After the announcement of David Tennant leaving, it was inevitable that the media would begin to speculate on who would assume the role of the Doctor in 2010. BBC Entertainment reporter Lizo Mzimba made a report on Tennant's departure which ran on BBC news programmes over the course of yesterday, citing Paterson Joseph(previously seen in the series as Rodrick in the Series One finale), David Morrissey (to be seen in the forthcoming Christmas special), and James Nesbitt as the leading choices.

Betting site William Hill have offered odds on a number of actors for the role (listed below); an article on their website has reported on how the odds on Welsh actor Rhys Ifans have been slashed following bets made in the Cardiff area! Says spokesman Rupert Adams: "So far we have not been able to find out where the rumours about Rhys are coming from but on paper we think he will make a good Doctor."

Today's Telegraph speculates on the top choices in more detail, also speculating onCatherine Tate - the possibility of a female Doctor once again suggested by Russell T Davies in an interview with Tate and Steven Moffat at the National Television Awards on Wednesday.

Another article appeared on BBC News's E24 entertainment programme last night, in which Lizo interviewed a few stars on their thoughts for who should be the next Doctor. Ricky Gervais put forward his usual collaborator Stephen Merchant for the role, Peter Purves and John Noakes suggestedthemselves(!), James Bond star Daniel Craig liked the idea of a woman, whilst singer Tom Jones agreed with the idea of fellow Welshman Rhys Ifans. As for David Tennant himself: "I’ve always been a big supporter of Wee Jimmy Krankie and I, you know, if it wasn’t me it was gonna be him, her, him. So the campaign starts here for me, to get wee Jimmy Krankie in the Tardis and big Ian Krankie as the companion. I think that works."

Other online media articles include: BBC News Northern Ireland, Londonderry Sentinel, Belfast Telegraph on James Nesbitt; Online Betting Guide; This is Swansea; BBC America; The Mirror; EW.Com Popwatch; LA Times.

Update: the Daily Mail places David Morrissey as favourite; BBC News adds Sean Pertwee and James McAvoyto the list; the Sun reports on reader ideas, including Harry Hill and Jonathan Rhys Meyers; and Russell Toveytells Digital Spy on his thoughts of being named as a possible Doctor.

The BBC Press Office has announced that the first two minutes of the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Next Doctor", will be broadcast as an exclusive preview for the episode as part of this year's Children in Need charity telethon.

Children in Need, the telethon in aid of which is shown on BBC One every November, is this year to be broadcast on Friday 14 November from 7pm. Doctor Who has featured in the programme in various capacities before, including special mini-episodes made specifically for the telethon in 2005 and 2007. Earlier this month it had been rumoured in the media that a special production featuring all seven surviving actors to have played the Doctor might have been in preparation for the evening, but this has proved groundless.

The full episode of "The Next Doctor" is expected to be broadcast by BBC One in the UK on Christmas Day

The BBC Press Office information for Children in Need night, Friday the 14th of November on BBC One, contains the claim that the evening's entertainment will feature "Children In Need-themed scenes from Doctor Who and Ashes To Ashes," among the various other attractions on offer.

There is no information given as to what form this scene might take. In 2005 and 2007, Children in Need featured specially-commissioned Doctor Who scenes (such as Time Crash, pictured, in which the Tenth Doctor met the Fifth), although neither of these were "Children in Need-themed" in and of themselves, suggesting that this particular production may be of a different format.

Doctor Who has long enjoyed a close relationship with the Children in Need charity, being featured in various capacities on several of the annual telethon evenings. Since its return, Doctor Who has also been the focus of several special events to raise money for the charity, such as the 2006 concert in Cardiff and this year's set visit competition.

This year, in addition to the Doctor Who scene, the press office information also reveals that Captain Jack actor John Barrowman will be performing live, as he did in last year's telethon when he sang Elton John's "Your Song".

The actor Peter Copley, who played the role of Dr Warlock in the highly-regarded 1975 Doctor Who serial "Pyramids of Mars", has died at the age of 93. A full obituary has been published by The Daily Telegraph.

The website SonicState.com has published an exclusive video tour of BANG Studios in Cardiff, the audio post-production centre where all of the sound design and mixing is carried out for Doctor Who and its spin-off series. The video features showrunner Russell T Davies on a visit to the studio, and a second part will be published on the website next week.

The latest issue of science-fiction and fantasy magazine SFX features ten alternative covers, one for each televised incarnation of the Doctor. This is in promotion of a heavily Doctor Who-focused issue. The issue, number 176, will be available on British newsstands from Wednesday 22nd October.

A collection of the possessions of the late Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who from 1963 to 1965, is being sold at auction by the firmWoolley and Wallis at its showroom in Salisbury on Wednesday 22nd October. Her two BAFTA awards will be on display, and photographs can be taken.

A biography of Russell T Davies, entitled "T is for Television", is to be published by Reynolds and Hearn on November 27th this year. The company has previously published several other books related to Doctor Who, including Richard Bignell's location guide and Graeme Harper's "Calling the Shots" book about directing the series. "T is for Television" has been co-written by Mark Aldridge and Andy Murray, the latter of whom wrote "Into the Unknown", the biography of the famous television science-fiction writer Nigel Kneale. The book's press release claims that it is "the first book to trace Davies' entire life in television from his earliest days to his vast current success". It is already available for pre-order from various online retailers.

Dick Mills, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop sound design expert who provided sound effects throughout almost the entire run of the classic Doctor Who series in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, will be giving a free seminar at the National Media Museum in Bradford on October 22nd, from 6pm. More details can be found on the museum's website, here.

Actress Julie Brennan, who played the character of Fire Escape in the 1987 Doctor Who serial Paradise Towers, starring Sylvester McCoy, will be appearing as a special guest at a gathering of the Doctor Who Club of Australia on November 23rd. The event is part of the celebrations of the 45th anniversary of Doctor Who, and there are full details on the club's website.

The website Wired.com has published a new interview with Sarah Jane Smith actress Elisabeth Sladen.

Thanks to Simon Power, Ian Berriman, Clare Playle, Mark Aldridge, Tim Neal and Vitas Varnas.

News services are reporting that this year's Children in Need will feature a special to include all seven living Doctor Who lead actors.

The report below is from the Telegraph. The story also appears in the News of the World and the Sunday Mirror.

[Remember: treat all such news as rumour until confirmed officially by the BBC.]

Both The Guardian and The Independent newspapers in the UK have today published reviews of Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, the new book by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook.

The Guardian's review is written by Veronica Horwell, who delivers a very positive verdict. "Fifteen chapters of that should be far too much even for us fundamentalist Doc-venerators," she writes. "But it isn't far too much. It's the Doctor Who Annual for adults, and it's not nearly enough, should have been 1001 pages, because Davies doesn't need to be writing fiction, shaping stuff retrieved from the flux of his Great Maybe, to be a storyteller. He's the Scheherazade of Cardiff Bay. He's making this up as he goes along."

The Independent's piece is combined with an interview with Davies, conducted recently at BBC Television Centre. "There's such goodwill towards Doctor Who," Davies comments. "Which makes it much easier for us. It's not like someone really famous will come on and have to play a murdered prostitute, like in Prime Suspect. They have fun and it's seen by kids and that's what really registers with people and means they're up for it."

Russell T Davies's comments from his new book, excerpted in today's issue of The Times and reported yesterday on the Doctor Who News Page (see below) have been widely reproduced across the British media today. The two main angles being focused on are Davies's suggestion of actor Russell Tovey (Midshipman Frame in "Voyage of the Damned") as a possible Eleventh Doctor, and his idea of basing the 2008 Christmas special around an appearance by Harry Potter author JK Rowling.

BBC News, CBBC Newsround, Digital Spy, The Mirror and The Guardian, amongst many others, all make the Tovey casting suggestion the focus of their story, with Guardian columnist Daniel Martin suggesting that the next Doctor "...has to be someone with a massive future who's never had their one defining part."

Under the headline "Dr exterminates role for Rowling", The Sun make JK Rowling's non-appearance in the programme their focus of the story, as does another piece in The Guardian. Here Lindesay Irvine points out that: "it's not entirely certain that Rowling was tapdancing at the idea herself."

Meanwhile, The Times themselves have published the second part of their preview of "The Writer's Tale".

The Sun is reporting inside information on some major cast news for the 2009 specials starring David Tennant. Details are found in the Spoiler box below.

Remember, consider all such information as strictly rumour until confirmed publicly by the BBC.

UPDATE - SEP 12: The BBC today rejected one of the claims. The details are in the Spoiler box.

Various sources in the British media are today reporting fresh speculation about a potential Doctor Who feature film. A report in The Sun newspaper has suggested that series star David Tennant is negotiating with the BBC about starring in series five of Doctor Who in 2010, with the proviso that a feature film version of the series comes as part of the deal.

The Sun's report quotes a "show source" as saying: "For ages, BBC Worldwide held the rights and were planning to make a movie, but it got held up and former BBC1 boss Lorraine Heggessey decided to bring back the TV series in 2005. But everyone is keen now and the fans are clamouring. Part of David’s conundrum is that he wants to do films, so this looks like it would solve both issues."

The story has also been picked up by The Daily Telegraph, Metro, What's On TV and TeleText, amongst many others.

The BBC Press Office has released details of the new series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, including information on characters and broadcast dates.

The release confirms that the first episode of series two will be broadcast on BBC One on Monday 29th September at 4.35pm. The second episode will then follow on the CBBC digital channel at 5.15pm. This will be the pattern for the rest of the series, with episodes debuting on the CBBC channel.

The run finishes with the BBC One broadcast of episode 12 on Monday 15th December.