Docteur Who: La Prophétie de Noël

Thursday, 16 December 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: End of TimeWhile many viewers in the English speaking world will be enjoying Matt Smith's first Christmas special as The Doctor this year, viewers in France will be bidding farewell to the Tenth Doctor when France 4 broadcasts both parts of The End of Time this Christmas Day.

Docteur Who : La Prophétie de Noël will be broadcast at 8.35. The title translates as The Christmas Prophecy.

The story was dubbed into French last March with David Manet making his swan song as the voice of the Tenth Doctor. A full cast list can be found here.

Update 19th December: readers in France may watch previews for parts one and two from the France4 website.




FILTER: - Specials - France - David Tennant - Broadcasting - Europe

Doctor Who - BBC Video Catchup

Wednesday, 15 December 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
A number of videos have been released on the BBC website in the last couple of days relating to publicity for the Christmas special, A Christmas Carol; these appeared on BBC news programmes, but are sometimes extended versions online.

In this video, Matt Smith talks to Lizo Mzimba about his thoughts on the Christmas special, during which he was asked if he felt any pressure over ratings with previous specials doing so well at Christmas:
I hope it continues to do well, I really do. Yeah, but I can't really feel any pressure for it because I've done it now, I've made it, so c'est la vie, what will be will be, it's out of my control. But I think it's a great episode and it will be a nice way to spend it with someone.
Matt was also very surprised to find out that he'd been known as the Doctor for nigh on two years:
"Is it really? Blimey oh Riley. God, that's a long time, isn't it! It's whizzed by I suppose because we're very busy up in Cardiff, but, yeah it's been a wonderful two years, it's been a privilege to play it, I have to say, and it's been a great experience for me, it really has."
The video includes several brief scenes from A Christmas Carol.

Children's news programme Newsround featured a truncated version of the above video, which was broadcast during their television bulletins. Here, Matt talked about emotional impact of the special:
It's a very Christmassy Doctor Who, and I think that Stephen (Moffat) has interpreted and managed the spirits of the Doctor. Particularly in the retelling of classical stories, anyway; if you look back at the classic stories that tend to hit us over Christmas, a lot of the great ones do pull at the heart strings.

As reported earlier tonight, Katherine Jenkins visited her old primary school in the afternoon. During this video, she was asked how she found filming for her first acting role in a BBC Wales production:
Well we filmed it over about three/four weeks, in Wales of course, and so that was lovely because I was able to come home and see the family. It's challenging in so many ways because I'd never done any green screen stuff either, so all the sleigh/carriage stuff, the flying scenes ... when you're just in a room with a fan and having to scream on tap, you know, it was sometimes quite wierd. But lots of fun, cos I was in the carriage sometimes with Matt, and sometimes with Michael Gambon and so we had a really good laugh.

I cannot thank them enough, the whole Doctor Who family have been brilliant at making me feel very welcome and making me feel like I could do this. Matt is so energetic and so enthusiastic, and I kept thinking I when was doing scenes with Sir Michael Gambon, "how has this happened, how am I acting here across from Dumbledore" - it was just a very surreal moment.

This is my debut, and for it to be such a typically Welsh show, I think that was part as well in making me feel so at ease, because most of the crew are Welsh-based. Yeah, it was really, really lovely and I've got great memories of it and I don't think I could have done it without everyone being involved.

Monday saw television critic Alison Graham on BBC's Breakfast chatting about what she thinks are the programmes to watch over Christmas; Doctor Who was of course one of her favourites, which she discusses in this video segment from the programme.
The special I thought was lovely, it was very, very, very Christmassy, it was snowy, based on A Christmas Carol, so can't get more Christmassy! One man has the power to rescue everybody, but he's Michael Gambon, a very Scrooge type, so the ghost of Christmas past, who's the Doctor, comes in and tries to make him see the error of his ways. I loved it, quite warmed my heart!

Finally, Catherine Tate appeared on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning; in this video she briefly talks about her experience with meeting Daleks!




FILTER: - Specials - Online - Catherine Tate

An early Christmas Carol for Katherine Jenkins's old school

Tuesday, 14 December 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
A Christmas Special treat came early at the Alderman Davies Primary School in Neath today. This was the school a young Katherine Jenkins attended as a child, and the singer returned there this afternoon to watch a special showing of her acting debut in A Christmas Carol alongside current pupils and staff.

Afterwards, she spent time answering questions with her young fans.

The visit was covered on tonight's Wales Today, and you can watch a longer version of their report on the BBC Wales News website.




FILTER: - Specials - Special Events

Red Button Christmas Preview

Tuesday, 14 December 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The BBC is to show a short Pre-Christmas edition of Doctor Who Confidential on the BBC Red Button Service.

The preview programme will follow Vlogger Charlie McDonnell as he gives his unique insight from behind the scenes of the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas special.

Exact times are not confirmed, but the programme is listed on some platforms as starting at 5.30pm on Sunday 19th December.





FILTER: - Specials - Broadcasting

A Christmas Carol at the BFI

Tuesday, 14 December 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Last night saw a special preview of the forthcoming Christmas special A Christmas Carol take place at the British Film Institute. The episode was then followed by a Q&A session with Matt Smith (the 11th Doctor), Katherine Jenkins (Abigail Pettigrew), and lead writer/executive producer Steven Moffat; Karen Gillan (Amy) was also at the event, but remained in the audience.

When asked about some of the elements and emotion displayed in the episode, Stephen Moffat replied:
Well, the base line of Doctor Who is a man who lives in a telephone box and saves the universe in a bow tie. So you have to go some to up that. And if you’re going to do a Christmas Day episode, which is basically the principle that the audience have had a selection box for breakfast and are probably drunk, then you actually have to sort of move it on a bit. Because, actually, a normal episode of Doctor Who wouldn’t be enough at that point.

I think you have to be emotional. I think you have to go on the whole journey, don’t you? You have to laugh and cry a bit. A Christmas Carol, oddly enough, the original, is sort of the whole package. It’s A Wonderful Life, which is kind of in a way a variant of A Christmas Carol, is the same. Yes, I think you should be…as I say, you’re full of sugar and alcohol, you’re going to be tripped off into any place at any time.
Matt Smith also responded to Katherine Jenkins on this being her first acting role:
I have to say all I was struck by was…it never seemed for a moment that you hadn’t acted before. You were completely well prepared. Because on the one hand, you’ve got Katherine being very diligent and accessing real emotion and really getting in there. Then me and Michael (Gambon) just sort of dossing down. And so I was utterly impressed and she was thoroughly prepared and I’m convinced that she’ll go on and do other parts.

As one might expect, a number of plot points have been discussed and since reported in the media, but we will not be reproducing them due to their spoiler potential for the Christmas Day episode; however, you can read a comprehensive review of both the story and the Q&A from journalist Ian Wylie's blog, Life of Wylie.

Other reviews may be found at Radio Times, The Guardian, Daily Mail, BBC News, SFX and Den of Geek.




FILTER: - Specials - Special Events

A Christmas Carol kicks off BBC's Christmas

Saturday, 11 December 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Tonight the BBC commenced their Christmas idents for the 2010 season on television, launching with the trailer for A Christmas Carol, airing just before Strictly Come Dancing at 6:00pm. This is a shorter version of the preview trailer that was aired during Children in Need back in November, but confirms the time and date of broadcast, previously reported as 6:00pm on Christmas Day.

The trailer is available to watch on the BBC's YouTube channel, and also from the BBC's official Doctor Who site as Day Eleven in their Christmas Adventure Calendar.







FILTER: - Specials

BBC America: Inside Look at A Christmas Carol

Friday, 10 December 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster

BBC America have released a video to tie in with the Christmas special, entitled A Christmas Carol - Exclusive Inside Look.

The video features interviews with Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, during which the three discuss their thoughts on the special and its guest stars, Michael Gambon and Katherine Jenkins.






FILTER: - Specials - USA - BBC America

A Christmas Carol - DVD Update

Thursday, 9 December 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who:A Christmas CarolBBC America have confirmed that the 2010 Christmas Special, A Christmas Carol, will be released on DVD/Blu-ray in North America on February 15th.

It was previously announced that the story will be released in the UK on January 24th, 2011.

The Discs will include the hour long version of Doctor Who at the Proms.




FILTER: - Specials - USA - UK - Blu-ray/DVD

"Everyone's Home for Christmas"

Wednesday, 8 December 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The BBC have started to promote the forthcoming Christmas special, A Christmas Carol as part of their "Everyone's Home for Christmas" trailers for Drama, airing on the BBC channels. A number of clips from the story appear in the trailer, though these have all appeared previously in the Doctor Who trailer broadcast during last month's Children in Need.


(video may not play in all regions)

You can still find last year's drama trailer featuring Doctor Who on the BBC's YouTube site.




FILTER: - Specials

BBC Christmas Showreel

Friday, 3 December 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The BBC have released their Christmas Showreel, featuring programmes in the festive line-up this year. Doctor Who is of course one of the highlights (5:52 into the video), though this is simply the trailer with no additional material from the story.


(the video may not play outside of the United Kingdom)

There is also a drama-specific showreel, which features the Who segment at the start.

(the video may not play outside of the United Kingdom)




FILTER: - Specials - Broadcasting - BBC