BBC Television Centre in London will remain a key broadcasting centre under a deal signed by the Corporation today.

The future of the iconic building had been in jeopardy ever since the BBC announced it was selling the Centre as part of its plans to reduce its property holdings by 30%. Television Centre was built towards the end of the Fifties as the BBC's first purpose-built television complex and was where some of the most recognised and respected British television programmes were made. It was the home of Doctor Who throughout the '70s and '80s when every single studio-based story, bar one, was shot at the Centre.

The BBC today completed the sale of the Centre for £200m to Stanhope Plc, a development company based in London and the south-east. The company has over 30 years' experience as developer, development partner and development manager. During this time it has been wholly or jointly responsible for the delivery of commercial projects in excess of £10bn of commercial value. Recent projects include Central Saint Giles, 23 Savile Row and AirW1, as well as headquarter offices for NM Rothschild and Unilever.

Following redevelopment the BBC's commercial arms BBC Studios and Post Production and BBC Worldwide will lease refurbished office and entertainment space in the completed scheme. The listed elements of Television Centre will be retained and enhanced, including the instantly recognisable exterior view, and some studios, including Studio 1, will be available for hire as television production facilities.

The rest of the site will be developed to include a mix of uses including leisure, office and residential. BBC Chief Operating Officer Caroline Thomson, who oversaw the sale, said: David Camp, chief executive of Stanhope Plc, said: 

Today saw the official opening of the Doctor Who Experience to the public take place at its new home in Cardiff Bay.

A special ceremony marked the event, with a young visitor dressed as the Eleventh Doctor (complete with fez) given the honour of cutting the ribbon to open the Experience, and a Dalek, Cybermen, Silent and Silurian were on hand to greet visitors and pose for photos.

You can read our full review of the opening and the Experience here.

As the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who approaches, the first indication of special programmes to celebrate the milestone has surfaced with a recent advertisement by BBC Careers for a new producer, stating that a "passion for drama and a knowledge of Doctor Who is essential," and that the applicant should preferably have knowledge of period drama.

The role is for a single drama on BBC Two, with the producer based at the new Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff Bay for a five-month term. Full details of the position included the following:
No other details of the post are known at present, but "docudramas" following iconic careers and film/TV developments have become common in recent years. The possibility of Doctor Who becoming such a subject was broached on The Graham Norton Show back on 11th February, when actor/writer Mark Gatiss was asked if he was involved in such a project - to which he avoided a direct answer to the question and said "I'm writing on the back of my hand, now, what a good idea that would be!" Gatiss previously contributed to 1999's Doctor Who Night on BBC2, including a spoof documentary on commissioning the series, The Pitch of Fear.

Applications for the role closed on Wednesday.

This past weekend at the San Diego Comic-Con two Doctor Who panel discussions proved to be immensely popular.
The first occurred Saturday night at the Nerd HQ event hosted by actor Zachary Levi. Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Arthur Darvill casually talked about their experiences on the show, the upcoming 50th anniversary, and sang an impromptu rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

Matt Smith also spoke of his love for Patrick Troughton, and his dream episode would be to have their respective Doctors meet.

The next day, 6500 fans packed the Inside Doctor Who panel held in Hall H for the opportunity to see Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Steven Moffat, and Caroline Skinner. The moderator for the event was Chris Hardwick of The Nerdist.

Among the subjects discussed was the upcoming season, where clips from Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and A Town Called Mercy were screened.

Of Asylum of the Daleks, Karen Gillan had this to say:

I've never been massively scared of them before...I like them because they're iconic, but they've never scared me before. They did in this episode.

However, the real focus was given to the upcoming departure of Amy and Rory in episode five. But, Matt Smith summed up the series as a whole:

This show isn't about us. The show is the star. Each week it can be anything...The heartbeat of the show is in the quality of the writing.

The Q & A portion yielded interesting information. As for a multi-Doctor episode, Moffat said he flat out wasn't going to tell the crowd. But, when asked the answer to the the Doctor's name he replied:

It's been there from the start. He never gives his name...It's a tremendously important question. But I know why, and you will find out the truth.

For further info on the panels please visit BBC America, Radio Times, Examiner.com, and Screen Crave.

Bert and Dickie - the 1948 Olympic rowing drama starring Matt Smith - is to be broadcast on BBC One on Wednesday 25th July at 8.30pm.

Written by William Ivory and directed by David Blair, the 90-minute production, filmed last August, tells the true story of chalk-and-cheese scullers Bert Bushnell, played by Smith, and Dickie Burnell (Sam Hoare), who were paired to row for Great Britain in the double sculls event a matter of weeks before the 1948 Games in London and won gold.

Also appearing in the drama are Geoffrey Palmer, Alexandra Moen, Clive Merrison, Ron Cook, and Graham Padden.

The BBC has released a series of pictures from the production. Click on the images below to enlarge them.

Doctor Who has helped BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm, increase its profits by 8% to £155m for the financial year 2011/2012.

The company exists to exploit the BBC's commercial assets, raising money which can be returned to the Corporation for reinvestment in programmes. In the Annual Report published on Monday, Doctor Who features heavily and makes a major contribution to the £216 million returned to the BBC, a rise of 19% in the figure for the previous year.

Doctor Who and Torchwood were both listed in the report as one of the top-selling brands, achieving success in in over 100 markets. Other top sellers were Top Gear, Frozen Planet, Spooks, Sherlock, Planet Earth, and Natural World.

Doctor Who also helped BBC America achieve its highest ratings ever, up 23% for daytime viewing on the previous financial year with monthly reach averaging 24m, up 10% on last year's 22m. Doctor Who Series 6 was BBC America's best series ever, averaging more than 1.2m total viewers per episode.

The best-selling title in the digital market in the USA was Doctor Who Series 6, which was the most-downloaded series on iTunes in the USA in 2011. The annual report also notes that Doctor Who now has around 100 separate licensees across a wide range of product categories, and was the fourth biggest licence in the market for boys aged 5-14. In addition The Doctor Who Annual was by far the best seller in the children's books section.

BBC Worldwide has significantly increased the number of live events it produces, both in the UK and overseas. The Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular debuted to sold-out houses in Melbourne and will tour globally in the year ahead.

The interactive Doctor Who Experience was seen by almost a quarter of a million visitors in London, and is due to open in Cardiff Bay this coming Friday. Three thousand fans attended the first Official Doctor Who Convention in Cardiff over two days in March.

Overall, BBC Worldwide achieved:

• £1,085m worth of sales
• 356m subscribers to its channels
• 31m programmes downloaded
• 25m apps downloaded
• 23m Facebook fans
• 10m live events attendees.

More episode titles for the forthcoming new series of Doctor Who have been officially revealed.

Said to be needing one of the largest sets to date, the second episode is called Dinosaurs On A Spaceship, while the Western-themed episode three, which was shot on location in Spain, has been confirmed as A Town Called Mercy.

Meanwhile, at the San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, it was also announced that episode four is called Cubed.

Dinosaurs On A Spaceship has been written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Saul Metzstein. It co-stars Mark Williams as Rory's dad, Brian, and Rupert Graves. A Town Called Mercy, co-starring Adrian Scarborough and Ben Browder, has been written by Toby Whithouse and again directed by Saul Metzstein.

Showrunner Steven Moffat said: Cubed, which has also been written by Chris Chibnall, is being directed by Douglas Mackinnon. Principal photography on it has now been completed.

The title of the first episode of Series 7 was revealed last month to be Asylum of the Daleks.

The show returns later this year with a run of five episodes followed by the Christmas special and a further eight episodes in 2013. Asylum of the Daleks is to be premiered at the BFI in London on Tuesday 14th August. It will also be shown during the Edinburgh International Television Festival, which runs from 23rd to 25th August.

The second part of the fan-made reimagining of Power of the Daleks went online this evening.

Directed by Nick Scovell, who also plays the Doctor, the film is an adaptation of Patrick Troughton's first story and also features Nicholas Briggs, Lisa Bowerman, and Barnaby Edwards in the cast.


The third and final instalment will be webcast at some point in September, and with some post-production work remaining to be done the "movie" is currently being billed as a "work in progress".

However, the completed film will be shown in full and in high definition on the big screen at a charity convention to celebrate its making. Power: Reimagined is being held on Saturday 1st September at Ferneham Hall in Fareham, where the production was partially filmed. The organisers stress that entry tickets pay for the convention, while the screening is free and non-profit-making.

Guests currently scheduled to appear at the event (subject to work commitments) are Christopher Barry, the director of the original six-part story, Anneke Wills, who played companion Polly in the TV version, Michael Troughton, who has written a biography about his father, Nicholas Briggs, Barnaby Edwards, and the Doctor Who Restoration Team. Also taking place will be photo and autograph sessions. Props from the remake will be on display too, and money raised by the event will go to Children In Need and Cancer Research UK.

Produced by Rob Thrush, the film has been made by the Doctor Who enthusiasts behind the highly successful Portsmouth stage productions of The Web of Fear, Fury From The Deep, The Evil of the Daleks, and The Dalek Masterplan (the latter renamed from the original), with support from TNT Films and music by Martin Johnson. Although the full version cannot be sold for legal reasons, the film's makers say that it might be uploaded to its YouTube channel at some point.

The Power of the Daleks Facebook page has more details about the film project, with discussions on the Facebook group.

Paul McGann will be attending the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, where he will be narrating Frank Hurley's documentary South on 14th July - the actor will be reading Ernest Shackleton's letters over the footage of his expedition to Antartica, accompanied by a musical score by Stephen Horne. The festival takes place between 12-15th July. [SFGate, 4 Jul 2012]

Karen Gillan is to star in the horror film Oculus in which she will play a woman who believes a haunted antique mirror was responsible for the death of her parents ten years earlier. The film is to be made in Alabama this autumn. [Deadline, 12 Jul 2012]

Broadcast's Hot 100 list this year includes writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, director James Hawes, and also Doctor Who/Torchwood guest stars Ruth Jones, Olivia Colman and Reggie Yates. Editor Lisa Campbell said: "Broadcast's Hot 100 reveals the leading lights in the worlds of TV, radio and multiplatform." [Broadcast, 5 Jul 2012]

John Barrowman has helped launch a new campaign by the Kaleidoscope Trust, which aims to draw attention to the human rights of people regardless of sexual orientation in places where it can be a crime. The Blue Eyed Freak campaign video highlights the injustice demonstrating the ridiculousness of social prejudice. [Kaleidoscope Trust, 3 Jul 2012]

The actor is also supporting the National Lottery Awards, an annual search to find the UK's favourite Lottery-funded projects: "So many lives are being changed by the unsung heroes working with National Lottery funding. The National Lottery Awards pay tribute to their selfless dedication. National Lottery players raise a massive £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. They should be proud that they are helping arts, sport, heritage and community groups near them. Now is the chance for everyone to vote for their local project so it gets national recognition." [Press Association, 10 Jul 2012]

PetNet have launched their publicly voted Celebrity Pet Owner Of The Year Awards, and its first Celebrity Dog Owner was well known canine lover Barrowman: "I'm delighted to receive this Award. My dogs play such an important role in my life and I am proud to promote responsible ownership. I will be donating my prize money to Dogs Trust. As their patron, I understand how incredibly hard they work to find new homes for stray and abandoned dogs." [PetNet, 9 Jul 2012]

Colin Baker reflected on recent comments he made about not wanting to be involved with a 50th Anniversary special: "I said it purely to irritate. ’Cos they’d all said: 'yeah yeah, I'd be interested' so to provoke a reaction I said: 'I wouldn't'. And nobody took me up on it! I thought they'd ask me why and I'd say: 'Well I might if they were nice to me', but I never got the opportunity. So it was a gag that fell like a lead lump and didn't go any further!". On an actual likelihood: "Do you know, it's not going to happen. They don't need us – the programme is doing extremely well without us. I suppose they could. And in theory, I'm neither for nor against it. There would be two big questions I would ask: The first is, is my Doctor going to get a fair crack of the whip in the story, and not be eclipsed by anybody else? Because you want parity. And the other one is, what vast fortune are you offering me? I'd be quite brutal about myself and say, if they offered me a million quid, I'd go on and say one line for them. If they offered me a tenner, I wouldn't." [Cambridge News, 6 Jul 2012]

Sue Perkins talks about childhood favourites: "Doctor Who. I'd scream and scream in terror at the brain of Morbius and Davros and all the other baddies, but I was compelled." [Radio Times, 14-20 Jul 2012]

Big Finish is to make a second series of Doctor Who audio spin-off Counter-Measures, it has announced.

The first series of four dramas is now available on CD and download and sees Simon Williams as Group Captain Gilmore, Pamela Salem as Rachel Jensen, and Karen Gledhill as Allison Williams reprising their roles from Remembrance of the Daleks. They are joined by Hugh Ross as Toby Kinsella.

Counter-Measures is set in 1964 and centres on the titular specialist organisation that is charged with investigating strange phenomena and dangerous new science.

The hour-long episodes have been written by Paul Finch, Matt Fitton, Ian Potter, and Justin Richards. The series is produced by David Richardson, script-edited by John Dorney, and directed by Ken Bentley.

The five-disc box set also includes an hour-long documentary that goes behind the scenes with the cast and crew.

Richardson said: Series 2 - again comprising four episodes - will be released in July 2013 and is available for pre-order at a discount price.