A 1977 programme featuring Jon Pertwee and his son Sean is to be shown as part of an event paying tribute to the ITV channel Thames.

A Salute To Thames will feature a number of programmes made by the company, including an edition of quiz series Whose Baby? The format of the show saw one or more children of celebrities presented to a guest panel, who then asked them various questions about what their parent did, to try to find out who they were, with the parent then being brought on if guessed correctly or not. The edition being shown during A Salute To Thames was originally broadcast on Wednesday 19th January 1977. Hosted by Roy Castle, it featured Jon Pertwee - as well as the actress Sylvia Syms - among the mystery stars. Sean would have been 12 at the time of the broadcast. His elder sister, Dariel, did not take part in the programme.

Sean Pertwee was one of the multitude of actors who appeared in the 50th-anniversary skit The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.

A Salute To Thames has been organised by the TV archive organisation Kaleidoscope and is to be held at The Talbot Hotel in Stourbridge on Saturday 1st March, starting at midday and with "closedown" at 7pm.

Thames Television was formed with the merger of Rediffusion and ABC, broadcasting on weekdays to London and the surrounding areas from 30th July 1968 until 31st December 1992. It also produced programmes for the ITV network, including the celebrity panel mystery show Whodunnit?, which was hosted for a number of series by Jon Pertwee and whose differing guest cast acting out the scenarios included Katy Manning, Mary Tamm, William Russell and Philip Madoc.

Another of Thames's popular shows was The Tomorrow People, which saw the TV debut of Peter Davison and whose theme music was composed by Dudley Simpson - it is now enjoying an American-made, adult revival, currently airing on The CW in the USA and E4 in the UK.

The Fifth Estate:

The film The Fifth Estate is due out on Blu-ray and DVD next Monday (17th February); the story follows the events surrounding WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as played by Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch, and also features new Doctor Peter Capaldi as Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger. Grapevine have kindly sent us some photos of Capaldi in his role:



We have two copies of the film on DVD to give away, courtesy of Grapevine; to be in with a chance to win please answer the following question:
Send your answers to comp-fifthestate@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "Was Wikileaks an Omnishambles?", along with your name, address and where you read about the competition. Only one entry per postal address will be accepted. The competition is open to readers in the United Kingdom only, and the closing date is 28th February 2014.

Not Another Happy Ending:

Former TARDIS traveller Karen Gillan's first film, Not Another Happy Ending, is out this week, and Organic have kindly provided us with a few video clips of the actress in action:


Recently in an interview with MSN, she revealed the romantic comedies that she watched to prep for her role:


We have two film posters signed by Karen Gillan to give away, courtesy of Organic; to be in with a chance to win please answer the following question:
Send your answers to comp-nahe@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "Blink and you'll miss her", along with your name, address and where you read about the competition. Only one entry per postal address will be accepted. The competition is open to readers in the United Kingdom only, and the closing date is 28th February 2014.

BBC Worldwide have announced a cinematic outing for the two recently recovered stories The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear.

The stories will be shown together at the Prince Charles Cinema in London on Saturday 22nd February from 11:15am, and will also include a 45-minute Q&A session, chaired by Toby Hadoke, with cast members from the stories and a member of the Troughton family.

Fiona Eastwood, Director of Consumer Products at BBC Worldwide, said:

Paul Vickery, Head Programmer at the Prince Charles Cinema said:

Dick Fiddy, Missing Believed Wiped Co-ordinator at the BFI, added:

Tickets go on sale from 9:00am on Friday 14th February via this link, priced at £14 (£11.50 members).

UPDATE - 8pm, 14th FEBRUARY: The event has now sold out.

Doctor Who Magazine and Doctor Who Adventures have both seen huge rises in circulation over the past six months, with DWM recording its best-ever figure and DWA reversing a slump in readership.

The latest figures - for July to December 2013 - were published at midday today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations and showed that DWM, which is published by Panini, had a total average net circulation of 36,151 per issue - up by 4,459 and a 14.1 per cent rise on the previous six months. This includes an extraordinary individual sale of 50,000-plus for the 50th-anniversary edition - issue 467.

Meanwhile, DWA, which is brought out by Immediate Media Co, posted a total average net circulation of 28,443 per issue for the same period - an increase of 3,946 and representing a rise of 16.1 per cent on the Jan-Jun 2013 period.

The new figures equal a 25.8 per cent year-on-year increase for the four-weekly DWM, but a 10.9 per cent drop year-on-year for DWA, although it should be noted that in the previous figures, released last August, DWA posted a 23.2 per cent fall year-on-year, so the latest result is actually a massive turnaround over the same period for the fortnightly publication. The consumer magazine market as a whole has recorded a year-on-year drop of 6.3 per cent.

DWM editor Tom Spilsbury said: Katie Wilkinson, the circulation manager at Panini, added: Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat commented:DWA spokeswoman Jaynie Bye said: For detailed breakdowns of the new figures, click on the relevant links in the table below.


The circulation figures for the first six months of this year are currently due to be published on Thursday 14th August.

The new edition of Doctor Who Adventures - out today - carries the results of a poll to find the ultimate monster from the Christmas special The Time of the Doctor - with the Daleks claiming a major victory.

Almost 3,000 readers voted and the Daleks won with a massive 55 per cent of the results. The full results were as follows:

• 1: The Daleks - 55 per cent
• 2: The Cybermen - 17 per cent
• 3: The Weeping Angels - 14 per cent
• 4: The Sontarans - 10 per cent
• 5: The Silence - 4 per cent

DWA editor Moray Laing said: Also in the magazine, there's an interview with a Dalek who tells the magazine what it thinks of the win. Plus:

• A look at the first picture of new Doctor Peter Capaldi in costume
• Bonus token and entry form for the chance to win a life-size Dalek
• Fact file about the shape-changing Zygons
• Win Doctor Who DVDs, an Xbox and games
• Make a Dalek puppet eyestalk
• Secrets from the set of The Time of the Doctor
• A free exclusive monster stationery set

On sale until Tuesday 25th February, issue 339 of DWA also contains news plus posters, puzzles and a comic strip featuring an unseen adventure with the Eleventh Doctor and Clara.

DWA's latest circulation figure - covering July to December 2013 - will be published tomorrow (as will the figure for Doctor Who Magazine).

Big Finish have announced a new set of adventures featuring Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor with Louise Jameson as Leela, written by the pair's original producer Philip Hinchcliffe alongside Ghost Light writer Marc Platt.


The CD boxed set will be launched at Big Finish Day 5 in Slough on Saturday 13th September, which Tom, Philip and Carolyn are attending.

Veteran director Christopher Barry has died at the age of 88.

Christopher Barry was responsible for some of the most admired stories from the classic series of Doctor Who, where he was the longest serving director, responsible for 43 episodes spanning the years 1963-1979. He directed all of the first four Doctors - one of only three directors to do so.

He joined the Doctor Who team in the late summer of 1963, when he was assigned to direct the second story, The Daleks, replacing Rex Tucker who had left after artistic differences with producer Verity Lambert. The script he would bring to life would see the introduction of the Daleks and ensure the success of the fledgling series. Barry would end up directing episodes 1,2,4 and 5 of the story, creating the 'sink-plunger' cliff hanger at the end of episode 1 which would see the nation on the edge of their seats until the full revelation of the Dalek machine in episode 2. He was in the studio directing episode 2 when the news of President Kennedy's assassination broke.

Barry returned to the series a year later, directing The Rescue, the story which saw the introduction of the first new companion since the series start, Vicki, played by Maureen O'Brien. He stayed on to direct the next story The Romans, a historical romp which saw much more humour introduced to the series. Having introduced a companion, his next Doctor Who assignment was to see the departure of another, as his final story with William Hartnell, The Savages, was to be the last story to feature Steven Taylor, as played by Peter Purves.

In 1966, Barry masterminded the introduction of a new Doctor, when he directed Patrick Troughton's first story, The Power of the Daleks. The story, long missing from the archives, had the difficult job of introducing a new lead actor to the series and cementing the long term success of the series.

His next outing was with the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, when he directed the 1971 story The Dæmons. Long regarded as a classic, the story is often cited as a favourite by members of the cast and production team. Barry returned the following year to direct the six part story The Mutants.

Having overseen the debut of one Doctor in 1966, Barry was able to do so once again when, at the end of 1974, he directed Robot, introducing the world to the man who would become the longest-serving (continuous) on-screen Doctor - and arguably the most famous in the public eye from the 'classic' era - Tom Baker. The story was one of the first with all location work recorded direct onto video tape using a BBC OB unit. The following year he directed another classic, The Brain of Morbius, which saw the fourth Doctor encounter the eccentric surgeon Solon and his Time Lord secret. It was in this story Barry featured on screen alongside other production team members as one of the faces projected onto the screen during the Doctor's mind battle with Morbius.

Barry's final story for classic Doctor Who came in 1979 when he directed the four part story The Creature from the Pit, with the DVD release of that story containing a retrospective of his work. While the series was off air he also directed the 1995 story Downtime, a direct-to-video story produced by the independent production company Reeltime Pictures.

He began his film and TV career in the movies, working as an assistant director on star vehicles including Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953), The Love Lottery (1954) and The Ship That Died of Shame (1955). By 1958 he was directing, working on the BBC’s Starr and Company, the crime drama Private Investigator and the long-running soap opera Compact. He directed episodes of Paul Temple, Moonbase 3, Poldark, Angels, Nicholas Nickleby, The Onedin Line, Z Cars, All Creatures Great and Small, Nanny and Juliet Bravo. He also directed eleven episodes of the TV adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripods.

UPDATE - 16th FEBRUARY: It has emerged that Barry died on Friday 7th February after falling down an escalator at a shopping centre in Banbury, near his home in Oxfordshire, earlier that day. He was taken to hospital but while there he suddenly stopped breathing and doctors could not revive him. An inquest into his death will be held on Thursday 5th June.

Not On Your Telly is a new book by broadcast historian Tim Worthington, looking into the dustier corners of the TV Archives.

There's plenty of Doctor Who-related content, including in-depth features on The Android Invasion and The Space Pirates, as well as the story behind the first ever Dalek radio show from 1966, an account of what it was like to see the recovered episode 2 of Evil Of The Daleks for the first time, and a look at the 'Sunday Classics' serials produced by Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts.

There's also lots on other shows including Fist Of Fun, Play School, and little-known TV appearances by The Beatles and Bob Dylan.

Not On Your Telly in paperback for £4.99, and as a eBook for £1.99.

The New Zealand mint has released a new coin featuring a Dalek, the first in a five coin series featuring classic Doctor Who Monsters.

The Doctor Who Monsters series is a limited mintage of 5000 coins only per release, and is crafted from ½ Ounce of fine silver (0.999). Each coin is sold with an individual presentation case, along with an individually numbered certificate of authenticity. Like recent New Zealand releases, the coins will be issued under the licensing authority of Niue.

The coin, with a face value of $1, depicts a relief engraved Dalek, set against a colour background. This is surrounded by a finely engraved border design. The obverse features the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The remaining coins will be issued over the course of the next four months and will feature the Weeping Angels, the Cybermen, the Silurians and the Sontarans.

Customers who purchase from the New Zealand Mint website will recieve low certificate numbers in the series, numbers 50-999. In addition, everyone who purchases the Dalek coin will have the opportunity to receive identically numbered certificates for each further release in the series.

Silva Screen have been nominated for an International Film Music Critics Association Award for the 2013 release of Doctor Who: The 50th Anniversary Collection

The four CD set, released in December, featured 129 tracks of music music from five decades of Doctor Who. It included many pieces that had never before been released, with tracks from composers including Tristram Cary, Brian Hodgson, Dudley Simpson, Geoffrey Burgon, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, Malcolm Clarke, Keff McCulloch, Dominic Glynn, John Debney, Mark Ayres and Murray Gold. The album was produced by Mark Ayres, Reynold DaSilva and David Stoner with liner notes by Mark Ayres and album art direction by Stuart Ford.

The nomination is for BEST ARCHIVAL RELEASE OF AN EXISTING SCORE – COMPILATION

Other nominees are Lethal Weapon Soundtrack Collection, music by Michael Kamen, Eric Clapton and David Sanborn; Michel Legrand Anthology, music by Michel Legrand; Varèse Sarabande: A 35th Anniversary Celebration, music by Various Composers; The X-Files: Volume Two, music by Mark Snow.

The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) is an association of online, print and radio journalists who specialize in writing about original film and television music. The annual IFMCA Awards, which were first presented in 2004, are the only awards given to composers by film music journalists.

The winners will be announced at the 10th IFMCA Awards on February 20, 2014.

The CD Collection is available from Amazon.