The BBC have released a trailer for The Hungry Earth, on BBC One and BBC HD, Satuday 22nd May, 6.15pm.

Unofficial overnight figures show Amy's Choice was watched by 6.2 million viewers.

5.85 million watched on BBC One, where it was again the most watched programme of the evening, with an additional 0.34 million watching on BBC HD.

On a day when ratings were generally down on the previous week's figures, Doctor Who retained its audience and therefore increased its share to 33.0% of viewers.

The day was won once again by Britain's Got Talent with 9.7 million watching, a drop of a million on the previous week. On ITV1 against Doctor Who, You've Been Framed! Funniest 100 had 4.2 million watching.

Doctor Who is currently 17th for the week.

On BBC Three, Doctor Who Confidential had an audience of 0.49 million, where it was the 5th most watched programme on multi-channel Television. An additional 0.07 million watched on BBC HD.

The title of Episode Eleven of the 2010 series has been confirmed as The Lodger.

The title has been confirmed by the official BBC Doctor Who site as part of a guide to extras available for each episode.

The Eleventh Hour has become the most requested programme ever on the BBC iplayer.

The first episode of the new series has been requested, so far, over 1.78 million times. The previous record for iplayer requests was held by Episode One of the 13th series of Top Gear, screened last summer, which was requested 1.66 million times.

The first four episodes of Doctor Who were the top four requested programmes in April with over 5.2 million requests between them. EastEnders was the most requested programme in the month, with 7.69 million requests, although these were spread over twenty five episodes as opposed to Doctor Who's four.

Episodes of the current series are available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer from transmission date until Saturday 3rd July.

Episode Eight of the new series of Doctor Who will be broadcast at 6.15pm on Saturday 22nd May.

The programme has a new lead in this week, a repeat of the Alan Sugar Junior Apprentice series. It is followed once more by Over The Rainbow. On ITV viewers can see The Whole 19 Yards while BBC Two has Golf: PGA Championship followed by Coast. Channel 4 has Come Dine with Me followed by Channel 4 News, with Five showing the film How the West Was Won, a 1962 Western with James Stewart and John Wayne.

Meanwhile the Press details for the second part of this two part story have been released by the BBC Press Office.


Full series information can be found here.

Final figures for Episode Five Flesh and Stone published today by BARB show the story was watched by 8.50 million viewers.

On BBC One the programme got 8.02 million watching where it was the fifth most watched programme for the channel for the week, just being out-rated by EastEnders. An additional 0.48 million watched on BBC HD. When added together the programme totalled 8.50 million viewers and was the 11th most watched programme of the week.

The BBC Three Sunday repeat just sneaked into the Top 30 with a confirmed audience of 0.66 million viewers.

Full ratings for the series so far can be found in Gallifrey Base.

The Vampires of Venice scored an Appreciation Index figure of 86.

The AI or Appreciation Index or AI score is a measure of how much an audience enjoyed a programme. A score above 85 is considered excellent.

With overnight ratings for the whole week now available, Doctor Who is currently 18th for the week.

Sunday's BBC Three the Doctor Who repeat was watched by 0.60 million and was the 11th most watched programme on multi channel television. The Doctor Who Confidential cut down repeat had 0.26 million watching.

The Time of Angels has debuted in Australia to excellent ratings. TV Tonight reports that the episode averaged 909,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, again despite stiff competition from the commercial networks. For another week it was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's top-rating program of the day, rating higher than its popular Sunday 7pm news and a new episode of Foyle's War. The corresponding Confidential Cutdown also rated an excellent 687,000 viewers in the five major capitals.

Meanwhile, TV Tonight also reports that local pay TV network UKTV will have a special Doctor Who June long weekend, broadcasting the full high definition version of Planet of the Dead, as well as the Confidential Greatest Moments specials. The broadcaster is also holding some competitions, including asking viewers to vote for their favourite 10 episodes at www.bbcaustralia.com.

Update: TV Tonight also reports that Doctor Who has done very well with timeshifted viewers. Victory of the Daleks had the second highest percentage increase for Sunday 2 May, 12.9%, gaining 117,000 viewers for an overall audience of 1.027 million. The Beast Below also gained via timeshifting 12.1% viewers, a total of 954,000 viewers.

Unofficial overnight figures show The Vampires of Venice was watched by 6.2 million viewers with a share of 30.6% of the audience.

5.90 million watched on BBC One, where it was again the most watched programme of the evening, with an additional 0.24 million watching on BBC HD.

The rating was down slightly on the previous week, most probably due to the earlier time slot. On ITV1, Funniest Ever You've Been Framed! had 4.4 million watching. The day was won by Britain's Got Talent with 10.88 million watching.

Doctor Who is currently 17th for the week.

Doctor Who Confidential suffered by not being on directly after Doctor Who finished. There was a fifteen minute gap between programmes as BBC Three does not start broadcasting until 7pm. The programme got 0.30 million watching, about 60% of its usual audience. With a 1.4% share it was 37th for the day on multichannel Television. An additional 68,000 watched on BBC HD.

The actor Jimmy Gardner has died at the age of 85.

Jimmy Gardner had two roles in Doctor Who. In 1964 he played the role of Chenchu, the manager of the way station at Tun-Huang, in the fourth story of the series Marco Polo. He returned to the series in 1978 to play the role of Idmon in the fourth Doctor story Underworld. Idmon was a Trog on the planet formed around the P7E, and the father of Idas. He tried to encourage the other Trogs to rebel, but was arrested by the Guards and selected for sacrifice. He was rescued by the Doctor and escaped his planet's destruction on board the R1C.

Gardner had a long eventful life. He was a war hero, a survivor of two shipwrecks and numerous escapades on land. After the war he trained as an actor at The Central School and had a long career in television, film and stage. He appeared in many classic TV series including The Forsyte Saga, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars and The Onedin Line. In film he worked on Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and had his most notorious role as Ernie the bus driver in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Independent Obituary