New Zealand broadcaster PRIME have announced the premiere of the Christmas Special The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe for Thursday 19th January, 8:30-9:50pm.

The channel also has a microsite available for the Special.

The fifth and final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures will be released in the UK on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday 6th February 2012.

The set will contain a special tribute to the late Elisabeth Sladen featuring contributions from those who worked closely with her, including the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith. Goodbye Bannerman Road was filmed on location and also features Sladen's co-stars Daniel Anthony & Anjli Mohindra.

Also released on the same day is a 12 disc Box Set containing the entire five series of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Doctor Who News Shop. Series 5 / Box Set

Doctor Who, The Doctor, The Witch and The Wardrobe had a final official rating of 10.77 million viewers.

The official rating takes into account those who record the programme and watch it within 7 days. It is much more accurate than the initial overnight figure. It does not include those watching on iPlayer, where over 700,000 accessed the episode within five days of transmission.

The final ratings saw ITV1's Downton Abbey leap to the top of the list to claim the prize as the most watched programme of Christmas Day with 11.60 million watching. EastEnders was second with 11.33 million and Doctor Who came in third. It overtook ITV1's Coronation Street which was the 4th most watched programme of the day.

Christmas Day dominated the ratings for the week, making Doctor Who the 3rd most watched programme for the week. In the history of the programme only eight episodes of Doctor Who have made the top Three for the week.

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Congratulations to Daniel Elkington of Brunswick, Victoria, Australia who guessed 10.79 million in our Christmas Competition.
Other winners are Bridget Walker of Rockhamption, Queensland, Australia (10.71), Matthew Boorman of Warwick (10.82), Morag Bennett of Telford (11.11) and Lee Higgins, Shrewsbury (11.3)

Having fielded off Downton Abbey in the Christmas ratings, Doctor Who will face the popular ITV1 drama again in this year's National Television Awards, taking place at the O2 Arena in London on 25th January. The nominees for the Best Drama Award also include BBC1's Merlin and last year's winner Waterloo Road.

Meanwhile, the Doctor Who team are up against sister show Torchwood in both the Drama Performance: Male and Female nominations, with Matt Smith facing John Barrowman and Karen Gillan facing Eve Myles respectively. The categories also include Martin Clunes (for Doc Martin, ITV1), David Threlfall (Shameless, C4), Jaye Jacobs (Waterloo Road, BBC1), and Suranne Jones (Scott & Bailey, ITV1).

Voting for the shortlist of nominees is now open, with the results to be announced at the award ceremony hosted by Dermot O'Leary, broadcast live on ITV1.

The 2011 Christmas Special, The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe is to be released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on the 16th January:


The release also includes the special BBC "prequel" that precedes the story's start, and also three 45 minute specials commissioned by BBC America to showcase the favourite moments from the Eleventh Doctor's era: Best of the Doctor, Best of the Monsters and Best of the Companions.

Both the DVD and Blu-ray releases are available for pre-order.


Meanwhile, the USA/Canada DVD and Blu-ray releases are planned for 14th February, whilst Australia will see the release of the episode on 1st March.

Tenth Doctor David Tennant has married his long term partner Georgia Moffett at a ceremony in London.

The couple, who became engaged at the start of 2011, tied the knot on Friday evening at an undisclosed location, attended by close family and friends.

Georgia Moffett is the daughter of Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison. She played Jenny in the 2008 story The Doctor's Daughter.

The couple's first child, Olive, was born at the end of March.

The Doctor Who Experience have announced the arrival of the Wooden King and Wooden Queen to the exhibition, as seen in this year's Christmas Special, The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe.


The two costumes will be in a special display at the exhibition, alongside the existing array of monsters including the Daleks, Cybermen, Silurians and the Silence.

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The Doctor Who Experience is open in London until 22nd February 2012, and will then re-open at its new home by the BBC Studios at Cardiff Bay later in the year.

The BBC Doctor Who page on Facebook are running a competition for one lucky winner to win the Complete Series 6 Boxed Set on Blu-ray, plus a 32" HDTV and Blu-ray player to watch it on!


The competition is open to residents of the United Kingdom who are eighteen years of age or over; in order to enter simply ensure you "Like" the Doctor Who page, and then provide your name, address and other contact details via the competition entry form by 2nd January 2012.


The winner will be announced the week after closing date.

United Kingdom

Last week we reported on the party thrown for terminally ill children in Downing Street; mother Jane Berman from Chigwell was there with her son Ross and said: "“Ross was absolutely thrilled to meet Doctor Who. He's a real fan. Matt Smith came running down Downing Street and ran up to Ross and said 'I've come all the way from Gallifrey to see you'" [Epping Forest News, 20 Dec 2011]

Matt Smith, who is an ambassador for organisers Starlight, said: "Thousands of children will spend this Christmas in hospital and, along with a White Christmas, this year I am wishing for some much-needed festive cheer for these kids." [Watford Observer, 20 Dec 2011]

Fan Erica Quinn from Glasgow has turned her front door into the TARDIS doors: ""I call it my double take door. People walk by and just stop and stare. People have started calling me the Doctor Who House Lady. Once I was getting a taxi on the other side of Glasgow - and I went up to the taxi rank and asked to go to the West End. One of the drivers said: 'I'll take you, because I want to go past the Doctor Who House. I was like, 'That's my house'." Erica also has life-sized figures of the 10th, 11th Doctors, Daleks and Captain Jack amongst others: "They switch around and sometimes they come out of the windows They are an excellent deterrent against having your house broken into because it looks like someone is watching." [Belfast Telegraph, 26 Dec 2011]

Daleks and K9 were on hand to entertain visitors to Robots Live at Snibston Discovery Park, Coalville. Organiser Alan Young said: "It was a great day and a lot of fun. I think it's safe to say the Daleks stole the show. We normally stage big arena events but this was a chance for people to get up close and personal with the robots and the people who built them." [Leicester Mercury, 28 Dec 2011]

BBC Radio Leicester presenter Karl Cooper is an avid Dalek collector: "They adorn windowsils and the fireplace at home. When friends are short on gift ideas, the collection seems to grow!! A life long fan of The Doctor (Jon Pertwee era is his fave), he'd love a full sized Dalek but complains he has neither the cash or space to get one. He's also not sure how the two cats would react to such an invasion!!" [BBC Radio Leicester, 28 Dec 2011]

Australia

New series Outland writer and comedian Adam Richard reveals his Doctor Who inspiration: "My scariest TV moment was when ... Noah took his hand out of his pocket and it had mutated into green bubble-wrap. (The Ark in Space). I decided a television career was for me when ... I started noticing my favourite episodes of Doctor Who seemed to be written by the same man (Robert Holmes - genius)" [Sydney Morning Herald, 22 Dec 2011]

The Tuesday repeat of the Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe had an audience of 1.1 million viewers according to unofficial overnight figures.

The show had a 9.5% share of the audience available, winning its timeslot. All Star Family Fortunes, which was scheduled against Doctor Who again, also had an average of 1.1 million watching, however Doctor Who had the higher ratings while the shows were pitted against each other.

Meanwhile more details have emerged about the Christmas Day showing. Among children aged 4-15, as well as adults aged 45-54, Doctor Who was the most watched programme on Christmas day. The only group for which Doctor Who lost out to All Star Family Fortunes was viewers aged 65+.

Doctor Who was the only programme on Christmas Day post-3pm which had an exact 50/50 male/female split.