Actor Bill Nighy, star of films such as Love, Actually and the TV drama serial State of Play, is to appear as a guest star in the forthcoming 2010 series of Doctor Who, according to the Digital Spy website. The website quotes a "set insider" as confirming the casting, apparently in the episode written by Nighy's frequent collaborator Richard Curtis. The nature of Nighy's role, according to Digital Spy, can be found in the spoiler box below.

Nighy's name has long been associated with rumours concerning the revived version of Doctor Who, frequently attached to speculation that he might be cast as the Doctor. This began in September 2003, the day following the announcement of the new series, when then-Doctor Who Magazine editor Clayton Hickman named the actor on BBC Radio 4 as Russell T Davies's favoured choice for the role. On March 20th 2004, the very day that the BBC announced Christopher Eccleston's casting as the Ninth Doctor, early editions of the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK carried a story stating that Nighy had won the part.

Russell T Davies has told The Guardian how he took Pop Idol as his inspiration for the rebirth of Doctor Who. He tells the paper how he used to go to a friend's house to watch the final with several others. He says "I wanted to do that with drama. If we could have the voice at the beginning of The X Factor introducing each episode I would do it."

In a somewhat different interview, Davies has caused controversy by voicing his concerns about the future of the BBC, should the Conservative Party win the 2010 General Election. Davies told The Mirror he fears the BBC will be dismantled by the Tories and is convinced that a move to freeze the licence fee by the Conservatives will be the beginning of the end for the corporation. "They'll dismantle it slowly. It'll get smaller and smaller until it just supports Radio 4 and some news. I'll come back and fight them at the barricades. I feel a bit like Alan Bennett, who said his favourite things about Britain were the BBC and the NHS." Davies's remarks were picked up by many UK papers, but not it seems in Conservative Central office. When journalist Matt Withers rang their press office for a statement he was told they wouldn't comment on it, because "Mr Davies is a backbench MP and, as such, his opinion isn't necessarily party policy".

Veteran actress June Whitfield has told The Sun of a particular problem she had while recording The End of Time, when the script called for her to goose David Tennant, "Well, he is so thin that it was difficult to find the bottom!" says Whitfield, 84. "But this was in the script, I promise."

You can find a summary of media articles on the GallifreyBase Forum.

The flurry of Doctor Who news stories in the run-up to The End of Time has begun. But first, North American viewers will be able to enjoy The Waters of Mars tomorrow on BBC America and Canada's Space channel. In North American media, Canadian entertainment website dose.ca has an interview with Russell T Davies, and The Philadelphia Daily News, The Vancouver Sun and McClatchy News all have interviews with David Tennant.

Tennant is busy in the US filming the pilot for Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, and the Los Angeles Times reports that NBC may pick the series up as early as this spring. For those of you who can't get enough pictures of David Tennant wearing puffy winter coats, there are plenty from Rex filming here. In other Tennant news, the Sunday Mercury has an article titled "7 Things You Didn't Know About Dr Who David Tennant" (though readers of this page probably know most of them). What's On TV has a lengthy interview with Tennant about The End of Time, and BBC Newsbeat interviews Tennant about his forthcoming role in "St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold". Down Under, The Age and The Daily Telegraph (both of Australia) have stories on Tennant's TARDIS exit.

SFX continues its month-long Doctor Who celebration, with more excerpts from their interview with Russell T Davies here (talking about classic Doctor Who and multi-Doctor stories), here (talking about American television) and here (talking about "the scene that gets everyone" in The End of Time). Also on SFX's blog, Phil Ford talks about writing for The Sarah Jane Adventures, Alexandra Moen (Lucy Saxon) answers questions from fans, and the blog's staff compile a list of all the times British tabloids have gotten a Doctor Who story spectacularly wrong. Alexandra Moen is also interviewed at Digital Spy.

Davies tells the Western Mail that his final two Doctor Who episodes will be "like all your Christmas presents rolled into one, right from your big present to the tiniest thing at the bottom of the stocking." The South Wales Echo also grabs a snippet from the Western Mail interview. Davies also talked to BBC News about handing over the Doctor Who reins to Steven Moffat.

Bernard Cribbins will be interviewed on stage at the BFI on January 16. The conversation will be followed by a special screening of the 1966 film Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD, starring Cribbins and Peter Cushing. In the aftermath of Cribbins' recent special BAFTA award, he was profiled in The Independent and interviewed by Ken Russell in The Times.

Claire Bloom talks to The Times about her life and work, including a vague but possibly spoiler-ish mention of her role in The End of Time.

There have been a slew of stories lately about people who've made full-sized Daleks. One in Surrey is covered here, and another (from Birtley in Gateshead) is covered in tech blogs Übergizmo, Geeky Gadgets, Gizmodo and Electricpig. And an Atherton man who's built a full-size TARDIS replica is profiled in The Leigh Reporter (though it isn't clear whether he's built the interior or the exterior of the ship).

Even Christmas pageants can't escape Doctor Who connections this year; pupils in the tiny North Yorkshire village of Ruswarp are putting on a Christmas pageant with a Doctor Who theme, and Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith) is directing the Nativity play at his old primary school in London.

It's not all The End of Time, though; Digital Spy interviews Colin Baker about completing "The Missing Stories" on audio for Big Finish.

The Daily Mail has a general preview of The End of Time, and The Sun has a somewhat spoilery photo of John Simm from the story.

The Sun has an article on Catherine Tate's Christmas special, in which she says that she and David Tennant will be "like the Richard & Judy of Christmas", due to being on UK television so much over the holiday season. Of Tennant's appearances, Doctor Who and Hamlet are listed by The Independent as part of its "Twelve TV Treats of Christmas" list.

The Times includes Tennant's Hamlet in its round-up of the best theatre of the past decade, and the return of Doctor Who in its list of the decade's best television. BBC News has also commissioned a "portrait of the decade", which includes the return of Doctor Who as one of the key cultural events and David Tennant as one of the top 20 people of the decade.

Finally, Paul Cornell, writer of the Doctor Who episodes "Father's Day", "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" as well as several acclaimed novels, has published a new Doctor Who story on his blog for Christmas. Cornell says that the story is being presented "purely as fan fiction, with no money being made." It's lovely, and you should read it.

Dark Horizons has an interview posted with Adam Garcia, who stars in the Christmas special. "Chatting with some grunt from Showtime Australia during the announcements of the iF award nominations, the actor confirmed his taking part and speaks highly of the new Doctor David Tennant - 'He is amazing and his dream as an actor was to play Dr Who and then when it was not happening, he was really disappointed but he was like "I'm still gonna become an actor". Now he actually gets to live his dream and he is marvelous, he really is exceptional'. He continued about his love for the new show: 'I have been a fan of Dr Who since I was (obviously) little and at the read throughs -you know just getting to read the scripts is amazing because they keep them all secret - you get told you're doing it and then you go "Oh! This is what I am doing!" And then you spend a lot of time looking at walls going "They're coming straight for me!" pretending things.'" Dark Horizons also mentions our coverage of the Charlotte Church rumors and other casting information.

Anthony Stewart Head appeared on the Jonathan Ross show on BBC Radio over the weekend. Head was full of praise for David Tennant, who he said was naturally "quirky" and a really nice person to work with. He implied he's playing a school teacher who is not nice, but not necessarily the villain. There was talk about how the old K9 prop still had problems, which Jonathan later compared to Fiona Philips' dancing. Also later in the show, they talked about the toy Daleks.

BBC Radio Cornwall recently reported an actor named Spencer Hawken would be appearing in the second series, possibly as "an evil Time Lord" in two episodes. The rumor mill notes that "by the end of the second story the character, named John, is not as he should be..." There's no word about whether this is credible or simply a publicity item.

Pauline Collins, who nearly 40 years ago played Samantha Briggs in the Patrick Troughton serial "The Faceless Ones" and was under consideration to become a series regular until she opted out and Deborah Watling joined the cast as Victoria, has returned to the Doctor Who fold for the new series, according to reports in tomorrow's Sunday Mirror. Collins plays the role of Queen Victoria in a forthcoming episode of the second series. Says the article, "Pauline, 65, will play Queen Victoria alongside the new Doctor David Tennant and Billie Piper as sidekick Rose. She first appeared in the series in 1967 when Patrick Troughton was the Doctor. It was before she found fame in TV drama Upstairs Downstairs and then film stardom in the romantic hit Shirley Valentine in 1989. An insider said: 'Pauline found it amusing that she played a fashionable young woman in the 60s, but now she's playing a very wrinkly Queen Victoria.'" Collins is likely appearing in the second episode, "Tooth and Claw" which according to rumor takes place in Scotland. (Thanks to William Duffy, Eric Venable)

Actress Sophia Myles has accepted a new role, according to her fan site sophiamyles.org: she'll be playing Madame Du Pompadour in a forthcoming episode of the second series, likely "The Girl in the Fireplace". At the moment we've received no official confirmation of the casting, but we expect this is correct. (Thanks to Maria at sophiamyles.org)

Rumors that Anthony Stewart Head will play the Master in the second Doctor Who series now filming are false, despite Internet reports to the contrary.

The Blue Peter Prom, which features a new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme and a guest appearance by a Dalek, will be shown on Wednesday's edition of Blue Peter at 5.00 pm on BBC One.

BBC7 has debuted another new trailer for its series of Paul McGann Doctor Who audio stories. Running for 1 minute and forty seconds, the trailer again features new material recorded by Paul McGann giving a brief history of his TARDIS ("Time and Relative Dimensions in Space" in this version), and it was broadcast after the final part of "Storm Warning" at just before 7.00pm on Saturday and again at midnight.

Big Finish has discreetly added some material to the Cybermansection of its website, including a video trailer for the new miniseries, which plays with Windows Media Player.