Doctor Who moves to 6.45pm for the fifth episode of the current run, The Rebel Flesh.

The first of the two-part story, written by Matthew Graham and directed by Julian Simpson, will be sandwiched between the two parts of So You Think You Can Dance, which has been moved back to an earlier start.

Doctor Who will go up against Sing If You Can on ITV1, in which contestants perform well-known songs while undertaking challenges designed to distract them. BBC Two will be showing Flog It, with people invited to try to make money out of their antiques by taking a risk at auction, while Channel 4 has The Restoration Man, the first of a series in which architect George Clarke joins people as they embark on projects to transform unusual and historic buildings into family homes.

BBC One is to change its Saturday line up from 14th May, switching Doctor Who and So You Think You Can Dance Live meaning episode four of Doctor Who, The Doctor's Wife, is now scheduled for broadcast at 6.30pm.

The change, which will please many fans, is seen as a vote of confidence in the show, which has been the only BBC One programme achieving strong ratings on Saturday evenings.

Doctor Who will follow the live dance show which also sees its results programme being moved to Sunday for this week. The previous Doctor Who lead in, Don't Scare the Hare, which has been getting poor ratings and appalling AI figures, has been moved to before the early evening news. The Eurovision Song Contest Final is at 8pm.

Doctor Who will now face New Animals Do the Funniest Things and Sing if You Can on ITV1. BBC Two will be showing an evening of programmes dedicated to the late comedy writer John Sullivan.

New Zealand have finally found out when the new series of Doctor Who will arrive!

Broadcaster Prime TV have reported via Twitter that they will premiere The Impossible Astronaut on the channel on Thursday 19th May at 8.30pm.

Prime have a dedicated Doctor Who section on their website.

(with thanks to the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club)

Doctor Who broadcasting resource site BroaDWcast has now been updated to include details on broadcasting of the classic series in Canada, recognised as the third country in the world to broadcast the series with the first batch of Hartnell adventures from January 1965.

Other recent additions to the database include Nigeria, Zambia, Japan, Netherlands, and the Philippines.

(with thanks to Jon Preddle)

The BBC have released press details for episode four of the current series, The Doctor's Wife, written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Richard Clark

The programme is due to be broadcast in the UK on Saturday 14th May at a time to be confirmed next week.

Meanwhile it has been confirmed that the UK Broadcast of Episode Three: The Curse of the Black Spot will be at the slightly later time of 6.15pm. It will again be sandwiched between Don't Scare the Hare and So You think You Can Dance. ITV1 will show New People Do the Funniest Things.

The Impossible Astronaut, the first episode of Doctor Who's sixth series (or thirty-second season, if you prefer) will air tonight at 6:00pm BST on BBC One in the UK, at 9:00pm Eastern (6:00 Pacific) on BBC America in the USA, and at 8:00pm Eastern (5:00pm Pacific) on SPACE in Canada. US viewers will also be able to purchase episodes from iTunes or Amazon Instant Video.

After the episode airs, viewers in the UK will be able to view My Sarah Jane: A Tribute to Elisabeth Sladen on the CBBC channel. Doctor Who Confidential will follow on BBC Three at 7:00pm.

Finally, to tease the final hours before the debut of The Impossible Astronaut, the BBC's Doctor Who website has posted some potentially spoilerrific photos from the episode, as well as this enigmatic video under a link to "The Silence":

Doctor Who remains at 6pm for the second episode in the new series, Day Of The Moon, to be broadcast on 30th April.

The programme is once more sandwiched between Don't Scare the Hare, a game show and So You Think You Can Dance a dance competition.

ITV1 has People Do the Funniest Things wth Channel 4 showing Come Dine with Me Down Under and Channel Five showing the 1989 film The Abyss.

The BBC will be hoping the early start for Doctor Who can draw viewers into its Saturday night schedule, which has been performing poorly in the last couple of weeks. The highest rating BBC One show last Saturday was Casualty with an overnight figure of 4.2 million viewers. So You think You Can Dance had just 3.6 million watching. The show which occupied Doctor Who's slot was Eurovision: Your Country Needs Blue which had 2.0 mllion viewers. ITV1 has the highest rated show last Saturday with Britain's Got Talent being watched by 10.4 million.

With just over a week until the new series of Doctor Who launches on BBC One, BBC America and SPACE, the BBC have released a new trailer.


The series premiers on BBC One next Saturday at 6pm

The BBC has released press details for the second episode in the new series, Day Of The Moon, scheduled for transmission on BBC One on Saturday 30th April.

The Episode is currently pencilled in sometime between 6pm and 7pm, but timings won't be confirmed until next week.

BBC Worldwide Canada has announced a deal with SPACE which will see Torchwood: Miracle Day come to the channel this summer along with a raft of other sci-fi titles such as Bedlam, Primeval and Outcasts.

Hilary Read, COO, BBC Worldwide Canada said:
Joanna Webb, Senior Vice-President, Programming, Bell Media said
SPACE previously aired series Two and Three of Torchwood. Series One was first seen in Canada on CBC.