Russell T Davies has made a strong defence of the BBC and the licence fee and the values it stands for, but warned the battle may already be lost.

Speaking at the Radio Times Festival, he urged people to consider the alternatives to the compulsory licence fee, such as a subscription model and to look at the schedules of current subscriber services such as the American premium cable network HBO and see what subscribers get for their money. He said: "couple of high class dramas. No news. No soaps.no weather, no radio stations. Google their schedules and see if that is what you want?"

Davies was being interviewed by Alison Graham for the first ever Radio Times Festival, which is being held at Hampton Court in West London. He said his favourite memory of working on Doctor Who was the laughter he had. "It was hard work but we did have fun". He revealed he most enjoyed writing dialogue for Daleks. "They are so clever. I love them".

He also spoke of how proud he was of Doctor Who. "It's indestructible. Imagine if they tried to cancel it now. There would be riots in the streets".

Speaking on writing for the Doctor: "you get the secret of writing for the Doctor when you realise he is much cleverer than you are. Then it falls into place".

He talked about how he started in the industry and advised aspiring writers to just write. "get all the experience you can, not necessarily on your pet project but say for your local youth theatre".

He talked about his current project, a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream for the BBC. "It's something I've always wanted to do, he told the audience. It has a fantastic cast, and the whole play finishes with a joyous dance choreographed by Arlene Phillips. It's going to be on Saturday night in prime time. Only the BBC would do that".

Davies finished the session by talking to fans and signing autographs.

BBC One have made a late change to their schedules on Sunday afternoon by adding a special feature-length broadcast of The Magician's Apprentice and The Witch's Familiar. The 90 minute omnibus is to be broadcast from 3:15pm, replacing the previously scheduled repeats of Eat Well For Less? and The Great British Bake-Off, with an episode of Escape To The Country following afterwards to plug the gap before Points Of View at 5:15pm.


No reason has currently been given for the repeat of Doctor Who's opening story, but it is possible that this is to enable viewers to catch up on the Doctor's adventure who might have missed Saturday's episode owing to the England vs Wales Rugby World Cup game, broadcast live on ITV from 7:15pm.

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It isn't often that Doctor Who receives an unexpected broadcast - the previous time this occured was back in 1974, when a compilation of The Sea Devils was shown in the morning of Monday 27th May instead of the scheduled cricket match coverage, which was lost owing to one of the regular BBC union industrial actions of the era.

This itself wasn't a precedent, though - owing to the tragic events that occured in the United States the day before the very first episode, An Unearthly Child, was broadcast, the BBC decided to repeat it a week later at 5:06pm, leading to a slightly truncated Grandstand and the scheduled Doctor Who episode The Cave Of Skulls pushed back from 5:15pm to 5:30pm instead.

Four new Doctor Who products are being launched by Lovarzi, including the company's first foray into the revived series with a scarf based the Matt Smith story Vincent and the Doctor.

The Pandorica Opens Scarf is 100% Pure Silk Scarf! and based on the painting by Vincent van Gogh of the same name: a warning to his Time Lord friend that the universe is cracked, and the ultimate prison is opening. The picture captures the disaster that led to total event collapse – the TARDIS exploding.

The scarf comes complete with a presentation box (adorned with foil-printed Doctor Who and BBC logos), this is the first time Lovarzi has specifically celebrated the Matt Smith era of the show.

After the success of the Seventh Doctor Jumper and Paisley Silk Scarf, Lovarzi is launching the Seventh Doctor Hanky, digitally-printed in Italy.Designed by Ken Trew, the BBC purchased about 20 red hankies to wrap around the Time Lord's panama hat, and Sylvester McCoy stepped out in 1987 in Time and the Rani. This intricate hanky, also presented in a gift box, is made from 100% Cotton.

Lovarzi's original screen-accurate replica of the Fourth Doctor Scarf remains a bestseller, and now the company is to launch a shorter version: at 25 x 200cms. It's still made of 100% premium-quality Acrylic yarn, and comes in a special carry-case.

Fourth Doctor fans can also enjoy Lovarzi's exclusively-designed Knitted Tie takes those same colours in that same pattern and makes a unique product for anyone who wants to show off their love for the longest running Doctor. Also presented in a gift box, foil-printed with the Doctor Who logo, the Fourth Doctor Knitted Tie is made in Italy from 50% Wool and 50% Acrylic.

Maninder Singh Sahota, Director of Lovarzi, says:
Lovarzi, the UK’s leading online scarf retailer and is the only official licensee of Doctor Who scarves in the UK.

Last week the BBC released a photograph of Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman posing on the Abbey Road zebra crossing in London, recreating the famous cover photo from the Beatles album, with the help of a couple of Daleks.

The picture was taken on Saturday morning, and the BBC have now released a video showing how quickly it was achieved to avoid disrupting traffic in the area.

Abbey Road is a main thoroughfare running north from Lords Cricket Ground near Regents Park in Central London. Its famous crossing lies just outside the Abbey Road studios where The Beatles recorded much of their music. The crossing featured on the cover of their 1969 Abbey Road album, making the crossing a well visited tourist crossing, with many attempting a recreation of the picture. The attempts can be viewed live on the Abbey Road WebCam.

The law in the UK states that motorists must give way to pedestrians at zebra crossings, even if the pedestrians are two Daleks, a Time Lord and an Impossible Girl. So to avoid total gridlock the photo session needed to be completed in as short a time as possible.

This is how it was done.

Character Options has today unveiled details of a brand new Limited Edition Doctor Who 5.5” scale action figure.

Missy, played as by Michelle Gomez will be available in two variants; a purple outfitted version with hat from the series finale episodes; and alternatively in her ‘Heaven’ outfit, hatless with black jacket and manic grin.

The Missy figures each have 18 points of articulation. Each figure head can also be swapped so that both heads can be incorporated with either outfit, and they both come with accessories.



4,000 units of each of the two figures will be available in exclusive UK packaging at character-online.co.uk for a price of £19.99 each (excluding P&P)

BBC Worldwide has announced further guests to the Australian Doctor Who Festival. Sylvester Mccoy, Billie Piper and Dan Starkey will join Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss in Sydney on the 21st and 22nd November 2015. Piper and McCoy will appear on stage at the festival in a series of fan Q&As hosted by Adam Spencer. Billie Piper’s attendance at the Doctor Who Festival is subject to her filming commitments.

Sylvester Mccoy said:

Dan Starkey said:

The BBC have released a number of publicity images for episode two of the new series.

The Witch's Familiar: Known Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sat 26 Sep 2015	7:45pm
United States of America	BBC America	Sat 26 Sep 2015	9:00pm EDT	(2:00am BST)
Canada	SPACE	Sat 26 Sep 2015	9:00pm EDT	(2:00am BST)
Asia Pacific	BBC Entertainment	Sun 27 Sep 2015	10:00am SGT	(3:00am BST)
New Zealand	PRIME	Sun 27 Sep 2015	7:30pm NZST	(8:30am BST)
Australia	ABC	Sun 27 Sep 2015	7:40pm AEST	(10:40am BST)
Europe (Benelux)	BBC First	Tue 29 Sep 2015	9:00pm CEST
United Kingdom	BBC Two	Fri 2 Oct 2015	1:45am	(British Signed Language)
Finland	YLE2	Mon 5 Oct 2015	6:05pm EEST
South Africa	BBC First	Sat 24 Oct 2015	6:45pm SAST
Germany	FOX	Thu 3 Dec 2015	~10:00pm CET	(dubbed into German)

Doctor Who The Magician's Apprentice was Doctor Who's biggest ever première in the states for the key demographic of Adults aged 18-49.

Overall the episode had 2 million watching, with 1.1 million being between 18-49, nearly doubling the S8 average, making BBC America the third most watched channel in that demographic for the timeslot.

The channel beat the big 4 broadcast networks and ranked only behind college football on ESPN and the finale of Sábado Gigante on Univision. Out of 100 returning dramas, Doctor Who is one of just 14 dramas to show any growth from its prior season premiere.

Sarah Barnett, President of BBC AMERICA said
All tracked demographics showed increases from the season 8 average with the most significant increases seen among the younger viewers.

The episode was the #1 most social drama of the night based on ListenFirst's Digital Audience Ratings for Television. It was the #1 TV brand on Tumblr, the #1 drama on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and the #2 drama on Instagram, following The Walking Dead. It was the #1 most social drama of the week.

Doctor Who: Legacy has announced a weekly content release to tie in with Series 9 of Doctor Who, and campaign going through to the Christmas episode in December.

Every Sunday night, the team will release at least one new level based on that Saturday's television episode. This began last night with The Magician's Apprentice, rewarding players with Ohila, the High Priestess of the Sisterhood of Karn.

Next Sunday night, the day after The Witch's Familiar, players will get to take on Davros himself and be rewarded with a new costume for the Twelfth Doctor, complete with guitar.

Also, for the next few days, Google Play fans can purchase Sonic Adventures premium area for 40% off (and also purchase Series 8 of the TV series for 40% off in US, UK, Canada, and Australia.)

Doctor Who: Legacy, is played by nearly 2 million fans. It now has over 100 hours of playable content and includes all 13 Doctors, over 140 playable allies and companions. The game also includes enemies from throughout the 51 year history of the show, extended universe content from Big Finish, Titan Comics, and George Mann’s Engines of War novel, as well as the Bigger on the Inside 8-bit style retro adventure.

Doctor Who: The Magician's Apprentice had an Audience Appreciation or AI score of 84.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. The score, out of a hundred, is compiled by a specially selected panel of around 5,000 people who go online and rate and comment on programmes.

The score is on a par with the scores for Series Eight of Doctor Who, which averaged 83.3.

52% of the viewers responding, strongly agreed the programme was Fresh and New .

Doctor Who was 29th for the week on UK Television. However an additional 1.1 million viewers watched the episode on catch up on Sunday.