The BBC Press Office and various media sources (originally broken by MediaGuardian) have announced thatSteven Moffat is to succeed Russell T Davies as the chief writer and executive producer of Doctor Who when it returns for its fifth series.

The article states that Moffat will replace Davies in 2009, taking over as "showrunner" for the fifth series in 2010. Moffat has been responsible for several episodes of the revived Doctor Who to date, including the BAFTA Award-winning "Blink" and the forthcoming two-parter "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead".

Davies is quoted as saying: "It's been a delight and an honour working with Steven, and I can't wait to see where his extraordinary imagination takes the Doctor. Best of all, I get to be a viewer again, watching on a Saturday night!"

The BBC press release includes a comment from Moffat himself: "My entire career has been a Secret Plan to get this job. I applied before but I got knocked back 'cos the BBC wanted someone else. Also I was seven. Anyway, I'm glad the BBC has finally seen the light, and it's a huge honour to be following Russell into the best - and the toughest - job in television. I say toughest 'cos Russell's at my window right now, pointing and laughing."

Moffat will continue as a director on the board of Hartswood Films, which produced Coupling and Jekyll, where he is also working on a new comedy Adam & Eve with wife Sue Vertue.

Steven Moffat has tonight been awarded the British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for Best Writer, for the script of his 2007 Doctor Who episode "Blink". The Award was presented at the annual BAFTA Craft Awards ceremony, which honours those who work behind-the-scenes in the industry. Moffat won the award ahead of Jimmy McGovern (for "The Street"), Tony Marchant (for "The Mark of Cain") and Heidi Thomas (for "Cranford"). Full details can be found on the BAFTA website.

One of the highest accolades available to a British scriptwriter, it is Moffat's second BAFTA Award in recent weeks, having also won the BAFTA Cymru (Welsh BAFTAs) scriptwriting category, again for "Blink".

Doctor Who has won six categories at the 17th annual BAFTA Cymru Awards, given to films and television programmes produced in Wales. The ceremony was held tonight at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

The programme took the awards for Best Drama Series (Phil Collinson, for "Voyage of the Damned"), Best Screenwriter (Steven Moffat, for "Blink"), Best Sound (BBC Wales Sound team), Best Director, Drama (James Strong, "Voyage of the Damned"), Best Director of Photography (Ernie Vincze for "Voyage of the Damned") and Best Make-Up (Barbara Southcott and Neill Gorton at Millennium FX for "The Shakespeare Code".)

Spin-off series Torchwood took one award, Best Costume for the episode "Captain Jack Harkness".

IC Wales and BBC News both have reports.

Toby Hadoke's play Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarfopened in London's West End last night, and a successful performance was topped off by the news that the radio version of the production had been nominated in the Best Drama category of the prestigious Sony Awards.

Famous faces at the Arts Theatre, Leicester Square, on
Wednesday's opening night included Fenella Woolgar(Bright Young Things, Steven Moffat's Jekyll and soon to be Agatha Christie in the current series of Doctor Who, and seen right with Hadoke), Justin Edwards (Perrier Award nominee and star of BBC4's The Thick Of It) and Ian Boldsworth (a.k.a. comedian Ray Peacock, who also appeared in the Doctor Who episode Blink).

Hadoke's press release claims that Doctor Who luminaries Paul Cornell, Rob Shearman and Louise Jameson will also be attending to support the show during the run.

The remaining dates are 10th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th April (7.30pm start time, except 12th and 19th, when it's a 3.30pm start).

The BBC 7 Radio adaptation, also available as an audio book, is now in the running for a Sony Award, the radio equivalent of the Oscars and the highest accolade a radio production can receive. The awards themselves take place on May 12th.

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.

This year's nominations for the BAFTA Cymru awards have been announced, and sees Doctor Who and its spin-offs nominated in several categories:

• Best Drama Series: Doctor Who (Voyage of the Damned);Torchwood (End of Days); Belonging (which also stars Torchwood's Eve Myles!)
  
• Best Childrens Programme: The Sarah Jane Adventures(Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane?); Atom; Young Dracula
  
• Best New Media TV or Film Related: Doctor Who Comic Maker; Coal House Interactive; Planed Plant Bach
  
• Best Director of Photography - Drama: Ernie Vincze (Doctor Who - Voyage of the Damned); Richard Wyn (Caerdydd II); Jonathan Bloom (Daddy's Girl)
  
• Best Sound: Doctor Who (Voyage of the Damned); The History of Mister Polly; Y Pris
  
• Best Design: Doctor Who (Voyage of the Damned); Caerdydd II; The History of Mister Polly
  
• Best Costume: Doctor Who (The Shakespeare Code); Torchwood (Captain Jack Harkness); The History of Mister Polly
  
• Best Make-Up: Doctor Who (The Shakespeare Code); Calon Gaeth; The History of Mister Polly
  
• Best Screenwriter: Steven Moffat (Doctor Who - Blink); Ed Talfan (Caerdydd II); Tim Price (Y Pris)
  
• Best Original Soundtrack: Ben Foster (Torchwood - End of Days); John Rea (Coal House); John Hardy/Rob Love (Y Pris)
  
• Best Director - Drama: James Strong (Doctor Who - Voyage of the Damned); Gilles Mackinnon (The History of Mister Polly); Gareth Bryn(Y Pris)
  
• Best Actress: Eve Myles (Torchwood - End of Days); Rebecca Haries (Belonging); Anne Marie-Duff (The History of Mister Polly)
  

The award ceremony takes place at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Sunday 27th April; you can find out more about it from the BAFTA Cymru website inEnglish or Welsh.

Steven Moffat has been nominated in the Best Writer category at the BAFTA Craft Awards for his work on Doctor Who, it has been announced. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts will be hosting the ceremony on May 11th. The awards honour those who work behind-the-scenes in the television industry, and composer Murray Gold is also nominated for his work on Doctor Who.

Moffat's competition consists of Jimmy McGovern (for The Street), Tony Marchant (The Mark of Cain) and Heidi Thomas (Cranford). Doctor Who also receives nominations in the categories of Interactive Fiction Contribution, Sound (Fiction / Entertainment) and Visual Effects.

Doctor Who has received two nominations and Torchwood one nomination for the prestigious Hugo awards.

The Hugo Awards are given every year by members of Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Convention, and have been presented since 1953.

The full list of nominations in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category are.

• Doctor Who - Human Nature/Family of Blood, written by Paul Cornell and directed by Charles Palmer
• Doctor Who - Blink, written by Steven Moffat and directed by Hettie Macdonald
• Torchwood - Captain Jack Harkness, written by Catherine Tregenna and directed by Ashley Way
• Battlestar Galactica - Razor, written by Michael Taylor and directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá and Wayne Rose
• Star Trek New Voyages - World Enough and Time written by Michael Reaves & Marc Scott Zicree and directed by Marc Scott Zicree

This is the third year running that Steven Moffat has been nominated for the award, having won in 2006 for The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and in 2007 for The Girl in the Fireplace. Paul Cornell was previously nominated in 2006 for Father's Day.

The Winners will be announced at Denvention 3 in Denver, Colorado in August.

Thanks to Jason Snell

Doctor Who

The South Wales Evening Post reports that Doctor Who is filming at a disused library in Swansea. This filming is forSteven Moffat's two-part story, which involves a mysterious abandoned library.

The estate of Terry Nation, the writer who created the Daleks, has vetoed a humorous clip featuring a Dalek from being included on the forthcoming "Five Doctors" DVD. The clip, from a 1983 edition of BBC Breakfast, featured a Dalek being interviewed by astrologer Russell Grant, to the amusement of Peter Davison and Patrick Troughton. However, the Nation estate has forbidden the use of the clip, fearing that it detracts from the Daleks' threatening image.The Sun and Metro both carry the story.

Torchwood

Burn Gorman talks to iF Magazine about his character Owen Harper. "I hope that in series two he's a changed man," says Gorman.

The Daily Mirror published a detailed preview of "To the Last Man" before it aired in the UK on Wednesday, andDigital Spy has a review.

Digital Spy also has an article about the Torchwood interactive adventure hosted on bbc.co.uk/torchwood.

The South Wales Echo has a story on Torchwood's ratings success.

People

The Arran Banner, the newspaper of the Scottish Isle of Arran, has found a 16-year-old David Tennant in its archives. Young Tennant was on Arran 20 years ago filming a short play for the children's series Dramarama. The article is accompanied by a small picture.

Christopher Eccleston was one of three judges for BBC Four's Pioneer World Cinema Award 2008. The award was given to the dark Spanish-language fantasy "Pan's Labyrinth"; Variety and Digital Spy have the story.

Another award panel, this one for the Red Planet Prize (awarded by Tony Jordan's Red Planet Pictures for new writing talent in the UK), was composed of Jordan, Doctor Who executive producer Julie Gardner, Doctor Who actor and writer Mark Gatiss and polymath Stephen Fry (who appeared in the Doctor Who webcast "Death Comes to Time" and was scheduled to write a script for Doctor Who Series Two before scheduling commitments forced him to withdraw). The Stage covers the award.

New Car Net recalls Third Doctor Jon Pertwee's road safety public service film with the unforgettable slogan "Splink". (If you don't know what "Splink" means, there's an old story with video on the BBC News site.)

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has rejected two complaints about risqué advertisements for Billie Piper's ITV2 series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl". The ASA ruled that the poster, which featured Piper wearing a bra and panties, was "not dissimilar to that which children would be exposed to in other advertising, for example for lingerie and designer fragrances." The ruling can be read here; Brand Republic has a story (but requires free registration to read it).

The Daily Mail finds it newsworthy to have a photographer follow Billie Piper and her husband Laurence Fox while they're grocery shopping and walking the dog.

Digital Spy has a story culled from John Barrowman's recently published autobiography "Anything Goes", in which Barrowman compares working withChristopher Eccleston and David Tennant. In the book, Barrowman writes: "I found the set to be a lighter one with David than it had been with Christopher in the lead role. I think David is a happier person, whereas I found Chris to be a bit angsty." (Digital Spy miscorrects "angsty" to "angry".)

There are reviews of "Anything Goes" at Country Life magazine and the Daily Telegraph.

TV Guide has published the second half of its interview with James Marsters; there's less about his Torchwood role here, but Marsters speaks about other roles he's playing.

Leftist Internet magazine Spiked has cited Ofcom's investigation into complaints about Catherine Tate's Christmas special as an example of "institutionalized prudishness", and notes that the 28 people who complained about the special represent 0.0004375% of the program's audience.

And This Is Hampshire has an interview with comedian Toby Hadoke, creator of "Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf".

(Thanks to Andrew Brookes, Sean Elliott and Ben Rawson-Jones.)