, but it’s perhaps not got quite as much, er… Christmas cheer as before.” Tennant adds that come Christmas Day he’ll be watching his own send off. “Just to enjoy the moment. It’s my last Doctor Who – it will be nice to witness that.”

Tennant is now the proud possessor of his own sonic screwdriver, the Doctor’s signature gizmo. “I have one of the real things! I’ve only once used it to impress a child. It was a charity thing but it was quite cool. He was only about five, so it was a nice, wide-eyed moment.”

While he “doesn’t have any regrets” about leaving the iconic series Tennant is prepared for the inevitable “pangs of jealousy” once he’s handed over the Doctor’s mantle.

Hinting at possible future plans, Tennant reveals that as a child he loved Marvel’s The Avengers, a comic about a team of crime-fighting superheroes. “It’s yet to be made into a film, although I think there are rumblings. I’d be quite happy to be involved.” Indeed the film is in pre-production, with Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson already signed on.


Meanwhile, this week Doctor Who Adventures magazine reveals the ten biggest surprises in Doctor Who. From Rose discovering the TARDIS to the Doctor crashing through a mirror riding a horse – the magazine asks which will come top in this shocking countdown?

You can also find out lots of Gadget facts and how it saved in day in The Waters of Mars. The magazine also has an interview with Sarah Jane Adventures actress Elisabeth Sladen about the two new Sarah Jane Adventures CDs.
Also, free Doctor Who fridge magnets; find out about the eighth Doctor – what was he like and why did he regenerate?; part 2 of life-size Doctor Who poster.

The BBC Press Office has released details of the forthcoming radio programme "Who on Who?", to be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday the 29th of December at 5pm. The one-hour programme will feature David Tennant interviewing Russell T Davies about his career and the success of the Doctor Who revival, just days before the broadcast of the pair's final regular work on the programme.

David Tennant shows his versatility with many appearances on British television this Christmas, in addition to his swansong as the Tenth Doctor.

He takes on the role of storyteller for the BBC's channel for pre-school children, CBeebies, where Tennant will read five bedtime stories. Included in the selection is The Christmas Bear by Henrietta and Paul Strickland, which will be shown on Christmas Eve; How High Is The Sky by Anna Milbourne, illustrated by Serena Riglietti; Small Mouse, Big City by Simon Prescott; Emily Brown And The Elephant Emergency by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton; and Miki by Stephen Mackey.

As previously reported, Tennant's critically acclaimed performance in the title role of Hamlet is also being shown on BBC Two this Christmas, and it has been revealed that the real skull of pianist André Tchaikowsky was used during the filming of the famous "Alas, poor Yorick" scene. The skull was bequeathed to the Royal Shakespeare Company in the hope it would be used on stage. It was used by Tennant in the original Stratford production of the play and also for the London run despite press releases at the time saying the version was a fake. Greg Doran, the plays director confirmed the use of the skull. He explained how important he felt the use of a real skull was to the production. "You can't hold a real human skull in your hand and not be moved by the realisation that your own skull sits just beneath your skin, that you will be reduced to that state at some stage. That is what Yorick's skull does to Hamlet. It reminds him of the very real presence of Death in Life."

Also over Christmas, David Tennant will host a special edition of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, with Bernard Cribbins and Catherine Tate as panellists. He also appears as a guest in Tate's Christmas special.

Final figures now available for the third story in Series Three of The Sarah Jane Adventures show that part one had an audience of 1.59 million, a 13% share of the audience, with part two being watched by 1.47 million – a 12% share.

The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith featured a guest appearance from David Tennant. The figures are spectacularly good for BBC One at this time of day and substantially above the initially reported overnight figures. The average audience in this time slot, for this year, is 0.37 million. Over 35% of the audience was in the 4–15 age range, roughly the same percentage other CBBC programmes achieve, indicating the programme is reaching its target audience.

Excluding bank holidays and special events such as the Olympics and the World Cup, the last time a CBBC programme scored higher ratings at this time was an edition of The Basil Brush show on 23 December 2003.

An additional 300,000 have watched the episodes on iPlayer.

Full Audience data for series three is available here.

Writing in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Russell T Davies confirms that the preview of the Christmas special, to be shown on this year's Children in Need programme, will not be the pre-titles sequence, but rather a specially packaged clip from the story. This is because the pre-titles sequence from the story is too plot-heavy to work as a standalone preview.

The title of David Tennant's penultimate episode has still not been revealed, but according to Davies it will be six words long, the longest title yet. Final casting for the final episodes took place as late as October, when what is described as a "wonderful and distinguished" Hollywood actor provided the voice for one of the aliens in the story. The voice will be used in the trail for the Christmas episodes which will air directly after The Waters of Mars.

In the run up to the UK showing of The Waters of Mars, David Tennant has been co-hosting the breakfast programme on Absolute Radio. To celebrate the fact, the station mocked up a TARDIS façade for the front of the station.

In the first programme Tennant announced that he is to auction off his own bed live, which is in is own words "a nasty old bed that's seen some action." All proceeds of the auction will be going to Children in Need.

Tennant will be with the programme for the rest of the week, and a podcast of the first programme can be heard via the Absolute Radio website, along with a photo gallery and a video diary.

Comedian Phil Jupitus has announced a Doctor Who Special edition of the comedy panel music show Never Mind The Buzzcocks, which will feature David Tennant as the guest presenter; the show will also sees Bernard Cribbins on Phil's own team, alongside presenter Jo Whiley, whilst Noel Fielding's team will have Catherine Tate with singer Jamie Cullum.

No broadcast date has been announced as yet, though it is expected to be in the week leading up to Christmas Day.

David Tennant is to make his US television debut when he plays the title character in a hour long pilot for NBC called Rex Is Not Your Lawyer.

Tennant plays Rex Alexander, a top Chicago lawyer who begins suffering panic attacks and takes up coaching clients to represent themselves in court.

Written by Andrew Leeds and David Lampson the pilot is directed by David Semel, who directed the pilots for "Heroes" and "Life". The project has been in development for two years with casting for the lead actor taking place over several months until Tennant clinched the role in August.

Tennant will hope to follow the success of another established British TV actor with virtually no American TV experience, Hugh Laurie, as the lead on Fox's medical drama "House."

David Tennant today launched The Waters of Mars, which airs on Sunday November 15 at 7pm on BBC One. The episode is the second Doctor Who special to be screened this year, and Tennant will also star in two more shows before bowing out at Christmas.

Tennant said he was excited for new Doctor Matt Smith, saying: "I remember how exciting it was starting out on this kind of a journey and nerve-wracking. I'm jealous that he's going through that now - but it couldn't happen to a nicer chap. I'm looking forward to not knowing what happens next. I'm looking forward to being a viewer again."

Of the special, Tennant said: "The Doctor finds himself in a situation where he knows what the end is. It's all about whether he can un-knit the inevitable. With this particular Time Lord's life coming to an end, if he starts fiddling with the fundamentals of time and space, it might lead to his undoing."



Tennant said: "The Doctor now knows incontrovertibly that he's running from his own demise." He described shooting the final scenes as "emotional" but said that as they were filmed out of sequence, the situation did not get too weepy. The actor said the last line he said as the Doctor was: "'You two, with me, spit spot'... so it was robbed of any epic quality. It was very emotional saying cheerio. Filming the final scene was very, very sad. There's lots of scenes in the final, final story that are very sad and were very sad to play."

Tennant spoke about the big opportunities that arose in killing off the current tenth incarnation of the Doctor, to take the story "to places we've never quite been before". He said: "It allows it to be bigger and more epic and wilder... and sadder."

Tennant said he had originally felt under some pressure in taking on the role, saying: "It means so much to so many people. It meant so much to me." He said the bit he would miss the most was "when the new script comes. That was always such a thrill. It was always surprising." Asked if he felt he was in danger of becoming typecast, Tennant said: "I seem to have managed to do quite a variety of things while I've been doing Doctor Who. I haven't felt that it has been anything other than a positive." The star said he had his own sonic screwdriver which he kept locked up in a "secure location" in case his house was burgled.

On playing the role, he said: "You're not really expected to follow what went before, you're sort of expected to go your own way and mess it up a little bit the Doctor is different each time. You know James Bond is always James Bond and Tarzan is always Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes is always Sherlock Holmes but the Doctor is up to you, it's a blank sheet and you can scribble all over it, it's up to you."

He compared the job to being the United States president, saying: "You always get to be called the Doctor."

At the launch, Executive producer Russell T Davies confirmed The Waters of Mars will be dedicated to former producer Barry Letts. Davies paid tribute to his predecessor saying "He was one of the finest producers of Doctor Who and many programmes.. He used to do the Sunday afternoon classic serials and he actually produced the Jon Pertwee years. And then he cast Tom Baker. He cast Lis Sladen as well. He was an extraordinary figure in Doctor Who history and in pop culture – and he passed away, sadly. So, of course, we wanted to have that tribute to him on screen."

The launch has been covered by BBC News, The Guardian and BBC Newsbeat.

Journalist Ian Wylie has posted the full transcript of the press launch with Tennant and Davies on his blog.

The BBC press office has released details of the forthcoming special The Waters of Mars. The episode is currently unplaced in the schedule, but is expected to be shown in mid November.