News Roundup

Friday, 1 October 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The Radio 4 documentary, Shelved, looking at how the political circumstances of the late 1970s resulted in the cancellation of the Fourth Doctor story, Shada, is repeated on Friday 8th October at 23.30 UK Time and will be available worldwide on the BBC iPlayer.

Toby Hadoke's satirical journey as a Doctor Who obsessive, Moths Ate My Dr Who Scarf, is now in the BBC iPlayer until next Wednesday.

Doctor Who composer Murray Gold has written a foreword for a new book Soundtrack Nation which contains interviews with representatives from the art and business sides of movie and television soundtracks.

A sketch featuring Doctor Who appeared on US Television in The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and can be seen on YouTube.

Freelance designer Kyle Lambert has been working with IDW on an idea to publish a Doctor Who comic book cover drawn on an iPad using a finger. Although the project is unlikely to go ahead a video showing how they were made has been posted by Lambert on YouTube.




FILTER: - Music - Murray Gold - Documentary - Radio

Doctor Who Super Saturday

Saturday, 17 April 2010 - Reported by Dean Braithwaite
Just a reminder that the new series of Doctor Who - starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond - premieres in Australia, Canada and the US this weekend.

In the US, The Eleventh Hour, by Steven Moffat, hits TV screens on BBC America tonight (Saturday), at 9 p.m. ET. The opening episode will be preceded at 8 p.m. ET by Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide, a documentary introducing the world of Doctor Who to new viewers.

Canada premieres The Eleventh Hour tonight (Saturday) on SPACE, also at 9 p.m. ET, with Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide showing before it at 8 p.m. ET.

In Australia, The Eleventh Hour will be broadcast on ABC 1 on Sunday (April 18) at 7.30 p.m. The series has already premiered in Australia on ABC iView, the station's Internet broadcasting service. Also, Series 1 of K9 continues to be broadcast weekly on Saturdays on Channel Ten.

The new series is receiving masses of press attention in all three countries. Digital Journal continues its coverage, running three separate pieces for the US launch, the Canadian launch and the Australian launch.



Meanwhile, in the UK, Matt Smith's Series 1 (Doctor Who, Series 31) continues tonight on BBC 1 at 6.30 p.m. with Victory of the Daleks, by Mark Gatiss. A report on the history of the metal menace has appeared on BBC News. As reported by us yesterday, immediately after this episode, there will be a trailer on BBC 1 for the fortcoming downloadable episodes of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games. Episode 3 of Doctor Who Confidential follows on BBC 3 at 7.15 p.m.




FILTER: - Canada - Documentary - Series 5/31 - Steven Moffat - USA - Karen Gillan - Matt Smith

The Doctor and Douglas - Now Online

Friday, 2 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Douglas AdamsThe BBC Radio 4 documentary The Doctor and Douglas was broadcast Friday morning.

The documentary is available worldwide on the BBC iPlayer for the next seven days.
As a new generation of fans await the debut of the 11th incarnation of the Doctor, long-time fan Jon Culshaw travels back in time to look at the man who changed Doctor Who forever: Douglas Adams.

After years toiling for success as a writer, in 1978 Douglas' world turned upside down. Just weeks after the radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was commissioned, so was his first script for Doctor Who. The following year - just as Hitchhikers was taking off - he was offered the job as script editor, one of the most demanding jobs in television.

The scripts he wrote for Doctor Who - The Pirate Planet, City of Death and Shada - still stand as a benchmark for the series today. But his time on the series was beset by problems. Technician strikes would seriously affect production, inflation was squeezing the series budget, and Douglas was exhausted by the simultaneous demands of Hitchhikers and Doctor Who.

Nevertheless, Douglas left an indelible mark on Doctor Who, bringing in a sharp wit that hadn't been seen before in what was ostensibly a children's TV series. Today's crop of writers and producers strive to emulate the intelligence, humour and ideas in Adams' scripts from 1979.

Jon Culshaw looks at Douglas' work on a television institution, talking to the writers, directors and actors who worked with him, and looks at the legacy of his work on Doctor Who with new executive producer Steven Moffat.

Produced by Simon Barnard and Kieron Moyles. This is a Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4.




FILTER: - Documentary - Classic Series

The Doctor and Douglas

Wednesday, 10 February 2010 - Reported by Anthony Weight
ZZ9, the official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Appreciation Society, reports that BBC Radio 4 are currently preparing a documentary about former Doctor Who script editor Douglas Adams, entitled "The Doctor and Douglas". Produced by Simon Barnard and made for the BBC by the independent production company Wise Buddah, the documentary will apparently look at Adams's association with Doctor Who, from being a teenage fan of the programme in the 1960s to writing and script editing for it in the late 1970s.

This will be the fourth recent Doctor Who-related documentary to be broadcast by Radio 4, which last year transmitted programmes celebrating the Target novelisations of old Doctor Who episodes, and exploring the subject of the show's missing episodes. One of Adams's scripts for the series, Shada, featured heavily in a documentary which looked at 1970s television dramas which were abandoned during production. The network has also broadcast radio plays of the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood.

"The Doctor and Douglas" is expected to be aired sometime in either March or April.




FILTER: - Documentary - Classic Series - Radio

CD Delayed

Friday, 22 January 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Legend RebornThe audio documentary Doctor Who at the BBC: A Legend Reborn has been delayed due to problems clearing some of the material on the disc.

The CD was due to be released by BBC Audiobooks on Thursday. However, when compiling the master tape a small amount of material was included for which BBC Audiobooks were unable to obtain clearance. As a result the disc has been recalled and a new master is being produced.

A small number of discs were distributed before the problem was realised, giving the recipients a rare unedited version of the documentary.

The new version will hopefully be released on 11th February.




FILTER: - Documentary - Audio

Missing episodes documentary on Radio 4

Monday, 7 December 2009 - Reported by Anthony Weight

The Christmas edition of the Radio Times contains details of another Doctor Who-themed addition to the already-packed schedules of the BBC. On Saturday the 26th of December at 8pm, BBC Radio 4 will broadcast the one-hour documentary Doctor Who: The Lost Episodes, as part of its Archive on 4 strand. The documentary is produced by Shaun Ley, the same man responsible for the previously-reported documentary "Shelved", which looks at the abandonment of several 1970s television productions, including the 1979 Doctor Who serial Shada, and airs on Radio 4 this Saturday.

"Doctor Who: The Lost Episodes" will look at how 108 episodes of the classic series came to be missing from the archives, and how efforts have led to the recovery of several more that were also previously thought lost. The programme will also be repeated, in a shortened 45-minute form and on FM frequencies only, on Radio 4 at 3pm on Monday the 28th of December. It will also be available internationally on the BBC website.

You can keep track of all major Doctor Who-related programmes on British TV and radio this Christmas with our broadcast summary.




FILTER: - Documentary - Classic Series - Radio - Radio Times

Tennant and Davies on Radio 2

Wednesday, 25 November 2009 - Reported by Anthony Weight
The BBC Press Office has released details of the forthcoming radio programme "Who on Who?", to be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday the 29th of December at 5pm. The one-hour programme will feature David Tennant interviewing Russell T Davies about his career and the success of the Doctor Who revival, just days before the broadcast of the pair's final regular work on the programme.





FILTER: - Russell T Davies - Documentary - David Tennant - Radio

Radio 4 documentary to focus on Shada

Monday, 16 November 2009 - Reported by Anthony Weight

A forthcoming BBC Radio 4 documentary is to examine what led to the cancellation of Shada - the six-part Fourth Doctor story originally intended to end Doctor Who's 17th season.

Shelved takes a look at three TV programmes that were made in 1979 but which never aired because of socio-political, industrial or cultural problems. The three comprise a particularly violent episode of ITV show The Professionals, the last episode of BBC series Secret Army, and Shada.

Interviewees for the Shada segment are Tom Baker, director Pennant Roberts and Jeremy Bentham - the Doctor Who historian, author, former associate editor of Doctor Who Magazine and co-founder of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. The story, which was never completed at the time because of a BBC strike, would have been broadcast in January and February 1980.

The 30-minute documentary is scheduled to be broadcast on Saturday, December 12 at 10.30am, and it is understood it will make a key revelation relating to Doctor Who through documentation unearthed by producer/presenter Shaun Ley. Recording of the documentary took place at the BBC's Westminster studio on Thursday, November 5.

Incoming Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner tried to remount Shada, but those attempts failed and production was formally abandoned in June 1980. In 1992, the recorded footage was released on video with linking narration by Tom Baker completing the story. It was subsequently reworked as an audio play by Big Finish Productions, featuring the Eighth Doctor and with Paul McGann in the lead role. This version was webcast on BBCi in 2003 and broadcast on digital radio station BBC7 in December 2005, with a repeat the following year. The webcast is currently available to listen to on the official Doctor Who website (may only be available within the UK).





FILTER: - Documentary - Classic Series - Radio

Greatest Moments – Ratings – The Enemies

Friday, 4 September 2009 - Reported by Marcus
According to unofficial overnight figures, the final installment of Doctor Who’s Greatest Moments was watched by 340,000 viewers. The programme share was 1.7% and it was the fourteenth most-watched programme of the day on multi-channel television.




FILTER: - Ratings - Documentary - UK

Greatest Moments – Ratings – The Companions

Saturday, 29 August 2009 - Reported by Marcus
According to unofficial overnight figures, the second installment of Doctor Who’s Greatest Moments was watched by 290,000 viewers. The programme share was 1.5% and it was the sixteenth most-watched programme of the day on multi-channel television. The figure is a drop from last week’s edition, which inherited a much larger base from the previous programme, The Runaway Bride.




FILTER: - Ratings - Documentary - UK