I am absolutely delighted to be attending Cowal Highland Gathering at the end of August especially considering that as a child I grew up for 18 years watching the pipers marching up Argyll Street. I so look forward to revisiting the location and the happy memories. I am thrilled and honoured to have been asked.

I would like to thank Mr McCoy for accepting our invitation to be our honorary Chieftain at this year’s event. It is a privilege and honour to welcome Mr McCoy into this role and both myself and the team at Cowal Highland Gathering look forward to bringing him home to Dunoon this year.

What makes you different from previous Doctors?
- I’m younger, so my skin is a bit smoother. What would you say makes me different? Bigger ears?
You’re crazier.
- There you go, I’m crazier.
How many marks out of ten would you give yourself so far?
- That’s a tough one. Let’s say eight. I’ve two episodes left, so I can still get to ten. I don’t want to undersell myself.
We don’t often see the Doctor eating anything. My favourite food is sausage and mash. What’s yours?
- Spaghetti bolognese, banana sandwiches. I love biscuits with tea and am partial to a chocolate muffin or two.

When I was a little Beano-reading Doctor Who fan – about nine or ten – I was desperate to know more about Sherlock Holmes. It was a name I’d heard. I knew he was some kind of policeman, I knew he had a funny hat, and I knew he was in a film called The Hound of the Baskervilles, which once came on the telly and got me sent to bed because it was too frightening. I remember lying upstairs that night, too excited to sleep – because I could hear the baying of a terrible hound, and the rapid-fire voice of a policeman who fought monsters. I needed to find out more, because I knew already this was my kind of hero: if Doctor Who had been a detective, clearly he’d have been Sherlock Holmes.

They said I had a 25 per cent chance of survival. The prognosis was terrifying. My brother Roy died of lung cancer aged 41, my dad of a heart attack at 62. I suddenly thought, The Hines arent going to live very long. It was like I was next in line to go.

When I got out of the hospital bed (after a bowel operation and chemotherapy treatment) I walked to the mirror and saw this grey face staring back. I told myself, "there's someone who's cheated death." After they discharged me I felt like I wanted to grab life by the horns. The first morning I was home, I went for a ride on my motorbike. Liz (Hobbs, Frazer's then wife) was furious and said I would rip my stitches out.

During the period Frazer continued to work in a panto in Grantham. I did the chemo in the morning then, with a catheter in place, I attended rehearsals and went back for chemo in the evening. I did 13 shows a week. I never told anyone in the cast. I never felt sick and was full of energy. My hair actually grew so much that I could put a bow in it by the last show. I had chemo for four months.

A scan later showed he was clear of cancer but doctors warned there was a risk it could return. For the next five years, I still didn't tell anybody and certainly didn't want it to become common knowledge in the showbiz world as I knew I would never work again. I thought if people in TV knew, they'd think "we can't have him, hes got cancer, too big a risk." I also didn't want fans to feel sorry for me and have everyone thinking I was at death's door. I wanted people to treat me like normal no matter what I was going through.

I stayed away from TV but did theatre. On stage you always have an understudy, so if I took a turn for the worse I wouldn't let anyone down. On TV you would and there would be no coming back from that.

I had six-monthly check-ups until this year when a colonoscopy confirmed I was in the clear. It felt I was finally free again. Now I can tell people and help inspire them.

Bowel cancer doesnt have to be a death sentence. You can survive. I did.

I’ve gathered on the new season (airing on my new favorite cable network, Starz), the show is out to cast a new series regular — Rex Matheson, a wickedly funny (operative word: wicked) CIA agent born to make waves. Almost as key to the new season are recurring characters Esther Katusi, a CIA grunt in her early 20s who learns what she’s really made of only when she’s forced to, and Oswald Jones, a convicted murderer and pedophile who will be as shocked as anyone to learn how easily infamy and fame can be exchanged for one another.

And Starz's new season of Torchwood is shaping up with the search for one series regular and two supporting roles. Rex Matheson is a white, twenty-something CIA agent who sounds sort of like FX's animated Archer spy: a fearless, cocky thrill seeker. Recurring characters include Esther Katusi, a newbie Watch Analyst in the CIA who is deeply (and secretly) in love with Rex. And Oswald Jones is the dangerous psychotic villain. He's a forty-something murderer and pedophile who gets sprung from the slammer into the spotlight. Rex — catch this sicko!

The Doctor is back. Two years ago, he appeared at the BBC Proms via video link. This year, he's here in person. Thrills, spills, adventures, monsters and special guests are all guaranteed along the way in this Proms spectacular. Petroc Trelawny has the unenviable task of keeping everything in order for BBC Radio 3 – though, sadly, without the help of a sonic screwdriver.

Doctor Who (Matt Smith) and his assistant, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), join the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the London Philharmonic Choir for an action-packed evening. Monsters from the current run of the hugely successful BBC series threaten to disrupt proceedings. Only the Doctor – ably assisted by conductors Ben Foster and Grant Llewellyn – can save the day.

There are some classical favourites with a suitably celestial theme, including Mars from Holst's Planets Suite and John Adams's thrilling Short Ride In A Fast Machine.

Matthew Sweet spent the Saturday tea-times of his youth peering at the television, from behind the sofa, to watch Doctor Who. He time-travels through the programme's 47-year history to investigate the weird and wonderful sound world of its incidental music. He talks with some of the composers who have contributed, in very different musical styles, to the enduring success of the programme over the decades.