BBC News24's Entertainment Today programme at 6:35pm this evening featured a brief interview with Russell T Davies - "the man behind the renaissance of Doctor Who" - about Kylie Minogue's appearance in the forthcoming Christmas Special.

In a recent interview with BBC NEWSROUND Philip Pullman, author of the Golden Compass, said he would consider writing an episode of Doctor Who and that writing for the Doctor "sounds like enormous fun."

Pullman also talked about the end of series two of Doctor Who - when Rose Tyler was left in a parallel world - and how similar some people say it is to his own Dark Materials series. "I was flattered by it," Pullman said.


"That's how stories work. Stories are made out of other stories. I borrowed things for His Dark Materials. He [Russell T Davies] took my ending and twisted it to fit his story. That's fine."

On Monday 3 December, a BBC film crew could be seen filming with the TARDIS, a Dalek and K9 near St Paul's Cathedral in London.

However, it wasn't for Doctor Who but for long-running BBC soap operaEastEnders.

Actors Charlie Clements and Lacey Turner were seen on the location; Clements' character on EastEnders has been established as a Doctor Who fan.

A tent set up outside the cathedral bore a sign reading "Doctor Who - The Time Lord Revisited", suggesting that the EastEnders characters will be shown visiting a Doctor Who exhibition.

The TARDIS and Dalek props were provided by an effects company that makes props for Doctor Who and Torchwood; the K9 prop was a fan-made replica.

The Sun has a short item on the EastEnders filming.

Doctor Who and EastEnders have interacted before, most notably in the 1993 Children in Need charity sketchDimensions in Time, which saw several Doctors and companions meet EastEnders characters in a romp in Albert Square.

More recently, a specially shot clip of EastEnders actress Barbara Windsor in character was seen in the Doctor Who episode Army of Ghosts.

UPDATE - 5 December: EastEnders' filming continued on Tuesday 4 December, with classic series-style Cybermen spotted at the St Paul's location. The Sun has photos of the Cybermen, K9 and actress Lacey Turner. (NB: This latter Sun article has a major spoiler regarding the Series Four finale.)

BBC News have reported that Billie Piper will be returning to Doctor Who, portraying her original role of Rose Tyler.

The news was originally reported in today's Daily Mirror, which went on to say: The Time Lord, played by David Tennant, starts with Donna (Catherine Tate) as his helper, is then joined by Martha (Freema Agyeman) and then reunites with Billie's character Rose for the finale. A source said: "With Donna, Martha and Rose competing to assist him, Dr Who is going to be spoilt for choice." The paper also reported that the actress will be in at least three episodes of the new series. (also reported by The Hollywood News, Daily Record, Ananova, and Marie Claire)

The breaking news was actually reported on our very own Doctor Who Forum last night by fans present at filming in Cardiff, including photos of Billie Piper at the location. These can be found in the forum here if you really want to see them! Thanks to Brian_Damage and PMount for the reports.

Update: The official Doctor Who website has now confirmed that Piper is returning as Rose in Series 4, but adds, "Anything you may read elsewhere about when, how or for how long Rose returns to Doctor Who should be treated as pure speculation at this point."

Meanwhile, the BBC have also issued a general press release on the Christmas line-up, with the principal item being Doctor Who: "BBC One reaffirms its position as the one to watch with a formidable line-up of television's biggest and brightest award-winning stars. David Tennant stars as The Doctor in a very special edition of Doctor Who, alongside the one and only Kylie Minogue, who plays a waitress on the Titanic."

The BBC's Doctor Who website has announced that the writers of Doctor Who Series 3have won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Soap or Series (TV). (The other nominated series were New Tricks Series 4 and Life on Mars Series 2.)

All the writers of Series 3 (Chris Chibnall, Paul Cornell, Russell T. Davies, Stephen Greenhorn, Steven Moffat, Helen Raynor and Gareth Roberts) were honored. Cornell, Greenhorn, Moffat and Roberts were in attendance at the ceremony, which was held at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

Further details of the award ceremony are available at the Writers' Guild blog.

John Barrowman has revealed that the character of Captain Jack Harkness is returning to Doctor Who in Series Four.

There has been no official announcement by the BBC but in an interview on thisisnottingham.co.uk primarily about Barrowman's new CD, Another Side, the subject of Captain Jack is touched upon, about which he says: "I'm not in the Doctor Who Christmas special, but I come back in Series Four, which starts filming after Christmas."

(Thanks to Sarah Townsend.)

The BBC have officially released a promotional image of a Sontaran, the race of clone warriors from the classic series who are returning to the show in series four of the new series.

The BBC News Online report, featuring the photo, also states that their return adventure will see new companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) meetFreema Agyeman's Martha Jones for the first time. Tate, Agyeman and David Tennant are all featured alongside the Sontaran in the promotional shot.

The official website also has a report and images, one of which is included right. The image is BBC copyright, and used purely to promote the programme.

UPDATE (NOV 4): The Press Association has named the Sontaran in the picture as Commander Skorr, played by Dan Starkey.

The Stage, The Guardian and The Sun all give coverage today to David Tennant's praise for former Controller of BBC One Peter Fincham and his Head of Publicity Jane Fletcher at last night's National Television Awards ceremony in London.

Fincham and Fletcher were forced to resign from their positions at the BBC last month following the so-called "Crowngate" controversy, where an audience of journalists at a BBC press launch were shown a misleading preview of a programme about the Queen. Both were publicly acknowledged by Tennant during his acceptance speech, screened live last night on ITV1.

Although Fincham arrived at BBC One after the first season of the new Doctor Who had already been a success in 2005, Tennant praised the support both he and Fletcher had given the programme over the past two years, and said that they would be greatly missed.

The Stage quotes Tennant as saying that: "Peter and Jane were fantastic supporters of our show and brilliant at their jobs. It is a real shame they have gone. They were very much a part of our team. It feels very different without them and I am sad about that."

The Guardian adds praise from Freema Agyeman, particularly for the ex-Head of Publicity Fletcher. "She always had so many other shows [to work on] but it felt like a personal relationship."

Sound editor Kelly-Marie Angell has won an award for her work onDoctor Who.

The 22-year-old was named Most Promising Newcomer at The Conch 2007- the UK Screen Association's film, commercial and TV sound awards ceremony.

Angell, who works for Bang Post Production, joined the series while on a gap year from a music and sound technology course at the University of Portsmouth.

She said in a report on BBC News: "We use all sorts of things. Celery is used for broken bones, melons for blood and guts, and hair gel for slime.

"My favourite scene was episode six of the last Doctor Who series where we had the Lazarus monster - it was a huge challenge.

"For that one, we used hair gel and lots of broken glass."

Angell also works on spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.