Producer Phil Collinson and director Joe Ahearne will be joining actor Bruno Langley and visual effects designer Dave Houghton as the special guests for the BFI's screenings marking the Ninth Doctor's era, it was revealed today.

The episodes Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways - which comprised the Series 1 finale and saw Christopher Eccleston bowing out as the Doctor - will be shown on the big screen on Saturday 24th August.

The Ninth Doctor event is the latest in BFI Southbank's Doctor Who At 50 celebratory season and will start at 2pm. Tickets are currently sold out but returns and stand-bys are a possibility.

Radio Times is trying to find the nation's most-loved drama series, with Doctor Who featuring in the final shortlist.

The magazine is celebrating its ninetieth birthday by creating a fantasy TV schedule made up of the most popular TV shows in history. This week, in a poll to find the best drama series, readers are invited to choose their favourite show, the one they would most love to watch on a Saturday night.

The Time Lord faces competition from some of the greats, from Brideshead Revisited to Our Friends in the North, from Cracker to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Classic adaptations are also included, such as Bleak House, Pride and Prejudice and The Jewel in the Crown, as well as the soap operas EastEnders and Coronation Street. Political thrillers are represented in the form of Edge of Darkness and House of Cards, alongside crime dramas such as Prime Suspect, State of Play, Inspector Morse and Life on Mars. All-time classic Upstairs Downstairs is also nominated, with Broadchurch, Downton Abbey and Sherlock representing the recent past.

Voting is via the Radio Times website.

BBC America has announced it will be airing the fourth series of Torchwood on its channel starting in September. This will be the first time Miracle Day has been shown in the US on a basic cable channel. The series originally aired in 2011 on the premium cable channel Starz.

All episodes will broadcast on Saturday at 9pm ET/PT.

Episode 1: The New World - September 14th
Episode 2: Rendition - September 21st
Episode 3: Dead Of Night - September 28th
Episode 4: Escape To LA - October 5th
Episode 5: The Categories Of Life - October 12th
Episode 6: The Middle Men - October 19th
Episode 7: Immortal Sins - October 26th
Episode 8: End Of The Road - November 2nd
Episode 9: The Gathering - November 9th
Episode 10: The Blood Line - November 16th

The seventeenth in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

Production is now well under way on the new science-fiction series, the main actors had been cast and issued with their contracts.

It was clear to the production team that a vital element of the new drama's success would be the title music and special sounds. On Monday 12th August, exactly 50 years ago today, director Waris Hussein contacted the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to discuss the requirements for the first episode of Doctor Who.

The Radiophonic Workshop had been founded in 1958, with a brief to produce effects and new music for radio and television using new techniques available in the new electronic age. It was based in the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in Delaware Road, north-west London.

Verity Lambert had by now abandoned her original idea of asking the French group Les Structures Sonores to provide the title music. A meeting with the head of the Workshop, Desmond Briscoe, had persuaded Lambert that what she needed was "something electronic with a strong beat", something "familiar, but different" - something the Radiophonic Workshop could provide. Lambert was keen to obtain the services of Ron Grainer to write the music.

Grainer was an Australian composer who had been living in London for the past ten years. After working as a pianist in a nightclub, he had achieved some success as a composer, creating the scores for a number of TV series and a couple of features films. In 1961 he had won an Ivor Novello Award for the theme to Maigret, the series based on the books by Georges Simenon. Grainer had already worked with the Radiophone Workshop when creating his score for Giants of Steam, a documentary about railways.

Assigned to create the music would be one of the Radiophonic Workshop's staff, Delia Derbyshire. She had joined the BBC in 1960 working as a radio studio manager before joining the Workshop in 1962. The music she provided to herald the start of each episode of Doctor Who is now regarded as one of the most significant and innovative piece of electronic music ever produced. That it was created in the early Sixties, in the days before multi-track recorders and commercial synthesizers, is truly amazing. Aided by assistant Dick Mills, Derbyshire created each note separately by cutting, splicing, speeding up, and slowing down recordings of a single plucked string, white noise, and the output of test-tone oscillators. The notes were then edited together on quarter-inch tape. Mixing was done by starting several tape machines simultaneously and mixing the outputs together.

Grainer was highly impressed with the final result, famously asking Derbyshire, "Did I write that?" Her reply became equally famous: "Most of it."

Another important element of the show would be the special sounds. In charge for the first episode would be Brian Hodgson, who had joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1962. One of the most important effects that would be needed for the new series would be that of the Doctor's time-and-spaceship dematerialising. The ship had by now been named the TARDIS. Hodgson produced the effect by dragging the key to his mother's back door along the strings of an old, gutted piano. The resulting sound was recorded and electronically processed with echo and reverb. Hodgson would provide most of the special sounds for the series until 1972, creating much of the soundscape of Doctor Who.

While the music was being put together, events around the series were moving on. William Hartnell had attended Television Centre in west London for make-up and costume tests in the first week of August, and Carole Ann Ford would attend the following week. Terry Nation had submitted his scripts for the fourth story of the season and the production team had decided to up the episode count to seven to better serve the story. The story was, however, likely to be moved back to fifth in the season as script editor David Whitaker was keen to include a story where the TARDIS crew get reduced in size. This, however, was dependent on getting a better studio allocation with more up-to-date equipment to help achieve the effects needed for such a story.

The TARDIS console made for the forthcoming drama An Adventure In Space And Time has been installed at the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff.

The replica of the first console - which was originally designed by Peter Brachacki - is on show in the mezzanine section of the attraction throughout the summer. As previously reported, the replica console was first seen earlier this year by Paris Comic-Con attendees.

A time-lapse video of its installation at the Experience has been made available to view.


The 90-minute drama, which has been written by Mark Gatiss, will air on BBC Two later this year after a première at the BFI in London. The dates have yet to be confirmed.

.As previously reported, Splendid Chaps is a year-long performance/podcast project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who hosted by comedian Ben McKenzie (Dungeon Crawl, Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour) and writer John Richards (ABC1 sitcom Outland, Boxcutters podcast).

Described by its creators as part intellectual panel discussion, part nerdy Tonight Show, Splendid Chaps is a combination of analysis, enthusiasm and irreverence. The first episode went to number 1 on the iTunes TV & Film Podcast chart in Australia, and to number 4 in the UK. The podcasts to previous episodes are now available at www.splendidchaps.com or at iTunes.

Tickets are now on sale for their Ninth Doctor show! Their ninth major episode brings the Splendid Chaps finally to new Who, that time when the seemingly impossible happened and the show returned! Russell T Davies reinvented the Doctor by casting renowned TV and film actor Christopher Eccleston, famous for serious roles in dramas like Cracker, Our Friends in the North and Elizabeth. His simultaneously light-hearted and tortured portrayal of a man who has lost everything won over old and new fans alike, though the revelation after the smash success of the first episode that he would only be staying for one year took fans and media by surprise. Despite his short stay in the role, Eccleston defined the new era of Doctor Who and laid the groundwork for the format that persisted ever since.

Just as important to new Who was new companion Rose Tyler, played by pop star turned actor Billie Piper. For some she was a revelation compared to the “scream queens” of the past; but is this a fair assessment? Splendid Chaps take as their theme women in Doctor Who: was having a proactive and near equal status companion for the Doctor really such a radical idea? Has Doctor Who been as terribly sexist as has often been claimed? Are the women in the show as varied and multifaceted as the men? And is the modern series really better in its portrayal of women than the old?

Hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott are joined by a panel including feminist organiser and writer Karen Pickering (Cherchez la Femme), author and podcaster Tansy Rayner Roberts (Galactic Suburbia, Verity!) and more, plus a musical performance, giveaways and excellence!

Space: The Gasometer Hotel, 484 Smith Street, Collingwood (corner of Alexandra Parade)
Time: Sunday 15 September; recording starts 5 PM
Accessibility: Splendid Chaps regret that this venue is not wheelchair accessible.
Tickets: $15 (plus booking fee where applicable)
Bookings: via trybooking.com or at the door (subject to availability)
Podcast: not yet available; released 23 September 2013.

Kristopher Kum 1929 - 2013

The actor Kristopher Kum has died at the age of 84.

Kristopher Kum played Fu Peng, the Chinese delegate to the World Peace Conference, in the 1971 Doctor Who story The Mind of Evil.

Kum was not the original actor cast for Fu Peng, but stepped in after the original actor was dropped from the role. He ran Oriental Casting, a talent agency for actors of Southeast Asian descent. He appeared in many UK dramas including Rockliffe's Babies, Edge of Darkness, Tenko, The Professionals and Crossroads.

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Michael Goldie d 2013

The actor Michael Goldie has died.

Michael Goldie played Jack Craddock in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Craddock was imprisoned by Daleks, along with Ian Chesterton and the Doctor. He was converted into a Roboman. Goldie returned to Doctor Who in 1969 playing Elton Laleham, a member of the staff of Space Station W3, in The Wheel in Space.

He appeared in many TV roles including Coronation Street, Wycliffe, Inspector Morse and Z-Cars. His best known role though was in the 1991 feature film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in which he played Kenneth of Cowfell.

Global ratings are now available for last weekend’s broadcast of Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor, with the BBC estimating over 1.5 million fans around the world joined the 6.2 million who watched the show in the United Kingdom.

In the United States, BBC America reported 895,000 total viewers for the show which was broadcast at 2pm Eastern Time. This made it the best telecast ever outside of primetime among the 25-54 demographic, and it was only beaten by The Royal Wedding as the best non-prime telecast ever on the channel.

According to Trendrr.TV the 30-minute TV event was the most talked about TV show, apart from sport, on social media in the US, beating the likes of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never on MTV and Keeping Up With The Kardashians on E. On Tumblr, there were 11.84 million views of the Official US Doctor Who Tumblr since the show’s announcement, and fans created 3 million Doctor Who-related reblogs on the day of the show. Twitter activity around the special was double the sci-fi series’ season average for BBC America and at the peak of the activity, six out of the ten trending topics in the US were related to the announcement. Doctor Who continues to be the highest rating programme on the network.

In Canada the show was broadcast on SPACE, which reported 412,000 viewers at its peak for the special, making it the number one network for the key 18-54 demographic during that time.

While in Australia, 40,000 sacrificed sleep to tune into the live broadcast at 4am ET with a total of 200,000 watching the show or its repeat on ABC2. An additional 41,000 have so far watched the programme on iview, ABC’s catch up service.

BBC Worldwide ANZ have announced a partnership with television network ABC to open a special Commemorative Exhibition at the ABC Ultimo Centre in Sydney, Australia. The free exhibition opens on Thursday 15th August until Friday 31st January 2014 (see below for opening times), and will have a variety of props on display from the series, including the Tenth Doctor’s costume and Astrid's costume from Voyage of the Damned (as played by national superstar Kylie Minogue), plus the Fourth Doctor's scarf, an original Dalek, an iconic TARDIS, Ood head, and Cybermat amongst the many other exhibits.

Jon Penn, Managing Director, BBC Worldwide ANZ, said:
Mark Scott, ABC's Managing Director, said:

A wide variety of merchandise including exclusive souvenirs and collectables will be available from the ABC Shops and online.