Big Finish have announced the details for the Eleventh Season of the Bernice Summerfield Adventures.

Bernice Surprise Summerfield was originally created by Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of Doctor Who Novels. Big Finish have been producing audio plays featuring the character since September 1998.

Four new audio adventures will be released this year, plus a new hardback collection of short stories. This eleventh season of stories, starring the archaeologist from the 26th Century, will begin with a two-part conclusion to the long-running ‘Braxiatel’ story arc. The season midpoint, starting with the third release, will mark a new beginning in a new setting.

Story producer John Ainsworth says:
The series kicks off with what is effectively a two-part adventure, Resurrecting the Past (August) and Escaping the Future (September), both by Eddie Robson and starring all the regular supporting characters from The Collection. Robson, who is also editor of this year’s hardback book, Present Danger, the events of which are set between his two audio plays, says Present Danger will be published in September and includes stories by Kate Orman, Lance Parkin, Mark Clapham and Simon Guerrier.

Summerfield gets a new start from the third audio release in October with Year Zero by Jonathan Clements. This is followed in November by Dead Man’s Switch by John Dorney and Richard Dinnick. Each is very much a self-contained tale but both fit into a new story arc that will continue and conclude in Season 12. This new beginning takes the character back to basics and once again focuses on her skills and experience as an archaeologist.

Lisa Bowerman, who plays Bernice Summerfield, is also excited about the new direction for the series:
Big Finish have also confirmed they have commissioned a second season of Jago and Litefoot.

The first season of adventures featuring the characters of Henry Gordon Jago and Professor George Litefoot will be released next month. The duo first appeared as supporting characters in the classic Tom Baker story The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Producer David Richardson said
Season Two, which will also be released in a five-disc box set, will be available in January 2011.

The current series will end with an episode titled The Big Bang.

The title of the final story of the season has been confirmed by the official website.

Full series details can be found on our series guide.

Doctor Who moves back to a 7pm start for Episode Nine of the new series, Cold Blood, on Saturday 29th May.

The new BBC One line up is due to the showing of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest live from Oslo, Norway at 8pm that evening. Doctor Who is preceded by an edition of The Weakest Link and followed by the National Lottery Saturday Draws.

Doctor Who faces The Whole 19 Yards on ITV1, a game show with Vernon Kay and Caroline Flack. BBC Two is showing The Boats That Built Britain with Channel 4 offering the feature film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

2 entertain have published pictures taken at the recording session for the commentary track on the forthcoming release of The Dominators. Two pictures have been published on the classicdw twitter account, the first featuring Wendy Padbury who played Zoe, Giles Block who played Teel, Sylvia James who did the make up for the story and Toby Hadoke who moderated. The second features Wendy Padbury who played Zoe, Frazer Hines who played Jamie, Arthur Cox who played Cully and Toby Hadoke who moderated, along with Commentary Producer John Kelly.
The Dominators is due for release in the UK on 12 July.

Tom Baker has confirmed he has now recorded the commentary track for the 2011 release of The Seeds of Doom, along with John Challis who played Scorby in the story and Philip Hinchcliffe who was producer at the time.

Also on the twitter account it has been confirmed that a tribute to former producer Barry Letts is being prepared for release on a future DVD. Tom Baker and Nicholas Courtney will both contribute to the documentary.

The title of the penultimate episode of the current series has been revealed as The Pandorica Opens and the episode will be exclusively previewed at a special screening at the Princess Anne Theatre, BAFTA on Wednesday 16 June.

There will be a special Question and Answer session with Matt Smith talking about his first season as the Doctor and Steven Moffat talking about his first season as Lead Writer. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill will join the panel.

The British tabloid, The Daily Star, is reporting that Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page is to appear in two future episodes of Doctor Who.

The British Film Institute is offering the chance to see a special preview of episode ten of the current series, Vincent and the Doctor, but the event is only open to those who attend with children.

The special showing will take place on Wednesday 2nd June at 1.30pm and at 2pm and will be followed by a special Question and Answer session with writer Richard Curtis and Karen Gillan.

Tickets can be booked on 020 7928 3232.

As reported earlier this week BBC Worldwide is to launch a band new Live arena tour of the UK.

Developed in association with Doctor Who’s Executive Producer and show runner, Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Live promises the same excitement, adventure and suspense that viewers have come to expect from the TV programme and will feature specially filmed new video scenes.

Opening in wartime London and concluding in an epic onstage battle, audiences should expect the unexpected as the The Doctor’s arch-enemies the Daleks are joined by some of the best-loved and most terrifying monsters from the TV series including the Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Judoon and Oods to name but a few.

Doctor Who Live will feature special FX, optical illusions and spectacular pyrotechnics building to an epic finale. Specially edited video clips, drawn from the TV Programme will be shown on a massive screen and accompanied by the music of longtime Doctor Who composer Murray Gold. These iconic scores will be brought to life by a 16 piece orchestra live on stage.

NB: Actors from the TV series will NOT be appearing live on stage.


Tickets will go on sale 9am Friday 21st May 2010 and are priced at £38.50, £34.50 and £25.00 subject to booking fees. For the Belfast Odyssey Arena only tickets are priced at £42.50, £37.50 & £27.50 as booking fees and agency commissions are included in the ticket price.

Full details on www.doctorwholive.com

Final figures for Episode Six, The Vampires of Venice, published by BARB show the story was watched by 7.68 million viewers.

On BBC One the programme got 7.28 million watching where it was the fifth most watched programme for the channel for the week, just being out-rated by EastEnders. An additional 0.40 million watched on BBC HD. When added together the programme totalled 7.68 million viewers and was the 12th most watched programme of the week.

The BBC Three Sunday repeat did not rank high enough to get into the top 30 for the week.

Full ratings for the series so far can be found in Gallifrey Base.

Amy's Choice scored an Appreciation Index figure of 84.

The AI or Appreciation Index or AI score is a measure of how much an audience enjoyed a programme. A score between 80 and 85 is considered good with a score above 85 considered excellent.

With overnight ratings for the whole week now available, Doctor Who is currently 18th for the week.

Sunday's BBC Three the Doctor Who repeat was watched by 0.60 million and was the 12th most watched programme on multi channel television. The Doctor Who Confidential cut down repeat had 0.24 million watching.