The fort that was used in the filming of The Sea Devils is up for sale.

A report in today's edition of Portsmouth daily paper The News says No Man's Land Fort - built in the 1860s as a sea defence against a feared invasion by the French that never happened - is on the market after the collapse of a commercial property finance business and the jailing of its boss.

The exterior of the construction - which is in the Solent, off the south coast of England - doubled as an abandoned sea fort when theDoctor Who crew went to Portsmouth in October 1971 for extensive location filming on the Jon Pertwee six-parter.

Now converted into a hotel plus events and hospitality venue, it is reported to be worth millions, and administrator KPMG says it is open to offers.

The entertainment section of today's edition of the Toronto Star features a full page interview with Freema Agyeman. In the interview, Agyeman discusses how she got the part and what effect being in Doctor Who has had. We also learn about jobs she has held as well as some of her favourite television series.

The full interview can be read on the Star's website.

A second item in today's Toronto Star gives a list of The essential Doctor Who companions.

Star Week, a television listings magazine distributed with the Toronto Star features the episode Gridlock as one of their "Best Bets" for Monday night viewing.

The Daily Mail reports that David Tennant is in negotiation with the Royal Shakespeare Company to take on the role ofHamlet - a role he has said he wishes to play in the past - next summer.

Says journalist Baz Bamigboye: "The plan being developed by RSC artistic chief Michael Boyd is for Mr Tennant to play Hamlet in a production he wants to direct next summer. The exact timing will depend on whether the actor will do a fourth batch of episodes as the Converse All Stars-sporting Doctor. Tennant has been offered several high-profile TV, film and stage parts since his interpretation of Dr Who found so much favour with audiences and critics. Indeed, he recently completed filming a TV movie for HBO called Einstein And Eddington opposite Andy Serkis and Rebecca Hall."

The full article can be read on the Mail's website.

TV GUIDE's website has a few brief clips from up coming episodes of series 3 highlighted under The Future of Sci-Fi Shows and includes a nice photo of Tennant on their home page.

The Australian media continues its coverage of Doctor Who and Torchwood. The Age has reviewed Smith and Jones and describes Torchwood as 'good old-fashion science fiction'. Meanwhile the Sydney Morning Heralddescribes The Shakespeare Code as 'a great story, told with much fun and tongue firmly in cheek.'

The Age also has a feature on the search for the 108 missing episodes of the classic series.

Meanwhile in the Aussie ratings, 'Smith and Jones' scored 928,000 viewers in the 5 major capitals. Meanwhile, Torchwood's 'Day One' scored 895,000 viewers and 'Ghost Machine', up against the Princess Diana tribute concert on a rival network, scored 774,000 viewers. For more details see the Sydney Morning Herald's Tribal Mind.

Doctor Who is cited several times as a prime example of BBC output in the corporation'sannual report, jointly published today by the BBC Trust, the body which oversees the organisation and replaced the defunct Board of Governors of the BBC in January this year, and the BBC Executive, which runs the corporation editorially.

The series is mentioned in the BBC Trust's section of the report as a "genuinely popular success" by Sir Michael Lyons, the Trust's chairman. In the BBC Executive's report, the programme receives numerous mentions - these include praise for being one of the corporation's "most loved dramas" during a section highlighting the work of BBC Wales, which is also commended for the spin-off series Torchwood; the report described BBC Wales as a "world-class production centre".

The section dealing with BBC One's drama output opens with: "It has been a year of drama resurgence on BBC One, starting the year with a new Doctor Who, played brilliantly by David Tennant. The series exceeded all expectations and became a national talking point."

The series is also mentioned for its profitability - "Profits from global TV sales were up 19% to £40.2million, driven particularly by contemporary drama such as Doctor Who."

The report does, however, admit that: "Not everything we try works. The TARDISODES, one-minute Doctor Who episodes via mobile phones and bbc.co.uk, were not the hit we expected although they were popular on broadband."

The BBC have issued an apology for sparking terror fears with an explosion in Cardiff city centre during filming for Torchwood.

The explosion was staged next to the Millennium Stadium in an old courtroom building. Because of the latest terrorist attacks in Glasgow and London, the BBC issued warnings one hour before the blast on local radio and police had issued an alert two hours before the blast was due to go off.

Passers-by were horrified by the explosion which sent a huge pall of smoke over the city centre.

A BBC production member said:

"The filming was planned many weeks ago before the recent terrorist incidents."

"We had informed neighbouring businesses but could not tell everyone who might be in the city centre. We apologise if anyone was frightened."




Full article available at The Sun Online

The American listings magazine TV GUIDE has named its top 30 Cult TV series of all time. Doctor Who comes in at number 22 after Freaks and Geeks and before the original Dark Shadows. For the full list go to
TV GUIDE.

The Mirror this morning reports on some changes in store for the TARDIS crew during the course of next year - if correct the article contains a number of spoilers!

The article also ends with a comment from "Beeb's drama supremo" Jane Tranter: "One thing is certain, Doctor Who will be around on BBC1 for years to come."

Details are below, and you can read the full article at the Mirror's website - do so at your peril!