Sunday evening's BBC Three repeat of The Age of Steel was watched by 606,800 viewers, placing it first in its multichannel timeslot and fourth for the day, according to overnight viewing figures. The average overnight rating for the Sunday repeats has been 574,000 so far this series, with only New Earth achieving a comparatively low 0.4m in its final rating. The multichannel audience share has ranged from 2.5% to 4.1%. The AI in this slot has tended to be a little higher than for the Saturday night first showings, with scores as high as 89 for School Reunion.

The Friday peaktime repeats have reached a smaller number of viewers, an average of 284,000, and an audience share of 1.7% to 2.8%, with Rise of the Cybermen being seen last Friday by 309,100 (1.7%) in a hotly contested timeslot. While the Sunday audience seems fairly consistent so far, Friday's audience seems to fluctuate more, and largely in line with the ratings for Saturday nights - the higher the Saturday figure, the fewer people watch on Friday.

This means that the first five episodes of Series Two have achieved a remarkably consistent first-week audience, drawn from Saturday and timeshift viewers, and Sunday or Friday repeat audiences. While the series' Saturday overnight average stands at 7.9m (up from 7.3m in the same period last year), the series actually seems to have an average total audience of 9.6m (up from 8.6m the same period in 2005), with less variation - so far - between episodes. The variation in these approximate figures across the five weeks is only a half-million either side of the average figure (while a programme like EastEnders can have greater fluctuation across a single week):


The first three weekday evening repeats this week have attracted a steady audience of about a quarter of a million each night: New Earth 237,000 (1.2%); Tooth and Claw 253,000 (1.7%); School Reunion 267,000 (1.6%).

Ratings for the tenth episode of the first season of the new series, Boom Town, on US television on the Sci Fi Channel, have come in: the telecast dropped a bit to a 1.03 with an average of 1.2 million viewers, down approximately 200,000 viewers from the previous week. Season-to-date, Sci Fi reports that Doctor Who is currently averaging a 1.28 household rating and an average audience of 1.5 million viewers for the season. The show will not air this Friday due to the US Memorial Day weekend holiday, but will return on Friday, June 2.

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.