The actor Roger Lloyd Pack has died at the age of 69.

Lloyd Pack played John Lumic, the owner of Cybus Industries and the creator of the Cybermen, in the 2006 Doctor Who story Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel.

He was best known for playing Trigger in the long-running sitcom Only Fools and Horses as well as Owen Newitt in The Vicar of Dibley. In later years, he attained fame in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where he played Barty Crouch.

The actor was born in Islington, north London, in 1944, the son of Hammer horror actor Charles Lloyd-Pack. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before making his stage debut in Northampton. He had small appearances in The Avengers and Virgin of the Secret Service before his big screen debut in 1968 when he played a small part in The Magus. Other TV roles included parts in Spyder's Web, Crown Court, Dixon of Dock Green and both versions of Terry Nation's Survivors, playing Wally in the original 1970s production and Billy Stringer in the second series of the remake, which aired in 2010 - as such, he was the only actor to appear in both versions. Lloyd Pack also appeared in Life of Shakespeare, Private Schulz, Moving, Byker Grove, Selling Hitler, The Bill and The Gravy Train Goes East. In later years he had roles in The Borgias, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Old Guys.

He was a committed socialist, campaigned for nuclear disarmament and was a supporter of Left Unity.

Sir David Jason, who starred with Lloyd Pack in Only Fools and Horses, has spoken of his sadness at the news of the actor's death. Andrew Hayden-Smith, who played Jake in Rise of the Cybermen said While Tom MacRae who wrote the Cyberman adventure said The actor died of pancreatic cancer on Wednesday night. He is survived by his second wife Jehane Markham and his four children, the actress Emily Lloyd and his sons Spencer, Hartley & Louis.

On 27 February 2014, BBC Digital will release the ebook Tales of Trenzalore, a collection of four novellas set during the Eleventh Doctor's centuries defending the planet Trenzalore, as seen in the Christmas adventure The Time of the Doctor. Each novella features a classic Doctor Who monster. Justin Richards' story features the Ice Warriors (first seen in the 1967 serial The Ice Warriors, and most recently seen in Cold War), George Mann's story features the Krynoid (from the 1976 serial The Seeds of Doom), Paul Finch's features the Autons (first seen in 1970's Spearhead from Space), and Mark Morris's features the Mara (from the 1982 serial Kinda and its 1983 sequel Snakedance).

BBC Worldwide's doctorwho.tv site has released an exclusive clip from the forthcoming DVD of the 1967 Patrick Troughton serial The Moonbase. Episodes two and four of this story remain in the BBC archives; episodes one and three have been animated to the original soundtrack for this DVD release. The clip, from the animated episode three, shows Cybermen marching across the surface of the Moon in preparation for their attack on the eponymous moonbase.


The Moonbase DVD will be released on January 20 in Region 2 (Europe, Japan, Middle East, South Africa), on January 22 in Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, South and Central America) and February 11 in Region 1 (US and Canada).

The Doctor Who-inspired online multiplayer role-playing game Worlds in Time is to cease operation on 28th February 2014.

The game was first announced by the BBC Press Office prior to the San Francisco Game Developers Conference on 24th February 2011. On 17th November 2011, it was announced through a press release that publisher Sega would be collaborating with BBC Worldwide in the production of the game after having acquired Three Rings Design. Since its official release in March 2012, labelled The first-ever Doctor Who online game, it was free to play online for players aged 13 and above (with those between 13 and 15 needing parental permission to participate) meeting the game's terms and conditions.

An announcement email was sent out recently to members stating:
As an additional thank-you to "the loyal players of Worlds in Time for supporting the game through its years of operation", players have been offered a 10% discount code at the BBC Shop.

The fiftieth anniversary episode of Doctor Who was the most accessed programme on the BBC iPlayer for the whole of 2013.

The Day of the Doctor topped the chart with 3.2 million people accessing the episode at some point. The episode had 0.3 million more requests than the second placed programme, episode 1 of Bad Education, the comedy series about the worst teacher ever to grace the British education system.

The Christmas episode, The Time of the Doctor, which saw Matt Smith leave the series, was accessed 1.95 million times in the week following transmission, enough to make it the 32nd most requested programme of the year and the most requested programme for Christmas week. Mrs Brown's Boys, which came top of the Christmas broadcast ratings, had 1.36 million requests.

Nearly a million people downloaded the iPlayer mobile and tablet apps over the Christmas period, meaning over 20 million now have the service on their mobile device.

All ten episodes of Doctor Who that premiered in 2013 made the top 50 programmes on iPlayer for the year. The Bells of Saint John came in at number 5 on the chart, with 2.64 million requests during the couple of months it was available. The Rings of Akhaten was 15th with 2.31 million requests. At 23 was The Name of the Doctor which had 2.06 million requests. Cold War was 33rd with 1.95 million requests, Hide was 35th with 1.92 million requests, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS was 39th with 1.89 million requests, Nightmare in Silver was 40th with 1.89 million requests and The Crimson Horror was 43rd with 1.83 million requests.

Overall, the 2013 episodes were requested over 19 million times during the year. The 2012 episodes were also available on iPlayer for part of the year and were requested a total of 2.39 million times. The 14 episodes from Series Six were requested 4.51 million times and Series Five 0.67 million times.

A creative decision - as opposed to a contractual one - was behind Peter Capaldi keeping his native Scottish accent as the Doctor, the BBC has been quoted as saying. And according to an unnamed "insider", Capaldi "was delighted when he found out he could play the part with his own voice. It gives his character a stronger identity as well." (The article takes pains to point out that fellow Scot David Tennant used an English accent because then showrunner Russell T Davies didn't want the Doctor "touring the regions". It neglects to mention that the Highlands-set episode Tooth and Claw did see Tennant talking with a Scottish brogue. Sylvester McCoy, of course, kept his Scottish accent as the Doctor.) [Mirror, 30 Dec 2013]

Meanwhile, The Musketeers - the TV drama that Peter Capaldi was filming when he learnt that he had won the role of the Doctor - begins on BBC One on Sunday 19th January at 9pm. Consisting of ten one-hour episodes and set in 17th-century Paris, it sees Capaldi portraying the villainous Cardinal Richelieu in a contemporary take on the characters created by Alexandre Dumas. Talking about the hazards of filming the swashbuckling series, Capaldi said: "The production suffered from a lot of injuries: dislocated shoulders, bruised shins, the odd concussion. It's one of the occupational hazards of being a swashbuckler. I myself suffered a nasty dislocated thumb, but embarrassingly not from swinging a sword around. Instead, my injury came from a domestic the cardinal was having with Milady, Maimie McCoy. I threw her against the wall not realising I'd caught my thumb in her large frock. I felt a jab of pain. And when the director said "Cut" I looked down and saw my thumb was on the wrong way round. Nasty! Instinct took over and I shoved it back. Which made my eyes water and my knees weak. The lesson clearly was, never get into a fight with Maimie McCoy!" The series has been directed by - among others - Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, and Farren Blackburn, with music by Murray Gold. [BBC Media Centre, 7 Jan 2014]

The Crouch End Festival Chorus will be launching its 30th-anniversary year with the world première of Murray Gold's heartfelt tribute to his late sibling Jolyon Gold, who was born in 1971 and died in 1996. When My Brother Fell Into The River . . . will be performed at the Barbican in London on Saturday 18th January at 7.30pm. It is described as "a passionate ode to life, motorbikes, Walt Whitman and India; a dramatic tribute to his brother Jolyon who lost his life in the River Narmada." A memorial bench can also be found on Hampstead Heath. [CEFC website].

Jenna Coleman was the runner-up in RadioTimes.com's poll of breakthrough actor of 2013 for her roles in Doctor Who and Dancing On The Edge, being pipped to the title by Jamie Dornan (The Fall). She garnered 2,319 (23.73 per cent) of the votes against Dornan's 2,467 (25.24 per cent). Meanwhile, Sacha Dhawan came 15th for his portrayal of Waris Hussein in An Adventure in Space and Time (114/1.17 per cent). [Radio Times, 30 Dec 2013]

David Morrissey is starring in the three-part BBC One drama The Driver, which began filming in Manchester this week, to be broadcast later this year. Directed by Jamie Payne and also featuring Shaun Dingwall, it is billed as "a gripping tale of an ordinary life turned upside down", which sees Morrissey's character, Vince McKee, driving for a criminal gang after blaming himself and his inadequacies for a family mystery. Morrissey is also a co-executive producer. [BBC Media Centre, 10 Jan 2014]

David Troughton is the new voice of Tony Archer in the long-running BBC radio drama series The Archers, taking over from Colin Skipp who has retired on health grounds after more than 40 years in the role. [Archers website, 2 Jan 2014]

The BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales are to mark the fifth birthday of their home in Cardiff Bay this month with a celebratory concert at BBC Hoddinott Hall, based within the Wales Millennium Centre. The hall has been used not just as a rehearsal venue and concert hall but is often used as a soundtrack studio and television studio too, with the studio being used to record soundtrack music for Doctor Who. The concert takes place on Tuesday 21st January at 7.30pm and will be broadcast on Radio 3 Live in Concert. It will also be available for seven days after broadcast via BBC iPlayer Radio. Tickets cost £15. Fees are applicable unless tickets are bought in person at the box office using cash or with Millennium Centre gift certificates. No music relating to Doctor Who is understood to be forming part of the concert. (BBC radio broadcasts are available to listen to free worldwide.) [BBC Media Centre, 9 Jan 2014]

A Doctor Who audio play and Claire Rushbrook are in the running for gongs in this year's BBC Audio Drama Awards. Dark Eyes, written by Nicholas Briggs for Big Finish, is among the contenders for Best Online or Non-Broadcast Audio Drama, while Rushbrook has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress in an Audio Drama for her portrayal of Jules in King David, produced for BBC Radio 3. Ruth Jones and Nina Wadia are among the judges. The awards cover audio dramas first broadcast in English in the UK between 1st October 2012 and 31st October 2013 or first uploaded/published for free listening online in the UK during the same period. The ceremony will be held on Sunday 26th January in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House in central London, hosted by comedian and writer Lenny Henry and BBC director-general Tony Hall. [BBC Media Centre, 8 Jan 2014]

The thought-provoking drama The Events, starring Neve McIntosh and Rudi Dharmalingham, which was written by David Greig and premièred at the Edinburgh Fringe, was first on The Guardian's list of Best Theatre of 2013. [The Guardian, 31 Dec 2013]

Mark Gatiss and Katy Manning exchanged touching tweets earlier this week following last Sunday's episode of Sherlock - the BBC One series created by Gatiss and Steven Moffat - after Manning spotted a heavy reference to the final scene of The Green Death, with Holmes's downbeat departure from the Watsons' wedding reception echoing that of the Doctor's exit from the engagement party of her companion character Jo Grant and Clifford Jones:




Bath-based actress Francisca Garcia made her local press thanks to roles as an extra in Doctor Who, alongside Commander Strax, and as a bridesmaid in Sherlock. [The Bath Chronicle, 31 Dec 2013]

An accountant from Somerset who admitted swindling £80,000 from the programme budgets of Doctor Who and Casualty has been jailed for two years. Oliver Ager pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to 17 fraud offences, which were uncovered when he was based at the Roath Lock studios. He was sacked in October 2012 by BBC Finance. The 35-year-old, of Rock Avenue, Nailsea, who was a production accountant for 20 episodes of Doctor Who in 2007 and 2008, has repaid £30,000 from his pension fund. The court made no order relating to the rest of the money. Ager, who was also credited on The Sarah Jane Adventures pilot episode Invasion of the Bane, will serve one year of his prison term before being released on licence. In a statement after sentencing, the BBC said it had reviewed its cash processes and tightened procedures since the offences were committed "to prevent a crime like this from happening again." [Wales Online, 6 Jan 2014]

New Year Honours:

A number of luminaries received recognition in the 2014 New Year Honours List. Nicholas Parsons was promoted to a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for charitable services, particularly to children's charities (he was made an OBE - Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - in the 2004 New Year Honours for services to drama and broadcasting), while Lynda Bellingham and Katherine Jenkins were each awarded the OBE for, respectively, voluntary service to charitable giving in the UK and for services to music and for charitable services, and Ruth Jones was made an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to entertainment. [Official 2014 New Year Honours List, 30 Dec 2013]

The next issue of Doctor Who Magazine is due out this Thursday, and talks exclusively to the Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi.


Also in this issue:

• Doctor Who's executive producer Steven Moffat talks candidly to DWM in an in-depth interview.
• A look at 60s monster-makers Shawcraft, with never-before-seen colour photos.
• A preview of The Moonbase DVD with exclusive images.
• The Curse of Fenric – an in-depth guide to the classic Seventh Doctor adventure.
• Steven Moffat answers readers' questions on The Day of the Doctor.
• Pay the Piper – the Doctor and Clara in Part 2 of the latest comic strip.
• Author Jacqueline Rayner writes about a world inspired by Doctor Who.
• The Time Team watch Series Two of Torchwood.
• The opportunity to vote in the Ultimate Doctor Who survey – with a huge prize at stake!
• Reviews of all the latest DVDs and Cds.
• Competitions, puzzles, and much more!

Production on the eighth series of Doctor Who in the 21st Century is now in full swing, with filming taking place in Cardiff at the Roath Lock studios and on location in Cardiff. The BBC have announced details of the first couple of episodes to be filmed, alongside the first official image of new Doctor Peter Capaldi alongside Jenna Coleman:


Arriving on set in Cardiff to begin filming, Peter Capaldi said:
Steven Moffat, Lead Writer and Executive Producer, added:
Ben Stephenson, Controller of Drama Commissioning, said:
Charlotte Moore, Controller BBC One, commented:

Moffat has written the first episode of this series, which is directed by Ben Wheatley. Wheatley is a newcomer to Doctor Who, but his previous work includes The Wrong Door and Ideal. The director will also undertake the following episode, which has been written by Phil Ford, whose previous credits include The Waters of Mars for Doctor Who, as well as several episodes of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Other confirmed production crew include Brian Minchin (The Time of The Doctor) as executive producer alongside Moffat, and the return of producers Nikki Wilson (The Waters of Mars, The Sarah Jane Adventures) and Peter Bennett (several episodes from Series 5 and also Torchwood: Children of Earth).

Filming is expected to continue until August 2014.

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As reported above, filming has commenced on location in Cardiff, which revealed other characters involved with the opening episode.

A video of part of the guest panel session from the BFI's final event of its Doctor Who At 50 season was uploaded to the organisation's YouTube channel today.

Held on Sunday 8th December to mark the Matt Smith era, it featured big-screen showings of The Eleventh Hour and The Name of the Doctor followed by an on-stage interview with Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Saul Metzstein, and Dan Starkey, conducted by season co-curator Justin Johnson.

The 12-minute extract from the discussion can be seen below:

Doctor Who has made two of the categories in the shortlist for this year's National Television Awards. The show itself is one of four nominees in the Drama section, finding itself competing with Broadchurch, Downton Abbey, and Call The Midwife, while Matt Smith as the Doctor is nominated for Drama Performance.

In a change to the system this year, male and female actors were combined for Drama Performance, and although Jenna Coleman was included in the longlist she failed to make the shortlist. Smith will be facing challenges from Martin Clunes (as Dr Martin Ellingham in Doc Martin), Maggie Smith (as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey), and Miranda Hart (as Chummy Noakes in Call The Midwife) for the gong.

Other Doctor Who luminaries in the running for awards are as follows:

TV Detectives - David Tennant (Det Insp Alec Hardy in Broadchurch), Olivia Colman (Det Sgt Ellie Miller in Broadchurch), Suranne Jones (Det Con Rachel Bailey in Scott & Bailey), and Bradley Walsh (Det Sgt Ronnie Brooks in Law and Order: UK) against Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock) and Idris Elba (Det Chief Insp John Luther in Luther).

Daytime - Pointless (presented by Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman) as well as The Chase (hosted by Bradley Walsh) against This Morning and The Jeremy Kyle Show.

Documentary - Penguins - Spy In The Huddle, narrated by David Tennant, and Paul O'Grady's Working Britain against Inside Death Row With Trevor McDonald and Educating Yorkshire.

Votes can be cast by the public until midday on Wednesday 22nd January via this link. There are 13 categories in all and categories can be skipped. The awards ceremony will take place at the 02 in London later the same day, being broadcast live on ITV from 7.30pm.

Doctor Who failed to win any awards last year, in spite of nominations for the programme, Smith, and Karen Gillan.