Today sees special Royal Mail stamps going on sale to mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Each of the 11 TV Doctors is represented on his own first-class stamp (60p), as is the TARDIS, while four enemies – Dalek, Cyberman, Ood, and a Weeping Angel – feature on second-class stamps (50p). The enemies and TARDIS are on a five-stamp miniature sheet, while the stamp design for the Doctors sees the face of each one set against relevant opening title sequences along with a relevant logo. Since the first two Doctors' eras were broadcast in monochrome, the first two stamps are also black and white.

As well as the stamps - which are being sold at more than 9,000 Post Office branches in the UK, online, and via phone (08457 641 641) - a wide variety of associated products is also available, ranging from first-day covers and postcards to stamp sets and stamp strips plus a pin badge of the TARDIS stamp. Some of the items on sale include series information penned by Doctor Who writer, director, and script editor Gary Russell.

Royal Mail - which said it had had an unprecedented number of pre-registrations for the stamps since they were unveiled in December - is also creating unique postmarks in the home towns of the actors to have played the 11 TV Doctors. All stamped mail sent from those locations will have a special postmark celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who, with the name of the actor who played the Doctor plus the length of time they were in the role.

Andrew Hammond, the managing director of the stamps and collectibles division at Royal Mail, said:
Fiona Eastwood, the product development director at BBC Worldwide Consumer Products, said:
Royal Mail's Special Stamp programme has been commemorating and celebrating events and anniversaries relevant to UK heritage and life for nearly 50 years itself. All UK stamp designs are approved by the Queen before they are printed.

The stamps are available to purchase from the Post Office.

Pre-issue event:

A special public affairs event marking the issue of the anniversary stamps was held by Royal Mail at BAFTA in London earlier this month, with Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Paul McGann, Steven Moffat, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jon Pertwee's son Sean Pertwee, and William Hartnell's granddaughter and biographer Jessica Carney mingling among the invited guests, who included MPs, stakeholders, and key Royal Mail customers.

Speeches in praise of the show and the stamps were given by Moya Greene, Royal Mail's chief executive, and Steven Moffat. The showrunner also introduced a video message from Matt Smith, as the actor had been unable to make it to the function, plus an extended trailer for Series 7b.

Props made by the officially-licensed company Rubbertoe Replicas were on show, as were displays of the stamps, with Daleks and a police box also adding to the atmosphere.

Competition to follow:

Doctor Who News will shortly be running a competition connected with the release of the stamps and there's a fabulous prize to be won, courtesy of Royal Mail, so keep checking back for details!

The nominations for the 2013 BAFTA Television Craft Awards have been announced, and sees Doctor Who represented in two categories:

• Composer Murray Gold has been nominated in the Original Television Music section for his work on Asylum of the Daleks; he'll be facing competition from Kevin Sargent for The Hour, Stephen Warbeck for Henry IV (The Hollow Crown), and Ilan Eshkeri and Andy Burrows for The Snowmen and the Snowdog.
  
  
• Visual Effects designers The Mill have been nominated in the Visual Effects and Graphic Design section; they'll be up against Tom Turnbull for Titanic, Rupert Ray and Benuts for Parade's End, and Robin Nurse, Julian Gibbs and Richard Gort for The Psychology of Winning.

The awards ceremony takes place on Sunday 28th April at The Brewery, in the City of London, hosted by Stephen Mangan.


Gold was nominated once before in 2008 for his music, but lost out to Adrian Johnston for Capturing Mary; The Mill have been nominated every year since 2007, and won in 2009 for The Fires of Pompeii. Other Doctor Who successes over the years have included both the Pioneer Audience Award and Drama Series in 2006, the Writer award to Steven Moffat for Blink, and the Editing (Fiction/Entertainment) award to Philip Kloss in 2009. Last year, Moffat received a special BAFTA award in recognition of his outstanding creative writing contribution to television.

The BBC have now formally announced details for the return of Doctor Who to television on BBC One on 30th March 2013 (time still be confirmed), along with interviews with the stars Matt Smith and Jenna-Louse Coleman, and lead writer/executive producer Steven Moffat.

Story Synopses:

The synopses and some publicity images have been released for the first four stories, including movie-style posters continuing the theme of the 2012 episodes:

Al Jazeera has bought Series 5 to 7 of Doctor Who, it was announced today.

The episodes were snapped up at the BBC Worldwide Showcase 2013 event and will be shown on the satellite TV broadcaster's pan-Arabic children's channel JCC, which launched in 2005 and is based in Qatar.

The showcase is a four-day international TV market being held at ACC Liverpool. It started yesterday and is welcoming some 700 TV buyers from around the globe.

Paola Tonella, BBC Worldwide's sales and distribution territory manager for the Middle East and Africa, said: Among the star names at yesterday's gala opening were Eve Myles and Mark Williams.

The showcase will also be hosting special events to both celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who and to spotlight the natural-history documentary series Africa.

Steve Macallister, the president and managing director of sales and distribution at BBC Worldwide, said:

Doctor Who is to be shown in 3D, it was announced this evening.

A press statement said that the programme would be broadcast in 3D, using some of the BBC's high-definition capacity, as part of the blockbuster celebrations to mark the show turning 50. Showrunner Steven Moffat said:
The use of the advance in broadcasting technology for the programme was revealed during an event for writers, actors, industry, and press at which BBC drama controller Ben Stephenson set out his vision for BBC Drama, announcing new commissions, recommissions, and looking forward to new horizons:

This isn't the first time the show has entered the 3D waters. Back in 1993 Doctor Who's 30th anniversary was marked with Dimensions In Time, broadcast in 3D for that year's Children in Need. And in 2010 the Eleventh Doctor's era was heralded by a 3D trailer shown in cinemas, as can be seen below (NB: 3D anaglyph red/cyan glasses are needed for the full benefit):


Also in 2010 a poll was undertaken by entertainment manufacturer Panasonic that revealed Doctor Who was the show that viewers would most like to see in 3D, with other favourites being Wallace and Gromit and Top Gear.

The seventh instalment in our series looking at events leading to the creation of a true TV legend.

As stated in our previous feature, having joined the BBC in December 1962 as its new Head of Television Drama, Sydney Newman, pictured below, had been somewhat dismayed from the off, feeling that most of the directors, although perfectly nice people, were stuck in old-fashioned ways. He needed to implement long-overdue changes to re-energise the department - and a newly-published report helped the "new broom" do just that.

The Pilkington Committee, chaired by glass magnate Sir Harry Pilkington, had been appointed in July 1960 to look into the organisation of the entire broadcasting industry and programmes. It eventually reported in June 1962, and among its recommendations it said that the BBC should be awarded a second national TV channel as an alternative to what was perceived as a populist approach by the BBC (whose Television Service had begun regularly-scheduled electronically-scanned programmes on 2nd November 1936 and was renamed and restyled BBC tv in 1960) and its commercial rival ITV (which began broadcasting on 22nd September 1955, initially in the London area). As a result, BBC2 (as it was originally styled) would be launched on 20th April 1964, with BBC tv becoming BBC1.

Then, in January 1963 - 50 years ago this month - Newman received some very welcome news. He would later recall being summoned to the office of Kenneth Adam, the BBC's Director of Television, to be told that as a result of BBC2 being given the go-ahead the Drama Department would now have a 40 per cent budget increase. Newman said: One of the far-reaching decisions Newman made during January 1963 was to disband the Children's Department at the BBC, meaning that every children's drama programme would now be made by the Drama Department.

Further fundamental changes to working practices followed. Newman had found the Drama Department an unwieldy beast and impossible to control by himself. He therefore took the decision to break it down into three separate departments: Series, Serials, and Plays - each of which had its own head with direct control but doing his bidding.

In addition, Newman gradually abandoned the all-in-one producer/director role, replacing it with the production-team style used greatly by ITV and, hitherto, to a far lesser degree by the BBC. Directors would be appointed - either from staff or on a freelance basis - to make individual episodes or programmes, whereas producers would now act in a more executive capacity, with total financial and artistic control over a specific project. A story editor would also form a permanent part of the team, and their job would be to find writers and work with them to produce scripts. A move that would take some three months to fully put into place, this brave new world of drama production would ultimately see the Script Department become mostly redundant, leading to its eventual closure.

During March 1963, Newman would also hold talks with Donald Baverstock, pictured left, newly promoted from being BBC tv's Assistant Controller of Programmes to the role of Chief of Programmes for BBC1 (in anticipation of the launch of BBC2), and Joanna Spicer, pictured far left, the Assistant Controller (Planning) Television, on the need for a new drama serial to plug an important gap in the Saturday-evening schedule.
Here's what Newman would later say about it: Among the possibilities was a series centring on two lads in a boys' school, but Newman later settled on a science-fiction show. He gave a general outline of his idea to Baverstock and Spicer, who were extremely positive about it, and Newman subsequently asked Donald Wilson, head of the still-remaining Script Department, to think of format ideas for a 52-week science-fiction series made up of shorter serials. A meeting in Wilson's office was then scheduled for 26th March to talk about suggestions for the new series, using as the basis for discussion the April 1962 and July 1962 Survey Group reports concerning science-fiction.

Doctor Who and its stars have been shortlisted in three categories in this year's National Television Awards.

In the Drama section, the show itself is up against Sherlock (co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss), Merlin (starring Colin Morgan), and Downton Abbey (starring Hugh Bonneville).

Matt Smith is nominated for Drama Performance: Male, for which he is competing against Benedict Cumberbatch (the title role in Sherlock), Colin Morgan (the title role in Merlin), and Daniel Mays (Ronnie Biggs in Mrs Biggs).

Meanwhile, Karen Gillan faces Sheridan Smith (Charmian Biggs in Mrs Biggs), Suranne Jones (Det Con Rachel Bailey in Scott & Bailey), and Miranda Hart (Chummy Browne in Call The Midwife) for the Drama Performance: Female gong.

In other categories, Would I Lie To You?, featuring David Mitchell, is among the nominees for Comedy Panel Show, The Apprentice (with Lord Alan Sugar) and Paul O'Grady: For The Love Of Dogs are included in Factual Entertainment, Absolutely Fabulous (with June Whitfield) and Benidorm (co-written by and co-starring Steve Pemberton) are up for Situation Comedy, Coronation Street (produced by Phil Collinson) is nominated for Serial Drama, and The Chase, hosted by Bradley Walsh, is nominated in the Daytime category.

Both Smith and Gillan won in their respective categories in last year's NTAs, but the show lost out to Downton Abbey as Most Popular Drama.

Votes can be cast via this link and must be confirmed by midday on Wednesday 23rd January, when voting closes. The ceremony - the 18th NTAs - takes place at the O2 Arena in London and will be broadcast live on ITV1 from 7.30pm the same day.

Today's Adventure Calendar release by the BBC features a behind-the-scenes video entitled The Matt Smith Christmas Show, in which the actor chats to new co-star Jenna-Louise Coleman, plus Kat from Costumes!

The BBC have announced that it is to launch its BBC Entertainment channel in Burma from next year. The pay-TV channel will launch from 1st January 2013 alongside BBC World News and CBeebies, which will join the BBC World Service broadcast through the region's Forever Group.

BBC Entertainment showcases the best comedy, drama and light entertainment from the BBC and other UK production houses; this of course includes Doctor Who - so will mark the first time the series has been broadcast in the country!

Mark Whitehead, Senior Vice President and General Manager of BBC Worldwide Channels Asia, said:

The BBC have also announced another first for Doctor Who, as BBC Entertainment is also introduced to Indonesia, to be broadcast via max3 from Biznet Networks. Mark Whitehead commented:

Doctor Who on BBC Entertainment:

At the time of writing the channel is currently showing Series 6 in Asia, and tonight will show last year's festive adventure The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.

The Entertainment Memorabilia auction held at Bonhams in London yesterday saw items from Doctor Who and its spin-off series fetch thousands of pounds, with the star item being the Nissan Figaro driven by Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith in The Sarah Jane Adventures going for £6,000 - the top end of its estimate.

Various costumes and props from Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Torchwood went under the hammer but not everything was sold. A TARDIS exterior panel, listed as having been supplied by the BBC to the firm that made the title sequence for Sylvester McCoy's inaugural series as the Doctor, was withdrawn from the auction, having had an estimate of £400-500, and autographed scripts from Revelation of the Daleks, which had an estimate of £500-600, failed to sell.

The auction was held at Bonhams' Knightsbridge saleroom.

Full results of related auction items - sale price includes premium (estimate in brackets):

Lot	Description	Sold for (£)
118	Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. poster	625 (500-700)
143	Planet of the Spiders original scripts	875 (1,200-1,500)
144	SV7 costume from The Robots of Death	2,500 (2,000-3,000)
145	Revelation of the Daleks autographed scripts for episodes 1 and 2	Failed to sell (500-600)
146	Remembrance of the Daleks autographed OB schedule	187 (250-300)
148	Foam shark model from A Christmas Carol	875 (1,000-1,500)
150	TW: Scale corpse model from Countrycide	250 (200-300)
151	TW: Captain Jack Harkness's coat	2,125 (700-900)
152	TW: Jack's safe door	312 (500-700)
153	TW: Jack's bedroom hatch door	250 (300-400)
154	TW: Martha Jones' costume from Reset	625 (300-500)
155	TW: Gwen Cooper's costume from Meat	312 (500-700)
156	SJA: Sarah's costume from Invasion of the Bane	1,250 (500-600)
157	SJA: Two "Slab" costumes from Warriors of Kudlak	350 (250-300)
158	SJA: Eve's costume from The Mad Woman in the Attic	250 (200-250)
159	SJA: Androvax costume from Prisoner of the Judoon and The Vault of Secrets	450 (300-400)
160	SJA: Clyde Langer costumes (15)	500 (350-400)
161	SJA: Shansheeth part costume from Death of the Doctor	687 (250-300)
162	SJA: Two Mister Dread costumes from The Vault of Secrets	200 (250-300)
163	SJA: Sarah's car (1991 Nissan Figaro two-door Targa Coupe)	6,000 (4,000-6,000)