It has been reported that visual effects designer Ian Scoones has died in Bulgaria where he lived with his wife Anastasia, on 20th January.

Scoones is perhaps best remembered for his work on Doctor Who in the 1970s for Pyramids of Mars, The Invisible Enemy and City of Death, though he had worked on many other stories, including the very first story An Unearthly Child as an uncredited special effects assistant. He was also heavily involved with the first series of Blake's Seven. As well as television, he worked on a number of films, including Quatermass and the Pit, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Haunted Honeymoon.

Having lived in Spain for a number of years he then retired to Bulgaria, but was interviewed by fellow visual effects designer Mat Irvine for the 2008 BBC DVD release The Invisible Enemy, a story he also worked upon.

The actress Carey Mulligan - best known to Doctor Who fans as popular character Sally Sparrow from Blink - has won the Orange British Academy Film Award for Best Actress for her role in the film An Education. The 24 year old actress said: I was here a year ago and I didn't imagine in a million years that this would happen. I wish I could do a speech like Colin Firth and talk about fridges but I can't."

Mulligan has also been nominated for an Oscar in the 82nd Academy Awards taking place on 7th March.


The British Academy Awards are available to watch in the UK on the BBC iplayer until the 28th February.

The actor George Waring has died at the age of 84.

The actor portrayed the role of Arden in the Patrick Troughton adventure The Ice Warriors. Arden was a scientist whose team discover an "Ice Warrior" buried deep in a glacier, and ultimately becomes the Martians' first victim.

Born in Eccles, Lancashire, Waring made his career in theatre and then television, appearing in a number of notable roles in shows like Six Days of Justice and Mixed Blessings. However, he will be best remembered for the character of Arnold Swain in Coronation Street.

David Tennant has topped Daniel Craig to become the Best Dressed Man of 2009, according to Hello Magazine. In the online poll, the former Doctor pulled in over a third of the votes, with 35.4% of the 10,254 voters, a clear 12% majority over the current James Bond star's 23.3%.

Tennant recently lost out in Hello's Most Attractive Men poll, coming in at fifth place.

Total Sci-Fi Online have announced that actor/writer/director Noel Clarke will be giving an exclusive webchat this afternoon at 1:00pm from their website (via webchats).

Carey Mulligan, who played Sally Sparrow in the 2007 Steven Moffat story Blink, has been nominated in the 2010 Academy Awards as Best Actress in a Leading Role. She earns the nomination for An Education, in which she played Jenny, an English schoolgirl who is seduced by the charms of an older man.

Paul Magrs is to take part in the Bristol celebration of the achievements of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people. Magrs has written several Doctor Who novels for BBC Books as well as plays for Big Finish and the recently released Tom Baker series Hornet's Nest for BBC Audio. His other work includes gritty teen fiction such as Strange Boy, a coming of age novel about a boy discovering and learning to accept his sexuality. He will take part in a free creative writing session to be held at Bristol Central Library on February 25 from 2pm to 4pm followed by a talk at Bedminster Library from 7.30pm to 9pm.

Dan Walker, an artist on the 2005 and 2010 series of Doctor Who, will be showing off some concept work at Teesside University's Animex International Festival in Middlesbrough, England. The event runs until the 12th February.

Nicholas Briggs, who provides the voices for several Doctor Who monsters, most notably the Daleks and the Cybermen, is is presenting The 7th Dimension on BBC Radio 7. He provides the continuity for the station’s slot dedicated to science-fiction, fantasy, and horror.

John Barrowman has recorded a new track called The Doctor and I. The song is based on "The Wizard and I" from the Stephen Schwartz musical, Wicked. The lyrics have been changed to have references to The Doctor and Captain Jack.

Barrowman has performed the song at some of his previous concerts and it gets its first ever radio play this Sunday during Elaine Paige on Sunday on BBC Radio 2, available in the UK on FM and around the world on the BBC IPlayer.

Barrowman will be a guest on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross tonight.

The leader of Britain's Conservative Party has brushed off criticism from David Tennant. Talking to Richard Bacon on BBC Radio Five, David Cameron said "You can't win them all". He added "You're never going to win over everybody. I definitely believe there's no point trying to win over everyone. Say what you think, say what you believe in, say what you believe needs to be done and if people will come with you they will come with you." Cameron said he had not watched much of the latest series but grew up with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker as the Doctor.

TVshowsonDVD reports that is reporting that both the 1975 original and 2008 remake versions of Terry Nation's Survivors are planned for DVD release in the USA. According to the report the new version of Survivors, which featured Freema Agyeman, will be released after both seasons air in the US.

As NBC in the US scrambles to find programming to fill its 10 p.m. weeknight prime time slot following the cancellation of The Jay Leno Show, several sources report that one option before NBC is to fast-track production of Rex is Not Your Lawyer, the proposed lawyer series starring David Tennant.

Some subscription copies of this month's Doctor Who Magazine appear to have been delayed by the transport problems caused by the current cold weather in the UK. The Magazine was sent out last Wednesday, however many have still not received it. DWM assures readers that the magazine is on its way and should be with subscribers shortly.



For more press items see Doctor Who in the Media.

Jonathan Ross features several Doctor Who related guests on his new series. Catherine Tate appears on Friday 15th January with Billie Piper appearing a week later on 22nd January. Matt Smith is promised for later in the series.

The magazine SFX has a list of 20 Things We Learnt from The Writer’s Tale: The Final Chapter. The book is published in the UK next week.

The Peverett Phile has an interview with actor Terry Molloy, who played Davros in the Classic Series.

Finally the American ABC network sitcom Better Off Ted featured a cameo by a new series Dalek in its New Year's Day episode. "The Great Repression" featured a scene where a few office techies are seen entering a basement electronics scrap room, where all office equipment and robots go at the end of their service. As they enter the room, a new series Dalek is seen just inside the doorway, amongst the other robots, and electronic junk.


For more press items in the last few days see Doctor Who in the Media.

The flurry of Doctor Who news stories in the run-up to The End of Time has begun. But first, North American viewers will be able to enjoy The Waters of Mars tomorrow on BBC America and Canada's Space channel. In North American media, Canadian entertainment website dose.ca has an interview with Russell T Davies, and The Philadelphia Daily News, The Vancouver Sun and McClatchy News all have interviews with David Tennant.

Tennant is busy in the US filming the pilot for Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, and the Los Angeles Times reports that NBC may pick the series up as early as this spring. For those of you who can't get enough pictures of David Tennant wearing puffy winter coats, there are plenty from Rex filming here. In other Tennant news, the Sunday Mercury has an article titled "7 Things You Didn't Know About Dr Who David Tennant" (though readers of this page probably know most of them). What's On TV has a lengthy interview with Tennant about The End of Time, and BBC Newsbeat interviews Tennant about his forthcoming role in "St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold". Down Under, The Age and The Daily Telegraph (both of Australia) have stories on Tennant's TARDIS exit.

SFX continues its month-long Doctor Who celebration, with more excerpts from their interview with Russell T Davies here (talking about classic Doctor Who and multi-Doctor stories), here (talking about American television) and here (talking about "the scene that gets everyone" in The End of Time). Also on SFX's blog, Phil Ford talks about writing for The Sarah Jane Adventures, Alexandra Moen (Lucy Saxon) answers questions from fans, and the blog's staff compile a list of all the times British tabloids have gotten a Doctor Who story spectacularly wrong. Alexandra Moen is also interviewed at Digital Spy.

Davies tells the Western Mail that his final two Doctor Who episodes will be "like all your Christmas presents rolled into one, right from your big present to the tiniest thing at the bottom of the stocking." The South Wales Echo also grabs a snippet from the Western Mail interview. Davies also talked to BBC News about handing over the Doctor Who reins to Steven Moffat.

Bernard Cribbins will be interviewed on stage at the BFI on January 16. The conversation will be followed by a special screening of the 1966 film Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD, starring Cribbins and Peter Cushing. In the aftermath of Cribbins' recent special BAFTA award, he was profiled in The Independent and interviewed by Ken Russell in The Times.

Claire Bloom talks to The Times about her life and work, including a vague but possibly spoiler-ish mention of her role in The End of Time.

There have been a slew of stories lately about people who've made full-sized Daleks. One in Surrey is covered here, and another (from Birtley in Gateshead) is covered in tech blogs Übergizmo, Geeky Gadgets, Gizmodo and Electricpig. And an Atherton man who's built a full-size TARDIS replica is profiled in The Leigh Reporter (though it isn't clear whether he's built the interior or the exterior of the ship).

Even Christmas pageants can't escape Doctor Who connections this year; pupils in the tiny North Yorkshire village of Ruswarp are putting on a Christmas pageant with a Doctor Who theme, and Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith) is directing the Nativity play at his old primary school in London.

It's not all The End of Time, though; Digital Spy interviews Colin Baker about completing "The Missing Stories" on audio for Big Finish.

The Daily Mail has a general preview of The End of Time, and The Sun has a somewhat spoilery photo of John Simm from the story.

The Sun has an article on Catherine Tate's Christmas special, in which she says that she and David Tennant will be "like the Richard & Judy of Christmas", due to being on UK television so much over the holiday season. Of Tennant's appearances, Doctor Who and Hamlet are listed by The Independent as part of its "Twelve TV Treats of Christmas" list.

The Times includes Tennant's Hamlet in its round-up of the best theatre of the past decade, and the return of Doctor Who in its list of the decade's best television. BBC News has also commissioned a "portrait of the decade", which includes the return of Doctor Who as one of the key cultural events and David Tennant as one of the top 20 people of the decade.

Finally, Paul Cornell, writer of the Doctor Who episodes "Father's Day", "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" as well as several acclaimed novels, has published a new Doctor Who story on his blog for Christmas. Cornell says that the story is being presented "purely as fan fiction, with no money being made." It's lovely, and you should read it.