Monday's showing of the Fourth Doctor story, The Hand of Fear, on BBC Four, has 203,000 watching part one, with 276,000 watching part two, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The show, which is being broadcast as a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen, had a 0.94% share of the total audience for part one, rising to 1.19% for part two.

Against Doctor Who, Total Wipeout on BBC Three had 252,000 watching, Zac Efron: The Hot Desk on ITV2 had 65,000, Friends on E4 had 168,000 and The Simpsons on Sky One had 496,000 viewers.

The episodes are not available on the iPlayer due to rights issues.

The last Doctor Who story to be broadcast on BBC Four was The Daleks, shown in April 2008, in tribute to former producer Verity Lambert, which had around 110,000 watching each episode during the week, more for the weekend episodes.
 

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A facebook group called Get BBC Four to show More Classic Doctor Who has been set up.

Oliver Elmes, the man who designed the Seventh Doctor's title sequence, has died.

In 1987 producer John Nathan Turner commissioned BBC designer Oliver Elmes to design a new opening for the show. Elmes worked with CAL Video to produce the first Doctor Who logo to be designed entirely on computer.

The basic concept was the 'Big Bang', with stars exploding to form a multi-coloured galaxy, and features a spinning TARDIS and Sylvester McCoy's face painted silver. The sequence, which cost £20,000 and took three months to create, ran for the duration of McCoy's era, from Time and the Rani to Survival, appearing on 12 stories, some 42 episodes.

A short documentary explaining the history of the sequence, Helter Skelter, is included on the DVD release of Time and the Rani.

After the series was put on hold in 1989, the new logo continued to be used for the Virgin New Adventures novels until Bad Therapy in 1996.

In addition to his work on Doctor Who, Elmes designed title sequences for Elizabeth R, The Goodies, and The Good Life. He also worked on Multi Coloured Swapshop and Top of the Pops, and designed the BBC2 idents with the two lines and one of the early spinning globe idents

Doctor Who Magazine has issued a provisional schedule for the remaining stories to be released in the classic Doctor Who DVD range.

There are 24 stories that still exist and have yet to be released on DVD, all of which are expected to be available by the show's 50th anniversary in 2013.

Doctor Who broadcasting resource site BroaDWcast has now been updated to include details on broadcasting of the classic series in Canada, recognised as the third country in the world to broadcast the series with the first batch of Hartnell adventures from January 1965.

Other recent additions to the database include Nigeria, Zambia, Japan, Netherlands, and the Philippines.

(with thanks to Jon Preddle)

The Radio Times have reported that The Hand of Fear is to be broadcast as a tribute to the late Elisabeth Sladen; the story was her last appearance as series regular Sarah Jane Smith alongside Tom Baker's portrayal as The Doctor.

The story will be broadcast on BBC4, with parts one and two on at 7:40pm and 8:05pm respectively on Monday 9th, and parts three and four in the same timeslots the following evening.



Episode details may be found both on the Radio Times and from our own Doctor Who Guide.

It is with great sadness that we report the death of the actress Elisabeth Sladen - forever known to us as the Doctor's best friend, Sarah Jane Smith.

Born in Liverpool in February 1946, Elisabeth Sladen took an interest in acting from an early age; she joined the Liverpool Playhouse repertory company as assistant stage manager after drama school, where she would meet her future husband Brian Miller. After a stint touring the country in repertory, she settled in Manchester, during which she had her breakthrough television role in 1970, appearing as Anita Reynolds in Coronation Street. More small roles were to follow in popular shows like Doomwatch, Z Cars and Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.

Then in 1973 came what would be her defining role as she was cast as the replacement companion for third Doctor Jon Pertwee. Following in the footsteps of popular companion Jo Grant played by Katy Manning, Sladen was to hit the ground running as investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith in her debut story The Time Warrior, and over the next three years would see her popularity soar as she became part of what is arguably known as the "golden years" of Doctor Who alongside fourth Doctor Tom Baker, an era including the story frequently appearing top of fan polls, Genesis of the Daleks.

Despite choosing to leave the programme in 1976, with an emotional departure scene at the conclusion of the serial The Hand of Fear, Sladen later stated in interviews that although she had left Sarah Jane, "Sarah Jane never left me". Although she declined producer John Nathan-Turner's offer to come back as support for the Fourth Doctor's regeneration (being present at his own arrival at the end of this week's DVD release Planet of the Spiders), she did returned to the role for the 1981 pilot: having been described by the Doctor as his best friend, Sarah was form her second long-lasting partnership with his "second-best friend" in the titular K9 and Company.

Sladen was re-united with "her" Doctor, Jon Pertwee, in the 1983 20th anniversary celebration The Five Doctors, and again during the 1990s for the two radio stories The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space, written and produced by the person who originally cast her, Barry Letts - the two would also be joined by another popular Doctor Who legend in the form of Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier.

Outside of Doctor Who, Elisabeth continued to work in theatre and television, often alongside her husband Brian; roles included Josie Hall in Take My Wife, a small role in the film Silver Dream Racer, and as Lady Flimnap in a production of Gulliver in Lilliput by her former producer Barry Letts, followed a few years later in his production of Alice in Wonderland as the Cheshire Cat. However, with the birth of her daughter Sadie in 1985, she was to focus more on her family.

However, Sarah would never be far from her life, with the actress continuing to be a popular guest at Doctor Who conventions, and also featuring in a series of audio adventures from Big Finish. Then, in 2005, a discussion with the revived Doctor Who's head writer and long-term fan of hers, Russell T Davies, led to a guest appearance in the second series adventure School Reunion, which re-united Sarah (and K9!) with the Doctor in his most recent incarnation (David Tennant) - her appearance proved instrumental in cementing the connection between the 20th and 21st Century productions in a way that the Daleks couldn't!

The character, and Sladen's performance, proved to be as popular as ever, if not more so, and led to her own starring role in spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures; the CBBC series continued on from her re-introduction in Doctor Who as an independent investigator of alien activity - now joined by her young own assistants as well as her faithful K9 - and winning a whole new legion of fans, both young and old. It is also a testament to the strength of the show that it has been graced by the appearance of the both the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney), and the Doctor himself in both his Tenth incarnation in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (and David Tennant's final performance as the Doctor), and Eleventh in the form of Matt Smith in Death of the Doctor - where Sladen was also to come 'full circle' by performing with the actress she 'replaced' way back in 1973, Katy Manning, aka Jo Jones né Grant.

The series itself has gone on to win awards, including the Royal Television Society award for Children's Drama last month.

At the time of her death there are still three stories of The Sarah Jane Adventures to be broadcast on television, and her autobiography, Who's That Girl is due out later in the year.


Elisabeth Sladen died in the morning of 19th April, having been battling with cancer for some time. She is survived by her husband Brian Miller, and daughter Sadie.


Media Obituaries: Toby Hadoke for The Guardian; Scott Matthewman for The Stage.

2|Entertain's Classic Doctor Who have released a "First Look" video on their YouTube channel to promote the forthcoming release of the third Doctor's final story, Planet of the Spiders.

2|Entertain have announced a competition via Twitter for fans to contribute on commentaries for the final Seventh Doctor adventures to be released on DVD, Dragonfire, The Happiness Patrol and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

In order to enter, fans should record and submit a question to the Classic Doctor Who Soundcloud group, and the favourites chosen will be featured as recorded on the related commentary.

Full entry details are on our competitions page.

2|Entertain have announced release dates for DVDs coming up in the next few months. As well as other recently listed stories, the schedule indicates Earthstory - the boxed set featuring The Awakening and The Gunfighters - for 20th June, followed by Paradise Towers on 18th July, The Sun Makers on 1st August, and Day of the Daleks on 12th September.

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The company has also released details on the DVD features for Earthstory (detailed below). The box itself has an air of finality about it: The Awakening brings an end the adventures of the Fifth Doctor, being the final story of this era to be released on DVD; The Gunfighters is the last complete story before William Hartnell departed the role (The Tenth Planet has yet to appear on DVD, but is missing its final episode).

2|Entertain have issued a statement via their Twitter account regarding the availability of the Revisitations 2 boxed set in the United Kingdom, which was released last week: