Fantom Films are to release the autobiography of Jacqueline Pearce, who played Chessene in The Two Doctors but probably most recognisable as the elegant baddie Servalan in Blakes's 7! From Byfleet to the Bush will be published in both paperback and hardback formats, with a book launch event to take place on 11th March at the George IV Public House, Chiswick. More details can be found via their website.


Also out in March is a book written by Valentine Palmer, best known in Doctor Who circles as the rebel Monia in Day of the Daleks. In TITANIC: The Strange Case of Great Uncle Bertie, the actor, producer and screenwriter sets out to write the definite account of the Titanic’s sinking. As the 100th anniversary of that terrible day approaches Palmer follows up innumerable conflicting stories and theories that still, to this day, surround the doomed liner... with a new unique perspective through the eyes of Valentine's family and Charles Lightroller – his great uncle, the highest ranking officer to survive the sinking.

Deborah Watling's autobiography, Daddy's Girl is to have an audio release this month, with the actress herself recounting her memoirs.

As the bicentenary of Charles Dickens' birth on 7th February approaches, Simon Callow is touring to promote his new book about the author - Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World. In an interview with the Yorkshire Post, Callow, who has played Dickens on stage and in Doctor Who, said: "I've been working very closely with the life of Dickens in one way or another for the past 15 years and I felt I had something different to say. I wanted to explore the notion of Charles Dickens as a performer and the conscious degree to which he was supremely confident as a performer. He could talk to the public and speak about his books in a way that would captivate audiences." Barnsley, Bromsgrove, Canterbury, Coventry, London, Loughborough, Maidenhead, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Street, Taunton, Portsmouth, and Winchester are places where Callow is appearing, with a number of venues sold out. [Yorkshire Post, 31 Jan 2012]

Noel Clarke spoke to London 360 about his casting in the next installment of the Star Trek juggernaut: "It was just an audition like all the others, really. You kind of just do your lines and see what happens, and then luckily this time I got the job. They didn't test me on my (Star Trek) knowledge, it was just a standard audition! I think it’s just one of those things where it’s another sort of level of accomplishment where you’ve done another job that is bigger than the ones you’ve done before - all of that stuff helps in your career so hopefully it will just help me in mine." [London 360 on YouTube, 27 Jan 2012]

Jean Marsh has spoken of the serious health scares she suffered late last year and how she resolved to overcome them. In a Guardian feature highlighting the forthcoming new series of Upstairs, Downstairs on BBC One, the actress and co-creator of the show, in which she plays Rose Buck, said: "I was absolutely determined [to get back]. Three weeks after the first episode I had a stroke and a heart attack, and in three weeks I'd thrown myself out of the hospital. I said I will be all right and the main doctor said, 'All right, you can work again. But you can only work four hours a day.' And I said: 'Terrific!'" The six-part series, also starring Alex Kingston, Anne Reid and Sarah Lancashire, is currently scheduled to start on Sunday 19th February. [The Guardian, 31 Jan 2012]

Some more details have been released on Marsh's co-star in the new series, Alex Kingston; the Doctor Who star is playing Dr Blanche Mottershead, who arrives at the house alongside novelist and lover Lady Portia Alresford (played by Emilia Fox). Writer Heidi Thomas said: "I really don't want to give the game away because it lets you know things about the characters in the show ahead of time and I think it will spoil it for the audience. The pair certainly bring a whiff of scandal. They've been living abroad and now arrive in London. They try to be covert about their life. The series is set in 1938, where life was far less sexualised. When it gets exposed, though, they find a surprising ally." [Radio Times, 31 Jan 2012]

Felicity Jones, who played the titular Unicorn (aka Robina Redmond) in The Unicorn and the Wasp, has been tipped for film stardom in the United States by Vanity Fair. She is among the 11 leading ladies featured by the magazine in its Hollywood edition out this month. Carey Mulligan was among those included in its 2010 Hollywood issue. [BBC News, 1 Feb 2012]

Laura Pulver, recently seen as Irene Adler in Sherlock, spoke about her chances of appearing in Steven Moffatt's other interest: "We haven’t spoken about Doctor Who at all. I think they are very separate entities for Steven, and I think he puts on very different hats, but I love working with him, and if we found another project to work together on whether it is Doctor Who or another season of Sherlock, then I’m sure we’d want to work together again." [Assignment X, 30 Jan 2012]

The Doctor Who Experience have announced a new item of merchandise, now available from their shop:

BBC Worldwide have announced a few more of the guests due to appear at the Official Doctor Who Convention in March.

Mark Sheppard, who featured in last year's series as Canton in The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon, will be at the event; he is joined by another familiar face from the last two series in the form of Ian McNeice, who played the Doctor's good friend Winston Churchill in a number of stories (notably Victory of the Daleks and The Wedding of River Song). Also appearing will be Raquel Cassidy, who played Cleaves in the two-part The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People.

Mark Sheppard said of being invited as a guest:
The three actors join the previously announced headliners Matt Smith and Arthur Darvill, alongside Stuart Milligan (President Nixon, The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon) and Simon Fisher-Becker (Dorium, The Pandorica Opens/A Good Man Goes To War/The Wedding of River Song). Also, as well as the guests recognisable from in front of the camera, the line-up will include Nicholas Briggs - otherwise known as the voice of the Daleks, Cybermen and Judoon amongst many others - and Barnaby Edwards ("chief" Dalek operator).

From behind the scenes, Millennium FX's Neill Gorton has been announced, who joins the extensive behind-the-scenes crew that will be involved in many of the convention's activities, including special effects and pyrotechnic demonstrations, prosthetic masterclasses and Q&A sessions.

Previously announced production personnel of course includes the show's lead writer and convention headliner Steven Moffat, with Marcus Wilson (producer), Stephen Pehrsson (director of photography), Michael Pickwoad (production designer), Caroline Henry and Gary Russell (script editors), Andy Pryor (casting director), Danny Hargreaves (special effects supervisor), and Tom MacRae (writer).

Though voted the most stylish man in September, Matt Smith didn't quite make the grade for being the best-dressed in the latest poll results from GQ readers; the actor came in at third place, behind footballer Mario Balotelli and rapper Tinie Tempah. [GQ, 30 Jan 2012]

David Tennant was named best actor at the inaugural BBC Audio Drama Awards, which he also hosted. He won the honour for his portrayal of Franz Kafka in the Radio 3 play Kafka: The Musical, which was written and scored by Murray Gold. Also at the event, Stephen Wyatt won the Tinniswood Award for the Radio 4 Afternoon Play Gerontius. Despite being nominated for the best actress award for the role of Margaret Rutherford in the Radio 4 play A Monstrous Vitality, June Whitfield lost out to Rosie Cavaliero. [BBC News, 29 Jan 2012]

Sophie Aldred has joined the ranks of the Twitterati! In her first tweet she joked: "With my arm twisted behind my back, I have been forced to sign up to Twitter by @notdangle, @scott_handcock, and @robbfrank at @bigfinish." People can follow her here.

Meanwhile, Tree Fu Tom - a new CBeebies animated fantasy action adventure series featuring the voices of Tennant and Aldred - will receive its premiere at the BBC Children's Television 10th Anniversary event at the Salford MediaCityUK Studios on 18th February. [TennantNews, 27 Jan 2012]

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are scheduled to appear at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival in August, presenting a Sherlock Masterclass alongside the show's producer Sue Vertue. (Vertue is married to Moffat - they first met at the 1996 Television Festival!)

The Doctor Who Experience is to host a number of special activities in the run up to its closure in London next month:

• Saturday 11th February: Doctor Who choreographer Ailsa Berk will be running one of her semi-regular monster lessons, where visitors will be able to learn how to move like a monster, such as a Judoon Trooper or a Cyberman.
• Monday 13th February: Millennium FX demonstrate their sculpture techniques, illustrating the design of some of the show's iconic characters.
• Wednesday 15th February: the Cybermen and the Ood will be at the Experience to terrify all those who dare enter!
• Thursday 16th February: the Doctor Who make-up team will be on hand to transform visitors into a Silurian, Cyberman, Clockwork Droid or Weeping Angel.
• Friday 17th February: Millennium FX present drawing demonstrations behind some of the show's iconic characters.
• Sunday 19th February: another chance to move like a monster with Ailsa Berk.

The Experience finally comes to a close on Wednesday 22nd February, "where fans get the chance to bid a final farewell to the Doctor and some of the most recent monsters from the series," before re-opening in Cardiff Bay later in the year.

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Update: Last Minute are offering a number of two-for-one deals to the exhibition: visit their website for more details.

Arthur Darvill stars in a new three-part radio dramatisation of Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift. The Radio 4 series, which will feature all four of Gulliver's voyages, starts on Sunday 5th February at 3pm. Also appearing in the adaptation are Matthew Gravelle, Richard Nichols, Claire Cage, and Ewan Bailey.

Eve Myles is returning to the stage in the play All New People, by and co-starring Zach Braff. It will be at the Manchester Opera House from 8th to 11th February, the King's Theatre, Glasgow, from 14th to 18th February, and the Duke of York's Theatre, London, from 22nd February to 28th April. Meanwhile, in an interview with Cultbox, she told of her hopes that Torchwood will be back in some form or another. "Nothing's going to happen in 2012, I know that much for sure. But who knows what will happen in 2013? Maybe a movie, to kinda draw a line under it. We've got such an outstanding loyal fan base. They deserve Torchwood to go ahead with something else to draw a line under it, for the fans to have a bit of closure," she said. Myles's previous stage appearance was some six and a half years ago at the National in Henry IV with Michael Gambon.

John Barrowman is a guest on the final edition of the current series of Channel 4's topical entertainment show Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on Friday 3rd February. It airs at 10.30pm - half an hour after the end of the episode of the BBC One series Hustle in which he also appears, as previously reported by this site.

Sylvester McCoy lends his vocal talents to a new release from The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing; the actor has provided a spoken introduction to the album This May Be The Reason Why The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing Cannot Be Killed by Conventional Weapons, setting the tone for "the parallel Victorian past imagined on the eleven tracks". [Alison Bateman/Work Hard PR]

Nicolas Winding Refn, director of the movie Drive, commented: I would have loved to direct Doctor Who but they didn’t want me — they turned me down last year. Maybe if they revive Blake’s 7 I could do that. I love it. It’s great. That could be fun to update. [Shortlist, 27 Jan 2012]

Russell T Davies (writing the new children's series Aliens vs Wizards) comments on television output for children: "I am passionate about children's television, but it is, as ever, an endangered species, under threat. The most shocking thing I have seen is that, apparently unnoticed, five years ago ITV dropped children's programmes. There is now the complete absence of children's programmes made by ITV on CITV. It is amazing to me, when I contrast it with all those people who were furious about cuts to BBC local radio, and they were immediately reversed. I am also amazed that people don't recognise the talent, genius, of children's writers, for example, Andrew Davenport. The creator behind Teletubbies and In the Night Garden is up there, in my opinion, with Tom Stoppard, Samuel Beckett, but no one puts him there. It's the same with Jacqueline Wilson, whose books have led to the wonderful Tracy Beaker dramas." [Guardian, 28 Jan 2012]

Writer Rob Shearman will be interviewed at the Writers and Readers Week in Wellington, New Zealand on 12th March, which forms part of the International Arts Festival. Organiser Anne Chamberlain said: "He wrote the Dr Who episode that re-introduced the Daleks. So, we're screening that episode and then we're going to have Robert talk. That will draw a completely different audience, I suspect, to the usual Writers and Readers audience." [Stuff, 26 Jan 2012]

Mark Sheppard (Canton, The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon) is due to present the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular in Melbourne, Australia next weekend; speaking on the music, the actor said: "I've been connected with several shows that have had fabulous incidental music as well as score, and it's such an important part of the package as a whole. You watch a show like Doctor Who without music and there's a big difference. And what's amazing is when you isolate the music and hear it performed, it's even grander. It adds another dimension." [Herald Sun, 30 Jan 2012]

A trailer for the new David Tennant film The Decoy Bride has now been released; the film goes on release from 9th March. [IFC Films]

Ticket holders for the Official Doctor Who Convention are to be given the opportunity to visit the existing TARDIS set at its (current) home at Upper Boat Studios:
There are six tours, running on Monday 26th March, the day after the convention weekend, and will be limited to sixty places per tour. The studio visit lasts for around an hour.

For more details visit the convention website.

This weekend sees recording begin on a special adventure for the Seventh Doctor and Ace, as played by Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred; the two are joined by Lisa Bowerman, who reprises her character Professor Bernice Summerfield in her first ever adventure, Love and War!

Originally written as a novel by Paul Cornell in 1992 as part of Virgin's New Adventures range, this adaptation is by Jacqueline Rayner and is being recorded to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the character, whose own association with Big Finish can be traced back to their premier release in 1998 of Oh No It Isn't! (also by Cornell).

Love and War is due to be released on its anniversary in October.

The British Science Fiction Association have announced the shortlist for their 2011 Awards, with voting now open for members.

• The Best Non Fiction award nominations include The Unsilent Library: Adventures in new Doctor Who, a collection of essays that "examine the storytelling style and techniques of the first five years of the New Doctor Who, and explore how its writers have updated a series with a history stretching back five decades to stand in the forefront of contemporary science fiction drama."
• Regular Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell has also been nominated in the Best Short Fiction category for The Copenhagen Interpretation, published in Asimov's in July.

The winners will be revealed at the Award Ceremony, taking place at the 2012 Eastercon at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, Heathrow, between the 6th-9th April.