BBC1's Breakfast also covered yesterday's press screening of The Runaway Bride this morning. As with Wales Today last night, the recorded item featured interviews with David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Sarah Parish talking about making the Christmas special.

On the Doctor's surprise at the Bride's appearance in the TARDIS, Tennant said: "I think he's used to his companion being rather grateful for being shown around the universe and shown the sights, but Donna couldn't be less interested. It's an interesting new dynamic for the show."

Catherine Tate commented on several ideas she'd put forward for her characterisation which had been turned down, though she jokinging said that the "comedy teeth" were given to Sarah Parish instead! She also re-iterated that she would have loved to have been an assistant but wasn't asked!

Sarah Parish commented on her role as the villainess: "I think it's the biggest real monster that Doctor Who has ever done. They've done big CGI monsters but this was actually made ... It was a good four hours costume call in the morning for the prosthetics, then an hour and a half to get it off."

Tennant: "It's only the second Christmas that Doctor Who's ever done, but people already seem to be expecting it as part of their Christmas Day lineup, so that's quite nice and I hope that everyone will tune in!"

The item was accompanied by a number of clips from the episode, plus some still photographs of the principal villainess,The Empress of the Racnoss played by Parish in full glory. Some of these photos have now been featured on theBBC News website and the official Doctor Who website. The BBC Breakfast segment is also available to watch online from the BBC News website (real player) - this includes the clips if you want to avoid seeing them!

BBC1's Breakfast programme tomorrow morning (19th Dec) will be looking at the forthcoming Christmas Day special, and will feature David Tennant as a guest.

Don't forget, Catherine Tate will be appearing on this afternoon's New Paul O'Grady Show at 5:00pm, Channel 4.

This evening's Wales Today (BBC Wales) had a brief article on The Runaway Bride, reporting that the Doctor "gets thrown back into a bizarre set of circumstances ... it's so strange, even the cast weren't sure how the final cut would look".

David Tennant commented: "It's one of those shows where so much happens in post-production. All sorts of things happen to the TARDIS that have never happened before. The three of us [Tennant, Sarah Parish andCatherine Tate] did a scene together when we were in a completely different room on a completely different day."

Parish added: "To see the final [result] it's unbelievable - it's so exciting!"

Meanwhile, Tate appeared on the New Paul O'Grady Show on Channel 4, and inevitably the first topic of discussion was the forthcoming episode. Tate reported that she really enjoyed her time making the show, and suggested she really would have wanted to have become a proper companion rather than just the one-off appearance she had for the special. She also mentioned she'd attended the screening that had taken place today (which is presumably where theWales Today item originated).

Paul O'Grady commented that he wants a small part in the series!

People

The Guardian (free registration required) has a very thorough profile of Billie Piper: "Pop star at 15, anorexic at 16, has-been at 17, teen bride at 18, Hollywood wife at 19, drama student at 20, single woman at 21, born-again star at 22 ... it's hard to believe that Billie Piper is still only 24."

Following up on the reports from the Sun posted yesterday, Mizz magazine (issue 562) writes that Piper "is a big fan of the spin-off series, Torchwood. 'Watching it makes me scream, "I wanna do that!"' she tells us. Could this mean a Rose comeback's on the cards?"

And the People pries into Piper's personal life, as the tabloids are wont to do.

SyFy Portal names Russell T. Davies as one of its Top Newsmakers of 2006.

Dalek operator and Big Finish stalwart Barnaby Edwards is profiled at icHounslow. Edwards, who is directing a pantomime Cinderella at Dorking Halls in Surrey this Christmas, says that the biggest barrier for Daleks isn't stairs, but narrow doorways. The article also mentions the upcoming Paul McGann audios on BBC7, which Edwards is producing and co-directing.

The Runaway Bride Coverage

The Herald of Glasgow put David Tennant and Catherine Tate on the cover of their weekly magazine section this Saturday. There's an interview with Tate inside; the cover can be seen here.

Broadcasting

John Barrowman is listed to appear at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on Monday 18 December (7.30pm) to sing 'some of his favourite Christmas songs and hits from the musicals'. (source here)

Barrowman is also a "special guest" on BBC Radio 2's Friday Night Is Music Night on Friday 22 December (7.30-9.15pm). He will sing "some of his favourite Christmas songs and hits from the musicals. His credits include Miss Saigon, Sunset Boulevard, Company, Evita, Hair and Phantom of the Opera.'" (source: DigiGuide)

Christopher Eccleston stars in Perfect Parents (written and directed by Joe Ahearne) on Thursday 28 December on ITV1 (9-11pm).

Adam Sherwin looks at the spin-off phenomenon within the BBC in The Times, considering the role Sarah Jane Adventures will play for Doctor Who, as well as other series off-shoots for shows like Spooks and Life on Mars. SaysJulian Bellamy, BBC Three controller, “To launch a series with the scale and ambition of Torchwood or Rogue Spooks, it makes sense to draw on a known brand with a loyal audience. But it doesn’t mean that we aren’t seeking entirely new titles.” The story is also covered at the Western Mail.

There's an article about The Sarah Jane Adventures from the Western Mail at icWales.

Reviews

Writing in the Guardian (free registration required), Sam Wollaston begins his 2006 television year in review by lamenting, "Oh Rose, thou art gone. And that's a serious shame. We got a splendid new Dr Who in David Tennant, but lost the main reason to tune in - the wonderful Billie Piper. She's been an absolute joy in the role of Rose Tyler, one of the reasons Dr Who has become that rare event these days - a show for all the family." The column also includes comments from Russell T. Davies, who says, "I wish I'd had time to write more Torchwoods, because I only wrote the first one. We're hitting a great stretch now with four scripts in a row by women, which in science fiction is practically unheard of. It's been less than a year since David Tennant became the Doctor. It was scary this time last year: Chris Eccleston was brilliant, then he left and there was this big hole. But have you seen the BBC schedules? It's like a Doctor Who Christmas. I'm very pleased, obviously, but it's a bit barmy." Tamsin Grieg (The Long Game) is also quoted, as is BBC Head of Vision Jana Bennett, who cites Doctor Who among the year's successes.

Also in the Guardian, Charlie Brooker calls Torchwood "the Year's Most Jarring Show". Brooker makes an amusing but disturbing analogy about Torchwood's sometimes inconsistent tone, and concludes that the program is "interesting, but possibly aimed at madmen."

Metro mentions Tripping Over, starring Eighth Doctor Paul McGann, as one of the television "lows" of 2006, due to low ratings. The article is culled from Broadcast magazine's 2006 ratings review.

Miscellaneous Mentions

The MediaGuardian's "Media Monkey" diary column (requires free registration to view) contained a passing reference to yet another instalment in the long-running Michael Grade / Doctor Who saga on December 13th. Says the column: "New ITV chairman Michael Grade could be having a few interesting conversations around the dinner table with his niece, Lesley Land... Lesley, the daughter of Michael's sister and agent Anita, was handed the Doctor Who brief when it was outsourced to PR company Taylor Herring earlier this year. Grade famously axed Doctor Who when he was in charge of BBC1 in the 80s. Monkey doesn't doubt that Land will have more commitment to the show than her uncle did."

Playwright Mark Ravenhill, profiled in the Independent, is asked, "What do you cling on to from childhood?" He replies, "My loyalty to Doctor Who has remained undimmed through the years. I watch all the DVDs of the old Doctor Whos and keep up to date with all the new ones, which are fantastic. And I buy Doctor Who Magazine, which I did then and I still do now. Tom Baker was my favourite Doctor Who, this weird, flamboyant guy, with Elisabeth Sladenplaying Sarah Jane - a classic combination."

The Lancashire Evening Post reports on items for sale at the annual Harris Exhibition, which includes a "giant Dr Who Tardis". The exhibition runs until next Friday.

A "Tardis House of Fun" was one of the suggestions made by young people for the regeneration of Lowestoft and surrounding area, the Lowestoft Journal reports. "Building on the success of the Doctor Who television programme, imaginative youngsters at Meadow Primary School encouraged people to come through the door to 'experience the wonders of Tardis land.' Jacob from the school said: 'Dr Who is my most favourite thing I watch on TV and so I had the idea for little children, not big ones, so that they could play safely.' "

"Aiden added: 'We thought of the Tardis Fun House because loads of people like Dr Who and we thought it would be good to make a play area for kids who can't travel, because they have no transport and they can be left there on their own because the Cybermen would look after them.' "

(Additional material by Paul Hayes, Chuck Foster and Peter Weaver; thanks to "PolyG" of the Outpost Gallifrey Forum.)

The Sun had a small article about Billie Piper on Friday, the wording and quotes of which have been widely reported on various news sites over the past 24 hours, including Yahoo! News. The piece claims she regrets leaving Doctor Who, and that she is also slightly jealous of the show's continued success. However, the actual quotes are not attributed and appear to be largely recycled from interviews she gave over the past month when she was publicising her book. The quotes include:

The Controller of BBC One, Peter Fincham, was interviewed on Simon Mayo's programme on the BBC's national news and sport talk station, Radio 5 Live, this afternoon.

Outpost Gallifrey forum member Ian Robinson e-mailed a question into the programme, asking whether there was any truth to the rumour that Doctor Who's current run would come to an end after the fourth or fifth series. "No truth to that rumour," was Fincham's reply after Mayo had read him the question. "We don't necessarily plan years in advance, but Doctor Who is so popular I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon."

Fincham also singled out The Runaway Bride as one of the highlights of BBC One's Christmas Day schedule, saying that there was "a particular excitement and anticipation" about the special, and specifically mentioning Catherine Tate's involvement, calling her casting "a real coup". There is apparently "no way on Earth" his children will be watching anything else at 7pm on Christmas Day.

The interview can be heard in full via the 'Listen Again' feature on the Simon Mayo page of the BBC Radio 5 Live website. The Fincham interview starts approximately one hour and ten minutes into Friday's edition.

(Thanks to Ian Robinson)

Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell has announced in our forum that "thanks to the kindness of the production office in asking me to write it, I have a Christmas Doctor Who short story, 'Deep and Dreamless Sleep' in The Sunday Times Culture section on Christmas Eve."

David Tennant interview

There is a short interview with David Tennant in It's Hot magzine (BBC, issue 59). On being asked what the strangest thing about 'being Doctor Who', he replies: "Action figures. They're really, really weird. They're good likenesses, but just so unlike anything to do with real life. I collected Star Wars figures as a child, then suddenly someone's presenting you with one that's... you!" He also mentions that at school his worst subject was maths "and related things like physics," and that he was "never into sport - I was more interested in telly. I managed to just about avoid being 'the weird geek boy' by being willing to loon around a bit."

On working with Freema Agyeman, David remarks: "Freema was a joy to work with in episode 12 of the last series. She is not only very talented and beautiful, she's great fun and I'm delighted she's coming on board the TARDIS full time. I can't wait to welcome her into the Who family!"

Billie Piper on "size zero" models

Billie Piper has criticized the presentation of super-skinny "size zero" models and stars as female role models. Speaking to Glamour magazine, Piper said, "I think the whole size zero debate is disgusting.

"My sister, who is 13, looks amazing but she's already worried about her figure," she continued. "She loves Posh [Victoria Beckham] and I say 'Come on Ellie, she's tiny. What's wrong with Shakira? She's sexy, curvy'. But she has no interest."

The story, sometimes combined with similar comments by Kate Winslet, has been widely covered in the British press and elsewhere. You can read more or less the same story at (deep breath): BBC News, the Independent, the Sun, the Daily Mail, the Mirror, the Daily Record, the Manchester Evening News, Reuters, ITV, Ireland Online, the Evening Standard, Digital Spy, Sky News, FemaleFirst.co.uk, inthenews.co.uk, Fametastic, andPOPand Entertainmentwise.com. The Daily Star put the story (under the heading "Billie Sniper") on its front page on Monday, and news sources as far afield as Australia (the Herald-Sun), Romania, India and the United Arab Emirates have picked up the story from wire services.

Is it a coincidence that Winslet's first major TV role was in Russell T. Davies's groundbreaking children's fantasy Dark Season?

More Billie

Easier.com has a story about the upcoming adaptation of The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman, which will star Billie Piper as Victorian heroine Sally Lockhart. The programme will air on BBC One on 27 December at 8.30pm.

Fans in Piper's hometown of Swindon can meet her at a signing at Borders Bookshop this Saturday between 1 and 3pm. This is a change from the previously announced time; you can read the full story at the Swindon Advertiser.

Catherine Tate

Catherine Tate is interviewed in this week's Heat magazine. Asked if she has always been a Doctor Who fan Tate replies:

"Well, I'm not an obsessive fan, but I used to watch it. For me, the big thing was to work with Russell T Davies and David Tennant. The fact that it's Doctor Who, which is such an iconic thing, is brilliant."

On being asked if it was amazing to be on set, Tate comments: "Yeah, of course, It was really exciting. I mean, it depends on whether you're a massive Doctor Who fan or not. I'm certainly a massive Russell and David fan, and to be inside the Tardis was incredible - it was such a fun thing to do." Working with David Tennant was "Brilliant. He's fantastic. I love his work. I've watched him do so much stuff on stage, and I've probably followed his career more closely than he realises! It was an absolute blast working with him."

Discussing The Runaway Bride being filmed in July and pretending it was Christmas: "I was hot in the wedding dress I had to wear, but [the supporting artists] had to wear hats and scarves and gloves! It was so hot, it was almost illegal. I worried for their human rights."

When asked if she will be watching her Doctor Who debut on Christmas Day, Tate replies: "Oh God, yeah. I mean, I don't usually like watching myself on screen, but this isn't about me. Whereas with my show I'm really critical of stuff, this is just something I was a part of and had a blast on. It's not a comfortable experience watching myself, but because it'sDoctor Who I'll do it."

Euros Lyn in TV Zone

Director Euros Lyn is interviewed in January's (issue 210) TV Zone (part of which is online) where he discusses The Runaway Bride. “I think one of the things about this series of Doctor Who is that the Doctor is taking his experiences with him... There’s always either inferred references, or specific references to his experiences as he’s lived them. So the robot Santas do come back and the Doctor obviously recognizes them because he’s met them before". On Rose’s absence, the Doctor "can’t not experience pain and loss for Rose, so that hang-over’s is very real and very present to him. Instead of Rose, there’s now Donna for the Doctor to deal with, at least for now. It’s incredibly different, for the main reason that the central relationship in this film is a new one and it’s profoundly different to the Doctor and Rose... when the audience watch it they will see something, a new Doctor Who that they’ve not experienced." On Catherine Tate's character, Euros comments: "She’s a handful, that’s for sure. A feisty, red-headed handful.”

Louise Jameson on Stage

Louise Jameson, who played the savage Leela opposite the Fourth Doctor in the 1970s, will be appearing opposite playwright/actor Steven Berkoff in his play Sit and Shiver, which opens at the Hackney Empire on January 25. More details at the London Theatre Guide.

Torchwood Renewal

The story of Torchwood being renewed for a second season, and moving to BBC Two, is covered at BBC News, The Sun, the Western Mail, The Stage, Sci Fi Wire and Sy Fy Portal.

John Barrowman

The Pink Paper mentions John Barrowman's wedding in Cardiff later this month. It also mentions that whilst 'the cast of Torchwood is waiting to hear whether a second series has been commissioned', 'Barrowman said he should also be soon reading scripts for the next Doctor Who series'. The story is also carried at gay.com.

Barrowman's civil partnership isn't the only change in his domestic life: he's also adopted a 12-year-old Cocker Spaniel named Teagan. The story (with photo) can be found at K9 Magazine (which still isn't about the tin dog).

Broadcasting
The Sunday Times newspaper in the UK ran an article by Stephen Armstrong on peer-to-peer filesharing on December the 10th, which highlighted Doctor Who as one of the programmes that may suffer a fragmentation in its audience from internet downloading. "One of the great triumphs of Saturday-evening television recently has been that shows such asThe X Factor and Doctor Who have proved genuine family viewing. In many households, 5-7pm on Saturday is the only point in the week when everyone spends time in the same room. Downloading is likely to cut that last bond. The Heroesmay save the planet, but they are helping to make the world a lonelier place."

What PC? has a story about the business challenges and opportunities presented by the migration of viewers from traditional broadcasting to online video content, suggesting that the trend "must be slightly worrying for the big terrestrial broadcasters, who throw hundreds of pounds at cutting-edge programming like Torchwood."

And some Christian clergy have criticized the BBC's choice of music for a Christmas programming trailer which included clips of The Runaway Bride. The trailer was set to the satirical strains of "Christmas with the Devil" by mock rock bandSpinal Tap, but one retired reverend called the juxtaposition of Christmas and pseudo-satanic lyrics "disgusting, diabolical". The canon of Birmingham Cathedral said, "I’ve enough to do without having to defend God from things like this." (This editor believes that the Almighty can hold his own against the threat of Spinal Tap.)

The story is in The Sun.

Reviews and Previews

Heat reviews this week's Torchwood episode, awarding it 4 (out of 5) stars. "Earlier in the series we suggested that someTorchwood storylines were a bit similar to movies like Men In Black and Species. Subsequent episodes, however, showed Russell T Davies had plenty of ideas, and we ate our words. Tonight, though, a plane that disappeared in 1953 re-emerges in Cardiff, like in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (except the Cardiff bit). Which means we regurgitate our words a little." (previewer: Chris Longridge)

At The Scotsman, reviewer Andrea Mullaney was critical of the Torchwood team, saying that their "seeming inability to learn from their mistakes is becoming annoying."

Heat gives The Runaway Bride their maximum 5 stars and comments: "Last year, Russell T Davies came up with a brilliantly dramatic, yet Christmassy Doctor Who special. This year, he goes one better by securing the talents of TV's woman-of-the-moment Catherine tate, playing a bride-to-be who ends up in the Tardis rather than at the altar. Turns out she's the key to an alien plan to take over the universe, masterminded by Sarah Parish!" (previewer: Boyd Hilton)

Closer magazine has Harry Hill comment on what TV to watch over Christmas, and regarding the Doctor Who Christmas Special he remarks: "Who'd have thought Doctor Who would be cool again? Continuing the comic cameo trend set by Peter Kay, Catherine Tate plays a bride whose wedding is unterrupted by nasty aliens. The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss plays a mad scientist - is there a BBC show he hasn't been in? Personally, I'd like to see former Docs Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy pop up."

All About Soap magazine rates The Runaway Bride at number 2 in their Christmas Top 5 TV shows. "What a liberty! The TARDIS is Rose-less for this festive episode, but David Tennant is back as the tasty time-travelling Doctor. And as a special Christmas treat, he's got a guest companion - Catherine Tate as runaway bride, Donna! While the Doctor tries his best to get Donna to her wedding before it's too late, they battle robot Father Christmases and the sinister Empress of Racnoss, played by former Cutting It star Sarah Parish."

Inside Soap previews The Sarah Jane Adventures on New Year's Day. 'Millions of dads turned dewy-eyed in April when Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen) made a brief return to Doctor Who after 30 years. And in autumn 2007, she'll be staring in a show of her own. As a curtain-raiser to that comes this one-off drama... Now living in London, journalist Sarah is researching an addictive fizzy drink that's taking the world by storm. Someone else who's also intrigued is Sarah's next-door neighbour Maria - a young girl who's whisked away to the manufacturer's factory for an encounter of the monstrous kind!' "When the programme makers first contacted me, I thought they were calling about Torchwood," laughs Elisabeth. "Ooh,' I said, 'I'm going to be in the 9pm slot for once!" However, unlike that show, this one is aimed at younger viewers - although nostalgic dads will also be welcome on the sofa!'

Miscellaneous Mentions

Doctor Who and Torchwood get namechecks in a couple of media sources this week:

Television reviewer Caitlin Moran, who has expressed her love for Doctor Who, refers to Torchwood and the Doctor Who episode "New Earth" in her review of Stephen Spielberg's Into the West in The Times.

An automobile reviewer at Luton Today, apparently desperate for a simile, said that the wheel arches of the new Dodge Caliber are "as fully blown as Billie Piper's lips."

And finally, from New Zealand, we have the story of "Manawatu's Doctor Who", who is making his own TARDIS out of recycled material. The story is at stuff.co.nz -- your guess is as good as ours.

(Additional material by Paul Hayes, Peter Weaver and Kenny Davidson.)

Doctor Who Coverage in Local News

It seems like every local newspaper in Britain has a Doctor Who-related story this week.

The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald announces Billie Piper's return to her hometown of Swindon for a signing of her autobiography. (Incidentally, there's another passing mention of the book's slow sales at The Guardian.)

Sylvester McCoy will be appearing in the panto Aladdin in Reading this Christmas, reveals the Reading Evening Post.

The Exmouth Herald reveals that a Cyberman showed up at the Exmouth Indoor Market last week -- advertising a local science fiction club, the Devon Seaside Devils. It's just as well that the Cyberman stayed in the south-west; if he had travelled to the North, he might have run into a 10-foot Dalek at an art gallery in Preston, Lancashire. TheLancashire Evening Post covers the art exhibit, which also features a giant TARDIS.

And finally, Luton Today has a story about a supposed Billie Piper look-alike. Slow news day?

Miscellaneous Stories

Digital Spy has culled some Catherine Tate quotes about The Runaway Bride from the Radio Times articles. Tate says that keeping the secret of her surprise appearance at the end of Series 2 was "like being a spy."

The Western Mail expects Doctor Who to be at the top of the Christmas television ratings again this year. The same paper also has a story about the eBay auction of a Torchwood script signed by writer Helen Raynor and theTorchwood cast, previously mentioned on this page; the auction is raising money for Cardiff and District Samaritans.

Metro has a short blurb about former EastEnders star Joseph Millson's appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures: he is playing the single father of one of the young characters.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Fiona McCabe questions David Tennant's "Favourite Doctor" victory over Tom Baker in Doctor Who Magazine, guessing that it was because most of the voters "are 12 years old and think Christopher Eccleston was the original doctor." (The actual magazine points out that Tennant came second to Baker among voters over 30.)

Unusual Blog Mentions

There are plenty of Doctor Who blogs out there, but it's interesting when blogs whose subject matter is farther afield make a Who reference. For example, the graphic design blog Noisy Decent Graphics discusses a recent trip to the Cardiff School of Art and Design, which included a presentation by Edward Thomas and the Torchwood design team.

A slightly more bizarre Torchwood reference shows up at eggbaconchipsandbeans, a blog about cafes and the food they serve, written by Russell Davies -- not Doctor Who's own Russell T. Davies, this Russell Davies. He's clearly aware of his namesake's work, though, and describes one plate which includes "an extra dark brown dollop of sauce which looks slightly like a proto alien from Torchwood, something that's just an interstellar blob at the moment but which the special effects folk will soon transform into something sinister."

Across the pond, the American environmental blog Seeing the Forest writes: "Your GOVERNMENT spending tax dollars to "debunk" global warming "alarmism." ... The press release reads like a parallel universe of a weird cult. My wife says it's like Dr. Who, and you travel in the Tardis and arrive in America in 2006 in December, but everything is strange. Some alien force is in control of things. ... We need the Doctor."

From environmentalist voices for the wilderness to the original voice in the wilderness: Solomon, I Have Surpassed Thee, a blog written by the administrator of Westminster Cathedral, makes a somewhat odd transition from watching Doctor Who from behind the sofa to John the Baptist.

Finally, this is partly a Doctor Who blog, but it's made a noteworthy observation: Exigency in Specie notes thatMurray Gold's Doctor Who soundtrack album has been at the top of the UK iTunes Music Store's charts this week.

(Additional material by Kenny Davidson; thanks to "Superted" of the Outpost Gallifrey forum.)

Today's edition of the Sun says that Catherine Tate was left breathless as Runaway Bride Donna in action scenes for the forthcoming Christmas Day special, The Runaway Bride.

"There was lots of running for the runaway bride. David Tennant ran like a whippet and I was lagging behind," says the actress and comedienne in a short piece in the newspaper's TV biz section.