BFI: The First Doctor panel

Friday, 25 January 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The British Film Institute have now made parts of the Q&A panel with guests at the screening of An Unearthly Child on 12th January available to watch via their YouTube channel.

The first, nine minute segment from before the story was shown features a chat with the story's vision mixer Clive Doig and special sounds creator Brian Hodgson, alongside writer/actor Mark Gatiss (writer of the 50th Anniversary drama An Adventure in Space and Time). The second, fifteen minute segment features a cast and crew discussion after the showing, with Waris Hussein (director), William Russell (Ian), Carole Ann Ford (Susan), Jeremy Young (Kal), Donald Tosh (writer/script editor), and William Hartnell's granddaughter Jessica Carney.



The next (sold out!) event takes place on 9th February with the Second Doctor celebrated by a showing of The Tomb of the Cybermen (guests to be announced).




FILTER: - Special Events - UK - BFI - First Doctor - WHO50

Mind Of Evil Screening Date At BFI Is Changed

Tuesday, 22 January 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
The BFI has changed the date of its celebratory screening of The Mind of Evil.

Originally scheduled for Saturday 2nd March at 2.30pm, it will now take place on Sunday 10th March at 2pm. The new date and time supersede the details given in the BFI brochure, which had gone to print by the time things had to be changed. It is unknown as yet why the date change had to be made. Tickets for the event have not gone on sale yet so will show the new date and time, as will the BFI's website.

The story, which has been newly colour-restored, will represent the Third Doctor's era as part of the organisation's Doctor Who At 50 season, and its big-screen showing at the BFI Southbank will be its public première in its colour-restored state ahead of being released on DVD.

Episode one of the six-part story has been "colourised", as the surviving print didn't have the necessary information to make colour recovery possible. However, episodes two to six have been fully colour restored. The screening will take place just weeks after the work has been completed by the Restoration Team.

To mark the programme's 50th anniversary this year, the BFI is showing a story per Doctor as well as digitally-restored prints of the two Dalek films starring Peter Cushing, with question-and-answer panels featuring special guests at each session. In November, it will première the docudrama, commissioned for BBC Two, about the show's genesis. Entitled An Adventure In Space And Time and written by Mark Gatiss, it starts filming at Wimbledon Studios next month.

The first two events at the BFI sold out before the first one had even taken place. The second - a screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen - will be held on Saturday 9th February. The guests for it are yet to be announced.

The titles of most of the remaining stories to be shown during the season are yet to be revealed, although the Eighth Doctor's will, of course, be Paul McGann's sole TV outing as the Doctor (so far).

BFI members receive priority booking as well as discounts on ticket prices plus exemption from booking fees. There is currently a special offer with annual membership at £30 (down from £40). The offer expires at the end of February - click here for more details.





FILTER: - Special Events - UK - BFI - WHO50

BFI Celebration Proving To Be Sell-Out Success

Thursday, 10 January 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
Special screenings at the BFI this year to celebrate Doctor Who's 50th anniversary are proving to be a massive success, with the first two events selling out before the first one has even taken place.

To mark the show's golden milestone, BFI Southbank is showing a story per Doctor as well as digitally-restored prints of the two Dalek films starring Peter Cushing, with question-and-answer panels featuring special guests at each session.

This coming Saturday sees a big-screen showing of An Unearthly Child to start the season, with the second event on the programme - a screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen - taking place on Saturday 9th February. However, in both instances BFI members, who are entitled to priority booking, have snapped up all the tickets for both shows ahead of them going on sale to the general public. Tickets for Tomb were due to go on public release on Tuesday 15th January.

Despite the overwhelming popularity of the events, there are no plans to slot in extra screenings. BFI programmer Justin Johnson told Doctor Who News:
We're delighted and a little overwhelmed at the scale of demand for the BFI's Doctor Who 50th anniversary events. They were designed to be 12 one-off events so we won't be replicating them. However, BFI Live will be filming the introductions and appearances by special guests, which means that they will be available on our website for anyone to enjoy long after the event.
The guests at this Saturday's screening will be the Unearthly Child herself, aka Carole Ann Ford, director Waris Hussein, actors William Russell and Jeremy Young, Donald Tosh (the only surviving script editor from the William Hartnell era), Brian Hodgson of the Radiophonic Workshop, vision mixer Clive Doig, Jessica Carney (William Hartnell's granddaughter and biographer), and Mark Gatiss, who is writing a BBC Two docudrama about the show's genesis, called An Adventure In Space And Time, which will debut at the BFI in November.

The guest line-up for the screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen has yet to be announced. March will see the première of the colour-restored story The Mind of Evil ahead of its release on DVD. The remaining stories are still to be announced.

In addition to priority booking, BFI members receive discounts on ticket prices as well as exemption from booking fees. The BFI currently has a special offer with annual membership at £30 (down from £40). The offer expires at the end of February - click here for more details.





FILTER: - Special Events - UK - BFI - WHO50

BFI: Doctor Who at 50 update

Sunday, 23 December 2012 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Watch the Eleven Doctors at the BFI during 2013! Image: BFI
BFI logo
Doctor Who at 50
As mentioned earlier this month, the BFI plan to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who with special screenings each month next year in the lead-up to the Anniversary itself; the organisation has now announced details about the first quarter of 2013.

As previously mentioned, the season kicks off at the very beginning with William Hartnell's An Unearthly Child on 12th January; this will be followed on 9th February with Patrick Troughton tackling the Tomb of the Cybermen; then in March Jon Pertwee is up against The Master as The Mind of Evil is unveiled in newly restored colour! All stories are accompanied by a Q&A panel, though guests have yet to be announced.


Justin Johnson, BFI Programmer, said:
The BFI is very proud of our long relationship with both the BBC and the Doctor Who production team. We are delighted to be playing complete stories featuring each incarnation of The Doctor, supported by Q&As with special guests. As well as the TV work, we also plan to play newly digitally restored versions of the Peter Cushing films, courtesy of Studio Canal. This is the perfect opportunity for old fans and new to come and learn about the genesis of the show and its continuing jounrney.

Doctor Who's executive producer Caroline Skinner said:
To be doing this enormous and exciting project for the BFI is just a dream come true. We're delighted that in this 50th year of the show we have such brilliant support from the BFI for our celebration of Doctor Who's cultural heritage. Some of the stories we're going to show are thrilling, surprising, funny and just plain classic TV. Enjoy, everyone!

In November, the climax of the BFI's celebration will include a special preview of An Adventure in Space and Time , the drama written by Mark Gatiss exploring the personalities that brought the longest running sci-fi series to life.


The stories representing the other eight Doctors will be confirmed next year.





FILTER: - Special Events - UK - Jon Pertwee - William Hartnell - BFI - WHO50 - Patrick Troughton

Anniversary Screenings At The BFI

Monday, 3 December 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
The BFI Southbank in London is to mark Doctor Who's 50th anniversary by showing stories from each Doctor throughout 2013.

According to the latest BFI booklet, there will be something from Doctor Who every month up to and including November.

The first screening in the celebratory season will be of the programme's first adventure, An Unearthly Child, directed by Waris Hussein and starring William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, Jacqueline Hill, and William Russell. It takes place on Saturday 12th January at 3.30pm and there will also be guests, although they are yet to be confirmed.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday 11th December at 11.30am, and bookings can be made via the relevant BFI programme page.

Details and dates of future screenings in the season are yet to be announced.

With Thanks To Tony Clark




FILTER: - Special Events - UK - William Hartnell - BFI - WHO50

Air Lock To Be Shown In Full On Big Screen

Thursday, 1 November 2012 - Reported by John Bowman
The Season 3 episode Air Lock that was recovered last year is to be shown in full on the big screen in London next month.

It will form part of the first session of this year's annual BFI event Missing Believed Wiped, entitled The Weird And The Wonderful.

An excerpt from the Galaxy 4 episode was shown as a surprise part of last year's BFI showcase of recovered TV material, as was the screening in full of episode 2 of The Underwater Menace, whose recovery had similarly been kept under wraps until then. Both episodes were shown in full in Cardiff in May.

In addition, the second and concluding session of this year's Missing Believed Wiped - Music And Entertainment - will include the recovered March 1966 edition of BBC TV's youth culture show A Whole Scene Going that features a location report from the filming of Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

Tickets to both sessions of this year's event, which takes place on Sunday 2nd December at the BFI Southbank, go on sale to the public at 11.30am on Tuesday 13th November.

As previously reported, Air Lock is to be a bonus episode on next March's special edition DVD release of The Aztecs.




FILTER: - Special Events - UK - William Hartnell - BFI - Classic Series

Asylum Of The Daleks to premiere at BFI

Monday, 25 June 2012 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The British Film Institute is to premiere the first episode of the 2012 series of Doctor Who, Asylum of the Daleks, on Tuesday 14th August 2012 at 6:00pm.

The episode, which has been described as including "every Dalek ever", was named in the Institute's advance programme. The screening will include a Q&A session with writer and show runner Steven Moffat plus other members of the cast and crew yet to be confirmed.

Tickets go on sale to the public from 10th July (BFI members from 3rd).

As previously reported, the episode will also be shown at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, which runs from 23rd to 25th August.

The television premiere of the episode has yet to be announced; however, last year's Let's Kill Hitler received both a BFI and MGEITF premiere in August prior to its broadcast on the Bank Holiday weekend, which for this year would be Saturday 25th August.

Speaking on the BBC's Doctor Who website, executive producer Caroline Skinner said:
This is an epic Dalek adventure that kicks off the new series in explosive style! If you think you know all there is to know about the Daleks, think again...




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Special Events - BFI - Series 7/33