Murray Gold will be one of the speakers at a series of events being organised by BAFTA and the Royal Albert Hall, entitled Conversations with Screen Composers. The Doctor Who composer will be appearing at the Hall's Elgar Room on Wednesday 11th July to discuss the development of creative ideas for his music. Other speakers in the series are Rachel Portman and James Hannigan. [Royal Albert Hall, 21 Mar 2012]

John Barrowman will be appearing as a Spotlight Guest at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2), which takes place at McCormick Place, Chicago, from 13th-15th April. Organiser Lance Fensterman said: "We're very excited to welcome John Barrowman this year to C2E2. Doctor Who has grown into a global phenomenon, and John Barrowman is an actor with a following on both sides of the Atlantic. There's tremendous excitement from the fanboys and fangirls within C2E2's own office, and we know our audience in Chicago will be overjoyed to meet him." [Comic Book Resources, 21 Mar 2012]

Barrowman has also donated some of his clothes to the Dogs Trust: "It's no secret to anyone who knows me that two of my favourite things are shopping and supporting Dogs Trust. After a recent spring-cleaning, I donated lots of stuff to the new Cowbridge shop, including posters, watches and boxes of clothing. I hope you'll pay a visit and share in my favourite things." [Ecorazzi, 26 Mar 2012]

Billie Piper visited a family in Norfolk as part of the BBC's Sport Relief in order to speak to a mother and three daughters who had just lost their father. Her Doctor Who co-star David Tennant also contributed to the cause, being one of the celebrity faces to run the Sport Relief Mile on Sunday. You can still donate to the causes through the Sport Relief website.

Tennant has also revealed that he has adopted wife Georgia Moffett's first child, Tyler: "My baby is almost a year old now and I adopted my wife's boy last year as well so I became a father twice within six months - that's got to be something of a record hasn't it?" [Absolute Radio, 21 Mar 2012]

Tennant and John Simm are among the famous names and faces contributing to the Sky Arts 2 documentary Discovering Hamlet, which is scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday 15th April at 9.40pm. Tennant will also be seen on Sky Arts 1 three days earlier - Thursday 12th April - playing an artist called Will in the drama The Minor Character, which airs at 9pm. Meanwhile, Tennant is back doing the voiceover for the spoof documentary Twenty Twelve, the second series of which starts on BBC Two tomorrow at 10pm and co-stars Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynes, and Olivia Colman.

Mark Gatiss can be seen in conversation with Mark Lawson on BBC Four on Tuesday 3rd April at 10.50pm. The hour-long interview will be available via the BBC iPlayer for seven days afterwards.

Louise Jameson appears in an episode of daytime drama Doctors on BBC One on Wednesday 4th April at 1.45pm. She plays "other woman" Shirley Carter who schemes with her lover's wife to take revenge on the man in their lives when they discover that he has been cheating on both of them. It will be available via the BBC iPlayer for seven days afterwards.

Richard Curtis is returning to the theme of time travel for one of his latest film scripts, which he will also direct. About Time is billed as a low-budget dramedy. Zooey Deschanel, who played Trillian in the 2005 film version of Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, is reportedly in talks to star in the Working Title production. [Variety, 27 Mar 2012]

Radio Times has published an online interview with Anneke Wills in which the actress who played companion Polly tells of a spooky coincidence involving companion actress-in-waiting Jenna-Louise Coleman. As well as reminiscing about life aboard the TARDIS and meeting Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy and David Tennant, Wills also talks candidly about her marriage to Michael Gough. [Radio Times, 22 Mar 2012]

Back in November we reported on the advertisement for a new BBC Worldwide Marketing Director for Consumer Products; the person hired for the position has now been revealed to be Rob Lowe, currently marketer for games company Nintendo. His responsibilities will include developing the commercial potential of Doctor Who among other series. [Marketing Week, 26 Mar 2012]

The stars of Doctor Who took time out of their busy schedule to talk to a number of Doctor Who news sites, including Doctor Who News, at the Official Doctor Who Convention which took place in Cardiff last weekend.

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill joined Executive Producers Steven Moffat and Caroline Skinner to answer questions on the future of Doctor Who and the departure of Amy and Rory, as well as their thoughts on the convention and the fans' reaction to the series.

Daleks will be invading navy-related museums in England over the next few months.

The Dalek Invasion of Portsmouth on Sunday 6th May will see an army of Daleks built by enthusiasts descend on the Royal Marines Museum in Portsmouth. Museum spokeswoman Clare Chapman told Doctor Who News that the idea for it came following the success of similar events held in previous years at partner establishment the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton (pictured right).

Special guest appearances - yet to be confirmed - will also be made at the Portsmouth event, and there will be photo opportunities with the Daleks. In addition, traders will be in attendance and a Dalek hunt will be held around the museum, while a fancy-dress competition will see prizes given to children who have the best sci-fi outfits.

The Fleet Air Arm Museum will be hosting its own Dalek Invasion over the weekend of 18th and 19th August. As well as a host of Daleks, visitors will also get to see Davros, Miss Hartigan, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, a Pig Slave, and a Screaming Angel among the attractions. In addition, a short play called The Master Strikes Back will be staged and a "Doctors versus Daleks" quiz will be held. Traders and celebrities are also promised.

A "March of the Daleks" will take place at the end of each day, with the Dalek army and "friends" parading through the Fleet Air Arm Museum and assembling under its Concorde for a huge photo opportunity.

MARCH 1962: Is there merit in science-fiction on TV?

Every fan knows that Doctor Who began on 23rd November 1963, but the first tentative steps that led to the launch of what would become the world's longest-running and most successful science-fiction series in television history took place 20 months earlier, in Spring 1962 - 50 years ago.

As we head towards the 50th anniversary of the first broadcast of the show's first episode, An Unearthly Child, Doctor Who News is proud to present this occasional series that will go back in time to celebrate and mark the golden milestones in the creation of a true TV legend.


The BBC of the early Sixties was a very different organisation to the global multi-media corporation that exists today. The British Broadcasting Company was founded in 1922 by a group of six electronics companies that needed to make radio programmes to provide content for the sets they were trying to sell. By 1927, a Royal Charter was granted, the Company had become a Corporation, and had developed into the world's largest public-service broadcaster. By 1962, radio was still considered to be a more important service than television, with the BBC broadcasting three national networks: the Home Service, the Light Programme, and the Third Programme.

Television tests had begun as early as 1929, with the world's first regular high-definition service launching on 2nd November 1936. After a break because of World War II, transmissions resumed in 1946. The BBC had exclusive use of the airwaves until 1955, when competition arrived with the formation of the commercial channel ITV, and the BBC faced a rival for the first time in its history. Struggling to compete, the BBC appointed a dynamic new Director-General, Hugh Carleton Greene, in 1960. He took an organisation seen by many as a stuffy, stagnating branch of the Establishment and turned it into a radical, risk-taking, innovative broadcaster, producing programmes as diverse as Steptoe and Son, Cathy Come Home, and That Was The Week That Was.

By 1962, TV sets were a feature in nearly 13 million of the UK's 17 million homes. The BBC radio licence fee stood at £1 per year, but to watch television you would need to fork out £3 plus £1 excise duty, making £4 each year, roughly equal to £64 today. For that you could watch the single BBC channel, which broadcast for around eight hours each day, closing down at 11pm until around lunchtime the next day.

From its inception, BBC Television had been an eclectic mix of genres, with drama featuring from the very start. The Man With the Flower in His Mouth, an adaptation of the short play by Luigi Pirandello, was the first drama transmitted, being broadcast live on 14th July 1930. By 1938, the first science-fiction programme had been commissioned. R.U.R. (aka Rossum's Universal Robots) was a 35-minute adaptation of a section of Karel Čapek's 1920 play broadcast on 11th February 1938. The play in full was broadcast live a decade later, with future Doctor Patrick Troughton in the role of Radius.

By the Sixties, the BBC had a well-established Drama Unit. Split into two separate groups, the Script Department was responsible for commissioning and developing scripts, and the Drama Department would then be tasked with making the shows. At the time, the Script Department was headed by Donald Wilson, a veteran of the film industry who had joined the Corporation in 1955. Wilson had a team of eight script editors working for him, each with a brief to develop a strand of programming, as well as writers, adapters, readers and researchers.

The appetite for ideas for new material to be developed by the department was huge and it was Wilson who had set up a small group called the Monitoring Group, later known as the Survey Group, whose task was to keep a watching brief on other media and to look for ideas that could be used by the Script Department in developing ideas for television.

The impetus of the report that would eventually lead to the creation of Doctor Who came from former screenwriter and lyricist Eric Maschwitz. Maschwitz had, until recently, been the Head of Light Entertainment at BBC Television, so was not known for his drama connections, but by early 1962 he was working as Assistant and Adviser to the Controller of Programmes.

It was in this capacity that Maschwitz, in March 1962, suggested to Wilson that the Survey Group investigate the literary genre of science-fiction to see if such material was suitable for a series of short, single adaptations. Wilson set two of his staff, script editor for drama Donald Bull and his colleague Alice Frick, the task of producing a report to be presented to an upcoming script meeting.

It was with the commissioning of this report that wheels began turning and events were put in motion that would lead to the first episode of Doctor Who being screened on 23rd November 1963.

PREVIOUS BRITISH TV SF & TELEFANTASY (including Doctor Who connections):

• R.U.R. (aka Rossum's Universal Robots) - A 35-minute adaptation of a section of Karel Čapek's 1920 play, broadcast on BBC TV on 11th February 1938. It is the first piece of TV SF ever to be broadcast. An adaptation of the entire play, running to 90 minutes, is broadcast live by the BBC on 4th and 5th March 1948, with Patrick Troughton in the role of Radius. (The character name of Taren Capel, in The Robots of Death, is a nod to Čapek.)
• The Time Machine - Adaptation of the HG Wells novella, broadcast live by BBC TV on 25th January 1949.
• Stranger From Space - Children's series, part of the magazine programme Whirligig. Series one (11 episodes) started 20th October 1951. Series two (six episodes) started 11th October 1952. Starred Valentine Dyall and Peter Hawkins.
• Number Three – First telefantasy script by BBC TV drama writer Nigel Kneale, jointly adapting with George F Kerr the novel by Charles Irving and centring on a mad scientist at an atomic research station. Jack Watling and Terence Alexander were in it, as was Peter Cushing (later to play Dr Who in the two Dalek films made by Amicus) in a minor role. Aired 1st February 1953.
• The Quatermass Experiment - Written by Nigel Kneale. Six episodes, broadcast live (with pre-filmed inserts) weekly from 18th July 1953.
• Time Slip - Half-hour BBC TV play about a man in the future - 4.7 seconds in the future, to be precise! Aired 25th November 1953.
• The Lost Planet - BBC TV children's series (adapted from radio). Six episodes from 16th January 1954 (last episode on 27th March) with Wolfe Morris in the cast.
• Nineteen Eighty-Four - Adaptation by Nigel Kneale of George Orwell's novel, broadcast live (with pre-filmed inserts) on BBC TV on 12th and 16th December 1954, starring Peter Cushing as Winston Smith and André Morell as O'Brien.
• Return to the Lost Planet - BBC TV sequel to The Lost Planet and also adapted from radio. Children’s series. Six episodes from 8th January 1955, again featuring Wolfe Morris in the cast.
• The Voices – BBC TV play for adults, adapted from the Robert Crane novel Hero's Walk. Starred Kevin Stoney, Barry Letts, and Terence Alexander. Aired 16th January 1955.
• The Creature – Shown on BBC TV on 30th January 1955. Quest to find the Yeti in the Himalayas. A remote monastery is involved as part of the action! Written by Nigel Kneale and starring Peter Cushing. A film version, The Abominable Snowman, with Cushing reprising his role, is made by Hammer in 1957.
• Quatermass II - Written by Nigel Kneale. Six episodes, broadcast live (with pre-filmed inserts) weekly from 22nd October 1955 (exactly a month after ITV started). Cast included Roger Delgado. It is the earliest surviving complete British SF TV production.
• Space School - BBC TV children's series. Four episodes, aired from 8th January 1956. Cast included Edmund Warwick.
• One – Nineteen Eighty-Four-type ITV drama. Aired 16th April 1956.
• The Strange World of Planet X – Seven episodes (or maybe six). Adaptation of Rene Ray novel for ITV. SF-horror tale, starring David Garth and William Lucas. Started 15th September 1956.
• Man In A Moon – ITV Armchair Theatre play about a murderer chosen to be the first astronaut, as the technology for his return doesn't exist. Written by Michael Pertwee. Cast included Damaris Hayman. Aired 11th or 17th November 1957 (exact date unknown). (Armchair Theatre was an anthology series that Verity Lambert worked on as a production assistant.)
• The Critical Point – BBC TV drama about "hibernation anaesthesia". Aired 5th December 1957. (cf Adam Adamant Lives!, which was co-created by Donald Cotton, co-developed by Sydney Newman, produced by Verity Lambert, and ran from 23rd June 1966 to 25th March 1967.)
• Time Is The Enemy – ITV time-travel serial made for children. Started 18th March 1958. Seven episodes. Cast included Anne Reid and Derek Waring.
• 2000 Minus 60 – ITV Television Playhouse presentation about an eve-of-millennium doomsday scenario! Aired 4th April 1958.
• The Invisible Man – ITV reworking of HG Wells' story, Two series, each of 13 episodes, from 14th September 1958 and 12th April 1959. Starred Deborah Watling. Series one episode 13 saw Patrick Troughton in the cast. Series two episode 1 saw Barry Letts in the cast, while Derrick Sherwin was in episode 13. Writers included Ian Stuart Black and Michael Pertwee.
• I Can Destroy The Sun – ITV Armchair Theatre production about a mad scientist. Cast included Maurice Denham. Aired 12th October 1958.
• The Greatest Man In The World – Armchair Theatre play (adapted from a story by James Thurber) about the first astronaut, with Patrick McGoohan as aforementioned astronaut. Aired 9th November 1958.
• Quatermass And The Pit - Written by Nigel Kneale (as a freelancer). Six episodes, broadcast live (with pre-filmed inserts) weekly from 22nd December 1958.
• Torchy The Battery Boy - Roberta Leigh puppet series made for ITV. 52 episodes over two series (first series made by Gerry Anderson's AP Films). Broadcast 1958-59 (exact dates unknown).
• Target Luna - ITV series made by ABC for children, co-written by Malcolm Hulke and starring Michael Craze. Six episodes broadcast weekly from 24th April 1960.
• Night of the Big Heat – ITV Play of the Week, adapted from the SF novel by John Lymington, about an alien invasion centring on Salisbury Plain. Aired 14th June 1960.
• Pathfinders In Space - ITV series made by ABC, co-written by Malcolm Hulke, produced by Sydney Newman, and billed as a sequel to Target Luna. Seven episodes, broadcast from 11th September 1960. Starred Gerald Flood.
• Pathfinders To Mars - Sequel to Pathfinders In Space, co-written by Malcolm Hulke and produced by Sydney Newman. Six episodes, broadcast from 11th December 1960. Starred Gerald Flood and George Coulouris.
• The Avengers – Long-running ITV telefantasy series, produced by ABC, started on 7th January 1961. Created by Sydney Newman.
• Supercar - Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series made for ITV. 39 episodes. Started broadcasting on 28th January 1961.
• Pathfinders To Venus - Sequel to Pathfinders To Mars. Co-written by Malcolm Hulke and produced by Sydney Newman. Starred Gerald Flood. Eight episodes from 5th March 1961.
• The Man Out There – Patrick McGoohan is back in space for ABC's Armchair Theatre, this time playing a cosmonaut who is trapped while in orbit. Aired 12th March 1961.
• Countdown At Woomera – ITV Play of the Week set in 1968 and centring on the launch of the first British astronaut. Aired 13th June 1961.
• A For Andromeda - BBC TV SF drama serial. Seven episodes, broadcast from 3rd October 1961. Starred Peter Halliday, Esmond Knight, Noel Johnson, John Hollis, and Mary Morris. Co-produced by Michael Hayes.
• The Escape of R.D.7 – BBC TV five-part drama about an anti-rat virus experiment that goes horribly wrong (cf Survivors and Doomwatch). Started 21st November 1961 (the week after A For Andromeda finished) and starred Barbara Murray. The cast also included Derek Waring, John Dearth, and Alec Ross.
• Murder Club – ITV Armchair Theatre play, adapted by Robert Sheckley from his story The Seventh Victim. Set in the 22nd century and centring on legalised murder. Aired 3rd December 1961. Saw the TV debut of Richard Briers and featured Barbara Murray as well as Steve Plytas.
• The Big Pull - SF serial written for BBC TV and produced by Terence Dudley. Six 30-minute episodes, broadcast weekly from 9th June 1962.
• Dumb Martian - Hour-long SF play on ITV station ABC, broadcast on 24th June 1962. Adapted from a John Wyndham story and broadcast in the Armchair Theatre slot.
• The Andromeda Breakthrough - Sequel to A For Andromeda. Six weekly episodes broadcast on BBC TV from 28th June 1962 and again starring Peter Halliday, John Hollis, and Mary Morris.
• Out of this World - First sci-fi anthology series on British TV. Greenlit by ABC drama supervisor Sydney Newman. Thirteen weekly episodes broadcast from 30th June 1962.
• Fireball XL5 - Gerry & Sylvia Anderson Supermarionation series made for ITV. 39 episodes. Started broadcasting on 28th October 1962.
• The Monsters - BBC TV sci-fi serial. Four x 45-to-50-minute weekly episodes, directed by Mervyn Pinfield. Started broadcasting on 8th November 1962. Cast included Philip Madoc, Clifford Cox, George Pravda, Clive Morton, Clifford Earl, and Norman Mitchell. The music was by Humphrey Searle, and Bernard Wilkie was one half of the team behind the special effects.
• Dimension of Fear – ITV four-part SF series. A space research centre near a sleepy English village is threatened by an other-worldly force. Started 5th January 1963. Cast included Michael Robbins, Peter Copley, and Mark Eden. Written by John Lucarotti.
• Space Patrol - Roberta Leigh puppet series made for ITV. 39 episodes. Started broadcasting on 7th April 1963.
• The Freewheelers – A drama set in the near-future and focusing on youngsters stealing cars for kicks. Cast included Peter Birrel. Aired on ITV on 5th May 1963. (Not to be confused with the later ITV series Freewheelers that starred Wendy Padbury among other Doctor Who luminaries.)
• Loop – SF play for ITV company ATV by Giles Cooper (who would be referenced by Alice Frick and Donald Bull in their report of 25th April 1962) in which TV becomes a weapon thanks to people from the future. Aired 20th October 1963 and starred Rodney Bewes and Geoffrey Bayldon.

1962 TOP BBC PERSONNEL:

• Hugh Carleton Greene – Director-General, 1960-69
  Editor-in-Chief of the BBC and the person ultimately responsible for everything broadcast
• Kenneth Adam – Director of Television, 1961-68
  Responsible for everything on BBC Television
• Stuart Hood - Controller of Programmes at BBC TV, 1961-63
• Donald Baverstock – Assistant Controller of Programmes for BBC TV, 1961-63
• Norman Rutherford – Acting Head of Drama (having taken over from Michael Barry in September 1961) until December 1962 and the arrival of Sydney Newman from ABC
• Donald Wilson – Head of Script Department
• Eric Maschwitz – Assistant and Adviser to the Controller of Programmes

The BBC have made ten images depicting moments from the Series Seven Teaser Trailer available as wallpaper, which can be downloaded from the BBC Doctor Who website in either 4:3 (1152x792px) or 16:9 (1920x1080px) formats.

Premiered at the official convention this weekend, the BBC have now released a Series Seven teaser trailer, featuring clips from the first couple of stories to be recorded for the Autumn season. Versions have been made available via both the BBC iPlayer and YouTube.

The first Official Doctor Who Convention since the return of the series closed its doors in Cardiff yesterday evening at the end of a weekend which saw 3,000 fans descend on the Welsh capital to meet some of the stars and see just how their favourite series is put together.

Several sites have reported on the event, with BBC America blogging to fans back in the States.

BBC News had several reports from the Millennium Centre, with live links throughout the day on the BBC News Channel, including interviews with Steven Moffat, while The Metro talked about the thousands of fans the event brought to Cardiff. Wales Online has reviewed the event and The Guardian talked to some of the fans who had made the journey to Cardiff.

Our own review of the Convention can be found on our Reviews page.

Doctor Who will return to America to shoot the final story featuring Amy and Rory, as they depart the series in an epic battle with the Weeping Angels to be shot in New York.

Executive Producer Caroline Skinner confirmed the news at the Doctor Who Convention taking place in Cardiff this weekend, were fans were given an exclusive premiere of Series Seven, with a showing of the first trailer featuring footage from the upcoming series. The trailer will be availble on the BBC Website from 9am Monday.

Asked how they felt about leaving the series Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill said they felt the time was right and that Amy and Rory's story had run its course. Darvill said: "we've had the most incredible time and it will be really sad when we leave. We had the read through for our final episode last night and it is going to be an amazing piece of Television.". Gillan said she was so pleased with the way she was leaving: "I just hope I can deliver it well."

Matt Smith said he would miss two of his closest friends, and that they had developed an incredible creative relationship. But all good things come to an end: "The thing about Doctor Who is that it is in constant change so we embrace the future and look forward to Jenna."

Asked how they felt about attending the convention, all the stars agreed said it was amazing to meet the fans and to see the reaction: "When making the series you forget how much people love it. We just try to make it the best it can be and its brilliant to see the reactions."

The production team were tight lipped about plans for Series Seven and the show's 50th Anniversary next year. Steven Moffat gave the headlines already known: "Amy and Rory leaving, tragedy, heartbreak and a Western, what more do you want out of Television. Come on Downton take that on!"

The Doctor Who Convention continues on Sunday although all tickets are sold out. A full Convention Report will follow later.

This weekend Cardiff plays host to thousands of Doctor Who fans as BBC Worldwide host the first official convention since the return of the series in 2005.

The event has now completely sold out for both days so fans should not travel to Cardiff unless they already have a ticket as no tickets will be available at the door.

A number of extra events have now been added to the schedule including talks from the Doctor Who Restoration team on their work on the DVD releases and the processes undergone to restore old and damaged episodes of Doctor Who to their former glory. There will be a chance to see exclusive trailers for previously lost episodes – Air Lock and The Underwater Menace.

Fans will also get a chance to try out the new Doctor Who Game The Eternity Clock in its first public appearance.

BBC America have released the first official publicity photograph of the new Doctor Who co-star Jenna-Louise Coleman, here pictured in front of the TARDIS: