Bradford's National Media Museum will be running a special event this coming Saturday, 20th November; "Fag Ends & Lollipops" celebrates the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, with talks, workshops, and screenings, plus presentations on the work of pioneers Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram.

Long-term Doctor Who special-sound editor Dick Mills - who received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford last year for services to the British Broadcast media - will be giving a talk from 1:30pm on creating sound effects on Doctor Who and television in general:

The event is named in honour of items used to create some of the sound effects, and other composers from the Radiophonic Workshop attending include Roger Limb, Brian Hodgson and Steve Marshall.

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine reveals that the writer for episodes five and six of Series Six will be Matthew Graham. Steven Moffat describes the story, to be directed by Julian Simpson, as a "thrilling and terrifying two-parter. The Doctor will face a dilemma the like of which he’s never seen before."

Graham has himself confirmed this on Twitter:

The Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes creator previously wrote Fear Her for David Tennant's first series.

BBC America has announced on its Twitter feed that this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special, A Christmas Carol, is to be broadcast in the US on Christmas Day. This marks the first time that a Doctor Who Christmas special has aired in the United States on the same day as its UK premiere.

The episode will be broadcast at 9:00pm Eastern Time; the time of broadcast in the United Kingdom has yet to be announced.

Matt Smith appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson last night, during which he discussed his trip to America, being the Doctor, and filming in Monument Valley.

The entire show was dedicated to Doctor Who, in Ferguson's anarchic style. More clips are available on the show's website.

The BBC have provided more details of the Doctor Who element to this year's Children in Need telethon.

The annual event takes place this Friday, and the Doctor Who segment is due to start just after 8pm. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan will welcome viewers into the TARDIS for some fun and games and visits from some special guests. The highlight will be a preview of this year's Christmas Special, A Christmas Carol.

Children in Need can be seen on in the UK on Friday on BBC One and BBC One HD and later on the BBC iPlayer.

In a clip programme on BBC Three, Children in Need: The 50 Greatest Moments, Time Crash, the moment the Fifth Doctor met the Tenth Doctor, originally transmitted as part of the 2007 Children in Need programme, was voted ninth.

Doctor Who Executive Producer, Piers Wenger has been talking to Collider about the plans for the series as it enters its 48th year.

The series returns this Christmas with a special entitled A Christmas Carol. Wenger describes the story as riffing on the Dickens tale. "There’s no one called Scrooge in it and it’s not set on Earth, but there are familiar archetypes from that story within it that will please fans of Dickens’s original."

Wenger also talked about the first story of the 2011 series, parts of which will be filmed in Utah. He described the story as "Doctor Who’s love letter to the States. It’s all about taking the show out to the States and seeing what Doctor Who will feel like set in America and in some very iconographic parts of the American landscape."

This week's edition of the Radio Times features the results of their recent companion poll; the list is compiled from over 3000 votes made online (see below).

Also, as well as the exclusive posters advertised previously, there is a new Companions Special available to order; the 164 glossy magazine contains a profile of over forty companions from 1963 to the present day, articles by "the companions in their own words", plus never-before-seen photographs and material from the Radio Times archive.


The Radio Times is out in the United Kingdom today, Tuesday 16th November.

The Companions volume can now be ordered online

Matt Smith has been confirmed as a guest on the Tuesday edition of the CBS chat show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. On Twitter Ferguson said the show will be a Doctor Who Special complete with Daleks. The show is being recorded Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles for transmission at 12.35am (ET).

Smith will also be a guest on the Nerdist Podcast, hosted by the comedian Chris Hardwick. The podcast is free to download on iTunes.

Meanwhile Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston has been promoting his appearance in the BBC One drama series Accused. In an interview with the Scottish Daily Record, he criticised the desire for fame encouraged by programmes such as The X Factor.Eccleston was asked about his time on Doctor Who and why he left so soon.
However Eccleston was less willing to discuss Doctor Who when talking to The Daily Telegraph.

The current series of The Sarah Jane Adventures continues to top ratings with the first part of story four, The Empty Planet, topping the chart and becoming the most watched programme ever on the digital Children's channel CBBC.

According to BARB, part one of the story had 0.99 million watching with part two getting 0.81 million viewers. The story just beat last weeks Death to the Doctor, which had 0.96 million viewers.

The Alien Files had 0.49 million watching.

The Empty Planet was repeated later in the week on BBC One and figures for these showings will be available later this month.

Final Ratings - Series Four
-	-CBBC-	-BBC Two-	-BBC One-	-Total-
The Nightmare Man - 1	0.59m	0.28m		0.87m
The Nightmare Man - 2	0.67m	0.38m		1.05m
The Vault of Secrets - 1	0.73m		0.43m	1.16m
The Vault of Secrets - 2	0.61m		0.49m	1.10m
Death of the Doctor - 1	0.92m		0.48m	1.40m
Death of the Doctor - 2	0.96m		0.47m	1.43m
The Empty Planet - 1	0.99m		TBC	TBC
The Empty Planet - 2	0.81m		TBC	TBC

The Director of Photography on the Australian K9 series, Tony O'Loughlan, has been awarded two Bronze awards at the 2010 Queensland and Northern Territory Cinematographer Awards held in Brisbane last Saturday.

The awards were for Episode 23, Angel of the North and Episode 26, The Eclipse of the Korven.

The series, created by Bob Baker and Paul Tams, was shown on the TEN network in Australia and in Europe on the Disney XD channel. The series is due to make its terrestrial début in the UK on Five this Christmas.

A second series is currently in pre-production.

Fans in London can meet the team behind the series at a special event at The Who Shop in Upton Park on Saturday 11th December. Bob Baker and Paul Tams will be signing exclusive merchandise from 1pm to 4pm.