This weekend sees UK newspaper The Guardian giving away two audio adventures of the Eleventh Doctor:

• Saturday's Guardian will come with a free copy of The Hounds of Artemis, written by James Goss and narrated by Matt Smith and Clare Corbett. This CD has yet to be released commercially (currently listed as for the 7th April).
• Sunday's Observer will come with The Ring Of Steel, written by Stephen Cole and read by Arthur Darvill. This CD was previously released commercially in August last year.
   
• In addition, throughout next week readers can find out details on how to download free episodes from the Hornet's Nest audio series, starring Tom Baker and Richard Franklin.

For more details see the Guardian website; the promotion is also being featured on commercial television and radio.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations have now released statistics relating to the distribution figures of magazines for the second half of 2010, which includes details relating to both official publications, Doctor Who Magazine (Panini) and Doctor Who Adventures (BBC).

When compared to previous periods, the data reveals how the average circulation trends have fared:


The figures show that both DWM and DWA saw a surge in circulation during the first half of last year - tying in with Matt Smith's debut as the Eleventh Doctor! The latter half saw DWM's readership tail off a bit, whilst DWA continued to increase (the latter offering a free gift every week to its readers!).

Jaynie Bye, joint Managing director for BBC Children’s Magazine told the BBC Press Office:

Publication certificates provide further breakdowns on circulation; for instance 14% of DWM's and 17% of DWA's sales are through subscription, whereas figures for general sci-fi magazine SFX over last year show a much higher subscription rate of 31% (total average circulation 31,360).

The figures for the next six months are expected on 18th August 2011.

2|Entertain's Classic Doctor Who have released a trailer for their upcoming Tweetview3 for the William Hartnell adventure The War Machines, which takes place this coming Saturday (19th) at 8:00pm (UK time).


Tweetviews are an organised viewing of a particular Doctor Who story on DVD, where everybody can participate by tweeting comments as they watch the show simultaneously. Previous Tweetviews have seen Earthshock and The Horror of Fang Rock viewed and discussed in this fashion.

More details can be found by following @classicdw on Twitter.

France 4 have released a new trailer for this Saturday's episodes, Le labyrinthe des Anges (1+2) and Les Vampires de Venise; they will be broadcast from 8:35pm (local time).



You can also follow France 4 via their Facebook page and Twitter feed.

The actor T.P. McKenna has died, aged 81.

He appeared in the Season 25, seventh Doctor story, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, playing the intergalactic explorer, Captain Cook.

Born Thomas Patrick McKenna, he made his stage debut in Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams at the Pike Theatre in Dublin 1954. He continued to appear in therater productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre Company.

Following several years on the stage with, he began appearing in popular television dramas from the 1960s including Dangerman, Adam Adamant, The Avengers, The Saint, Jason King, The Sweeney, Blakes 7 and Minder.

He also featured prominently in other television dramas including The Duchess of Malfi, The Changeling, Napoleon and Love, Holocaust, The Manions of America, To The Lighthouse, Bleak House, Strong Medicine, Jack the Ripper, and the final episode of Inspector Morse. McKenna had fulfilled a long-held ambition to appear with John Thaw in Inspector Morse.

He had film roles in Ulysses, Straw Dogs, and A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man. In 1985 he appeared in The Doctor and the Devils alongside Timothy Dalton (Rassilon, The End of Time).

He died on 13th February in London following a long illness. He will be laid to rest in Mullagh, County Cavan, Ireland alongside his wife May, who died five years ago. He is survived by his sons Rafe, Killian, Breffní and Stephen and his daughter Sally.

Thomas Patrick McKenna (7th September 1929 – 13th February 2011)


Media coverage by: BBC News, The Irish Times, The Telegraph.

The new issue of the UK children's comic The Dandy sees its lead character, TV's Harry Hill, have a fleeting encounter with all eleven incarnations of the Doctor (plus some Daleks!) during a twelve page special of his usual madcap antics within the comic!

The issue is out on 16th February 2011.

(with thanks to Séan Baldwin. Image © The Dandy)

Gallifrey One's Catch 22: Islands of Mystery, the twenty-second annual North American Doctor Who and science fiction media convention takes place February 18-20 at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel.

Featured guests from the Whoniverse are Peter Davison (the fifth Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Tracie Simpson (Producer), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), John Leeson (Voice of K9), Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Gareth Thomas (Ed Morgan, Ghost Machine, Torchwood), Cush Jumbo (Lois Habiba, Torchwood: Children of Earth), Paul Kasey (Various monsters in Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures) , Neill Gorton & Rob Mayor (Prosthetics & Special Effects Designers), Ian McNeice (Winston Churchill, Victory of the Daleks), Gareth Roberts (Writer), Philip Oliver (Thomas Hector Schofield, Big Finish), Sarah Douglas (Doctor Who: The Adventure Games voiceover actress), Jane Espenson and Doris Egan (Torchwood: Miracle Day writers), Phil Ford (Producer and writer, The Sarah Jane Adventures), Joss Agnew (Director, The Sarah Jane Adventures), James Moran (Writer), Daphne Ashbrook (Grace Holloway, Doctor Who TV Movie), Gareth Skelding (Location Manager), Gary Russell (Writer & Script Editor), Jason Haigh-Ellery (Big Finish Productions), Clayton Hickman (Writer and former editor of Doctor Who Magazine) and Tony Lee (Doctor Who graphic novelist).

(Update 16/02: Gareth Thomas will be unable to be at Gallifrey 2011 due to sudden medical issues)

A special announcement by CBS Publicity was made on Monday night:

Ed Stradling announced via his Twitter account that Come In Number Five, a Peter Davison era documentary presented by David Tennant will be shown at the convention.

For a full schedule of events, visit the Gallifrey One website.

(See a full list of conventions and exhibitions on our Events page)

The Royal Mail are to release a new collection of stamps featuring six iconic images from the Royal Shakespeare Company to celebrate 50 years of the company's charter.

Each of the six stamps features a scene from The Tempest, Henry VI, King Lear, A Midsummer's Night Dream or Romeo and Juliet - the 1st Class stamp will feature Hamlet, as portrayed by David Tennant!

The stamps are due to be released on 12th April 2011, with the 1st Class stamp costing 46p at the time of issue.

News links: Norvic Philatelics, Anglotopia

Matt Smith debuted as the Doctor in France last night, with the first three episodes of Series Five broadcast on France 4

Le Prisonnier Zéro, La bêtes des bas-fonds and La victoire des Daleks were shown together during the evening and achieved a rating of 453,000 viewers, representing 2% of the audience watching television in France (viewing figures for the evening as a whole may be seen via Ozap).

Series Five has started off well, gaining more viewers than David Tennant's swansong, La Prophétie de Noël, which achieved 416,000 viewers over Christmas Day (but was pipped to the post by La Conquête de Mars with 504,000 viewers in October).

French viewing for the rest of the month consists of Le labyrinthe des Anges (pts 1+2) and Les Vampires de Venise next weekend, and Le Seigneur des Rêves and La révolte des intra-terrestres (pts 1+2) on the 26th.





(we leave our readers to enjoy translating the French titles!)

Friday 11th February saw the launch of National Doodle Day 2011, the eighth event organised by the charities Epilepsy Action and The Neurofibromatosis Association. As with last year, a number of doodles from stars associated with Doctor Who join others to help raise money to help those afflicted by those illnesses.

This year two Doctors have submitted illustrations, Peter Davison and Christopher Eccleston, with companion entries from Bernard Cribbins and Freema Agyeman. Other guest stars from the show include Matt Baker, Jeremy Bulloch, Brian Cant, Martin Clunes, Graham Cole, Michael Gambon, Sarah Greene, Felicity Kendal, Harry Lloyd, Geoffrey Palmer, Nigel Planer, Paul O'Grady, Russell Tovey, Zoe Wannamaker, and Don Warrington. It is also possible to vote for your favourite celebrity doodle.

Doodles from previous years can be purchased on t-shirts and other items in support of the charities from PhotoBox; last year included items from Catherine Tate and Elisabeth Sladen, with previous years including Colin Baker and Louise Jameson.

The auction is currently running on Ebay, and a full list of the celebrity doodles are available on the National Doodle Day website.