David Tennant is to return to the
Royal Shakespeare Company in October; the actor will play the title role in
Richard II at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon in a production helmed by his former
Hamlet director,
Gregory Doran, and will be joined by another
Hamlet compatriot
Oliver Ford Davies. An
interview with Tennant on the role can be watched via the RSC. Priority Booking opens on 11th February for the five week production which runs from 10th October to 16th November, with public tickets available from the 18th March.
The BBC have
released the warm-up video for
Matt Smith's appearance on
Top Gear as
the Star in a reasonably priced car last year, during which he engages in a rendition of
Singing In The Rain!
'River Song' is to meet 'Captain Jack' as
Alex Kingston is to be a guest star on
CW series
Arrow, which also features
John Barrowman as a guest character. The actress is to play Dinah Lance, the separated wife of police sergeant Quentin Lance and mother of Laurel.
[Entertainment Weekly, 22 Jan 2013]Bernard Cribbins spoke about the way children's television has developed over the years:
"It's all very fast and noisy now I think. You think of the gentleness of Jackanory, somebody would walk onto the set, sit down and say 'hello I'm going to tell you about Ratty and Mole and the Wind in the Willows' and off you went. Nice and gentle, and the only thing you saw, apart from the guy or lady talking to you, was a few captions and illustrations, which were stills. That was how it used to be. Pure, simple storytelling. Now there seems to be - sometimes, not always - a tendency to use every single opportunity to put in CGI and animation and a lot of it is, I think, gratuitous when the story is actually doing the work for you." [BBC News, 19 Jan 2013]Talking about her role as Larissa Loughton in
The Carrie Diaries - and more importantly her fashion sense -
Freema Agyeman said:
"I always look forward to my costume fittings because I walk in and I can instantly tell which rail is mine, because they have the brightest shiniest outfits that make me smile because they are so outrageous and so wacky but beautifully put together. I think they look like pieces of art." [Celebuzz, 23 Jan 2013]Brian Cox has been re-elected as the University of Dundee's rector, serving students' interests. He said:
"It is such a privilege and honour to be allowed to serve the students of Dundee for another three years. I hope to reciprocate in my heart the tremendous trust you have given me." [BBC News, 18 Jan 2013]Adam Woodyatt spoke about his interest in appearing in
Doctor Who:
"I want to be an alien, heavily made up so people wouldn't be able to tell it was me. I think everyone of my generation would like to do Doctor Who because we all have something significant from the show that we remember from childhood. For me it was Jon Pertwee, the Brigadier and these giant maggoty slug things. I have this memory of watching it when I was off school ill. So it must have been repeated in the daytime. Or maybe it was the school holidays. I do like the new series as well, though - I enjoyed the Christmas special and I think Matt Smith is brilliant." [Radio Times via RTE, 18 Jan 2013]Neil Gaiman, a patron of the
Bookend Trust (a Tasmanian education charity) visited Dunalley Primary School, which was unfortunately destroyed during recent wildfires that rampaged across the island.
Niall Doran, director of the Trust, told us:
Neil took part in a fundraising concert on Monday night, but he, Bookend and his publishers (
Hachette Australia and
Bloomsbury) also arranged for a special donation to the new school library consisting of a full set of Neil's children's books and a wider selection of the publishers' other children's titles. In addition, they have also kindly provided a selection of Neil's adult books and titles from other authors that can be distributed to the wider community and/or used for fundraising.
Neil visited the school site for a tour of the damage and the reconstruction. Also there to show their support were
Polly Adams (daughter of the late, great
Douglas Adams) and the 2012 & 2013 Tasmanians of the Year:
Robert Pennicott and
Andrew Hughes. The Bookend Trust chartered a seaplane from Tasmanian Air Adventures in order to be able to get Neil back to Hobart in time for media interviews and sound-checks before the MONA fundraising concert for the bushfires. Neil spoke on Australian national radio to publicise the visit and the concert, and also talked about his upcoming Cyberman episode.
Photos of the visit can be seen at the Bookend Trust Facebook site. 
The 50th Anniversary season of classic Doctor Who stories on UKTV in Australia and New Zealand continues with The War Machines. 
The four-part story is broadcast on Sunday 27th January at 4:15pm (New Zealand) and 4:30pm (Australia). New Zealand has another screening for The War Machines on Monday 28th January at 4:00am.
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