The official audience ratings for Rise of the Cybermen today show a consolidated figure of 9.22 million viwers (including timeshifted viewings), up 0.6 million from the unofficial overnight figure of 8.6 million. The episode was BBC One's second most-watched programme of the week, behind only one edition of EastEnders, and is at number 6 in the chart of the week's highest-rating programmes, the series highest placing since its return last year. It is also Doctor Who's highest chart position since an episode of The Ark in Space reached number 5 in 1975.

Tenth Planet have sent us the cover for the forthcoming UK DVD release of The Hand of Fearstarring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen, in her final installment as a series regular in the classic Doctor Who series. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the cover. The DVD is out in the UK on 31 July.

A brief catch-up on the stories from the past two days; detailed coverage of last week's press is coming tomorrow.

The Idiot's Lantern Pre-Press

The official Doctor Who website has revised its front page with items aboutThe Idiot's Lantern including its "Fear Factor" segment and new photographs.

Heat magazine's reviewer Chris Longridge comments on The Idiot's Lantern that: "The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss is backin the writing chair for this new historical adventure (he also wrote last year's Charles Dickens episode) as the Doctor and Rose travel back to 1953, the year of the Queen's coronation. While Rose is busy stocking up on petticoats, the nation is gathered round its new TV sets to watch the event, unaware that there are nasties lurking in the set." He gives this eppy 5 stars, and Heat ranks this as 8 in their top 10 Best TV Shows of the week.

Closer has this week's episode as one of their Choices for Saturday: "It's back to the '50s tonight for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. A seemingly innocent event you'd think - until the Doc shows up (his knack of stirring up trouble is even better than Miss Marple's!). As sooon as he lands his Tardis, monsters and aliens start roaming the streets and it's the usual race against time to get Rose out alive." (reviewer: Hannah Wright).

One of Reveal's Must Sees, the magazine writes: "The time-travellers touch down in 1950s London as the nation prepares for the Queen's Coronation. Instead of celebrating, Rose and the Doctor set to work battling the monsters rumoured to be stalking the streets." (Reveal gives it 4 out of 5 stars).

Sneak has this episode as one of it's Must-See TV shows: "...It's the Queen's coronation and monsters are everywhere. Funny how no one noticed at the time."

Star magazine gives the Idiot's Lantern 4 (out of 5) stars) and notes: "It's 1953 and the Doc and Rose are back in London again, just in time for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. As people are preocupied with the big event, they fail to notice something a lot more sinister - a threat of monsters on the streets." (reviewer: KH) (This eppy is also one of the mag's Top 10 terrestrial TV shows).

Love & Monsters

In this week's issue of Heat magazine, they have exclusive pics of Peter Kay's character in Doctor Who. The article reads: "Comedian lands his dream role. Yikes! It's hard to believe, but somewhere lurking inside this slimy alien is Peter Kay. The Phoenix Nights funny man's transformation was for an upcoming episode of Doctor Who, and these are the first exclusive pictures. Peter was so desperate to star in the classic BBC sci-fi series that he wrote a letter to creator Russell T Davies asking for a part. In the episode, entitled Love and Monsters - to be screened next month - Peter plays Victor Kennedy who morphs into Abzorbaloff, a creepy monster that absorbs humans into its skin. Scary stuff!" At right is one of the images; for a larger version, and more photos, pick up the issue now on sale.

People

Visual effects artist Mike Tucker, who has worked on both the original and new Doctor Who series, was awarded a BAFTA award on May 19 for Best Visual Effects along with his colleagues Red Vision and Gareth Edwards, for their work on the BBC One documentary "Hiroshima".

Bonnie Langford joins Tim McArthur this week on TheatreRadio, and recalls her time as the Doctor’s assistant during the interview. 'Tim McArthur Interviews…' is repeated twice daily at 2pm GMT and 10pm GMT until Sunday 28th July. "This week on TheatreRadio, Tim McArthur is joined by Bonnie Langford, who is currently starring as Roxie Hart in Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre. As well as playing some fantastic music, Tim has a pair of tickets to give away, so make sure you tune in. Bonnie was thrilled to take part in ITV1's hit Saturday night show 'Dancing on Ice' where she undertook perhaps one of the most chilling challenges in her career so far. Partnered by the US figure skating champion Matt Evers and coached by the world famous Olympic Ice Dance Champions, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Bonnie skated her way into the final with spectacular, daring and beautiful routines. ... With a range of theatre classics and more contemporary tracks, TheatreRadio provides a unique blend of music and is accessible to everyone wanting to listen to musical theatre."

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Peter Weaver, Andrew Norris, Ceri Laing, Steve Roberts)

News of two guest stars for forthcoming Doctor Who episodes have been making the rounds on the 'net. Gabriel Woolf, who played Sutekh in "Pyramids of Mars" during the Tom Baker era and recently reprised the role for Magic Bullet Productions in their series of audios, will be playing the voice of Satan himself in the second half of the next two-part story, "The Satan Pit". Meanwhile, comedienne Bella Emberg, who has appeared on a long list of British sitcoms and shows such as "Russ Abbot's Madhouse" and "The Benny Hill Show" and who made two uncredited appearances on Doctor Who during the 1970's (in "The Time Warrior" and "Doctor Who and the Silurians"), will apparently be seen in the season's tenth episode, "Love & Monsters". Official word from the production is still pending.

BBC Worldwide has confirmed the release of Mark of the Rani on DVD on September 4 in the UK. The story, from Season 22, stars Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Doctor and Peri, with special guest stars Anthony Ainley as the Master and Kate O'Mara as the Rani. The single-disc release will contain commentaries by Baker, Bryant and O'Mara (the Doctor Who Restoration Team notes that director Sarah Hellings agreed to do the commentary but sadly couldn't make it due to scheduling reasons); "Lords and Luddites," an interview documentary featuring comments by Baker, Bryant, O'Mara, actor Gary Cady, script editor Eric Saward, writers Pip and Jane Baker and others; "Now and Then," a special look at the Blists Hill Victorian Museum where the episode was filmed; a historical segment from "Blue Peter" on the Ironbridge Gorge; a clip of Baker and Bryant on "Saturday Superstore"; plus deleted and extended scenes, a photo gallery, isolated music score as well as alternate music score for part one, and PDF copies of the 1985 Doctor Who Annual as well as clips from Radio Times.

Outpost Gallifrey has received the cover illustration for Series Two Volume Three, the third episodic DVD release of the current Doctor Who season being aired on BBC Television. The third volume contains three episodes, "Rise of the Cybermen," "The Age of Steel" and "The Idiot's Lantern". No extras are on this disc set (that will come later in the year on the boxed set). Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the cover.

Unofficial overnight viewing figures for yesterday show that Saturday's night's broadcast of The Age of Steel was seen by an average audience of 6.9 million viewers, with an audience share of 35.5%. This places it first in its timeslot and second for the day, behind this year's Eurovision Song Contest (8.2m, 37.3%). Doctor Who was 1.6m ahead of the day's third-placed programme The National Lottery Jet Set (5.3m, 26.7%) and 1.8m ahead of its ITV1 competition, The Prince's Trust 30th Birthday Live (5.1m, 23.4%). Viewing figures in the earlier this week's earlier timeslot began at 5.88m, but almost two million viewers joined the programme during the episode, which peaked at 7.73m at around 7.15pm, before the usual dramatic drop in BBC One's figures when Doctor Who finished (down to about 5m). On the same weekend last year, and also moved to an earlier timeslot by the annual Eurovision, The Empty Child's overnights fell to 6.6m (34.9%) from the 7.5m (42.7%) achieved by Father's Day, with 2005's Eurovision at 7.9m (38.8%), so The Age of Steel continues Series Two's consistent year-on-year increase on the ratings for Series One.

Also, on BBC Three, the sixth instalment of Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 591,700 viewers (3.9% audience share). (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon,' Andy Parish)

The official BBC Doctor Who website has confirmed the UK DVD release ofThe Hand of Fear starring Tom Baker as the Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen - in her last episode as a regular on Doctor Who - as Sarah Jane Smith. The DVD is currently due out on 31 July 2006. The release will feature commentary by Baker, Sladen, Judith Paris (Eldrad), Bob Baker (writer) and Philip Hinchcliffe (producer); "Changing Times," a 50-minute documentary charting the special relationship between the Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane Smith; "Swap Shop," a very rare clip of Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen's appearance on the first ever edition of Noel Edmonds' Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, shown in October 1976; plus PDFs of the 1977 Doctor Who Annual and the Radio Times listings for The Hand of Fear, a photo gallery, continuity announcements, information text subtitles and easter egg.

Here's a quick recap of the major news items of the past few days; the rest of the press from the past eight days will be included in a proper (and quite large) TARDIS Report column on Sunday.

Latest Schedule Changes

The first showing of The Age of Steel this Saturday on BBC One is now confirmed in a 50-minute 6.35pm to 7.25pm timeslot, overlapping with CBBC's repeat of Totally Doctor Who 6 from 6.30pm that evening. Doctor Who Confidential follows immediately at 7.25pm on BBC Three, repeated on Sunday night/Monday morning at 3.25 am. A Cut Down version will be shown on Sunday 21st at 7.45pm and on Friday 26th at 9.45pm - both of these follow repeat showings of 'The Age of Steel' at 7pm and 9pm. There are also two more chances to see BBC Four's Time Shift documentary, Machine Men, on Friday 19th/Saturday 20th at midnight and 2.50am.

BBC Three's weekday evening repeats of Series Two begin on Monday 22nd at 7pm with New Earth (not The Christmas Invasion) and continue through to Rise of the Cybermen at 7pm on Friday 26th, ahead of that evening's 9pm repeat of The Age of Steel. There have been wildly different versions of BBC Three's schedule available from the Radio Times website and other online listings guides. The print version of Radio Times, however, lists five editions of Confidential Cut Down at 7.45-8.00pm each evening, covering first showings in this format of New New Doctor, Fear Factor and Friends Reunited, as well as Script to Screen and Cybermen. Since this is the schedule that seems to make the most sense, it's the one Outpost Gallifrey is using in our Broadcast Calendar on this page, although it obviously remains subject to change. It is not known whether these BBC Three repeats will include the red-button commentary now available on BBCi with the regular Sunday and Friday repeats.

Radio Times

This week's Radio Times selects The Age of Steel as its 'Drama of the Week', calling it "very possibly the best episode yet". A sequence from the episode is also Alison Graham's 'Moment of the Week', with her short write-up managing a fairly comprehensive spoiler for the scene in question. The magazine also previews the episode as "the best yet", commenting that David Tennant is "such a good actor. It's instructive to see how utterly at home he is in a role he's made his own. Frankly, it's impossible not to sigh in sheer admiration." The episode listing runs: "The continuation of last week's story. Terror mounts as the Cybermen seize London. Can a daring raid stop them in their tracks?" The accompanying 'Doctor Who Watch' feature is just one page this week, most of which focuses on Mickey Smith, with Noel Clark commenting that this is the episode "where his development really takes shape. He sees what he could become and he becomes it." The same page (and the magazine's cover, the seventh cover mention in eight weeks) promotes the latest selection of free stickers, which this week come glued to Mickey's face on the Doctor Who Watch page. There's also another letter, this time praising School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace as giving "a moving new dimension to an already timeless character." Finally, a three-page article on this year's BAFTA winners includes photos of and comments from David Tennant, Russell T Davies and Billie Piper. The Radio Timeswebsite has a number of photographs and video footage of the BAFTA-carrying stars at the after-show gathering. The site's Doctor Who section (link here) has been updated to include a Cybermen photo gallery and a competition running until 2 June to win Dalek posters and an iPod nano.

Blue Peter and Other TV Coverage

Monday's Blue Peter feature on the Cybermen can be seen online from the official site or from the Blue Peter site. Following that feature, K-9 made a very brief appearance on Tuesday's edition of Blue Peter to confirm that he will be accompanying presenter Gethin at the 'Bark in the Park' event - details at the Blue Peter website. In next Tuesday 23 May's edition, "Gethin investigates the real-life story of the invention which inspired the clockwork monsters" in The Girl in the Fireplace.

As Outpost Gallifrey reported on 27 April, David Tennant has donated a signed script to a charity sale in a church in Scotland, and the story has since been covered in a number of press and online reports, including CBBC Newsround on Tuesday. The next day's BBC One edition of Newsround included a quick report on the story, played over clips from The Christmas Invasion.

Noel Clarke was scheduled to "takes time out to chat about his Doctor Who character" on GMTV's Entertainment Today from 8.35am on Friday 19 May.

The Age of Steel Pre-publicity

There have, so far, been no trailers for The Age of Steel on BBC television this week, although the episode (and its earlier timeslot) has been promoted by continuity announcers during several programme links.

The official website was updated on Tuesday lunchtime, its new flash-animated homepage accompanied by the sound of marching Cybermen and links to some of the series' spin-off websites (Cybus Industries and Vitex). The photo gallery for the Cybermen story has been expanded to 37 pictures, and a range of sounds are avaiable for download, as well as Tardisode 6 and a Fear Factor rating of 5 (Terrifying).

Guest star Roger Lloyd Pack has been interviewed by BBC Norfolk, including a slide-show from the episode this weekend.

BBC One's listings for the week say of The Age of Steel: "The Cybermen take control of London and start converting the populace. While Jackie falls under Lumic's control, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey are reduced to fugitives in a world of terror. A last, desperate attack on the Cyberfactory is their only chance - but will they all survive?" (Link here) The same site says of this week's Totally Doctor Who: "Camille Coduri, better known as Rose Tyler's mum, Jackie, is back for more juicy gossip. Plus Andrew Hayden-Smith joins us on the sofa to talk acting, presenting and Cybermen! The Companion Academy turns up the heat as the cadets are put through another testing task when they are told to Face Your Fears. Liz takes a trip to The Mill, where the amazing computer generated Doctor Who effects are brought to life. And we go totally behind the scenes to see how a BIG explosion can be done on a very small scale."

In this week's Heat magazine, reviewer Chris Longridge notes that: "You won't be too shocked to learn that the gang survive last week's cliffhanger. With Trigger from Only Fools and Horses poised to take over the city via his earpods (imagine what he could do with an earpod nano), the Doctor infiltrates his robofactory - formerly known as Battersea Power Station - while Mickey literally has a word with himself and bucks up enough to finally do something useful." He gives The Age of Steel 5 stars, and Heat places it at number 9 in its Top 10 Best TV Shows of the week.

Closer magazine writes that: "The Doctor, Mickey ad Rose are still stranded in parallel London, and those pesky Cybermen are still clunking around the capital, trying to "upgrade" the population. The Doctor and his merry band of resistance fighters must launch one last dangerous assault to save the day. It's a tough episode for Rose too as she sufers not one, but two, heartbreaking goodbyes."

Star magazine has The Age of Steel as one of their Picks of the Day - "In the conclusion of this two-part episode, the dreaded Cybermen are running amok in London. Jackie is already under Lumic's control. Meanwhile the Doc, Rose and Mickey are fleeing for their lives. Their only hope for survival is an attack on the Cyber factory."

Other Press Items

Broadcast Now reports that "BBC1 is the UK’s most creative channel, according to Broadcast’s first Creative Report, an analysis of the most acclaimed British programmes, producers and broadcasters over the last year." The report says that "the channel's dominance in the drama series category is fuelled by hits such as Doctor Who and Bleak House." Doctor Who takes third place (behind Sex Traffic and Little Britain) in its chart of the top 10 most creative programmes, and topping the list of most creative new programmes (first shown in 2005). The report surveyed 300 programmes, taking into account awards wins and nominations over the 12 months to May 2006.

Great news for all Russell T Davies fans and British viewers who grew up watching Children's BBC in the early 1990s. Davies's two highly-regarded children's fantasy serials, 1991's Dark Season and 1993's Century Fallsare due to be released on Region 2 DVD in the UK by 2entertain Ltd on July 17. Dark Season, Davies's first full drama script for television, co-stars a young Kate Winslet, while according to former Children's BBC presenter Andi Peters on BBC Four's Russell T Davies - Unscripted documentary in 2005, Century Falls was regarded as so potentially disturbing for younger viewers by BBC bosses that they forbade any repeat screening. Neither serial has been released on VHS or DVD before, and while Dark Season was repeated on BBC One in 1994 and the CBBC Channel in 2001, Century Falls has remained in the vaults since 1993.

Various sources are reporting that on Saturday, ITV suffered the worst audience share in its history. Says the MediaGuardian (http://media.guardian.co.uk/overnights/story/0,,1775328,00.html subscription link): "Saturday's FA Cup final has been dubbed the greatest ever and the BBC1's near three hours of nailbiting live football helped condemn ITV1 to its worst ever daily audience share. ITV1 had a share on Saturday of just 11.8%, half a percentage point lower than its previous record low on July 2 last year, when BBC1 was showing live coverage of Live 8... Overall, BBC1 had an all-day share of 36.4% against ITV's 11.8%. Channel 4 came third, with 8.1%, followed by BBC2, 7.4%, and Channel Five, with 5.2%."

Says BBC News Online's coverage: "An ITV1 spokesman said: 'A big sporting occasion like the FA Cup Final will often cause a ratings blip.' A BBC One spokesman said: 'We are delighted that the thrilling FA Cup Final and the Cybermen's return to Doctor Who proved a winning combination to BBC One viewers.' Some 8.6 million watched Doctor Who. Last week, ITV announced plans to axe a string of programmes in a bid to refresh its main channel's schedule."

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Paul Hayes, Peter Weaver, John Bowman)

Ratings for the tenth episode of the first season of the new series, The Doctor Dances, on US television on the Sci Fi Channel, have come in: the telecast had a slightly improved household rating this week of 1.09 with an average of 1.4 million viewers, up nearly a quarter of a million viewers from the previous week's season low. Season-to-date, Sci Fi reports that Doctor Who is currently averaging a 1.30 household rating and an average audience of 1.5 million viewers for the season.