Peter Barkworth

Friday, 1 December 2006 - Reported by DWNP Archive
Peter Barkworth, who played Clent in The Ice Warriors (1967), has died at the age of 77. Barkworth also played Stephen in the Get Off My Cloud episode of the BBC sci-fi anthology series Out Of The Unknown, which featured the Tardis and a Dalek and aired in 1969.

He was probably most famous for the role of banker Mark Telford in the 1979 BBC serial Telford's Change, which co-starred Hannah Gordon, who played Kirsty inThe Highlanders in 1966/67. Barkworth left RADA the same year as his Ice Warriorsco-star Peter Sallis, who played Penley.

The cause of death was given as bronchopneumonia following a stroke. He died on 21 October in London. The story is reported at BBC NewsThe Times and The Guardian have obituaries.




FILTER: - Obituary - Classic Series

National TV Awards: Another Huge Win for Doctor Who

Friday, 1 December 2006 - Reported by Kenny Davidson
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 GuardianITV News, and the Reuterspress agency.




FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - Series 2/28

North America DVD Update

Sunday, 2 July 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

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).




FILTER: - USA - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Oberman on This Morning

Thursday, 29 June 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

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.




FILTER: - People - Series 2/28

Love & Monsters Final Ratings

Wednesday, 28 June 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

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)




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 2/28

Fear Her Overnights, Army of Ghosts Trailers

Sunday, 25 June 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

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)




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 2/28

UK Ratings Update

Friday, 23 June 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

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)




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 2/28

Final Three Official BBC Episode Blurbs

Friday, 23 June 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

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.
Doctor Who: Fear Her
When the Tardis lands in 2012, the Doctor plans to show Rose the London Olympics. But on a nearby housing estate, a desperate mother is hiding her daughter's unearthly powers. Can the Doctor defeat the danger nestling at the heart of an ordinary British household? David Tennant plays the Doctor, Billie Piper plays Rose, Edna Doré plays Maeve and Nina Sosanya plays Trish.

Doctor Who: Army of Ghosts
The human race rejoices as the ghosts of loved ones return home in the latest adventure from the nation's favourite time traveller. But as the Doctor, Rose and Jackie investigate the Torchwood Tower, the whole of modern-day Earth threatens to fall to an almighty invasion force. David Tennant plays the Doctor, Billie Piper plays Rose, Camille Coduri plays Jackie Tyler and Tracy Ann Oberman plays Yvonne Hartman.

Doctor Who: Doomsday
It's the end of an epic journey as two mighty armies wage war across the Earth, with the human race caught in the middle. But as an unstoppable terror emerges from beneath Torchwood, the Doctor faces an even greater dilemma – does saving the world mean the death of Rose Tyler? David Tennant plays the Doctor and Billie Piper plays Rose.




FILTER: - Series 2/28 - Press - Broadcasting

Doctor Who on UMD

Tuesday, 20 June 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

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)




FILTER: - USA - Series 1/27 - Blu-ray/DVD

More Weekend Ratings

Tuesday, 20 June 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

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".




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 2/28