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.

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.

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.

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.

Several sources are reporting the death yesterday (April 3) of Johnny Byrne. Byrne penned three stories for the classic Doctor Who series: The Keeper of Traken starring Tom Baker (in which the character Nyssa, played by Sarah Sutton, eventually became a companion), Arc of Infinity and Warriors of the Deep starring Peter Davison.

Byrne also penned a film script for the series which was not used. In addition, he wrote eleven episodes of "Space: 1999" as well as episodes of "All Creatures Great and Small", which co-starred Davison, and "Heartbeat" as well as other series and miniseries.

According to his entry on Wikipedia, Byrne "traveled extensively in his youth as a traveling poet. In the 1960s he worked as a literary editor and wrote poetry and short stories which was [sic] published in Science Fantasy Magazine.

"His other works include Groupie (1969), Season Of The Witch (1971). and the scripts for the films Adolf Hitler, My Part In His Downfall (1972), and Rosie Is My Relative (1976)."

Born in 1935, he died on April 3 due to undisclosed causes.

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.

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.

In this week's Radio Times, Russell T Davies talks about how he goes about casting Doctor Who. "You can't really write with a guest star in mind - well, only in very exceptional cases. Kylie Minogue was one. There's a great danger in writing for someone and then they get offered a film, or they just don't fancy it. So it's dangerous territory to enter."

One of the things I love about this job is working with actors. It's such a strange process where you hand the script over to a bunch of complete strangers, but you have to trust them, and when you cast it well, that trust is paid back. Undoubtedly, they have fun doing it, but not so much fun that it looks like fun on screen." Every guest actor says, "My children would have killed me if I hadn't taken the part." Even those who haven't got children have nephews and nieces. Not just some of them say it – every single one of them does. It's a litany as they arrive. And it's absolutely true!"

Catherine Tate tells of her reaction when asked to reprise the role of Donna Noble, "I couldn’t have been more surprised. I went out to lunch with [executive producer] Julie Gardner and I thought we were just there to chat. When people say, “My jaw hit the floor". I know what they mean!". David Tennant talks about the Doctor's reaction to the reunion. "He’s pretty gobsmacked. Donna’s quite a force of nature, she doesn’t really take no for an answer."

The Magazine also contains an article on first producer Verity Lambert, and looks ahead to the tribute on BBC Fourthis weekend. It was to Lambert’s 60s version that Davies turned for inspiration when kick-starting new Doctor Who in 2005, because, "It was before the series became bogged down in any continuity. There was just mystery. An open road – that’s what she created."

BBC News Online features an article on the press launch of Series 4. The executive producer Russell T Davies tells how he wants David Tennant to stay on forever. When quizzed about his own future with the programme, Davies told reporters it was "none of their business. Never mind what happens behind the scenes," he said "it's what happens on Saturday night that's important." The website includes video interviews with Tennant and Tate and clips from the new series.

The launch is also featured in a number of national newspapers. The Telegraph reviews the first episode and asks Who is the best Who? The Mirror andThe Sun also review the first episode.

The start time of Series Four of Doctor Who is likely to return to 7.00pm around Episode Five or Six according to the BBC's internal magazine Ariel.

The show's Executive Producer, Russell T. Davies, interviewed at the Series Four Press launch, admitted he would have preferred a later time slot, but was diplomatic about the scheduling decision which he said last week could lose the show a million viewers.

"It's not a time slot I agree with, but I know that no one wants to damage the brand", he said calmly. "In the past we’ve got higher figures when it went later, but it will shift later on in the run, around episode five or six, which the BBC was going to do anyway."

Also at the launch Ariel spoke to Jane Tranter, BBC controller BBC Fiction who thanked the "loyal, professional and all round excellent team" in Cardiff, most of whom have worked on all 56 episodes. "The success of Doctor Who is to a great extent theirs," she said. Tranter described new companionCatherine Tate as "the most empathetic, big hearted and extraordinary of the Doctor's companions", praising her "versatility, bravura and humanity as an actress".

Meanwhile David Tennant promised the series four finale would be the "biggest, boldest, maddest, saddest, most exciting story we've ever done".