Series Nine exhibits arrive at the Doctor Who Experience

Wednesday, 9 March 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff has now been updated to feature props and costumes from the latest series of Doctor Who, shown last year, including the Christmas Special, The Husbands of River Song. Costumes include those worn by the Doctor, Clara, River Song and Ashildr, alongside monsters such as the Mire, Sandmen, the Veil, and Colony Sarff. Displays also include sets such as the Davros Hospital Room and Trap Street.

Davros's Hospital Room, at the Doctor Who Experience (Credit: BBC Worldwide) Davros's Hospital Room, at the Doctor Who Experience (Credit: BBC Worldwide)
Trap Street, at the Doctor Who Experience 2016 (Credit: BBC Worldwide) The Osgood Box, at the Doctor Who Experience 2016 (Credit: BBC Worldwide)

(with thanks to BBC Worldwide)




FILTER: - Doctor Who Experience - Exhibitions - Series 9/35

Peter Capaldi at HMV

Monday, 29 February 2016 - Reported by Marcus
The Complete Ninth Series (Blu-ray) (Credit: BBC Worldwide)
Peter Capaldi will be appearing at HMV Bond Street in London to meet fans and sign copies of the new DVD/Blu-ray release of Doctor Who Series 9.

The Twelfth Doctor will attend the launch on Monday 7 March from 5.30pm at the OXford Street superstore.

The DVD and Blu-ray contain all 12 episodes from Peter Capaldi's second series in the role, alongside companion Jenna Coleman and guest stars Maisie Williams and Rufus Hound as well as the brilliant Missy (played by Michelle Gomez).

The Complete Boxset also contains the 2014 Christmas Special, Last Christmas and this year's highly anticipated, The Husbands of River Song and more than four hours' worth of extra material.




FILTER: - Blu-ray/DVD - Peter Capaldi - Series 9/35

Jon Rollason 1931-2016

Tuesday, 23 February 2016 - Reported by Marcus

The actor Jon Rollason has died at the age of 84.

Jon Rollason is best known in Doctor Who, for playing Harold Chorley, the television journalist who covered the attacks on the London Underground in the 1968 story The Web of Fear. The recovery of the story in 2013 gave a new generation of fans the chance for to appreciate his contribution to the story.

Jon Rollason was born in Birmingham, where he began his acting career working in the Birmingham Rep.

In 1955 he got his first role on television, appearing in The Children of the New Forest. In 1962 he played Dr. Martin King in three episodes of The Avengers. He had recuring roles in Swizzlewick, Z Cars and Softly Softly before joining Coronation Street in 1966 as Dave Robbins, a teaching colleague of Ken Barlow.

He wrote two episodes of Crossroads and in 1969 created a two-part series Special Project Air for the BBC, starring Peter Barkworth, produced by Doctor Who's Peter Bryant and with music by Dudley Simpson.

Jon Rollason died in hospital on the morning of February 20th and is survived by his second wife, Janet, and three children.




FILTER: - Classic Series - Obituary

Doctor Who Series 1 - Most Bought Drama

Tuesday, 16 February 2016 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who Series 1 has been named as the most frequently bought drama in the entire 40 year history of BBC Worldwide's Showcase event.

BBC Worldwide is the commercial arm of the BBC, which sells the best British TV shows from the BBC and UK independent producers around the world. Since 1976 it - and its predecessor, BBC Enterprises - has hosted international TV buyers at its own annual sales event, BBC Showcase. The first Showcase took place in a meeting room at The Old Ship Hotel in Brighton on the South Coast, and was attended by 25 buyers. Since then showcase has grown to the world’s biggest single distributor trade fair, regularly attracting more than 700 international buyers.

To celebrate 40 years of Showcase, BBC Worldwide has released the new data based on the number of times a title has been bought rather than the number of territories it was bought by, which shows how series continue to interest broadcasters time and again.

The most purchased drama series has been named as Doctor Who Series 1. Starring Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor and first broadcast in 2005, the series has attracted 629 buyers from countries including Bahrain, Hong Kong, France and Chile.

Doctor Who was one of the titles screened to buyers at the very first Showcase in 1976.

Paul Dempsey, President of Global Markets, said
We are extremely proud of our heritage and back catalogue so it’s fun to look back into the archives and celebrate the enduring appeal of some of our classic shows.

But, at the same time, it’s clear that the priority for today’s audiences is event TV with high-production values so it’s no coincidence that our current best sellers are premium dramas like Doctor Who and Sherlock, high-end entertainment shows like Strictly Come Dancing and Top Gear, and our world-renowned natural history programmes like The Hunt.
The most bought comedy programme is the first series of the classic sitcom Keeping Up Appearances which has been bought 992 times over the forty year period. The most bought natural history title is The Life of Mammals with 958 sales and the most bought factual entertainment series is Top Gear Series 9, broadcast in 2006, which has clocked up 282 sales.




FILTER: - Broadcasting - Doctor Who - Series 1/27

Rachel Talalay on why Doctor Who should win Awards

Wednesday, 20 January 2016 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who Director Rachel Talalay has been talking about the series and how it is perceived by the TV Industry.

Talalay has written a blog inspired by the recent controversy over the Oscar nominations and their lack of diversity. In the article the director talks about award nominations, and how they are skewed to favour traditional type dramas.
Historically, the BAFTA voters have a love for “Bonnets and Bustles”...... Doctor Who seems like an obvious skip-over. Yeah, sure, Peter Capaldi is a great actor, but who cares about that kids’ show? And it’s sci-fi, not ‘real’ drama, and it’ll be around forever and we need to support new and fresh.
The director disputes the implication that Doctor Who's long history means it is not new and fresh.
Spend five minutes watching the incredible anti-war speech delivered by Peter Capaldi in The Zygon Inversion. Or a few more minutes watching Jenna Coleman’s emotional, powerful goodbye in Face the Raven. You don’t need to know these character’s history to appreciate the tremendous work here.
Rachel Talalay directed the final two episodes of both Series 8 and Series 9, including the one man episode Heaven Sent where Peter Capaldi performed solo for the majority of the story
It is an absolute acting tour-de-force, all-doctor-all-the-time, and it demands to be seen before the voters turn to the obvious dramas.
She also paid tribute to members of the production team
Credit Will Oswald’s extraordinary editing of billions of years of footage. And Stuart Biddlecombe’s stunning cinematography. All accomplished on a budget less than ¼ of an episode of Game of Thrones. These craftsmen-artists need recognition.
Finally the director paid tribute to the mastermind of the series
None of this would be possible without Steven Moffat’s immaculate, intricately plotted, remarkable script. He stated, both publicly and to the team, that this was one of the hardest things he has ever written. Love or hate the Moff, honour him for the attempt at different television and the sweat and toil for a show that could be what non-watchers assume it is: some old time-travel show with monsters.
Full Blog at racheltalalay.tumblr.com




FILTER: - People - Series 9/35

Series Nine Wins Golden Tomato Award

Saturday, 16 January 2016 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who Series Nine has been voted the Best Reviewed TV Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Series of 2015 on the review site Rotten Tomatoes.

The Annual Golden Tomato Awards are awarded to the series with the highest ratings, based on reviews submitted to the site. The 2015 Series scored an average rating of 4.5/5 and received a remarkable 100% positive rating from approved critics.

The series beat Game of Thrones; Season 5 which came second. Marvel's Daredevil came third with Ash Vs Evil Dead and Hannibal taking fourth and fifth places respectivally.

Doctor Who Series 9 was also voted as fourth in the Best Returning TV Shows Category, with Fargo Season 2 taking top spot.




FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - Series 9/35

Robert Banks Stewart 1931-2016

Friday, 15 January 2016 - Reported by Marcus
The writer and producer Robert Banks Stewart has died at the age of 84.

Robert Banks Stewart is best known to Doctor Who fans as the creator of the Zygons, but his body of work encompassed far more than the shape shifting body snatchers, creating some of the most loved series on British Television.

Born in Edinburgh, Banks Stewart started his profession life as a journalist, but his interests always lay in television scripts. In the 1950's he worked for both Pinewood Studios and Thames Television providing scripts for series such as Danger Man, The Human Jungle, Top Secret, The Sweeney and The Avengers. He wrote 5 episodes of Arthur of the Britons for HTV.

In 1975 he was asked to write for Doctor Who and came up Terror of the Zygons, as story that went on to be one of the most fondly remembered of the original series. The Zygons would return for the show's 50th Anniversary special in 2013, their success ensuring a full return in the most recent series of the show.

Due to the triumph of Zygon script he was asked to write the six part conclusion to the series, coming up with The Seeds of Doom, introducing the Krynoid and the deranged horticulturist Harrison Chase.

In 1979 he created the detective series Shoestring. Set in Bristol the series was a major success for the BBC, toping the ratings and running for two series. When leading actor Trevor Eve declined to stay with the show, Bank Stewart created another series, Bergerac, set this time on the island of Jersey and starring John Nettles as the eponymous detective and recovering alcoholic who liked to drive his vintage sports car while solving crimes. The series would run for 9 years and would feature Louise Jameson as Jim Bergerac's girlfriend Susan Young.

In the 1980's he became a producer, working on the first series of Lovejoy. In 1991 he produced and adapted, H. E. Bates' novel The Darling Buds of May for ITV, which gained one of the highest ratings for a new series in the history of British Television. Banks Stewart was instrumental in casting the unknown Catherine Zeta Jones in the role of Mariette.

Robert Banks Stewart died at home on Thursday after suffering from cancer. He is survived by three sons from his second marriage and a daughter from his first.




FILTER: - Classic Series - Obituary

Final Australian ratings for The Husbands of River Song

Sunday, 10 January 2016 - Reported by Adam Kirk
Including time-shifted viewers, The Husbands of River Song averaged 761,000 consolidated viewers in the five major capital cities. With 186,000 extra viewers it was the highest time-shifted program of the day (the second highest time-shifted program only had 33,000 extra viewers) and the seventh highest rating program of the day overallThese ratings do not include iview or regional viewers.

Media Links: TV Tonight




FILTER: - Australia - Broadcasting - Ratings - Series 9/35

Christmas Official Ratings

Monday, 4 January 2016 - Reported by Marcus

Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song, had an official rating of 7.69 million viewers.

The final rating includes those who watched the programme within one week of transmission. It is an increase of nearly 2 million on the initially reported figure.

Christmas Day saw some impressive timeshift figures. The top programme of the week was the final episode of ITV's Downton Abbey, which increased its audience by four million to finish with an official audience of 10.92 million.

A substantial timeshift was also achieved by the BBC's highest rated programme, Mrs Brown's Boys, which finished with 9.49 million watching. Other BBC programmes doing well included Call the Midwife with 9.3 million, Stick Man with 9.28 million, and Strictly Come Dancing with 8.54 million. The Boxing Day showing of the Agatha Christie mystery And Then There Were None also scored highly with 8.61 million viewers.

The Queen's Christmas Broadcast to the Commonwealth had 6.35 million watching on BBC One but, once ITV's figures were added, it just edged above Doctor Who with 7.76 million viewers.

Doctor Who was 8th for the week and 7th for Christmas Day. It achieved higher ratings than the ubiquitous soaps Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale.

Since the series returned in 2005 there have been eleven Christmas day episodes, the most successful being the 2007 episode starring Kylie Minogue, Voyage of the Damned.

In the United States The Husbands of River Song achieved a 1.242m Live+ SD Rating on BBC America.





FILTER: - Ratings - Series 9/35 - UK - USA

Doctor's Notes - BBC America

Sunday, 3 January 2016 - Reported by Marcus

BBC America is to rebroadcast Doctor Who Series 9, complete with commentary from Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Facebook.

Starting Saturday January 30th each episode will be shown annotated with inside facts, fan art and comments.






FILTER: - Series 9/35 - USA