Tenth Doctor David Tennant is to star in a new BBC drama based on the true story of Manchester United's legendary "Busby Babes", the youngest side ever to win the Football League.

United is a BBC Two film which portrays events set around the 1958 Munich Air Crash that claimed eight of the team's number number and the extraordinary spirit of a city that rebuilt the side in the wake of the disaster.

Tennant will play coach Jimmy Murphy, alongside Jack O'Connell (Skins, Dive) as Bobby Charlton, the youngest of the Babes, and Sam Claflin (Pirates Of The Caribbean, Any Human Heart) as star player Duncan Edwards. The film draws on first-hand interviews with the survivors and their families to tell the inspirational story of a team and community overcoming terrible tragedy.

The drama is written by Chris Chibnall, who wrote last year's two part Doctor Who story The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood as well as the 2007 story 42, and who has also written numerous episodes of Torchwood. It is directed by James Strong who has directed several episodes of Doctor Who and Torchwood.

Simon Heath, Executive Producer, World Productions, says:
United starts filming later this month in and around the North East of England.

Limited numbers of preview tickets for The Doctor Who Experience, will go on sale next Monday 15th November at 9am GMT.

The new Doctor Who exhibition is set to open at London's Olympia on 20th February 2011.

Special preview days are planned for the 17th, 18th and 19th February 2011 allowing fans to experience the adventure before anyone else. In addition to being the first through the doors of the Doctor Who Experience, preview ticket holders will also receive special Doctor Who Experience limited edition merchandise created especially for these dates.

Tickets are only available from doctorwhoexperience.com/priority. They come in two versions, The Sonic Screwdriver (standard) ticket will include a special limited edition of the Doctor Who Experience souvenir brochure with a unique souvenir ticket while the TARDIS (enhanced) ticket will include all of the above, plus an exclusive preview edition laminate & lanyard set and a limited edition Doctor Who lithograph.

The sixth edition of The Finished Product is now available.

This issue looks at the relationship between Big Finish and Doctor Who Magazine, speaking to many of the people who have been involved over the years, including Gary Russell, Alan Barnes, Conrad Westmaas and Tom Spilsbury.

There is a feature on the DWM exclusives which haven't been covered by The Inside Story book, starting with The Veiled Leopard, including the thoughts of Sophie Aldred, and Cuddlesome, including a plot breakdown of the Audio Visuals original which many readers won't have heard, and then The Mists of Time and Freakshow.

The Companion Chronicles specials continue with The Three Companions, before the issue is rounded off with interviews on how Spare Parts was developed into The Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel, with exclusive interviews with Marc Platt, Gary Russell and Tom Macrae.

Email thefinishedproduct@hotmail.co.uk for more details.

The elusive title for the forthcoming Christmas Special has finally been revealed by the BBC, as the official Doctor Who website announces it as A Christmas Carol.

The title is perhaps unsurprising given comments made by Ben Stephenson (Controller BBC Drama Commissioning) back in July, when he revealed the story would be "Doctor Who's clever twist on the much loved A Christmas Carol"!

A preview for the episode is due to be shown on next Friday's Children in Need, and the official site has also reported that another Doctor Who-related item will feature on the show, featuring Matt Smith as "two young fans of Doctor Who have their dream come true..."

The BBC is to screen a previously unbroadcast interview with the late Delia Derbyshire, the woman who realised the original Doctor Who title music.

On Monday 15 November, the West Midlands edition of BBC One's Inside Out will feature excerpts from an interview originally recorded in the late-Nineties by BBC Radio Scotland's John Cavanagh but never broadcast before. In the interview Derbyshire reveals that one of the primary influences on her music, including Doctor Who, were the abstract sounds she heard as a child during the Coventry blitz. The programme also features previously unseen footage of Derbyshire later in life at a Doctor Who fan convention.

BBC Radio 2 presenter Stuart Maconie looks at her career and explores why the woman herself remains a mystery despite her work influencing the world of electronic music, including Pink Floyd and today's modern dance acts. He begins his journey in war-torn Coventry, where Derbyshire grew up, and follows her journey to the Radiophonic Workshop at the BBC. He talks to a range of people, including the man who invented the sounds of the TARDIS, Brian Hodgson.

In 1963, hardly anyone outside of avant garde music circles and academia knew electronic music even existed. But, 47 years on, the Doctor Who theme is probably the most famous piece of electronic music in the world and Derbyshire's lost recordings, discovered in her attic after her death, are being lovingly restored by the University of Manchester.

Uncovered in this episode is the revelation that Derbyshire composed music for an astonishing number of landmark programmes of the day, with the original Doctor Who theme being just a small part of her massive output whose style was described in her own words.

This programme will be broadcast on BBC One in the West Midlands, at 7.30pm on Monday 15 November.

Viewers in the UK outside the region can watch the programme on Freesat channel 963, Sky channel 979, or on the BBC iPlayer.

A new book telling the full story of the Russell T Davies era of Doctor Who in now available for pre-order.

Ultimate Regeneration is the first book from Kasterborous.com and the first to be released in the UK by writer and Editor of the site Christian Cawley. The book tells the real-time critical story of Doctor Who between the years 2005 and 2010.

Featuring essays, articles, reviews and interviews, the full story is put into context with a running commentary on the main events in Doctor Who news and fandom. It includes 60 Doctor Who reviews from Rose to The End of Time, Part Two, and over 30 articles including character, actor and writer profiles.

Upon release, Ultimate Regeneration will have a sale price of £14.99. However a special pre-order price of £9.99 (plus p&p) is currently available, saving 33% on the cover price.

Due to a problem with one of our providers the photo gallery and pop-out enlarged photo function is currently inoperative; this also caused some people to have problems accessing the site earlier in the week. We have implemented a temporary solution and are working on resolving the outstanding issues, and hope to have full functionality back soon - in the meantime you can still click on photos to see the full-sized versions.

We aplogise for any inconvenience caused.
The News Team

As previously reported, yesterday evening saw the annual ceremony to switch on the Cardiff Christmas Lights, this year undertaken by the current TARDIS crew of Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill. The three were on hand to launch the festive period, and were accompanied during the evening by festive music from the soul band Supernatural and Bob the Builder. The celebration was rounded off with a fireworks display.

Matt said:

Big Finish have released artwork for their collection of lost stories for the Second Doctor, due in December.

The set comprises the two stories, Prison in Space and The Daleks: The Destroyers:


In addition, the cover for the Seventh Doctor and Ace lost adventure Thin Ice has also been released, with the adventure due for release in April 2011:

The Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development has confirmed that principal photography for the previously announced US filming will take place in Utah from November 17 to November 19. The state's Motion Picture Incentive Fund has authorized a filming rebate of up to $30,000 for location filming in the state. The exact location of filming has not been revealed, and fans are not being encouraged to attend filming; a BBC representative told a member of the Utah Film Commission in a private email that he "feels that it would be doing the production a disservice to have fans of the show watching it being filmed as certain story arcs and plot lines could be exposed prematurely and be spread over the internet."