The actor Barry Jackson has died at the age of 75.

Jackson played three roles in Doctor Who, appearing in six episodes of the series. In 1965 he played Ascaris in the William Hartnell story The Romans, a mute assassin who tried to kill the Doctor believing he was the lute player Maximus Pettulian. He returned to the series in Mission to the Unknown where he played Jeff Garvey, a member of the expedition to the planet Kembel.

His final appearance in the series was as Drax - a renegade Time Lord and previous friend of the Doctor on Gallifrey - in the 1979 story The Armageddon Factor.

Away from Doctor Who, Jackson was best known for playing pathologist Dr George Bullard in Midsomer Murders for more than 10 years. He appeared in the first episode of the detective drama, staying until 2011.

His long career on television began in 1960, with the role of the Earl of Surrey in the BBC series An Age of Kings. Countless roles followed in other shows, including Doctors, Heartbeat, The Bill, A Touch of Frost, Bernard's Watch, Three Seven Eleven, All Creatures Great and Small, Hard Cases, Coronation Street, The Onedin Line, Blake's 7, Crown Court, Secret Army, Poldark, Z Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, The Adventures of Black Beauty, Harriet's Back in Town, Spy Trap, Adam Adamant Lives! and A for Andromeda.

Films that he appeared in included Ryan's Daughter and Barry Lyndon.

Jackson's agent said the actor died at home in north London surrounded by his family.

Full UK ratings are now available for the week of programmes leading up to the 50th Anniversary of the Doctor Who.

The final consolidated ratings include those who watch the programme within one week of transmission. iPlayer figures are also available where available.

The 50th anniversary episode Day of the Doctor, has set a new iPlayer record for getting the most requests in 24 hours, 1.27m which beats the previous high held by the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. It is also 2013's most-watched drama and the most tweeted-about drama, generating 442,692 tweets.

The fifty year old repeat of An Unearthly Child gained impressive ratings for BBC Four, four times the average for the time slot and making Doctor Who the 4th, 6th and 8th highest rated programmes on the network for the week. All episodes had an excellent Appreciation Index score.

Date	Time	Network	Programme	Final Rating	Share	iPlayer	Appreciation Index
Thursday 14th	21:00		The Science of Doctor Who	3.19 Million	13.3%	0.62 Million	85
			The Night of the Doctor	0.89 Million		0.60 Million
Monday 18th	20:03		The Ultimate Guide to Doctor Who	0.78 Million	2.8%	0.69 Million	86
Tuesday 19th	00:39		The Ultimate Guide to Doctor Who (R)	0.34 Million	11.4%	--
Thursday 21st	21:02		An Adventure in Space and Time	2.71 Million	10.8%	0.52 Million	88
Thursday 21st	22:31		An Unearthly Child	0.83 Million	4.7%	N/A	85
Thursday 21st	22:55		The Cave of Skulls	0.71 Million	5.3%	N/A	86
Thursday 21st	23:20		The Forest of Fear	0.52 Million	5.1%	N/A	86
Thursday 21st	23:44		The Firemaker	0.46 Million	6.0%	N/A	87
Friday 22nd	19:02		The Ultimate Guide to Doctor Who (R)	0.59 Million	2.5%	--	87
Friday 22nd	21:31		Me, You and Doctor Who	0.99 Million	4.1%	0.05 Million	85
Saturday 23rd	19.50		Day of the Doctor	12.80 Million	40.9%	2.81 Million	88
Saturday 23rd	21.07		Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty	1.58 Million	5.6%	0.14 Million	69
			Behind The Lens	0.10 Million		--
			The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot	0.49 Million		0.61 Million
Saturday 23rd	22:09		The Ultimate Guide to Doctor Who (R)	0.83 Million	4.8%	--	85
Sunday 24th	19.12		Day of the Doctor (R)	0.68 Million	2.5%	--	92
Sunday 24th	20:31		Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty (R)	0.27 Million	0.9%	--	74

The BFI has released an excerpt from the panel session that it recorded at last month's preview screening of An Adventure In Space and Time.

Director Terry McDonough, actors Sacha Dhawan and David Bradley, William Hartnell's granddaughter and biographer Jessica Carney, and the BBC Two drama's writer Mark Gatiss were the special guests discussing the production with journalist Matthew Sweet - who donned a Menoptra outfit for the drama - following its world première on Tuesday 12th November.

Although not available on the BFI's YouTube channel as yet, the ten-minute extract can be viewed on the organisation's video page.

UPDATE - TUESDAY 10th DECEMBER: The excerpt has now been uploaded to the BFI's YouTube channel:

SPACE is the latest channel to confirm a transmission time for The Time of the Doctor, which will premiere in Canada on Christmas Day at 8:00pm (EST).

Other programming for SPACE in the run-up to the festive adventure includes a marathon run of the Christmas specials from 6:00pm on Christmas Eve, plus another chance to see An Adventure in Space and Time; then from 10:00am on Christmas Day itself the channel repeats the 50th Anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor.


The worldwide transmission time for The Time of the Doctor currently looks as follows: United Kingdom at 7:30pm GMT; Germany at 9:35pm CET (8:35pm GMT); Canada at 8:00pm EST (1:00am GMT); USA at 9:00pm EST (2:00am GMT); and Australia on Boxing Day at 7:30pm AEST (9:30am GMT).

ABC Australia have confirmed the christmas episode of Doctor Who, The Time of the Doctor, will be broadcast on ABC1, on Boxing Day, 26th December at 7.30pm

The episode, which sees Matt Smith leave the role of The Doctor, will be broadcast less than 24 hours after the UK showing.

Times have also been confirmed for the Christmas Day showings in the UK (7.30pm), the USA (9pm ET) and Germany (9.35pm CET)

The BBC and BBC America have released some posters to promote The Time of the Doctor.

The BBC have released some publicity images to promote this year's Christmas special, The Time and The Doctor, featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor, with Jenna Coleman as Clara.


A further set of images will be published on Saturday.

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The evening line-up for British television on Christmas Day shows that this year Doctor Who is up against its old adversary, Coronation Street, also on between 7:30pm and 8:30pm on ITV. Other programming on the main channels include The Two Ronnies 1987 Christmas Special on BBC2, the film Home Alone 2 on Channel 4, and a repeat of The Greatest Ever Christmas Movies on Channel 5. The BBC/ITV 'battle' then continues with Eastenders (8:30pm) and Mrs Brown's Boys (9:30pm) up against Downton Abbey.

In case you need something to watch as your Christmas lunch settles, BBC2 will be repeating this year's Doctor Who at the Prom at 3:15pm, and the anniversary drama An Adventure in Space and Time at 4:30pm.

The new edition of paper-and-ink pocket-sized fanzine Panic Moon is now available - and is the publication's biggest offering to date.

Issue 8 of the A6 monochrome magazine comprises 44 pages, with writers including Toby Hadoke plus original artwork.

It welcomes the casting of Peter Capaldi and reviews The Day of the Doctor, An Adventure in Space and Time, the "missing-no-more" stories The Web of Fear and The Enemy of the World, plus all of Series 7's episodes, prequels, and minisodes.

The magazine also considers race in Doctor Who, looks at the latest redesigns of the Cybermen, Ice Warriors, and TARDIS console, pays tribute to Dalek designer Raymond Cusick, and revisits An Unearthly Child from three different perspectives.

To order it, visit the fanzine's website.

The BBC have released a short video featuring Eighth Doctor Paul McGann talking about his role in The Night of the Doctor.



McGann will appear in An Evening With Paul McGann at the Ritz Cinema in Lincoln on Friday 20th December.

The charity fundraising event in aid of the Ritz Regeneration fund will see the actor take part in an evening of Q&A. The evening will finish with a screening of the cult classic Withnail & I, co-starring Richard E Grant.

The special guests for the BFI's final event in its Doctor Who At 50 season were announced today.

Taking place on Sunday 8th December and starting at 3.45pm, it will feature big-screen showings of
The Eleventh Hour and The Name of the Doctor, celebrating the current Doctor's era of the show as it approaches its end.

These will be followed by showrunner Steven Moffat, director Saul Metzstein, and actor Dan Starkey taking to the stage for the question-and-answer session.

Although a sell-out, stand-bys and returns are possible, so keep checking with the BFI.

Curated by Dick Fiddy and Justin Johnson, the year-long season has been phenomenally popular and has scored some impressive successes, including the first public showing of the colour-restored Third Doctor adventure The Mind of Evil, as well as the world première of the drama An Adventure In Space and Time.

UPDATE - MONDAY 9th DECEMBER: Mark Gatiss was a subsequent addition to the guest panel line-up, although this was not made public.