Sunday Night Ratings

Monday, 19 March 2007 - Reported by Marcus

The BBC4 transmission of the first episode of the 1968 Patrick Troughton story, The Web of Fear, was watched by 67,000 viewers, according to unofficial overnight ratings.

The story was transmitted as part of BBC4's Tube Night.

An hour later, on ITV1, Billie Piper's performance in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park was watched by 5.9 millionpeople, comfortably winning it's time slot and achiving a 28% share of the audience.

FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Classic Series

Script up for auction

Monday, 19 March 2007 - Reported by Marcus

David Tennant's script from the Series Two episode The Satan Pit is being auctioned for charity on Wednesday 28th March.

The script has been signed by Tennant, Billie Piper and Russell T Davies, and all proceeds will go to the PTA of a primary school supported by Tennant.

The auction will take place at the John Nicholson Auction Rooms in Surrey.

There is a reserve price of 1,000 pounds on this item. The lot number is 421.

Contact

John Nicholson Auctioneers
The Auction Rooms,
Longfield
Midhurst Road
Fernhurst
Haslemere
Surrey
GU27 3HA

E-mail: sales@johnnicholsons.com

FILTER: - David Tennant - Series 2/28

New series to start in Week 14

Friday, 16 March 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

The BBC Press Office have released details for the first episode of the upcoming third series, confirming that it will be broadcast during the week beginning 31st March. Although the day and time are yet to be confirmed, we believe the show will be broadcast on Saturday 31st March as announced previously.

The press release says, "David Tennant returns to his role as the Doctor and meets his brand-new companion in the highly anticipated third series of Russell T Davies's Doctor Who."

"For Martha Jones, a medical student in Central London, an ordinary day turns into a nightmare when her entire hospital is transported to the Moon. There, she has to battle the Judoon and outwit a blood-sucking Plasmavore – but can she trust a mysterious stranger called the Doctor?"

FILTER: - Series 3/29 - Broadcasting

New Trailer Available

Friday, 16 March 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

A new 40 second trailer is available online at the official BBC Doctor Who site. It features specially shot material contrasting the Doctor and Martha Jones, ending with brief clips from the first 5 episodes. No transmission date is given, merely that Doctor Who is "coming soon".

More details about the trailer can be found in the spoiler space.

The trailer starts with the Doctor and Martha shown split screen. The dialogue is as follows.

Martha: I battle with my textbooks.
Doctor: I battle with monsters.
Martha: I try to save money.
Doctor: I try to save the universe.
Martha: I'm gonna be a doctor.
Doctor: I am the Doctor.
Martha: Well. Let's hope this box is big enough for the both of us!

With the last line the split screen merges and a series of clips are shown, including the Judoon from Smith and Jones, witches and The Globe Theatre from The Shakespeare Code, New Earth and a Dalek. The trailer ends on a shot on Martha and the Doctor in front of the TARDIS.

FILTER: - Online - Series 3/29

Action girl Martha

Wednesday, 14 March 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

Today's edition of The Sun carries a picture story of Freema Agyeman in character as Martha Jones dressed in combat gear and on late-night manoeuvres.

It says that she was pictured on Whitmore Bay beach while filming with former EastEnders actor Tom Ellis.

According to the Sun story, the third series will start next month, contradicting earlier reports claiming that it will begin on March 31. The BBC has yet to make an official announcement regarding the start date, although mini teaser trailers have started running on BBC1.

There are no spoilers in the article.

FILTER: - Series 3/29 - Press

Gareth Hunt

Wednesday, 14 March 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

The actor Gareth Hunt, who played Arak in Jon Pertwee's regeneration story Planet of the Spiders in 1974, died of pancreatic cancer today at home in Redhill, Surrey. He was 65.

Hunt was probably most famous for the role of Mike Gambit in The New Avengers in the 1970s. He also took part in a long-running Nescafe coffee advert campaign on TV.

Among his many other roles, he played the footman Frederick Norton in Upstairs, Downstairs, which was co-created by Jean Marsh, Pertwee's former wife who played companion character Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Masterplan.

Click here for his career summary from Funky Beetroot Celebrity Management Ltd.

Reported at BBC News, The Times and the Daily Mirror, with obituaries at telegraph.co.uk and timesonline, the latter of which (at the time of posting this) mistakenly says his Doctor Who role was in 1963.

Click here for a BBC picture gallery of aspects of Hunt's career, which includes an image from Planet of the Spiders.

FILTER: - Obituary - Classic Series

Newsround set report

Wednesday, 14 March 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

In a recent CBBC's Newsround Blog, Lizo talks about his visit to the set of Doctor Who Confidential, and chatting with David Tennant about his role as the Doctor. Tennant gave away some information about the episode Blink, and also revealed that filming on series three is to end this week.

The blog says, "David's been filming since last summer, and revealed that filming will finally finish at the end of this week. But he did promise me that series 3 will be 'bigger and better than ever'".

The article contains minor spoilers.

FILTER: - Documentary - Series 3/29

Confidential ready for Series Three

Wednesday, 14 March 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper

In an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, Gillane Seaborne, series producer for Doctor Who Confidentialgave a brief overview of what viewers can expect this season.

"Our first episode will introduce you to Martha Jones (the fantastic Freema Agyeman), then for episode 2 we follow the main unit on their long nights at the Globe Theatre. For episode 3 we go backstage of New New York, and we actually go got to go to the real New York for episode 4. In episode 5 we follow producer Phil Collinson, director James Strong, and Visual Effects Supervisor Dave Houghton."

FILTER: - Documentary - Series 3/29

Classic series clips search

Saturday, 10 March 2007 - Reported by Anthony Weight

The website of the Doctor Who Restoration Team, the group of experts who remaster and prepare extra features for the range of classic series Doctor Who DVD releases from 2 entertain Ltd, has been updated with a new page appealing for help searching for clips connected to the classic series which might be useful as extra features on future DVDs.

The "Clip Search" page, located here, gives full details on the types of clips particularly being sought; the introduction from the page is reproduced below. Those who believe they may be able to help with the search or have clips should e-mail the specific address given on that page, rather than the generic Restoration Team e-mail address on the main page of their website.

We are keen to hear from anyone who has material recorded off-air that may not exist in official archives that would be of interest to Doctor Who fans and posterity, which we could include in future DVDs. Without help from a few fans in the past, we would not have had items on the DVDs such as any of the 'Swap Shop', 'Pebble Mill' or 'Nationwide' interviews, BSB interview segments, trailers and continuity announcements. Although we have access to a large number of items, coverage remains patchy. We are sure that there are many clips out there which we do not have, or which are in better quality than our current holdings. We want to avoid the situation where, after a DVD is released, someone approaches us with a better copy of something, or extra material which could have improved the release.

FILTER: - Classic Series

Fourth series 'greenlit'

Saturday, 10 March 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

A fourth series of Doctor Who has been commissioned, according to an interview piece withRussell T Davies in the Seven magazine section of The Sunday Telegraph.

The extremely lengthy article, which includes a feature called The Russell T Davies Effect, also suggests that there will be a Christmas 2007 special, states that Series Three will start on March 31 at 7pm - and hints that Davies wants to move on from the show.

It says he is looking for a new challenge and quotes him as saying: "I've always wanted to adapt The Old Curiosity Shop. I love it. It's about time someone had the nerve to rewrite Dickens. The whole plot is a mess", although Davies ruefully points out that ITV is in the process of doing it.

The print edition of the magazine has Davies on the cover and the editorial features are liberally illustrated.

FILTER: - Series 4/30

Previous 10 Stories

Sunday Night Ratings

Script up for auction

New series to start in Week 14

New Trailer Available

Action girl Martha

Gareth Hunt

Newsround set report

Confidential ready for Series Three

Classic series clips search

Fourth series 'greenlit'

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