To celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who,  John Richards (creator/writer of the ABC1 sitcom Outland, Boxcutters podcast) and Ben McKenzie (Channel 31′s Planet Nerd, Dungeon Crawl, ‘patron saint of geek comedy’ – T-Squat magazine) have joined forces to host a year-long performance/podcast project, entitled "Splendid Chaps", in Melbourne, Australia.

Each month from January to November 2013 John and Ben will record a live Doctor Who panel discussion – one for each of the eleven Doctors – with a different theme, special guests, musical and comedy performances and loveliness. These will also be edited into podcast episodes, released on the 23rd of each month.

The first event on 13 January will discuss the first doctor and features special guest Alexandra Tynan (nee Sandra Reid), the woman who designed the Cybermen back in 1966. She’ll be joined by writer and filmmaker Lee Zachariah (ABC2′s The Bazura Project, Hell Is For Hyphenates podcast); broadcaster and host of 3RRR FM’s LiveWire, Nerida Haycock; announcer Petra Elliot and Ben and John as hosts. The musical guest (singing a Who-related number) will be comedian and cabaret artiste Geraldine Quinn.

The forum will be held on Sunday 13 January 2012 at 5pm at the Annexe, Bella Union, Trades Hall, corner of Victoria and Lygon Streets, Melbourne.  Tickets will be available at the door (subject to availability) or on the web.

As mentioned earlier this month, the BFI plan to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who with special screenings each month next year in the lead-up to the Anniversary itself; the organisation has now announced details about the first quarter of 2013.

As previously mentioned, the season kicks off at the very beginning with William Hartnell's An Unearthly Child on 12th January; this will be followed on 9th February with Patrick Troughton tackling the Tomb of the Cybermen; then in March Jon Pertwee is up against The Master as The Mind of Evil is unveiled in newly restored colour! All stories are accompanied by a Q&A panel, though guests have yet to be announced.


Justin Johnson, BFI Programmer, said:

Doctor Who's executive producer Caroline Skinner said:

In November, the climax of the BFI's celebration will include a special preview of An Adventure in Space and Time , the drama written by Mark Gatiss exploring the personalities that brought the longest running sci-fi series to life.


The stories representing the other eight Doctors will be confirmed next year.

The Institut Francais in London is to hold a Doctor Who Night next month.

Featuring big-screen showings of Blink, Midnight, and The God Complex plus a masterclass from writer Toby Whithouse, the event on Saturday 19th January is part of the cross-cultural organisation's second Totally Serialized season.

The aim of the TV festival, which runs from 16th to 20th January, is to showcase the best of new productions from both sides of the Channel as well as European TV shows. It will have screenwriters, directors, and actors attending, including Hugh Bonneville (albeit for his role as the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey).

The Doctor Who Night - which will also have a quiz, music, mystery guests, and a costume contest - starts at 7pm.

The National Institute of Dramatic Art in Australia is to run another range of courses during December and January using Doctor Who as a basis to teach participants skills in the industry.

NIDA have run Doctor Who related classes in the past for children/young people, teaching acting and script writing techniques, but this year also sees one aimed at those aged 18 and above (highlighted below).

Neil Gaiman will be in Tasmania next month as part of the music-and-arts-centred Mona Foma Festival. An Evening With Neil Gaiman is to be held at the Theatre Royal in Hobart on Sunday 20th January. (NB: Although the event is described as being suitable for all ages, explicit language is used in the theatre's web page about the show.)

In addition, Gaiman's urban fantasy TV series Neverwhere, which aired on BBC Two in 1996 and had an accompanying novelisation, is currently being made for BBC Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra. Adapted by Dirk Maggs, who is also co-directing it, and with a cast that includes Christopher Lee, Bernard Cribbins, Anthony Head, Yasmin Paige, David Harewood, Sophie Okonedo, Don Gilet, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Andrew Sachs, the six-parter is scheduled to be broadcast during the early part of 2013. [neilgaiman.com, 28 Nov 2012]

Sheila Hancock and Lee Evans are to star in a new comedy at Wyndham's Theatre in London next year. Barking In Essex tells the tale of a gangster fresh out of jail and returning to his dysfunctional family to retrieve more than £3.5m. It has been written by Clive Exton and will be directed by Harry Burton, with Evans playing the "dim-witted idiot of the criminal underbelly" Darnley and Hancock playing Emmie, described as Darnley's "Rottweiler mother". The production previews from Friday 6th September, opening on Monday 16th September. [BBC News, 30 Nov 2012]

A new play by David Haig that was due to open at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh next May before transferring to Chichester Festival Theatre has run into casting problems. Pressure, which is about the meteorologist Captain James Stagg, who had the task of predicting the weather ahead of the D-Day landings in the Second World War, has been postponed until spring 2014 while the search to find "the right person" to play Stagg continues. [The Stage, 30 Nov 2012]

Jessica Hynes and Olivia Colman have both been nominated as Best TV Comedy Actress in this year's British Comedy Awards. Colman has, in fact, been nominated twice - firstly for Rev and secondly for Twenty Twelve, with Hynes's nomination also being for Twenty Twelve. The spoof "mockumentary" about this year's London Olympics, which had a voiceover commentary by David Tennant, is itself up for Best Sitcom against, among others, The Thick Of It, which starred Peter Capaldi, and both Capaldi and Hugh Bonneville are vying for the title of Best TV Comedy Actor for their roles in those two respective shows. Meanwhile, David Mitchell is in the running for Best Male Television Comic and he is also among the nominees for the publicly-voted King and Queen of Comedy. The ceremony will be shown live on Channel 4 on Wednesday 12th December. [BBC News, 2 Dec 2012]

Tamsin Greig and Anne Reid will be among the guest stars appearing in a new darkly comic anthology that has just started filming for BBC Two. Written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, the six-part series, which has the working title of Inside No 9, will take a look at what goes on behind closed doors at six very different residences sharing the number 9. [BBC Media Centre, 3 Dec 2012]

Sheridan Smith - companion Lucie Miller to the Eighth Doctor in the Big Finish audio dramas - is to return as mystery-solver Jonathan Creek's sidekick Joey Ross in a new episode of the BBC One crime-comedy-drama. Filming on The Clue of the Savant's Thumb, written by David Renwick, starts later this month, with the 90-minute Jonathan Creek special due to air next Easter. [BBC Media Centre, 5 Dec 2012]

The BFI Southbank in London is to mark Doctor Who's 50th anniversary by showing stories from each Doctor throughout 2013.

According to the latest BFI booklet, there will be something from Doctor Who every month up to and including November.

The first screening in the celebratory season will be of the programme's first adventure, An Unearthly Child, directed by Waris Hussein and starring William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, Jacqueline Hill, and William Russell. It takes place on Saturday 12th January at 3.30pm and there will also be guests, although they are yet to be confirmed.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday 11th December at 11.30am, and bookings can be made via the relevant BFI programme page.

Details and dates of future screenings in the season are yet to be announced.

Where would the United Kingdom be without the traditional Christmas pantomime, and this year is no exception with a variety of Doctor Who names back on the stage to entertain during the festive season.


Other names associated with Doctor Who include: Nigel Havers (Peter Dalton, The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith) in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Southampton Mayflower; Christopher Pizzey (Eddie Smith, The Sarah Jane Adventures) in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Tunbridge Wells Assembly Hall Theatre; Paul Lavers (Farrah, The Androids of Tara) in Mother Goose at the Gorleston Pavilion; Royce Mills (Dalek operator) in Aladdin at the Guildford Yvonne Arnaud Theatre; Marshall Lancaster (Buzzer, The Rebel Flesh) in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Leeds Carriageworks; Lynda Bellingham (The Inquisitor, The Trial of a Time Lord) in Cinderella at the Bradford Alhambra Theatre; Warwick Davis (The Last Cyberman) in Snow White at the New Wimbledon Theatre; Floella Benjamin (Professor Rivers, The Sarah Jane Adventures) and Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds, Rise of the Cybermen) in Cinderella at the Broadway Theatre, Catford; Bruno Langley (Adam in Dalek) in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Brindley Arts Centre, Runcorn; Eric Potts (Oliver Charles, Aliens of London) in Dick Whittington at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking; Nichola McAuliffe (Vivien Rook, The Sound of Drums) in Snow White at the Theatre Royal, Bath; Barney Harwood (Totally Doctor Who) in Peter Pan at Llandudno's Venue Cymru; Lily Savage aka Paul O'Grady (himself, The Stolen Earth) in Aladdin at the O2; Ann Widdecombe (herself, The Sound of Drums) in Snow White at the Wycombe Swan; and Christopher Biggins (The One Doctor, Big Finish) in Dick Whittington at the Plymouth Theatre Royal.

More performances have been added to next month's Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular for a second time.

The event at Sydney Opera House will feature music composed by Murray Gold, performed by The Metropolitan Orchestra, conducted by Ben Foster.

Originally planned to be held on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th December only, two shows were added for Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th December. Now three extra performances have been slotted on for the following two days: matinee and evening concerts on Thursday 20th December and an evening one on Friday 21st December.

The musical celebration of Doctor Who will be presented by Alex Kingston and Mark Williams, with various monsters from the series poised to overrun the concert venue too.

To book, go to the Sydney Opera House website. (NB: Both of the Saturday performances are now sold out and there is currently limited availability for the Sunday matinee.)

The Season 3 episode Air Lock that was recovered last year is to be shown in full on the big screen in London next month.

It will form part of the first session of this year's annual BFI event Missing Believed Wiped, entitled The Weird And The Wonderful.

An excerpt from the Galaxy 4 episode was shown as a surprise part of last year's BFI showcase of recovered TV material, as was the screening in full of episode 2 of The Underwater Menace, whose recovery had similarly been kept under wraps until then. Both episodes were shown in full in Cardiff in May.

In addition, the second and concluding session of this year's Missing Believed Wiped - Music And Entertainment - will include the recovered March 1966 edition of BBC TV's youth culture show A Whole Scene Going that features a location report from the filming of Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

Tickets to both sessions of this year's event, which takes place on Sunday 2nd December at the BFI Southbank, go on sale to the public at 11.30am on Tuesday 13th November.

As previously reported, Air Lock is to be a bonus episode on next March's special edition DVD release of The Aztecs.

An improvised show inspired by Doctor Who is taking to the stage in Melbourne from tomorrow for a seven-date weekly run.

Time Lord is being put on by The Impro Box and will be performed by Rob Lloyd with members of the improvisational troupe. Made up on the spot, it will centre on a fan presenting an audience-suggested adventure about the Doctor.

The show will be at Club Voltaire in Raglan Street every Wednesday at 7.30pm from 31st October to 12th December. Tickets can be booked via The Impro Box.

Lloyd previously performed the one-man Doctor Who-themed comedy show Who, Me at the Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe Festivals, Armageddon Expo 2011, and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.