Doctor Who confirmed its continuing massive popularity with the British public by dominating the National Television Awards for a second year running. The show, where the awards are voted for by the public, won the coveted Most Popular Drama category and David Tennant and Billie Piper took the Most Popular Actor and Actress prizes.

This was a repeat performance of last year's success, the only change being that it was Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor taking the Most Popular Actor award in 2005.

This year's ceremony took place at the Royal Albert Hall where Tennant was presented with his award by Dame Julie Andrews.

Accepting the award he said: "I think if my eight-year-old self could see me at the Royal Albert Hall winning a prize for playing the Doctor on telly, he would need a stiff shot of Irn-Bru."

He added: "I love my job. I'm so chuffed that others seem to love it too.

"Thank you for tuning in, that's why we make it."

Backstage, Tennant said on a television interview: "Thank goodness I didn't let the side down, eh? That would have been a tragedy.

"It's difficult to come into something that's been such a great success. It's a bit daunting, whether you're going to do as good a job as Chris. It means a lot."

Representing the show at the ceremony were Tennant, Piper, Noel Clarke and Camille Coduri.

Online press coverage includes BBC News (with a second article here), The Guardian, ITV News, and the Reuterspress agency.

TV Shows on DVD is reporting that November 7 will see the DVD release ofThe Hand of Fear starring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen and Mark of the Rani starring Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Anthony Ainley and Kate O'Mara. Both DVD sets will be released in the UK slightly earlier in the year, with the North American releases duplicating their features (which are available on the site's Release Guide).

Tracy-Ann Oberman will be a guest on Thursday's (29 June) edition of This Morning on ITV1 to promote her role as Yvonne Hartman in the forthcoming two-part season finale Army of Ghosts and Doomsday. This Morning airs between 10.30am and 12.30pm.

The final rating released this week by the BARB for Love & Monsters, episode ten of the new seasons, shows that 6.66 million viewers tuned into the episode, an increase of approximately 400,000 viewers as compared to the original overnight ratings reports. This places Doctor Who in fifteenth place for the week behind six World Cup events, five episodes of Coronation Street, EastEnders, Heartbeat and the Thursday night ITV Evening News. (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon,' Andy Parish, Keith Armstrong)

Despite another day of fine weather in the UK, last night's Fear Her saw an increase in audience figures to 6.64 million viewers, up from last week's 6.22 million for "Love & Monsters", according to the unofficial overnights. The episode peaked at 7.1 million in its last quarter of an hour and 7.58 million in its final five minutes, and attracted an average share of 39.7% to comfortably win its timeslot against ITV1's Who Wants to be a Millionaire (3.6m, 21.4%). The end of the episode and the start of the following sports coverage saw 3.37m switch off BBC One. The World Cup football match that followed had an average audience of 8.1m, but its much higher peak audience and extra time appears to have carried over a large audience of 6.9m for the late-running lottery results, leaving Doctor Who in third place for the day. (It's likely that the final BARB figures will discount the lottery show, as it runs for less than 15 minutes, so Doctor Who may achieve second place for the day.) On the currently available overnight figures, "Fear Her" was in 14th place for the week across television; when ratings are in for Sunday's World Cup matches, the show will certainly slip down this chart one or two places, but a top 20 position stil looks very likely. Among under-16s, 61% of children and teenagers watching television in that timeslot were watching Doctor Who, amounting to 1.3m, against 145,000 who were watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

On BBC Three, the eleventh episode of Doctor Who Confidential at 7.45pm was watched by 500,700 (3.8%), making it the top-rated multichannel programme on Saturday, while Totally Doctor Who 11 last Thursday benefitted from the preceding football match to get its highest rating so far of 1.5m.

Meanwhile, television promotion for Army of Ghosts began last night with a 50-second trailer on BBC One at 11.09pm, delayed from 10.45pm by the World Cup. The trailer is a slightly shorter edit of the 'Next time' preview shown at the climax of Fear Her. It can be seen online at the official site by following the 'Video' link at the foot of its homepage. (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon,' Andy Parish)

The final rating released this week by the BARB for The Satan Pit, episode nine of the new seasons, stands at 6.08m. This is Doctor Who's lowest consolidated rating since its return last year, although the episode remains in the top 20 for the week at number 19 and was also the week's ninth placed individual programme.

Meanwhile, last Saturday's 6.23 million viewer overnight ratings/38.33% share for Love & Monsters (the detail on the numbers coming from Broadcast magazine) places the episode in 15th place in the week's chart. (This is likely to drop when the BARB figures are released next week, since live football coverage counted as one programme in the overnights will be divided into separate match/pre-match/post-match "programmes" in the final chart.) The BBC3 Sunday repeat of the episode is at No. 4 in the multichannel chart for the week, just behind Saturday's Doctor Who Confidential at No. 3, with the Cut Down Confidential from Sunday appearing at No. 22.

This week's early evening reruns on BBC Three of episodes 6, 7 and 8 were watched by 168,800 (1.2%), 149,500 (1.0%) and 158,500 (1.2%), according to the overnight results. (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon,' Andy Parish, Keith Armstrong)

Official promotion for the end of Series Two has begun, though on a small scale, with the BBC Press Office issuing Programme Information for Week 28 today and the previous two weeks over the past few days. Curiously, there have been no feature articles for the last three episodes, though they have been "highlights for the week" from BBC Television. The following are the three short blurbs for the final three episodes of Series Two.

The TV Shows on DVD website reports that Warner Home Video, in addition to their July 4 DVD release of "The Complete First Season" in North America, will issue four individual releases of the first season (in four volumes) in the UMD format, designed for Playstation (PSP) systems. "The Complete First Season: Volume One" through "Volume Four" are also due out on July 4, the same day as the DVD release. (Thanks to David Lambert/TV Shows on DVD)

A brief update on ratings for various Doctor Who related programmes this weekend. Saturday night's installment ofDoctor Who Confidential at 7.45pm on BBC3 was watched by 747,400 viewers, with a 5.9% audience share; it was followed at 8.15pm by a repeat installment of "Confidential" (episode three from this season) which was viewed by 402,200 viewers with a 3.0% audience share.

On Sunday night, the BBC3 repeat of Love & Monsters was seen by 700,000 viewers, with a 5.2% share, followed immediately by the repeat of Saturday night's "Confidential" in "Cut Down" edition, viewed by 519,000 viewers (3% share). The Sunday episode repeat was the day's most watched programme on non-terrestrial/satellite channels.

The audience appreciation index (AI) figure for "Love & Monsters" was reported at 76... a low for the season by tied with the first season's "Rose" and "The End of the World".

BBC Video, BBC Audiobooks and 2 Entertain have announced details of forthcoming Doctor Who DVD and audio releases in late 2006 and early 2007.

In September 2006, BBC Audiobooks will release Doctor Who at the BBC Volume Four: The Plays, a further installment of the audio documentaries released over the past several years. Says the blurb at Amazon.co.uk, "Over the years, Doctor Who has provided the inspiration for a number of original radio plays. Three of them are presented here in their entirety, and each focuses on the effect which Doctor Who has had on the lives of ordinary - and some extraordinary - people. 'Regenerations' by Daragh Carville is a powerful and moving play about a group of six friends who reunite for their annual Doctor Who convention. Set against a backdrop of the Belfast troubles, the play deals with themes of sexuality and love, and features appearances by Tom Baker and Sophie Aldred. 'Blue Veils and Golden Sands' by Martyn Wade tells the story of Delia Derbyshire, the delightful and unusual woman who created the unique sound of the original Doctor Who theme tune. Finally, 'Dalek, I Love You' by Colin Sharpe is a recent BBC7 production. It tells how one young lad's obsession with Doctor Who causes him to meet the girl of his dreams - named Romana..."

October will see the UK DVD release of The Sontaran Experiment, a single-disc release of the two-part Tom Baker serial from 1974. The disc will be an "off month" release which the most recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine quotes 2 Entertain as saying will be more common in 2007 (releases with fewer extras filling gaps in the schedule, creating more releases for the year.)

November features the Patrick Troughton serial The Invasion... with a twist. The eight-part serial is missing two episodes, parts one and four, and the BBC has partnered once again with Cosgrove Hall (animators of "Scream of the Shalka") to recreate the two episodes in animated form, aided by the original soundtrack. Says Sophie Walpole of BBC Interactive Drama and Entertainment, "In the year that the Cyberman have returned to Doctor Who, it seemed a good idea to complete one of their finest outings from the 1960s. We have found a unique and innovative way of presenting this classic adventure by lovingly restoring the soundtrack and setting it to new animation." Cosgrove Hall Lead Animator Steve Maher says he found it "a slightly surreal experience. [Patrick Troughton] has a wonderfully animatable face, so he was a gift. Baddies are invariably more fun to depict than the good guys so the sneering, unblinking Tobias Vaughn was a lot of fun, too." The story on the official Doctor Who website features a video trailer created for the episodes late last year.

Also in November, Amazon.co.uk has listed The Complete Series Two: Limited Edition Cyberman Head Box Set with Unique Lenticular Postcard. The Amazon website has a photograph (which is clearly marked "not final design") of this purported set which will be exclusive to the online retailer. The release joins the standard Complete Series Two DVD set which DWM says will feature a dual-sided lenticular cover: on the front, the TARDIS in flight through the vortex, with another image on back.

For next year, also reported in the new issue of DWM is the January 2007 release of the Return of the Master Boxed Set featuring three classic serials with the late Anthony Ainley (the Master) that form his debut trilogy: The Keeper of Traken starring Tom Baker, Logopolis featuring Baker and introducing Peter Davison, and Castrovalvawith Davison in his first full adventure.

DWM also notes that actress Katy Manning has provided the linking narration for at least part the forthcoming audio release of Monsters on Earth, a Doctor Who CD tin featuring the audio soundtracks of classic Doctor Who serials "The Sea Devils," "The Silurians" and "Warriors of the Deep" as broadcast on BBC television.