Doctor Who has been awarded Best TV programme at the British Fantasy Awards.

The programme beat Battlestar Galactica, Being Human, Lost and Torchwood: Children of Earth, to win the award for the second year running.

Rob Shearman, writer of the Doctor Who story Dalek, accepted the award on behalf of former showrunner Russell T Davies at a ceremony held at FantasyCon 2010.

Shearman also won the award for Best collection for Love songs for the shy and cynical poduced by Big Finish. Other Doctor Who connected winners were David Howe who won The PS Publishing Best Small Press Award for Telos Publishing, and Neil Gaiman who won Best Comic//Graphic Novel for his work with Andy Kubert on Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?.

The 2011 edition of Guinness World Records contains a whole spread dedicated to Doctor Who with a number of facts and figures on the what is officially the world's Most Successful sci-fi Series.

The show was awarded the title last year based on the show's perfomance in ratings, DVD and book sales, and downloading popularity. It also holds the record for Longest running sci-fi series and Doctor Who Magazine has been named Longest Running Magazine Based on a Television Series.

The book lists other statistics including naming Tom Baker as the longest serving incumbent Doctor, Fraser Hines as the longest serving companion and Matt Smith as the youngest actor to take on the role of The Doctor, something picked up by many papers.

Guinness World Records 2011, published Thursday, is the latest edition of the world's best-selling copyright book. Guinness World Records is the globally-recognised authority on record-breaking achievements.

Doctor Who has been voted best family drama at the 2010 TV Choice Awards.

The event was held at The Dorchester Hotel in London’s Park Lane on Monday evening and Karen Gillan was on hand to accept the award for the programme voted for by readers of the UK's biggest selling magazine.

The awards were hosted by Alexander Armstrong with Emmerdale winning three prizes and EastEnders taking the prize of best soap.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Steven Moffat has announced that the next series of Doctor Who will be split in two with a 'gamechanging' cliffhanger in episode 7.

"The split series is hugely exciting because viewers will be treated to two premieres, two finales and more event episodes. For the kids it will never be more than a few months to the next Doctor Who! Easter, Autumn, Christmas!!"

The BBC press office describe the split transmission as the result of a request from Steven Moffat to write a new Doctor Who story arc which involves a big plot twist in the middle of the series. "By splitting the series Moffat plans to give viewers one of the most exciting Doctor Who cliffhangers and plot twists ever, leaving them waiting, on the edge of their seats, until the autumn to find out what happens."

The Guardian, who host the annual television festival, have uploaded a video clip of Moffat making the announcement here.

2|Entertain have confirmed the fourth Doctor story The Seeds of Doom, will be released in the UK on 25th October 2010.

This story was originally due for release in 2011. The Revisitations boxset was due in October but has not clear if this has been postponed or if The Seeds of Doom is an additional release.

Originally shown in the first part of 1976, The Seeds of Doom was the final story of Series 13. As well as starring Tom Baker as the Doctor, it features Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, Sylvia Coleridge as Amelia Ducat, Mark Jones as Arnold Keeler, John Gleeson as Charles Winlett, John Challis as Scorby and Tony Beckley as Harrison Chase.

Made in six parts, the story was written by Robert Banks Stewart and directed by Douglas Camfield, and is one of the most fondly remembered stories from the fourth Doctor's era.

As we previously reported Tom Baker has recorded the commentary track for the release along with John Challis and Philip Hinchcliffe, who was producer at the time.

What a busy couple of weeks its been. Despite Series 5 of Doctor Who having finished, hardly a day goes by without some sort of Who-related news popping up.

For a fuller round-up, remember to look in on Doctor Who in the Media, but, to whet your appetite, here's a summary.

On Sunday, BBC 1 premiered the long-awaited first episode of Sherlock (see our earlier story), Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's updated version of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson and Rupert Graves as Inspector Lestrade. Cumberbatch has created a bit of a stir in the last few days by suggesting, first, telling Digital Spy that he may well be appearing in several episodes Doctor Who, and, then, according to the Sun that he considered becoming the eleventh Doctor before Matt Smith was cast in the role.

Again, according to the Sun, Matt Smith is eager to leave Doctor Who to pursue a career in Hollywood. However, this has been denied by both Moffat, to BBC News, and Karen Gillan, during her visit to Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup Final at Cowdray Park Polo Club! For a less sensational take on this, see this story and this story on Digital Journal.

Nicky Wire, of the Manic Street Preachers, caused a bit of a stir when he blogged on the band's website that he was writing a Doctor Who script. He's since clarified on Twitter that it's fan fiction and not a BBC commission.

Russell T Davies has been speaking to SFX about the fourth series of Torchwood and has also dealt with the rumours surrounding a Johnny Depp as the Doctor Hollywood movie! This story covers the original "exclusive" and RTD's debunking of it.

Finally, there was plenty of press coverage surrounding the start of filming of the 2010 Christmas special (see this Gallifrey Base story), guest-starring Sir Michael Gambon and Katherine Jenkins, including here, here and here.

Happy times and places!

The Windows versions of the first two episodes in The Doctor Who Adventure Games are now available to download internationally.

Both City of the Daleks and Blood of the Cybermen, are now available globally from Direct2Drive.com, IGN's digital retail game store.

The games are being launched to coincide with the North American season finale of The Big Bang, which airs July 24 on BBC America and SPACE, and with this year's Comic-Con festival. No Mac version has yet been made available internationally.

The games are still available to download free of charge for fans in the United Kingdom. Two more episodes are planned for release over the next couple of months.

The actor Richard Shaw has died at the age of 90.

Richard Shaw had three appearances in Doctor Who. In 1965 he played the role of Lobos, the Morok governor of Xeros, in the William Hartnell story The Space Museum. He returned to the series in 1973 working with Jon Pertwee on the story Frontier in Space where he played Cross the leader of a section of the prisoners at the Lunar Penal Colony. His final role in the series was in the 1978 story Underworld, where he played Lakh, a Seer on the planet which coalesced around the P7E.

Away from Doctor Who, Shaw had an extensive career in British television spanning over 40 years. He played Sladden in the 1959 classic Quatermass and the Pit, appeared in many classic plays on BBC and ITV and appeared in such series as Crossroads, Freewheelers, Dixon of Dock Green and the film Carry On Don't Lose Your Head.

Actor Toby Hadoke has posted a tribute to Richard Shaw on his website.

To mark the season finale of Doctor Who in Canada on Saturday, July 24th SPACE Channel and the program InnerSPACE are planning a special edition in front of a live studio audience. The InnerSPACE Live Doctor Who season finale and after-show will take place at 299 Queen Street West in Toronto, Ontario. The broadcast will take place from 9pm - 11pm ET. The special broadcast includes a panel discussion, interviews and a live web chat and will be hosted InnerSPACE's Teddy Wilson.

Fans in Toronto interested in attending being a part of the live studio audience call 416-384-LIVE (5483) to reserve tickets. For more information on the broadcast or the after-show please visit the SPACE Channel website. Those able to be a part of the live audience are requested to arrive by 8:15pm. You must have a ticket to attend the live show. Those not able attend can watch both the Doctor Who season finale and InnerSPACE after-show across Canada on SPACE starting at 9:00pm ET on Saturday July 24th, 2010.

NB: Press Release link contains spoilers for those who have not seen The Big Bang.

The BBC has confirmed veteran actor Michael Gambon and opera diva Katherine Jenkins will guest star in the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas special.

Production starts today and will continue until August.

Michael Gambon is one of the UK's most respected actors, best known for his role as Philip Marlow in BBC television serial The Singing Detective and for his role as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film series.

Katherine Jenkins is a Welsh mezzo-soprano who has sold more than 4 million copies of her studio albums. This will be her first acting role. Arriving on set for her first day of filming, Katherine Jenkins said

Steven Moffat, Lead writer and Executive Producer on the series commented: