Episode 4 Press Release

Saturday, 12 April 2008 - Reported by Marcus

The BBC Press Office have released details of Episode Four of Series Four, The Sontaran Stratagem.

The episode will be broadcast on Saturday 26th April on BBC1, and features guest stars Freema Agyeman, reprising her role of Martha Jones, and Christopher Ryan.

Martha Jones summons the Doctor back to modern-day Earth, but an old enemy lies in wait, as Russell T Davies's Bafta Award-winning time-travelling drama continues. With the mysterious ATMOS devices spreading across the world, Donna discovers that even her own family is not safe from the alien threat – but is it too late to save them?

FILTER: - Series 4/30 - Press

Christmas Filming Begins

Friday, 11 April 2008 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper

While the rest of the world is fighting Adipose and travelling to Pompeii, the BBC has begun filming for this year's Christmas special.

The South Wales Argus has published a photo of filming taking place in St Woolos cemetery in Newport. Please be aware that this article containsMAJOR SPOILERS for the forthcoming Christmas special.

FILTER: - Production - Series 4/30

BBC iplayer report

Wednesday, 9 April 2008 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The BBC have issued a press release reporting on how their iplayer service has performed during the first quarter of 2008, with Doctor Who andTorchwood both performing well in the top 20 watched programmes.

1. The Apprentice BBC One 26/03/2008
2. Louis Theroux: Behind Bars BBC Two 13/01/2008
3. Ashes To Ashes BBC One 07/02/2008
4. Torchwood - Fragments BBC Three 21/03/2008
5. Dawn ... Gets Naked BBC Three 14/02/2008
6. Torchwood - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang BBC Two 16/01/2008
7. Doctor Who - Voyage Of The Damned BBC One 25/12/2007
8. Torchwood - Dead Man Walking BBC Three 20/02/2008
9. Gavin And Stacey BBC Three 23/03/2008
10. Dawn ... Goes Lesbian BBC Three 21/02/2008
11. Ashes To Ashes BBC One 21/02/2008
12. Torchwood - Something Borrowed BBC Three 05/03/2008
13. Ashes To Ashes BBC One 28/02/2008
14. EastEnders BBC One 21/03/2008
15. Torchwood - From Out of the Rain BBC Three 12/03/2008
16. Torchwood - Adrift BBC Three 19/03/2008
17. Torchwood - A Day in the Death BBC Three 27/02/2008
18. Ashes To Ashes BBC One 06/03/2008
19. Six Nations Rugby 2008: France v England BBC One 23/02/2008
20. EastEnders BBC One 16/03/2008

FILTER: - Ratings - Series 4/30

Ratings in Crime

Wednesday, 9 April 2008 - Reported by DWNP Archive

Posted By Stephen Blake

The ratings success for the first episode of series 4 of Doctor Who, Partners in Crime, has been widely reported in the press, a selection of which can be read by following the links below.

While most of the news stories concentrate on the viewing figures for the opening episode, in its piece, "Up Pompeii: Tate and Tennant head for ancient Rome as nine million viewers watch series opener", the Daily Mailtakes a look at the forthcoming second episode The Fires of Pompeii as well as discussing Peter Davison’s daughterGeorgia Moffett and her appearance later in the series.

Adfero , AOL Entertainment, BBC News online, Brand Republic, Broadcast, CBBC Newsround, Congoo,Contactmusic.com, the Daily Star,Digg, Digital Spy, Glasgow Daily Record, the Guardian, the Herald,icWales, inthenews.co.uk, ippimail, ITN online, Joo-See.com, theLondon Paper, Metro, the Mirror, MSN News, News on Feeds, Nottingham Evening Post, Press Association, RedTram, the Scotsman,Sheilds Gazette, Stereoboard.com, the Telegraph, Teletext, This is Lancashire, This is Local London, Topix, Virgin TV News, What’s on TV,Wigan Today, Wikipedia, Yahoo! News, and the Yorkshire Post.

FILTER: - Ratings - Series 4/30 - Press

Partners in Crime: AI figure and Ratings update

Monday, 7 April 2008 - Reported by Marcus

Episode One of the new series of Doctor Who, Partners in Crime, achieved an Appreciation Index of 88. The figure, which puts the programme in the excellent category, was the highest scored on Saturday. The episode was most enjoyed by English females in the 35-55 age group.

The Appreciation Index, or AI, is a measure of how much the audience liked the programme. It is a score out of 100, based on responses from a carefully selected panel. The average score for drama on BBC1 and ITV1 is 77. A score in excess of 85 is regarded as excellent while a score below 60 is poor.

With overnights now available for the whole week, Doctor Who is currently the 10th most watched programme of the week. Final figures will be released byBARB in 9 days time.

Top Twenty Overnights (w/e 6 April 2008)

1 …. 10.3 (43.2%) …. EastEnders (20:00) BBC1 - MON
2 …. 10.1 (45.4%) …. Coronation Street (19:30) ITV - MON
3 …. 10.0 (40.5%) …. Coronation Street (20:30) ITV - MON
4 …. 9.8 (47.0%) …. Coronation Street (19:30) ITV - FRI
5 …. 9.7 (43.1%) …. EastEnders (19:30) BBC1 - TUE
6 …. 9.6 (41.1%) …. Coronation Street (20:30) ITV - FRI
7 …. 9.5 (42.3%) …. Coronation Street (19:30) ITV - WED
8 …. 9.2 (41.7%) …. EastEnders (20:00) BBC1 - FRI
9 …. 9.0 (42.5%) …. EastEnders (19:30) BBC1 - THU
10 …. 8.4 (39.4%) …. Doctor Who (18:15) BBC1 - SAT
11 …. 7.4 (36.2%) …. Emmerdale (19:00) ITV - WED
12 …. 7.4 (37.1%) …. Emmerdale (19:00) ITV - MON
13 …. 7.1 (30.8%) …. Casualty (20:30) BBC1 - SAT
14 …. 7.0 (36.5%) …. Emmerdale (19:00) ITV - FRI
15 …. 6.9 (31.2%) …. BBC News and Weather (19:00) BBC1 - SUN
16 …. 6.8 (30.4%) …. The National Lottery Draws (20:15) BBC1 - SAT
17 …. 6.8 (30.3%) …. I'd Do Anything (19:00) BBC1 - SAT
18 …. 6.7 (25.6%) …. Heartbeat (20:00) ITV - SUN
19 …. 6.6 (32.8%) …. Emmerdale (19:00) ITV - TUE
20 …. 6.4 (26.7%) …. I'd Do Anything Results (19:30) BBC1 - SUN

FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 4/30

Weekend Multi Channel Ratings

Monday, 7 April 2008 - Reported by Marcus

Saturday's edition of Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 0.89 million viewers, according to unofficial overnights. The programme, which had a share of 4.6%, was the 2nd most watched on multi channel television on Saturday, just behind Live Ford Football Special on Sky Sports 1.

Sunday's BBC3 repeat of Partners in Crime got an overnight audience of 1.20 million, which was a 5.3% shareand the highest rating the programme has ever received on this channel. It was the fourth most watched programme for the day. Doctor Who Confidential got an audience of 0.85 millionfor the repeat showing.

On Saturday, Doctor Who was BBC4's most watched programme of the day and the 8th most watched programme on Multi Channel TV, outrating everything on channels such as Sky One and UK Gold. Episode Three of The Daleks, The Escape, got an audience of 0.42 million, a 2.2% share. Episode Two, The Survivors, got 0.40 million and Episode One, The Dead Planet, got 0.33 million. The documentary Verity Lambert: Drama Queen was watched by 0.25 million.

FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 4/30

Richard Dawkins in Doctor Who

Monday, 7 April 2008 - Reported by Kenny Davidson

Professor Richard Dawkins, the celebrated biologist and writer, is to appear as himself later in the current series of Doctor Who. Executive Producer Russell T Davies made the announcement in an interview with the Independent on Sunday. He said the show's crew were delighted to see Dawkins on set: "People were falling at his feet ... We've had Kylie Minogue on that set, but it was Dawkins people were worshipping."

Dawkins is the author of many best-selling non-fiction works, fromThe Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker to The God Delusion, and is apowerful communicator of both Darwin's evolutionary theory and the merits of atheism.

He holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society, though he is perhaps equally well known amongst some Doctor Who fans as the husband of Lalla Ward, who played former companion Romana! He was also a close friend of former script editor Douglas Adams, to whom he dedicated The God Delusion.

FILTER: - People - Series 4/30

Partners in Crime - Overnight Ratings

Sunday, 6 April 2008 - Reported by Marcus

Unofficial figures show that the first episode of Series Four, Partners in Crime, was watched by 8.4 million viewers, giving it a 39.4% share of the total television audience. It was the most watched programme of the day, beating the second placed Casualty by over 1 million viewers.

The overnight figures are slightly up on the last two season premiers, both of which benefited by being in a later time slot.

The programme got almost double the audience of its main ITV1 opposition, You've Been Framed, which got 4.7 million watching.

The audience peaked in the last quarter hour at 8.7 million, with the BBC1 audience dropping by nearly 3 million when the programme finished. Final figures, which will be released by BARB in ten days time, are likely to be higher as the programme was transmitted slightly later than its published time slot.

The programme currently stands as the 10th most watched of the week, behind several episodes of EastEnders and Coronation street.

The children's audience was 1.3 million, which was a 51.0% share of all 4-15 year old's watching.

FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 4/30

Episode Nine Title Changed

Friday, 4 April 2008 - Reported by DWNP Archive

Posted By John Bowman

The title of episode nine of the new series has been changed to Forest of the Dead.

Earlier this week, all Series Four episode names bar the penultimate one were announced in a Radio Times feature. In it, the ninth episode - the concluding instalment of this series' second two-parter - was named as River's Run, but CBBC Newsround now says it has exclusively been told of the title alteration.

The story has been written by Steven Moffat and has Alex Kingston and Colin Salmon as the guest stars.

FILTER: - Steven Moffat - Production - Series 4/30 - Radio Times

MediaGuardian effects preview

Thursday, 3 April 2008 - Reported by Anthony Weight

The MediaGuardian website has published an article by Stephen Brook previewing some of the work effects house The Mill has performed for the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who. The article looks at how the Adipose were created for the episode, including images.

Stephen Regelous, who worked on the episode, is quoted as saying that: "When I first found out that the Mill was working on Doctor Who, I was quietly hoping that Massive might be used to create hordes of Daleks or Cybermen and with series 4, I jumped at the opportunity to be involved. It's been very fulfilling to be a fan from about three or four years old and finally be able to contribute to the Doctor Who universe."

There is some spoiler content, so those not wishing to learn anything about the episode until its transmission should not read the piece.

FILTER: - Series 4/30 - Press

Previous 10 Stories

Episode 4 Press Release

Christmas Filming Begins

BBC iplayer report

Ratings in Crime

Partners in Crime: AI figure and Ratings update

Weekend Multi Channel Ratings

Richard Dawkins in Doctor Who

Partners in Crime - Overnight Ratings

Episode Nine Title Changed

MediaGuardian effects preview

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