The latest in the BBC Books range of Doctor Who novels following the adventures of the Eleventh Doctor and his companions are due for release on the 23rd June 2011:

Voice actor Roy Skelton, who contributed to dozens of Doctor Who episodes across the eras of all seven of the classic series Doctors, has died at the age of 79. BBC News reports that the actor suffered from a stroke.

Best known in Doctor Who circles for his Dalek and Cyberman voices, he was also well-known in British television for his voice work on the famous children's series Rainbow, where he famously provided the vocal characterisation of the puppets George and Zippy.

Born in Oldham in July 1931, Skelton's first involvement with Doctor Who came when he provided voices for the Monoids in the 1966 William Hartnell serial The Ark. He returned to the series later that year to provide voices to the first ever Cybermen in Hartnell's finale as the Doctor, The Tenth Planet. It was in 1967 that he first took on the role he became most associated with on Doctor Who, when he voiced the Daleks in Evil of the Daleks, lining up against Second Doctor Patrick Troughton. He then provided Dalek voices right through until their final classic series appearance in 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, starring Sylvester McCoy. He also made the occasional on-screen appearance, such as briefly playing the body of the Spiridon Wester, whose voice he had provided, when the character became visible on his death in the Jon Pertwee serial Planet of the Daleks in 1973.

Skelton's ability to provide Dalek voices in different registers which he could switch between as recording was in progress enabled a variety of characterisation and conversation to be played in Dalek scenes. This ability to quickly switch between voices also served him well on Rainbow, a series he stayed with from its origins in the early 1970s through to the 1990s, where he was frequently called on to voice quick-fire conversations between his two characters of George and Zippy.

His association with two such long-lasting series fondly remembered by the British public meant that Skelton often appeared in documentaries and interviews, and he even returned to voice Zippy for a surreal guest appearance in a 2008 episode of the BBC One drama series Ashes to Ashes, set in an illusory version of the early 1980s.

His Rainbow co-star Geoffrey Hayes told the BBC:

Sam Hodges, Head of Communications for BBC1, Fiction, Daytime and HD at the BBC has confirmed on Twitter this afternoon that Doctor Who has indeed been commissioned for a further fourteen episodes, with Matt Smith continuing in the role. Head writer Stephen Moffat re-iterated:
No details on how the next series will be broadcast have been revealed at present, though Doctor Who Magazine confirmed that one will be the now traditional Christmas Special for 2011. Meanwhile the Guardian has reported a BBC spokesperson as saying:

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The news comes after UK satirical publication Private Eye commented on Twitter that details on the state of Doctor Who production appear in their latest issue; coupled by an interview with Matt Smith in Saturday's Mirror about his Hollywood aspirations, this had promoted widespread speculation in fandom over the series' future.

Immersive theatre producers Punchdrunk are to create a new interactive experience for the Manchester International Festival based upon Doctor Who.

Aimed for children between the ages of six and twelve, The Crash of the Elysium is based around the wreck of the steamship and an exploration inside the remains. There are two tie-in websites that provide more 'background' to the adventure, the Northwest Historical Society's coverage of the crash, and a blog by salvage diver Daryl Christofi and his plans to visit the wreck.

The experience is written by Felix Barrett, creative director for Punchdrunk, and Tom MacRae - who wrote Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel for the 2006 series of Doctor Who - and the story is based on an original idea by series head writer Steven Moffat.

As with a number of associated projects in recent years, there's an introductory video on the site from the Doctor himself (see below for more on this)



The performances will take place at the BBC's new MediaCity UK building at Salford Quays as part of this year's festival, running from 30th June to 17th July.

The production is around an hour in length, and the audience walk throughout the performance. The show is restricted to children in the age range 6-12, with a version just for them and another which is aimed for younger children of 6-8 accompanied by a parent. Full details including booking information can be found on the festival event page.

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Punchdrunk are known for their projects to convert old buildings into theatrical experiences, and as their site explains:

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The video above has also appeared on the BBC website itself as part of a 'hidden messages' game played over the first few episodes of the last series.

With no official confirmation on the 2012 series of Doctor Who as yet, indications are that the next range of adventures for the Doctor on television are indeed in preparation, with the writer John Fay listed as writing an episode according to his representatives, Culverhouse & James Ltd.

Fay is no stranger to the worlds of Doctor Who, having written Day Two and Day Four of Torchwood: Childen of Earth, and The Gathering for Torchwood: Miracle Day. Other television credits include Primeval and Robin Hood, and many episodes of Coronation Street - one of which won the BAFTA Award for Continuing Drama.

Doctor Who took the top three places of the most requested programmes on the BBC iPlayer in May.

Top of the chart was the Neil Gaiman written episode, The Doctor's Wife, which was requested over 1.242 million times during the month. Close behind was The Curse of the Black Spot with 1.239 million requests and Day of the Moon with 1.120 million requests.

The highest non Who programme was The Apprentice Episode 2 which came in fourth with 1.18 million requests. The Rebel Flesh was fifth with 1.145 million requesting and The Almost People crept into the top ten with 0.848 million requesting, dispite only being available for the last four days of the month.

The most requested programme this year is still Episode 2 of the Matt Lucas, David Walliams comedy, Come Fly With Me which has been requested 1.86 million times. Hot on its heals is The Impossible Astronaut with 1.79 million requests so far, needing just another 70,000 before it goes off line at the end of this week to take the top place. Day of the Moon is currently 6th for the year.

Nothing has yet come near toppling the Matt Smith début episode, The Eleventh Hour, which still holds the record for the most requested programme ever with over 2.5 million requests.

The complete request analysis for iPlayer in May are available from the BBC Internet Blog

The Almost People achieved a final official rating of of 6.72 million viewers.

The figure, which includes those who watched the programme within seven days of broadcast, makes Doctor Who the 6th most watched programme on BBC One for the week.

Overall it was either 20th or 21st for the week, depending on the numbers watching Friday's edition of Emmerdale on ITV1 HD. Figures outside the ITV1 HD Top Ten are not yet available. An ITV1 HD audience of over 290,000 would see Fridays Emmerdale push Doctor Who out of the top twenty for the first time since Silence in the Library in 2008.

Full figures, which will reveal the final chart position of the episode, should be available in the next few of days.

Doctor Who: A Good Man Goes To War had an Appreciation Index, or AI score of 88, the joint highest of the series so far.

The AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the episode. The score was the highest of the day on the two main channels with only Dad's Army on BBC Two and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King scoring higher, albeit with lower audiences.

The Sunday BBC Three repeat had 0.66 million watching, with an additional 0.05 million watching on BBC HD.

Sunday saw two programmes score higher ratings than Saturday's Doctor Who, pushing the programme into 30th place for the week.

Official ratings should be released next Monday which will include those time-shifting the episode, and should see the programme in a much higher position in the charts.

Saturday's Doctor Who Confidential had an audience of 0.56 million with 0.02 million watching on BBC HD.

As previously reported, this week sees a special offer running from Big Finish in which the first 50 classic Doctor Who adventures are on sale during the week, leading up to their convention in Barking at the weekend.

The sale runs each day from midnight to midnight (UK time), with today seeing the first ten available as both CD or download at the reduced price of £5.00; tomorrow sees the next ten adventures in the promotion, and so on throughout the week.

See the Big Finish website for full details.