Tonight saw the Royal Television Society hold its annual Programme Awards; though Doctor Who wasn't nominated itself, several categories had related nominations:
The show's lead writer Steven Moffat was awarded the Judge's Award at the ceremony:
The Judges’ Award is given for an outstanding contribution to television, and there are few screenwriters in the world whose work boasts the same incredible range as tonight’s recipient. Equally at home with horror, detective stories, situation comedy, action adventure and sci-fi, this year's winner is an author in the truest sense of the word. With a vocation encouraged by his father, his first foray into television arrived in the form of the awarded and still iconic children’s drama series Press Gang. (The first and last time he needed a leg-up from anyone but not the last time he would call on a family member for help). With a clear comic ability and an already-proven knack for seeing the insane and ironic in ordinary life, tonight’s winner forged a highly accomplished career in situation comedy during the 90s, paving the way for his most successful original comedy to date, Coupling – regarded by many as a paradigm for near-perfect comic writing and storytelling. Sitcom, it would turn out, was the perfect warm up for tackling two of the biggest icons in British fiction in his most recent works: Sherlock and Doctor Who. Channeling all that he had learned about structure into shaping mind-bendingly brilliant sci-fi and thriller plots, as well as placing a funny man/straight man pairing at the centre of extraordinary and impossible circumstances, with his friend Mark Gatiss he invited an entirely new audience to claim Holmes and Watson as their own. And in his downtime reinventing Doctor Who to overwhelming critical and ratings success from the get-go. There are few writers who would trade Steven Spielberg and Hollywood to work with the Daleks in Wales but this man did. Indeed, with a seemingly inexhaustible resource of utterly distinctive plots and the ability to use comedy liberally to form a devoted connection with the audience, our winner is living, typing proof of why television remains THE writer’s medium.
Moffat's co-creation with Mark Gatiss, Sherlock also performed well, winning the Drama Series category:
Updating a classic was a daunting task but the bravura of this production's writing and directing successfully made it feel new and modern. This was one of the most original and entertaining new series for years.
The spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures starring Elisabeth Sladen also won a prize, beating off opposition to win the Children's Drama category:
The winner was emotional and incredibly engaging – a wonderful drama that stands on its own as a terrific piece of storytelling. The cultural diversity of the cast, its high production values and creative storyline made it a joy to watch and kept you intrigued.
Finally, former Doctor David Tennant was nominated in the Actor (Male) category for Single Father, but lost out to another "Doctor", Jim Broadbent, who won the award for his role in Any Human Heart (Broadbent was one of the Doctor's short-lived incarnations in Moffat's Comic Relief special, The Curse of Fatal Death).
The results were published 'live' during the course of the evening via the Society's media feed on Twitter; the full set of winners is available from the RTS website.
Tom Baker has officially signed to record a series of Audio Plays for Big Finish, where he will be reunited with former companions, Louise Jameson playing Leela and Mary Tamm playing Romana.
The link up has been expected for some time after Baker posted on his forum that he was in talks with the company, but noting was officially confirmed until a press statement from the company earlier today.
Baker has previously recorded a set of stories for BBC Audio, but has never worked for the independent company before.
The new adventures will be recorded this summer and are expected to be released early in 2012. A first season of six single-disc releases will released, with a second season of seven single-disc releases to follow at a date to be confirmed. There will also be a five-disc box set entitled Doctor Who: The Lost Stories – The Fourth Doctor Box Set.
The producers across the Fourth Doctor adventures will be David Richardson and Nicholas Briggs who said
As many of you will know, we've been talking to Tom for a long time, David Richardson and I went to visit Tom at his home not long ago to chat about it all. We had a really great time. At that point, I sincerely felt that had we taken a microphone with us, Tom would have started there and then - but, of course, there are always finer details to sort out. Now that our plans are in place, and Tom has enthusiastically told the world that we're going ahead, we thought it best to follow-up with our own announcement. Rest assured that in the coming months we will be releasing news on this as soon as we are able.
Executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery said:
I am delighted that Tom will be joining the Big Finish audio adventures of Doctor Who. As a small child, I remember how charismatic and engaging his performance was each Saturday tea time - and we are all looking forward to recreating that era again.
Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, has recently joined twitter and can be followed at @SawbonesHex.
Baker, who calls himself as an 'Actor, columnist, writer, husband, father, Wycombe Wanderers fan, grumpy old man', also has an official website at colinbakeronline.com.
Colin Baker has also paid tribute to the late Nicholas Courtney.
In a post on the website he describes Courtney as 'the guvnor’ and a true gentleman. He talks about attending Courtney's funeral which took place last week.
It was a substantial turn out, many of those attending from the world of Doctor Who, which was a tribute to the great man that Nick was. I remembered that whenever I met him he never failed to ask after my daughters whom he enquired of by name. He was an impressive man with great memory for people and a great interest in them. I gather there will be a memorial to him later in the year and have no doubt that the attendance at that will be huge and we will hear countless stories of his charm, humour and thoroughdecency.
I will miss him hugely and can only imagine how Karen, his wife, will be feeling. My heart goes out to her.
John Barrowman has announced a new Tour this Autumn, visiting cities across the UK and Ireland.
Tickets go on sale next Friday for the series of concerts that bring Barrowman's unique style of entertainment to a number of venues, starting in Northampton on 19 October through to Glasgow on 24 November.
Barrowman is currently filming Torchwood - Miracle Day, due to be shown around the world this Summer.
Tour Dates Wednesday, 19 October: NORTHAMPTON - Derngate Thursday, 20 October: BRENTWOOD - Brentwood Centre Friday, 21 October: CAMBRIDGE - Corn Exchange Sunday, 23 October: LEICESTER - De Montfort Hall Monday, 24 October: WATFORD - Colosseum Tuesday, 25 October: BRIDLINGTON - Spa Theatre Thursday, 27 October: EDINBURGH - Playhouse Friday, 28 October: SHEFFIELD - City Hall Sunday, 30 October: MANCHESTER - Bridgewater Hall Monday, 31 October: SWINDON - Oasis Wednesday, 2 November: IPSWICH - Regent Thursday, 3 November: NOTTINGHAM - Royal Centre Friday, 4 November: YORK - Barbican Sunday, 6 November: BLACKPOOL - Opera House Monday, 7 November: LONDON - Palladium Wednesday, 9 November: BELFAST - Waterfront Hall Thursday, 10 November: DUBLIN - Grand Canal Theatre Friday, 11 November: LIVERPOOL - Philharmonic Sunday, 13 November: CARDIFF - Cardiff International Arena Monday, 14 November: BIRMINGHAM - Symphony Hall Tuesday, 15 November: MANCHESTER - Bridgewater Hall Thursday, 17 November: BIRMINGHAM - Symphony Hall Friday, 18 November: BOURNEMOUTH - Bournemouth International Centre Sunday, 20 November: BRIGHTON - Brighton Centre Monday, 21 November: PLYMOUTH - Pavilions Wednesday, 23 November: NEWCASTLE - City Hall Thursday, 24 November: GLASGOW - Clyde Auditiorium
This week's issue of the Radio Times sees Matt Smith feature on the cover for the first time this year as he returns to Saturday evening - though in this case "The Naked Doctor" is representing his new role as the gay icon Christopher Isherwood in the BBC Drama Christopher and His Kind, which will be broadcast on BBC2/BBCHD this coming Saturday at 9:30pm.
In an interview with the magazine, the actor compares Isherwood’s experiences in 1930s Berlin to those of his time-travelling alter ego, the Doctor:
"He left 1930s England and arrived in Berlin, a place that in comparison was an alien planet," says Smith, whose role as the young author is the first major drama he has taken on since being cast as the Time Lord. "There’s this burgeoning doom of Nazism emerging. It feels like there are vampires walking through the city. There are these brown shirts who are becoming more and more prominent and more and more vocal. They’ve started ransacking shops."
The new issue of the Radio Times is available in the shops from today.
You can also read an interview with Matt Smith on his role via the BBC Press Office.
The nominations for the annual Eagle Awards have been announced, with Doctor Who publications/people represented in several categories.
IDW, the publisher behind Doctor Who comics in the United States, is nominated in a number of categories. The company itself appears in the Favourite Publisher list, whilst its Doctor Who range is up for Favourite American Comicbook: Colour (Tony Lee), and Favourite Reprint Compilation for Doctor Who: Fugitive.
The UK is represented through the Favourite British Comicbook: Colour category, which includes both Doctor Who Magazine and Torchwood Magazine - they are up against long-running comics The Dandy and 2000AD, as well as The Man of Glass.
Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell is also up for an award; he is nominated for Favourite Newcomer Writer for his work with DC Comics.
Finally, the Roll of Honour includes comic artist Dave Gibbons, whose prolific work includes being the first lead artist for Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly when it launched in 1979.
Voting can be submitted via the survey website until 11th April, with the ceremony taking place at the London Comic-Con at EXCEL on the 27th May.
The Eagle Awards are internationally recognised within the Comics Industry, and have been held annually since 1976.
Screenings for the opening two-part story of Series Six of Doctor Who are now being arranged, and invitations have revealed the titles of those episodes to be The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon.
The BBC's Entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba first revealed the titles this afternoon: "Just got invite to screening of first two new Dr Who eps. 'The Impossible Astronaut' and 'Day of the Moon'. Gosh, the year's gone quickly." This was confirmed by Doctor Who Magazine, who also mentioned they would reveal further titles soon: "Invites for the DW press launch have been sent out today, confirming titles for Eps 1 & 2 as The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon. DWM has the titles for the next five episodes too – but we're going to sit on them for now. They're for our next issue's news page...!"
The date of the premier on television in the United Kingdom has yet to be announced by the BBC.
It's week nine in the production of Torchwood, and the end of the second month of the shoot! However, there's still some three months of filming left to go so no time to wind down for the production team - as usual there was filming in progress by two or more units over the course of the week, both around Los Angeles (with scenes taking place at places like the beach and an old stadium) and on the Warner Bros studio backlot. Plus, a rather important birthday to celebrate ...
Cast highlighted this week included John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Mekhi Phifer, Ernie Hudson, Dichen Lachman and Alexa Havins - not to mention of course the silent majority of supporting actors, extras and stand-ins working on the production!
The BBC Production Office reported that this week would see filming commence on Jane Espenson's episode five. Two new directors were also revealed as working on the production, Gwyneth Horder-Payton and Guy Ferland. Horder-Payton's credits include Battlestar Galactica, Fringe, The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy and The Shield; Ferland has also directed for the latter three shows, with other credits including The Mentalist, Human Target - IMDB reports him as working on John Shiban's episode six of Torchwood: Miracle Day.
It was also reported elsewhere that John Wells is one of the producers for Torchwood; his credits include Southland, Shameless, E.R. and The West Wing.
Times cited within reports below are in Los Angeles local time, except where indicated
Monday
Torchwood hits the beach! It was one of those rare occasions when the production was in an open place, with members of the public appearing in the background if they so wished (as long as they agreed to the conditions laid out on the notices!).
Eve Myles and Mekhi Phifer were on location today, with filming taking place by the DogTown skate park on Venice Beach. Tweets from Dichen Lachman suggested she was enjoying the beach, too!
16:00 AF After thinking it was going to rain all weekend, the sun today feels SO good. :) 11:03 AF Hard at work! http://t.co/yTJcP8P 11:08 AF http://t.co/LVMiLg7 11:18 MP shooting on venice beach right now... was supposed to rain but we been blessed with sunshine. 11:45 AF The sun is warm and lovely, but wind is a bit chilly. :) 14:53 AF GAH! Sandstorm! O_O 14:55 AF Pre-sandstorm! http://t.co/fgdTHQB 17:52 AS Cold, sun and wind burnt. Still its so beautiful. Yay for the beach. 18:37 AF I miraculously managed to get thru it without any kamikaze grains going for my contact lenses! :D 18:47 AF I think this is my favorite photo I took of Venice Beach while down at the #Torchwood shoot today. ALIEN SEAGULLS! :-) http://t.co/sxZMt3r
Paul Sauser was also on hand to see some of the action at the skate park, including Eve Myles apparently being filmed as Gwen on her mobile. Additional photos of her were published by Caught on Set.
After such a public location on Monday, the production disappeared into relative obscurity once more. However, it was possible to infer that one of the units was present at the Inglewood Forum based on snatches of conversation on Twitter:
07 20:48 CS Working a show for Starz called Torchwood tomorrow in Inglewood. I just Google searched it... seems very intriguing *scratches fake goatee* 08 18:01 CS I just shook Lonestar's hand #Winning 08 20:13 CS The end to a long ass day which I so needed. It's good to be paid. So grateful to be called back for tomorrow. 08 23:11 CS Yeah 14 hours on set was no joke. So exhausting but was awesome to be part of somethin so hush hush. Also met great new peeps. Recall baby! 09 13:07 CS Adventures in extras holding. So exciting.
Allyson Floyd chatted a little bit about the life of a stand-in:
08 14:53 AF I spent more time wrangling with UPS today than I spent on set! :P Oy. 08 23:07 AF I'm literally not there at all, lol! Stand-ins are only used to set up camera angles and lighting! 08 23:19 AF I've done kind of a ridiculous amount of extra work though... if you knew where to look, you'd see the back of my head everywhere! 08 23:20 AF And a few places where I'm pretty recognizable, but it would be too tedious to look up all the episode #'s and movies. 11 01:15 AF I generally stand in for one of the main cast, so that usually puts me there several days a week.
Meanwhile, the BBC Production Office were prepping for two kinds of activity later in the week ...
08 14:45 BBC We have a birthday coming up soon, 3 days to be exact. Mission #3 get JB the perfect gift. Are surprises still classy? Oh the possibilities! 09 18:38 BBC Wonderfully productive day! RTD is typing away and we're prepping two units. Phones are ringing! Carpal tunnel arising! Action galore.
Two locations were listed for activity Thursday, the James Oviatt Building (home to the Cicada Restaurant), and possibly the Yard, a kick-boxing club - however this address is also listed for the Willow Studios so their resources might have been in use instead! Reports also indicated other locations were visited throughout the day, with at least two units operating! Matthew Arnold reported that filming was taking place on a street at his uncle's, and this unit includedAlexa Havins.
Meanwhile, another unit had to contend with a minor disaster on set:
09 17:18 AF Then it's back to work on the set of #Torchwood: MD tomorrow! 10 09:56 AS Another early morning. Yawn! But I have my honey with me today. :) 10 12:22 AS A water main just broken now there's a river running thru set. Too bad the waters nasty or I would run thru it like the 10 yr old I am. LOL 11 13:00 BBC A water main broke at our 2nd Unit location, a cool looking salvage yard. Awesome location 11 13:04 BBC The water leak had nothing to do with us!! It was just a crazy random event. 11 14:27 AF I missed out on that! I had a later calltime. ^_^
Another location in use turned out to be the Los Angeles City Hall again, with John Barrowman and Ernie Hudson present; John was later to receive two big cakes for his birthday on Friday (celebrated UK time!)
10 17:43 ST A bit quiet here shooting a 6 page scene. Amazing actor with John today. Both are intense. Really great writing too. Beautiful location too. 10 19:01 ST Entire crew just sang @Team_Barrowman happy birthday and presented him a cake with candles. Lots of joy and laughter. Now we r on the move. 10 19:16 ST A glimpse of vintage LA I love this city :-) 10 20:00 ST I can't say where til tomorrow when we r gone :-) 12 08:00 ST LA City Hall
10 23:02 BBC Mission #3 SUCCESS! A surprise TWO cakes and we gave John the day off tomorrow. Happy Birthday! 10 23:54 JB Hello from LA 10 23:55 JB Thanks for all the birthday wishes.. 6 more minutes till the actual bday 10 23:57 JB Going to bed then of to Palm Springs tomorrow for celebrations with Mom and dad and family. 10 23:59 JB been very busy filming and feel bad I have not tweeted. hope to rectify that. 11 00:00 JB Dont ask Torchwood questions as I cant answer... DUH!!! But get to Comic con if you can..
As mentioned above, Friday was a day off for John Barrowman as it was his birthday, but work continued for the rest of the cast and crew as usual.
10:32 ST Concept meeting for episode 7. Creativity is not only coming up with a brilliant story it's bringing it to life on a budget. Oye!! 14:28 DC Heading to set on #Torchwood today.... time to make the doughnuts! 17:08 ST Hint pink flamingo 18:50 DC This is a light post. Only a lightpost. #Torchwood 18:51 DC Ps had a blueberry doughnut yum. #Torchwood
Filming also continued around the Willow Street facilities, as observed by Dina Kampmeyer:
11 19:01 Okay, trying not freak out, but torchwood is filming 20 feet away from me. If my bf can get me on set, i may just freak. 12 14:45 I was having a drink at Villains & they were filming next door. They were packing up, but I was there! 12 14:47 The set was all dark & dank. Looks like maybe a basement or tunnels where creepy aliens would hide.
Finally, we're pleased to include a special report on life as an extra, courtesy of Maria Zambrana:
I worked on the second unit of "Torchwood: Miracle Day" last night, (Ep5, I believe?), as one of about 150 people for the night shoot. We didn't have to sign a confidentiality agreement like I did in Episode 1 (two months ago), but common sense dictates that it'd be wise not to go into extreme detail, no?
We were shooting on "French Street" on the Warner Bros. lot (that's a street name not the location setting!), and our holding was this empty building on the corner. The room filled up pretty quickly so, despite it being a bit chilly, others took their folding chairs and lined up along the sidewalks. I found that the "store" next to this one was empty, so I simply went in there and had the place to myself. A props cart was set up right outside the door where we picked up a few items.
There were some background people there that performed two or three different roles and got there around 3pm or so, and another lump of people brought in just for the one scene (7:45pm., 8pm., etc.). We were ostensibly broken up into groups (Group A, Group B, etc.) but that's just a basic early-stage organizational thing; by the time filming takes place, you're just swept up en masse into the action. The only thing that matters is your call time... as in, the 3pm. call time allowed the earlier people to be dismissed earlier. Also, they got lunch - we didn't get any food on set, save for some people who scavenged their leftovers before catering threw them away (this food-raid done at the encouragement of one of the A.D.s, incidentally, who was rather put off by the fact that catering was not available to everyone).
(This is why I always make sure to eat before I go to a set, and to bring my own water. You can't rely on a production to take care of you. I was on the set of final episode of "24" and the entire building ran out of toilet paper. Guess who the only extra was that brought their own roll that day?)
Eve Myles was the only main cast member on our part of the lot; there were two units, ours and another over at Warner Ranch, but I've no idea what they were shooting or who with. At one point, upon finding out that one of our number was a big "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood" fan, she took a few minutes to pose with and take photos with the guy, which put him on Cloud 9! So sweet of her to do that.
All in all, though, the shoot went well. We all did one rehearsal walking around the block, past our holding area, and back to our starting positions. Then we made three or four more circles, wearing and carrying our props (aw, c'mon, why should I spoil what they were?). And we were done! Check-in to sign-out was about six hours, and a good four of those hours was wasted at wardrobe and holding.
Key to initials: AF - Allyson Floyd (stand-in); AS - Alana Stone (fashion designer); BBC - BBC Torchwood (production office); CS - Chazz Sutton (extra); DC - Daryl Crittenden; JB - John Barrowman (Jack); JE - Jane Espenson (writer); MP - Mekhi Phifer (Rex); ST - Shawna Trpcic (costume designer)
Next week sees the return of Kai Owen to filming ...
11 09:17(UK) Well our suitcases are packed, we're off to Los Angeles tomorrow for 3 months!! Crazy! 11 19:47(UK) Thank you all for your good luck messages, I'll try and keep you updated from the mad bad world that is #torchwoodmircaleday 12 19:12(US) Los Angeles beware!! We have arrived.
Just a quick note that clocks go forward in Los Angeles this weekend, meaning that for the next fortnight Torchwood activity is just seven hours behind the UK!
This weekend saw the finale of Doctor Who broadcast on France 4, with Le Pandorica s'ouvre achieving 340,000 viewers, a further improvement on last week's episodes and achieving a share of 1.5% of the total audience.
Danse avec les stars continued to top the ratings on TF1, with 5.12m tuning in (24.7%); France 2 this week broadcast Champs-Elysées, which was watched by 3.75m viewers (17.5%). A full breakdown can be found at Premiere.
With the fifth series now completed in France, here is a summary of the ratings over the five weeks:
Le Prisonnier Zéro, La bêtes des bas-fonds, La victoire des Daleks
453,000
2%
Le labyrinthe des Anges (1+2), Les Vampires de Venise
374,000
1.7%
Le Seigneur des Rêves, La révolte des intra-terrestres (1+2)
Canadian Channel SPACE have revealed the last series of Doctor Who had an average of 391,000 viewers.
The news was in a press release noting that January was the most-watched month in the channel's history and looking forward to the new series of Doctor Who which is expected to be shown on the network shortly after its UK premier.
Matt Smith and Karen Gillan return as The Doctor and Amy Pond for Season 6 of fan and critical darling. Filmed in North America for the first time ever, the two-part opener finds the Doctor, Amy, and Rory (Arthur Darvill) on a secret summons that takes them on an adventure from the Utah desert to the Oval Office in 1969. Alex Kingston (ER) reprises as River Song, while Mark Sheppard (SUPERNATURAL) guest stars as Canton.
Tonight saw the Royal Television Society hold its annual Programme Awards; though Doctor Who wasn't nominated itself, several categories had related nominations:
Tom Baker has officially signed to record a series of Audio Plays for 
Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, has recently joined twitter and can be followed at 
John Barrowman has announced a new Tour this Autumn, visiting cities across the UK and Ireland.
The nominations for the annual 
Screenings for the opening two-part story of Series Six of Doctor Who are now being arranged, and invitations have revealed the titles of those episodes to be The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon.
It's week nine in the production of Torchwood, and the end of the second month of the shoot! However, there's still some three months of filming left to go so no time to wind down for the production team - as usual there was filming in progress by two or more units over the course of the week, both around Los Angeles (with scenes taking place at places like the beach and an old stadium) and on the Warner Bros studio backlot. Plus, a rather important birthday to celebrate ...
The BBC Production Office 
We were shooting on "French Street" on the Warner Bros. lot 
This weekend saw the finale of Doctor Who broadcast on France 4, with Le Pandorica s'ouvre achieving 340,000 viewers, a further improvement on last week's episodes and achieving a share of 1.5% of the total audience.
Canadian Channel SPACE have revealed the last series of Doctor Who had an average of 391,000 viewers. 
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