Colin Baker appears on tomorrow's edition of the Channel 4 show Get Your House In Order. He attempts to help collector Barry Phillips, who is looking to de-clutter his Doctor Who memorabilia-filled house, by selling items at a convention. The hour-long programme starts at 8pm and will also be available afterwards on catch-up service 4oD.

David Tennant has launched the BBC's Shakespeare Season, which forms part of the Cultural Olympiad. He said of the Olympiad: "I'm a bit hazy as to what it actually means, what it all adds up to. But if it means more Shakespeare, it's fine my me." He will be starring in Romeo and Juliet on Radio 3 on Sunday 29th April at 8.30pm and was in Twelfth Night on Radio 3 last Sunday (available on the iPlayer until 13th May). [Radio Times, 22 April 2012]

Staying in the world of the Bard, the Royal Shakespeare Company has revealed that it was contacted three times by a man who wanted to buy a pair of David Tennant's unwashed socks - even offering £50 for them. The bizarre request came as the RSC announced that its costumes and props were for hire by the general public, and made particular mention of the crown worn by Tennant as Hamlet in the 2008 production being available for £20 a week. (The RSC refused to sell the socks, by the way!) [Daily Record, 24 April 2012]

Gareth David-Lloyd plays the male lead of Dr Robert Cameron in the independent short film Casimir Effect. Billed as a sci-fi romance, it is currently in post-production, having been filmed two years ago, and is looking for support to complete it.

The companion, not the Doctor, is the main character in Doctor Who, according to Steven Moffat. With Amy and Rory about to leave the show and a new companion, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, arriving in this year's Christmas special, Moffat told BBC America: "The story begins again, not so much with the new Doctor, but with the new companion. It is their story. The Doctor's the hero, but they're the main character." He added: "I thought about the Doctor travelling on his own and it always faintly depresses me." [Radio Times, 19 April 2012]

Talking of companions, Katy Manning has given an in-depth interview to Radio Times, revealing her thoughts about life, the universe, Jo Grant, and everything. A gallery of photos ranging from her debut in Doctor Who to the present day has also been put online by Radio Times. In addition, she can be followed on Twitter at @ManningOfficial.

Karen Gillan is among the 12 nominees for the title of Fashion Icon in this year's Scottish Fashion Awards, which take place at Clyde Auditorium on Monday 11th June. [Daily Record, 22 April 2012]

John Barrowman is urging fans to campaign for his character of Captain Jack Harkness to appear in the 50th-anniversary episode of Doctor Who. "I think it would be a shame if Captain Jack wasn't involved in the 50th anniversary, because he was such a big figure and a big presence within the show itself and also within Torchwood," he told MTV Geek at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. But, Barrowman said: "It's not up to me, it's up to the executives and it's also kind of up to the fans, because if they want it all they have to do is get on those keyboards and start writing." Addressing fans directly, he said: "You have been known to change things!" He added: " I've spoken to Russell [T Davies] about it, he thinks it would be a great idea for Jack to meet Matt's Doctor, I think it would be a great idea, Matt and I actually had a conversation at the BBC once, sitting round a table, thought it would be a great idea, Steven [Moffat] thought it would be a great idea, so again it's one of those things. Great ideas sometimes never happen, they sometimes do, but you know I guess you just have to watch this space." [MTV Geek, 18 April 2012]

Matt Smith, Jessica Hynes, Richard Briers, and David Walliams will be providing narration for a second series of the Disney Junior UK show A Poem Is . . . There will be 12 five-minute instalments featuring animation from the Disney vaults. [C21Media, 25 April 2012]

Former BBC1 Controller Michael Grade - arguably the nemesis of Doctor Who in the 1980s - meets Steven Moffat in the next instalment of Grade's Radio 2 series On The Box, in which he gives the inside story of the British TV industry from his unique viewpoint. Also taking part (although not necessarily because of their involvement with Doctor Who) are Maureen Lipman, Pauline Collins, Mal Young, June Brown, and Jane Tranter who, as Controller of Drama Commissioning at the BBC, oversaw the revival of Doctor Who. Dishing The Dirt will be broadcast on Monday 30th April at 10pm and will be available afterwards on the iPlayer.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Jane Espenson has been talking about her role on the fairy-tale drama series Once Upon A Time, which airs in the UK on Channel 5, as well as her other projects. She also talks about her involvement with Torchwood, saying: "I was very proud of what we did. I thought it turned out amazingly well. I don't think you can ever beat Children of Earth, the previous season, which was an absolute masterwork. But, I thought we did very well. I thought we did things with that show that are not normally seen on American television." [The Hollywood Reporter, 22 April 2012]

Anna Maxwell-Martin and Julie Graham have been signed up to star in ITV1's newly-commissioned period thriller The Bletchley Circle. They will play code-breakers Susan and Jean in the three-part murder-mystery drama, which starts filming on location in London at the end of April. [ITV Press Centre, 23 April 2012]

Richard Wilson is to narrate his "untrue celebrity autobiography" on Radio 4 next month. The four-part "radiography" will feature dramatised scenes with star names including David Tennant and Arabella Weir. Believe It! starts on Wednesday 9th May at 11.30am. [The Independent, 24 April 2012]

The Mill is up for an honour at this year's BAFTA Television Craft Awards for its work on Doctor Who.

It has been shortlisted in the Visual Effects category against BlueBolt (for BBC One's Great Expectations), Philip Dobree, Sophie Orde, and Dan Upton (Inside The Human Body, BBC One), and Burrell Durrant Hifle (Wonders Of The Universe, BBC Two).

Meanwhile, Steven Moffat's other major show, Sherlock, is nominated in three separate categories at the awards, which are held to recognise behind-the-scenes professionals in TV production - Editing: Fiction (Charlie Phillips, for A Scandal In Belgravia); Sound: Fiction (John Mooney, Jeremy Child, Howard Bargroff, and Doug Sinclair, for A Scandal In Belgravia); and Writer (Steven Moffat, for A Scandal In Belgravia).

Doctor Who has failed to make the shortlist in this year's BAFTA TV Awards, but a number of people connected to the show have been nominated for other programmes, and Sherlock features in the nominations line-up as well.

John Simm vies against Sherlock title actor Benedict Cumberbatch for the Leading Actor prize for Exile, while Sherlock's Andrew Scott (Moriarty) and Martin Freeman (Watson) are pitted against each other for Supporting Actor.

Olivia Colman is nominated in the Female Performance in a Comedy Programme category for Twenty Twelve, as is Tamsin Greig for Friday Night Dinner. Ruth Jones, who played Nikki Bevan in the Torchwood episode Adrift, is also nominated for Stella.

Hugh Bonneville is shortlisted for Male Performance in a Comedy Programme for Twenty Twelve, and The Fades, which was produced by Caroline Skinner and had Farren Blackburn directing some of its episodes, is nominated for Drama Series, as is Scott and Bailey, which co-stars Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones.

Coronation Street, which is produced by Phil Collinson, is nominated for Soap And Continuing Drama, and The Cricklewood Greats, which was created, presented, directed, and co-written by Peter Capaldi, is up for Comedy Programme. Rev, which co-starred Olivia Colman, is nominated in the Situation Comedy category.

Sherlock is also one of the nominees in the BAFTA YouTube Audience Award, which is voted for by the public. It was similarly nominated last year but lost out to The Only Way Is Essex. This time it faces competition from Frozen Planet, Fresh Meat, Celebrity Juice, The Great British Bake-Off, and Educating Essex. Voting is open until 5pm on Thursday 24th May.

The Television Craft Awards will be held on Sunday 13th May at The Brewery in London, while the TV Awards, including the YouTube Audience Award, will be presented on Sunday 27th May at the Royal Festival Hall in the capital.

The cover and content details for the forthcoming UK DVD release of Death To The Daleks have been finalised.


The British Board of Film Classification classified the features on 30th March, revealing that a textless version of the title sequence will be included as an Easter egg:

26:44:24  BENEATH THE CITY OF THE EXXILONS - MAKING DEATH TO THE DALEKS
23:33:11  STUDIO RECORDING - 4 DECEMBER 1973
05:49:04  PHOTO GALLERY
01:26:05  (EASTER EGG) (TEXTLESS TITLE SEQUENCE)
07:47:22  ON THE SET OF DR WHO AND THE DALEKS

Feature Previews:

BBC Worldwide has released a number of clips from the recently released stories Nightmare of Eden and The Daemons on its Classic Doctor Who YouTube channel:

THE DAEMONS

• The Daemons on location - The BBC is shooting classic Doctor Who series 'The Daemons' in Aldbourne in 1971, in this rare clip of archive film.
• Aldbourne - Doctor Who cast members including Katy Manning and Damaris Hayman discuss their experience of filming The Daemons in Aldbourne in the classic 1971 series.
• A great working relationship - Often cited as one of the best of the Third Doctor's storylines, The Daemons owes much of its success to the great working relationship between producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks. In this DVD extra, cast and crew explain the friendship.
• A stormy night's sky - Boasting some impressive location filming, the village of Aldbourne was the perfect setting for The Daemons. As the crew reveals, however, attempting a stormy night scene can be quite problematic on a calm night. Journey behind the scenes to find out how the crew managed to ratchet up the atmosphere.
• Exit Lines - Actors Richard Franklin and Katy Manning reveal the influence the cast had on the script, and how open Barry Letts was to adding extra dimensions to the characters.

NIGHTMARE OF EDEN

• Alan Bromly - Crew members recount their experiences of director Alan Bromly and his old-school techniques.
• Drug-smuggling storyline - Bob Baker reveals how his research of drug abuse for the production of BBC police drama series Target, which featured Katy Manning in the role of a drug addict, was to prove invaluable to the writing of the drug-smuggling storyline of Nightmare of Eden. (Target was created by Graham Williams, produced by Philip Hinchcliffe, and written by Baker and Dave Martin, with David Wickes. The theme music was by Dudley Simpson.)
  

Looking ahead:

• The Krotons: Ed Stradling commented on Twitter: "here's an image from my recent feature for The Krotons DVD. It's another long one!«"
• The Mind of Evil - Steve Roberts spoke to Radio Free Skaro, during which he indicated that all of the episodes for this story should be released in colour. Episode One (which does not have a print containing the chromadot information used for the recent colour recovery process) will be colourised by Babelcolour, using motion-estimation techniques to aid the process.

United Kingdom:

The Queen visited Manchester as part of her Diamond Jubilee tour, during which she officially opened the new BBC MediaCentreUK in Salford - and was 'confronted' by a Dalek whilst being taken around the facilities. [BBC News, 23 Mar 2012]

The National Library of Scotland is presenting a selection of science fiction treasures as part of the Edinburgh Science Festival, entitled It's Life, Jimmy but not as we know it. The collection includes Steven Moffat’s first Doctor Who short story from 1996, Continuity Errors. The exhibition is open until 30th June, admission free. [Deadline, 28 Mar 2012]

David Boyle, the co-founder of Dapol (who made Doctor Who figures through the 1980s/90s and was home to the 'original' Doctor Who Experience), is to make and present a new television series of his interpretation on the evolution of mankind and the universe. Boyle said: "I had many experiences that didn't fit with the stories that everyone was telling us. I thought it was time to investigate these experiences and explain them, before we start telling everyone a particular story. Somebody has got to tell people the truth and tell people what is going on." [Northwich Guardian, 20 Mar 2012]

Ten-year-old Haydon Gill from Collier Row tempted chef Heston Blumenthal - with whom he co-stars with in a new advert for Waitrose - with a treat favoured by the Doctor: "My favourite food is fish fingers and custard. Dr Who eats it and it's delicious. I told Heston to try it while we were on the set together and he said he would!" [London 24, 20 Mar 2012]

Pupils from St. Mary's Primary School in Chipping Norton have made the final of the Script to Screen writing competition with their script, The Ultimate Athlete, featuring the Cybermen up to nefarious activities at the Olympics. George Tuckwell, Joe Frater, Oscar Miller and Rowan Woodell are all excited with the possibility of seeing their script turned into a mini-episode, with George saying: "I am very, very, very nervous about the competition. I do not want to get my hopes up, but if we won I would probably shout and scream. It was meant to be based on the Olympics, so we thought the Greeks made the Olympics and decided to do a story with that. It has been really fun." The winning script for the competition is announced tomorrow. [Witney Gazette, 29 Mar 2012]

The Radlett Centre played host to two Doctor Who celebrities last weekend, with both a Dalek and Derek Martin appearing at the event, which brings together children from local schools to perform together. Organiser and Dalek owner Julie Banes said: "It's a huge morale boost for the students who take part and it's quite tear-jerking to watch. They all did a marvellous job and gave it 100 per cent." [Herts Advertiser, 24 Mar 2012]

A man with a saucepan on his head imitating a Dalek was one of a number of hopefuls auditioning for the next series of Britain's Got Talent. [Daily Mail, 20 Mar 2012]

United States:

Two-year-old Valentine Dewait has become a hit thanks to her appearances on Twitter dressed as every (current) incarnation as the Doctor. Her father, Ryan, said: "She enjoys dressing up. Costumes, tutus, you name it. She'll go to her costumes and pull out outfits to put on." [Digital Spy, 16 Mar 2012]

Tashi King has made an appeal on behalf of her husband Kevin Pratt for when he loses his fight with an inoperable brain tumour. Writing to Regretsy, she said: I am writing to you to try and fulfill a wish of his; after he passes my husband wants to have a portion of his cremains kept in a TARDIS urn. (The rest will be shot off in rockets he has built over the years with his friends.)" The request has led to a fund-raising page being set up for the couple. You can follow their story via Tashi's blog. [Regretsy, 13 Mar 2012]

Online:

Doctor Who has been named a National Treasure, according to a survey undertaken by network operator O2. Over 14,000 people contributed to the list, which was compiled through the company's Facebook page. Other treasures include singers Bob Marley and Cheryl Cole, 'presenter' Dame Edna Everage, and Tower Bridge. [The Drum, 28 Mar 2012]

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.

A charity convention celebrating the fan film Power of the Daleks is to be held later this year.

The film, 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), adapts and reimagines Patrick Troughton's inaugural story.

Starring Nick Scovell as the Doctor and also featuring Nicholas Briggs, Lisa Bowerman and Barnaby Edwards in the cast, it is to be shown online in three mini-episodes in April, July, and September, but will receive a full showing on the big screen at the Power: Reimagined convention. Entry tickets pay for admission to the convention but the screening of the film is free and non-profit-making.

Teasers and a trailer for the film plus mini-documentaries about its making can be seen on the group's official YouTube channel. The trailer, which was released last Christmas, can also be seen below.



The convention takes place on Saturday 1st September at Ferneham Hall in Fareham and guests announced so far (work permitting) are Michael Troughton, who has recently published a biography about his father, and the Doctor Who Restoration Team, with more to come.

Also taking place during the day will be talks by cast and crew from the original series and remake, as well as photo and autograph sessions. Props from the remake will be on display too.

Money raised by the convention will go to Cancer Research UK and Children In Need.

United Kindom

This coming weekend (3rd/4th March) sees Coalville play host to Robots Live at the Hermitage Centre, and a Dalek took to the streets of Loughborough last weekend to promote the event. Organiser Alan Young said: "It was really good. We had lots of people coming up to the robots and having their photos taken with them. We were trying to encourage people to come to our event next Saturday, we've got the best robots coming from all over the country to battle it out and it should be a really entertaining day." [Leicester Mercury, 28 Feb 2012]

Crosscombe village panto Sleeping Beauty had a surprise twist: "While the Princess slept, some cast members were projected 300 years forward, by a very convincing Tardis. What else? When the bad fairy finally met her demise, the Prince was ably assisted by the intervention of a conveniently placed Dalek." [Shepton Mallet Journal, 1 Mar 2012]

United States

Actor Travis Richey has been attempting to raise money to continue a Doctor Who spoof called Inspector Spacetime that appeared on NBC's Community in which he starred as a web-based series. However, having been told by NBC that he couldn't use the name, which is copyrighted to them, he has now renamed the project as Untitled Webseries About a Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time! [Topless Robot, 29 Feb 2012]

The student economics blog Centives at LeHigh University, Pennsylvania have been working out the cost of hiring a TARDIS for year: "We think that the market value of hiring the TARDIS would be £15,140,064 or $23,930,385 or 504,668,800 jelly babies." Find out how they came to that conclusion from their blog! [Centives blog, 27 Feb 2012]

Snowtime in New Hampshire and out comes the snow-Daleks - this one from Maddy! [MerrimackPatch, 1 Mar 2012]

The annual Megacon took place in Orlando, Florida over 19/20th February; the Southeast's largest comic-book/sci-fi convention saw a number of activities and of course the chance for costumes and models to be on display. [GeekSugar, 21 Feb 2012]

Australia

Aaron Climas from Mitchell Park in Adelaide has spent a year building his own Dalek. The visual effects artist completed it this week, just in time for Robert Shearman to arrive for the Adelaide Writers' Week. [Adelaide Now, 2 Mar 2012]

It's said that truth is stranger than fiction, and in a case of life imitating art (in more ways than one), two iconic paintings with very close connections to Doctor Who have been hitting the headlines.

Firstly, one of Edvard Munch's four versions of The Scream - which was a major influence on the design of Series 6 monster The Silence - is to be exhibited in the UK before being auctioned in the USA by Sotheby's.

It will be on display in London from 13th April and in New York from 27th April, with the auction taking place on 2nd May, when it is estimated it could fetch more than £50m ($80m).

This version - dated 1895 and the only one to still be in private hands - is a pastel and is in the original frame that was hand-painted by the Norwegian artist. It also includes a poem by Munch explaining what inspired his masterpiece.

The Scream is reckoned to be the second-most recognisable image in art and popular culture after the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci - and by a funny coincidence another version of that particular masterpiece has also been causing a huge stir in the art world.

The globally famous portrait - also titled La Gioconda - was a major plot point of the Season 17 story City of Death. Now a copy of the picture - reckoned to have been painted by one of Leonardo's apprentices at the time of the original - has been restored and displayed at the Prado Museum in Madrid, where it will stay until 13th March, after which it will be moved and hung next to Leonardo's original at the Louvre in Paris for an exhibition.

---

As reported previously, photographic portraits of David Tennant and Karen Gillan can still be seen in the Hot Scots exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. This display runs until 1st April.

Tennant is also among the actors featured in backstage theatre photographer Simon Annand's exhibition The Half at the Idea Generation Gallery in Chance Street, London. The display takes its name from the half-hour before curtain-up, when actors are left by themselves to focus on the performance ahead of them. Also pictured at the gallery are Michael Gambon, Carey Mulligan, and Mark Gatiss. The exhibition opens tomorrow and runs until 8th April, with the opening times 10am to 6pm Mondays to Fridays and midday to 5pm Sundays.

United Kingdom

A bit of nostalgia for Boston as 1977 saw a report on a visit to the Oldrids store by Tom Baker, who was there to autograph books about the television series and "proved a hit with the locals." [Boston Standard, 20 Feb 2012]

A Doctor Who-themed day was held at Long Close School in Slough to herald the beginning of half-term. A special poster replaced the school emblem, pupils wore costumes, time travel stories and quantum mechanics got a look-in on the curriculum, a Dalek, Weeping Angel, Cyberman, and Tardis made an appearance - and even headteacher David Brazier got in on the act by dressing up as the Ninth Doctor! [Slough and South Bucks Observer, 17 Feb 2012]

Daleks helped raise more than £1,000 for the British Heart Foundation when they appeared as part of a fund-raising day at the Ashley Centre in Epsom. [Epsom Guardian, 20 Feb 2012]

Twickenham Film Studios has gone into administration, with very little likelihood of it making movies again. Due to celebrate its centenary next year, it is, instead, being wound down between now and June. It was also host to TV productions over the years, including the BBC drama serial Our Friends In The North, which co-starred Christopher Eccleston, and Coupling, the BBC comedy created and written by Steven Moffat. On the cinematic front, An Education, which was filmed there, featured Carey Mulligan in her first leading role, while trivia buffs may like to know that the Amicus Films offering The Terrornauts featured shots of the Dalek flying saucer model from the same production company's Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. A partial Twickenham filmography is available here. [BBC News, 20 Feb 2012]
(With thanks to Jeremy Bentham)

United States

An outdoor advertising campaign by BBC America that uses Doctor Who among its references has proved to be an internet smash. Billboards and commuter transit ads have been appearing in the New York City area to promote the network - among them posters on all three suburban commuter train lines that say "My other commute is in a TARDIS" (which has reportedly been downloaded 1,000 times) and "If you were a Time Lord, you would be home by now or 700 years ago". The channel has also logged more than 12,500 posts and likes on Tumblr, plus nearly 500 tweets of photos or comments. [Multichannel News, 10 Feb 2012] [BuzzFeed, 8 Feb 2012]

Writing for Washington University's independent newspaper in St. Louis, David Sargeant rates Doctor Who amongst the best of British shows: "Arguably the most popular British show of all time, Doctor Who is the easiest show to jump into and the sole entry on this list still in production. The Doctor is an alien with a time machine, a fondness for humans and an out-of-this-world personality. He travels through time and space with a human companion, confronting various alien menaces and setting an example of tolerance and cool logic. The franchise is approaching its 50th anniversary but has yet to show its age." [Student Life, 20 Feb 2012]

Andrea Shelton reflects on her experience at the GallifreyOne Convention that took place in Los Angeles last weekend: "This weekend I made my first trip to the 23rd installment of Gallifrey One – a Doctor Who convention held annually in LA – and it was nothing short of OUTSTANDING. The defining characteristic of this event is that it is 100% fan-run. This means every staff member and volunteer is participating out of sheer love and enjoyment of the series, and it shows in every detail of the programming. The charm of this convention goes beyond the quality of programming. Just as important to the overall experience is the character of the fans. I am pleased to say I have never been surrounded by so many friendly, enthusiastic, and kind people that I immediately felt a connection with. This convention has everything a Doctor Who fan could ask for, and I am already counting down the days until next year. It is a trip worth saving for, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for next year’s 50th Anniversary special." [What Culture, 21 Feb 2012]

Lastly, a selection of photos taken at the convention. [LA Weekly, 20 Feb 2012]

BBC Worldwide have announced that Karen Gillan will be a guest at the Official Doctor Who Convention, taking place in Cardiff on 24th and 25th March. Speaking of the confirmation that she would also be there, the actress enthused: "I'm really looking forward to the Convention and meeting all of the wonderful Doctor Who fans!"

The news means that the full current TARDIS crew of Matt Smith, Arthur Darvill and Karen will be headlining alongside lead writer Steven Moffat, plus the many other actors, production crew and activities previously announced for the two, one-day conventions.