The acclaimed actress Zohra Sehgal has died at the age of 102.

Zohra Sehgal was the longest lived actress ever to appear in Doctor Who, appearing alongside the first Doctor William Hartnell in two stories. She played Sheyrah in the second episode of the 1965 story The Crusade, as well as having a small role playing an attendant in three episodes of the 1964 story Marco Polo.

Zohra Sehgal was born in 1912, in Saharanpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, the third of seven children. After attending Queen Mary's Girls College in Lahore she decided to pursue a career as a performer.

Her first role for British television was in a BBC adaptation of a Kipling story, The Rescue of Pluffles. She anchored 26 episodes of BBC TV series, Padosi (Neighbours), made in 1976–77. She was signed by Merchant Ivory Productions appeareing in The Courtesans of Bombay directed by James Ivory in 1982. This paved the way for the role of Lady Chatterjee in the television adaptation The Jewel in the Crown in 1984. She went on to appear in Tandoori Nights, My Beautiful Laundrette, Bhaji on the Beach, The Mystic Masseur, Bend It Like Beckham, Cheeni Kum and others.

The actress received the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honour, in 2010.

Speaking on her 102nd Birthday Sehgal spoke of the future. Zohra Sehgal died at a hospital in Delhi on Thursday afternoon following a cardiac arrest.

German broadcaster FOX have now updated their online listings guide for August, and indicate that the first episode of the new series, Deep Breath, is scheduled for the 23rd August at 9:00pm. The BBC have yet to confirm the time that the episode will air on BBC One, but with FOX previously announcing their intention to simulcast the series alongside the United Kingdom, this would suggest that Doctor Who might well be back on the air at the prime time of 8:00pm!

It should be noted, however, that schedules may be subject to change as the broadcast date approaches, and that the 75 minute episode may not be simulcast as anticipated - for the 50th anniversary, the similarly feature-length The Day of the Doctor aired from 7:50pm in the UK with a ten minute delay before commencing in Germany (at 9:00pm local time).


FOX's schedules indicate that they plan to broadcast the final eleventh Doctor adventures The Name of the Doctor, The Day of the Doctor and The Time of the Doctor before the premiere itself, kicking off from 5:45pm local time.

Doctor Who might not have a panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, but there's a chance its fans could steal the spotlight (twice) at the first-ever mtvU Fandom Awards.

Presented by MTV's college network spin-off, online voting is now open in several categories for the awards, which will be presented on July 27 and air in the US on both mtvU and MTV that evening at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Nominees were announced on July 9.

Doctor Who is listed among TV Dramas including Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Game of Thrones, The Vampire Diaries, Sherlock, Breaking Bad and Pretty Little Liars. According to mtvU, the awards will be handled in a "bracket" system, with the top vote-getters moving on to the next round. Doctor Who is directly competing against Breaking Bad and if it wins will move on to the next round. If it makes it past Round 3, the series will be placed head to head against top nominees in the Movies, TV Comedies and Animation categories for the final prize.

The series is also nominated in a special BFF (Best Fandom Forever) category, where its competition is Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sherlock and Batman. (What, no Star Trek?) Votes will be tallied in the form of how many "likes" and reblogs each franchise receives off the voting page.

To cast your vote (registration at MTV.com required) or to get liking and reblogging for the BFF category, click here.

Doctor Who News is now available on the updated iPhone/iPad App.

The revised version of the free app gives users access to the complete archive of Doctor Who News stories, dating back to 1997, via the search option on the main news page. The next release, due at the end of the month will allow searches on the reviews page.

As well as updated news, with push alerts for every new news story published, the App includes a complete guide to every Doctor Who story ever broadcast as well as information on the various spin-off series and documentaries based on the show.

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The App is available free from the iTunes store.

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An add free version of the app is also available for a small charge.

A documentary tracing the reasons why TV programmes were destroyed, and charting the worldwide hunt for Britain’s television past, is looking for funding for release on DVD.

The Native Hue of Resolution was originally screened at the British Film Institute in London last December, documenting the twenty year to find TV programmes missing from the official archives.

Since the 1993 launch of the BFI initiative to find missing TV programmes, much progress has been made, however thousands of programmes remain missing, believed wiped, including 97 episodes of Doctor Who. The documentary from Farcical Films/Kaleidoscope, made especially for screening at BFI Southbank, traces the real reasons why programmes were destroyed and charts the worldwide hunt for Britain’s television past.

Narrated by Peter Purves, it features contributions from, among others: Alan Bennett, Barry Cryer, Jasper Carrott, Peter Firmin, Paul Fox, Ray Galton, Alan Simpson, Hartley Hare, Terry Jones, Sue Malden, David Nobbs, Pete Murray and Pan’s People. Produced by Kaleidoscope’s Chris Perry, the film also features extensive footage found during production of the documentary, from programmes previously thought lost.

It is now planned to issue the film on DVD and include a disc of extras of previously lost TV material. The project requires some seed funding and a Kickstarter project has been formed to raise money for the venture.

Backers pledging £20 or more will receive wither a copy of the finished project, or an invitation to a launch event for the film in 2015.

Titan Comics have declared 26th July as Doctor Who Comics Day, to celebrate the release of the new range of comics based on the adventures of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor.

July 23 sees the release of the new ongoing series, which Titan hope to make the biggest Doctor Who comics launch in recent times. To celebrate the company is inviting Doctor Who fans and comic readers to join in with the celebrations.

Doctor Who Comics Day will give fans the chance to celebrate everything Doctor Who with signings, events, special variant covers and promotions in stores and at shows in the U.S.A, Canada, U.K. Australia and New Zealand.

Full details will be released next week.

You can follow Titan Comics on Twitter at @ComicsTitan.

The BBC has appealed to fans not to spoil the new series of Doctor Who, after a number of scripts from upcoming shows were leaked onto the internet.

The first five scripts for Series Eight, including the series opener Deep Breath, are understood to have been compromised after being sent to the BBC Worldwide office in Miami, where they were due to be translated for the Latin America market. The BBC is trying to achieve a near simultaneous global release of the series, including broadcasts on BBC Entertainment, throughout the region.

BBC Worldwide told Radio Times they were pleading with the public and fans sites not to share the material released
The scripts appear to have been uploaded from the BBC Worldwide site in Miami, which was left open to public indexing, meaning scripts from Doctor Who, as well as scripts from other popular BBC programmes such as Top Gear and Call the Midwife, were accessible to anyone with an internet link. It is understood video files were also stored on the server, but it is not known if these contained content relevant to Doctor Who. The server has now been taken offline.

The series has been leaked before. In 2005 the first episode of the relaunched series, Rose, leaked onto the internet, a few weeks before its launch on BBC One, and in 2013 the series finale, The Name of the Doctor, was released early due to a mistake in the American distribution of the Series 7 Blu-rays and DVDs. In 1983 the Target novelisation of the twentieth anniversary story, The Five Doctors, was published two weeks before the story was transmitted by the BBC.

The series is due to premiere around the world from August 23rd.

The Doctor Who Appreciation Society (DWAS) is to honour one of the founders of Doctor Who, Verity Lambert, with a special event held at the Riverside Studios in London.

Remembering Verity Lambert will mark the unveiling of a Blue Heritage plaque commemorating the work of one of the most significant and influential figures to work in British Television. The plaque will be on display at Riverside Studios until the venue closes for development in the autumn, when it will be placed into storage and then permanently mounted at the new Riverside media centre when completed.

To celebrate the unveiling of the plaque, DWAS will be showing, by special arrangement with BBC Worldwide, the BAFTA award winning drama An Adventure in Space and Time, in high definition at Riverside’s cinema, on the evening of 23rd July, starting at 7pm. This will be followed by an interview with Lambert’s friend and long time colleague, and the Director of the first Doctor Who story, Waris Hussein.

Tickets for the screening are available free-of-charge directly from DWAS, details on the society's website, and will be distributed on a first-come first-served basis, with a special allocation reserved for DWAS members.

To raise the funds for the plaque, DWAS will be hosting an auction via its eBay site, which will give Doctor Who fans the opportunity to bid for some collectable items donated by friends and fans.

A new book from Miwk Publishing Ltd and Auton investigates the stories behind the Seventh Doctor’s era.

Wallowing in Our Own Weltschmerz: An Auton Guide to the Stories Behind the Stories of the Seventh Doctor is being produced in aid of Alzheimer’s Society, with a choice of two different covers. The book is released on August 23rd.

The BBC have broadcast a new 20 second trailer for the forthcoming new series of Doctor Who, shown between the France/Germany World Cup match and the BBC News: