Doctor Who Confidential to be cancelled

Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The producer of the behind-the-scenes documentary series Doctor Who Confidential, Zoe Rushton, has confirmed on Twitter that the show will no longer be produced by the BBC. The final edition of the show will be broadcast this coming Saturday at 8:35pm on BBC3 (with Rushton clarifying that previously reported production for a Christmas edition is no longer occuring).

Reasons for the show's cancellation have been cited by the Guardian newspaper as being financial in nature, with the BBC having to engage in several cost-cutting exercises to meet its tighter budget. Part of this initiative has been a 're-alignment' of programming on BBC3, with controller Zai Bennett commenting at last month's Edinburgh International Television Festival that "it's about focusing my budget on 9pm and 10pm; those are the time slots that count. Budgets are tight, so we have to be sensible with the money we have." Further details about BBC3 changes are expected to be outlined by the Director General, Mark Thompson on 6th October.

The BBC Press Office confirmed to us that:
The Doctor Who spin-off series, Doctor Who Confidential, has been a great show for BBC Three over the years, but our priority now is to build on original British commissions, unique to the channel.





FILTER: - Doctor Who - Documentary - Series 7/33

Dinosaurs invade Riverside!

Wednesday, 28 September 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
This January sees the release of Invasion of the Dinosaurs on DVD, a story which has the dubious fame of including the final casualty of the old BBC process of destroying prints, with episode one only existing as a black and white print in the BBC Archive.

The episode, like other 'monochrome' Pertwee episodes, has been a focus as to whether a colour version could be recreated; speaking in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, DVD executive producer Dan Hall said:
This colour recovery has been a miracle, pulling out colour information from black and white film prints. Unfortunately, in the case of Invasion (of the Dinosaurs) Part One, the process has not produced a perfect colour print, but enough information has been salvaged to offer a tantalising glimpse of what the original broadcast may have been like.

As a result, the episode will be presented in the story in its 'clean' black and white version, with the partial colour restoration available as an alternative.


The colour episode will be shown in the form of a special preview for attendees at the forthcoming DWAS convention, Time 5, taking place at Riverside Studios on Saturday 29th October 2011:
To publicise the forthcoming DVD release we are pleased that the colour version of episode 1 will be previewed on the big screen in the cinema.

The trailer for the forthcoming The Reign of Terror - recently seen in Australia - will also be screened during the convention.
(with thanks to Paul Winter)





FILTER: - Conventions - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Voting now open for the 2012 National TV Awards

Tuesday, 27 September 2011 - Reported by Harry Ward
NTA Voting is now open in longlist for the 2012 National TV Awards. Doctor Who and Torchwood: Miracle Day have been nominated in the 'Most Popular Drama' category.

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, John Barrowman and Eve Myles have all been nominated in 'Outstanding Drama Performance' for their roles in Doctor Who and Torchwood: Miracle Day respectively.

John Barrowman has also been nominated in 'Most Popular Entertainment Presenter' while his show, Tonight's The Night, is up for 'Most Popular Entertainment Programme'.

Competition in the longlist will come from ITV's Downton Abbey. The period drama, featuring Hugh Bonneville (Henry Avery, The Curse of the Black Spot) recently won 6 Primetime Emmy Awards.

Voting in the longlist closes on 17 October 2011. The shortlist will be announced in January 2012.





FILTER: - People - UK - Awards/Nominations

Doctor Who: The Complete Series Six Boxed Set confirmed for 21st November

Tuesday, 27 September 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
2|Entertain have now confirmed that the Complete Series Six boxed set will be released in the United Kingdom on the 21st November 2011 on Blu-ray and DVD:

The Doctor, Amy and Rory return to face monsters, mysteries and adventures all across time and space in the the action-packed sixth series.

Together they find themselves in Sixties America, battling the invasion the world forgot, then journey on the high seas of 1696 aboard a pirate ship, to solve the mystery of the Siren. In a bubble universe at the very edge of reality, the Doctor meets an old friend with a new face, and in a monastery on a remote island in the near future, an industrial accident takes on a terrible human shape. They also venture across centuries and galaxies, where they encounter the greatest war criminal in all of history - and Hitler. They'll also discover there's no scarier place in the universe than a child's bedroom and a visit to an alien quarantine facility will reveal to Rory a very different side to his wife. In a hotel where walls move, corridors twist and rooms vanish, death lies waiting. But the Doctor's time has yet to come. He has one last stop to make on his final journey - an old friend needs his help and an old foe must be defeated. But time catches up with us all and the Doctor can delay no more.
As previously revealed by the BBFC earlier in the month, only four episodes will be accompanied by a commentary this year, covering The Impossible Astronaut, The Doctor's Wife, A Good Man Goes To War, and The Wedding of River Song. However, as usual all thirteen episodes of the series have their accompanying episode of Doctor Who Confidential Cut Down.

Also included with the release are last year's festive treat, A Christmas Carol, the Comic Relief mini-episode Space & Time, and the five series preludes released online through the BBC's Doctor Who site; though not listed in the press release, the Script to Screen mini-episode Death is the Only Answer is also expected to be included. The set also sees the addition of five new mini-episodes, themed "Night and the Doctor", which have been written exclusively for the release by Steven Moffat, plus a special Confidential to accompany them, The Night's Tale.

The boxed set will also contain the four Monster Files released with the previous, individual Part 1 and Part 2 series sets.


The DVD boxed set will also be released as a limited edition "Silence" version, which will also include four lenticular prints.







FILTER: - Merchandise - Series 6/32 - Blu-ray/DVD

The Wedding of River Song: Radio Times/BBC Publicity Photos

Tuesday, 27 September 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The new edition of the Radio Times (1st-7th October) is out today, and bids farewell to the current series of Doctor Who; it features interviews with series showrunner Steven Moffat, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, and also includes who their hidden Who heroes might be - plus a look back at what it considers to be the Doctor's five greatest escapes ...

You can also read a preview for the episode on the Radio Times website.


Next week also sees the return of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and in the magazine Elisabeth Sladen’s daughter Sadie talks movingly of her mother’s legacy.
 

Meanwhile, the BBC have now released a host of photos featuring a number of new and familiar faces that will appear in the 45 minute finale this coming Saturday:



**** PUBLICITY PHOTOS FOR THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG
**** MIGHT BE CONSIDERED SPOILERS























FILTER: - Series 6/32 - Online - Radio Times

Next Time: The Sarah Jane Adventures: Sky

Tuesday, 27 September 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Next week sees the return of The Sarah Jane Adventures, with the two episodes of the first story, Sky, being broadcast at 5:15pm on Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th October respectively on the CBBC channel. (At the time of writing no details on broadcasts on BBC1 or BBCHD are available.)




**** THE FOLLOWING SYNOPSES MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS



Alien investigator Sarah Jane Smith is back on CBBC with a fifth and final series of the award-winning The Sarah Jane Adventures, starring the late Elisabeth Sladen.

Created by Russell T Davies, the hugely successful Doctor Who spin-off returns for a brand-new, six-part series, featuring three stories, each told over two episodes. The first is the spectacular two-part story, Sky.

In today's episode, Sarah Jane finds a baby girl on her doorstep and tries to find out who abandoned her.

At a nearby nuclear power station, a beautiful woman appears out of thin air and uses alien powers to take control. She's looking for something – and realises that Sarah Jane may just have it...
Today, Sky has undergone an amazing transformation, but in doing so has triggered a countdown that no one can stop.

As Sarah Jane and Sky find themselves trapped between the alien war fought by Metalkind and Fleshkind, Clyde and Rani face a race against time to stop the biggest bang in history...

Series Five trailer, BBC, via the CBBC Sarah Jane Adventures site - may not play outside of the United Kingdom

The BBC have also released a number of publicity photos for the series:


**** PUBLICITY PHOTOS FOR THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES
**** MIGHT BE CONSIDERED SPOILERS


















FILTER: - Online - Sarah Jane

Torchwood: Final Ratings

Monday, 26 September 2011 - Reported by Marcus
The final episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day has a consolidated audience of 5.13 million viewers, making it the 14th most watched programme on BBC One for the week.

With figures now available for the whole series, the 10 episodes averaged 5.17 million viewers each week. Highest rated was episode one, with 6.59 million watching and the lowest rated was episode 7 with 4.48 million.

Each episode ranked amongst the highest programmes accessed on the BBC iPlayer with over half a million requests each. Episode one was by far the most popular episode on the iPlayer with over a million programme requests. Successive episodes scored lower on the iPlayer, but were available for a shorter time.

Series Three of Torchwood, Children of Earth averaged of 6.60 million when it was shown on BBC One in 2009. Series One had its preimere on on BBC3 on Sunday evenings, achieveing an average of 1.42 million with Series Two on BBC Two averaging 3.78 million.

Torchwood Ratings Torchwood Ratings

Full Ratings data can be found in the Series Guide.




FILTER: - Torchwood - Ratings - UK - Miracle Day (Series 4)

Closing Time: Appreciation Index

Monday, 26 September 2011 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: Closing Time had an Appreciation Index, or AI score of 86.

The AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the episode. The score puts the programme in the excellent category. It was the second highest on the two main channels for Saturday night, just behind Casualty which scored 87.

Overnights are now available for the whole week, with Doctor Who currently in 28th place. Final consolidated figures should be released next week.




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 6/32

The God Complex - Official Ratings

Sunday, 25 September 2011 - Reported by Marcus
Last week's episode of Doctor Who, The God Complex had an official consolidated rating of 6.77 million viewers.

Although the programme was beaten by All Star Family Fortunes in the overnight charts, the official figures, which are much more accurate than the initially reported overnight figures, and which include those who record the programme and watch it within a week, showed Doctor Who actually outrated the game show by over a million viewers, with ITV getting 5.39 million watching.

Doctor Who had 28.3% of the available TV audience.

The figures do not include those watching on iPlayer where over 800,000 have so far accessed the episode.

Full figures which will reveal the chart position should be available later this week.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Ratings - UK - Series 6/32

People Roundup

Sunday, 25 September 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
David Tennant is to star in a new 3D-CGI film version of children's television hero Postman Pat in Postman Pat: The Movie - You Know You're The One, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the show; the actor will lend his vocal talents to the film alongside Rupert Grint, Jim Broadbent, with the voice of Pat to be provided by Stephen Mangan. [Mirror, 16th Sep]

Meanwhile, a pair of pants signed by the actor and the rest of the West End cast of Much Ado About Nothing was able to raise £252 for the Make A Difference Foundation. [Daily Record, 25th Sep]

Arthur Darvill (Rory) will be performing as one of a multitude of cast for the Bush Theatre's production of Sixty Six Books: "Celebrating the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible, each book of this great English work is spoken to by a remarkable range of playwrights, poets, songwriters and novelists from all faiths and none, from over a dozen countries and across five continents." The performances run between 10th-29th October. [Bush Theatre]

Steven Moffat was nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special at this year's Emmy Awards; however, the Sherlock writer lost out on the night to Downton Abbey's Julian Fellowes. [Academy of Television Arts and Sciences]

Alex Kingston (River Song) will be joining the cast of BBC drama Upstairs, Downstairs; her character, Blanche Mottershead, is described as "a free-thinking and outspoken archaeologist who smokes cheroots and who is fond of a 'little light nudism'". The actress said of the role: "I simply couldn't resist the opportunity to get inside the iconic 165 Eaton Place. I can say the character is very complex, very intriguing and very straight-talking. She has some very dark secrets of her own." [BBC News, Mail on Sunday, 25th Sep]

Arlene Tur (Vera in Torchwood: Miracle Day) talks about her new production: "I started my producing career recently. I've been producing a show called Homeless Improvement, which is a show where we come alongside homeless people who want to become a part of society and get reunited with their family, so we work with them to do that. We've filmed it and now we're shopping it around for distribution and there are some networks that are interested so we're excited about that. I have a real heart for philanthropy, I think we're made to give back – we're not meant to just take while we're here. I do a lot of mission work abroad so it was wonderful to take on a project where I'm helping people in the States, because I tend to go away usually." [Stuff, 25th Sep]

Bernard Cribbins (Wilf) will be talking about his experiences in the angling world at The Lands End pub in Landsend Lane, Twyford on 19th November. A keen angler himself, the actor has also produced films for the angling world. [Get Wokingham, 21st Sep]





FILTER: - People - Bernard Cribbins - David Tennant