The Eighth Doctor returns to BBC Radio 7 next Sunday when the station begins airing selected stories from the third series of the Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures.

The series stars Paul McGann as the Doctor and Sheridan Smith as Lucie Miller. Four out of eight stories will be broadcast, from the series first released by Big Finish in 2009. Radio Seven has previously broadcast the first two series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures.

The series starts on BBC Radio 7 on Sunday 16th May at 6pm with a repeat at midnight BST.

Radio 7 can be heard around the world via the BBC Website.

Final figures for Episode Five Flesh and Stone published today by BARB show the story was watched by 8.50 million viewers.

On BBC One the programme got 8.02 million watching where it was the fifth most watched programme for the channel for the week, just being out-rated by EastEnders. An additional 0.48 million watched on BBC HD. When added together the programme totalled 8.50 million viewers and was the 11th most watched programme of the week.

The BBC Three Sunday repeat just sneaked into the Top 30 with a confirmed audience of 0.66 million viewers.

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

The Vampires of Venice scored an Appreciation Index figure of 86.

The AI or Appreciation Index or AI score is a measure of how much an audience enjoyed a programme. A score above 85 is 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 11th most watched programme on multi channel television. The Doctor Who Confidential cut down repeat had 0.26 million watching.

The Time of Angels has debuted in Australia to excellent ratings. TV Tonight reports that the episode averaged 909,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, again despite stiff competition from the commercial networks. For another week it was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's top-rating program of the day, rating higher than its popular Sunday 7pm news and a new episode of Foyle's War. The corresponding Confidential Cutdown also rated an excellent 687,000 viewers in the five major capitals.

Meanwhile, TV Tonight also reports that local pay TV network UKTV will have a special Doctor Who June long weekend, broadcasting the full high definition version of Planet of the Dead, as well as the Confidential Greatest Moments specials. The broadcaster is also holding some competitions, including asking viewers to vote for their favourite 10 episodes at www.bbcaustralia.com.

Update: TV Tonight also reports that Doctor Who has done very well with timeshifted viewers. Victory of the Daleks had the second highest percentage increase for Sunday 2 May, 12.9%, gaining 117,000 viewers for an overall audience of 1.027 million. The Beast Below also gained via timeshifting 12.1% viewers, a total of 954,000 viewers.

Unofficial overnight figures show The Vampires of Venice was watched by 6.2 million viewers with a share of 30.6% of the audience.

5.90 million watched on BBC One, where it was again the most watched programme of the evening, with an additional 0.24 million watching on BBC HD.

The rating was down slightly on the previous week, most probably due to the earlier time slot. On ITV1, Funniest Ever You've Been Framed! had 4.4 million watching. The day was won by Britain's Got Talent with 10.88 million watching.

Doctor Who is currently 17th for the week.

Doctor Who Confidential suffered by not being on directly after Doctor Who finished. There was a fifteen minute gap between programmes as BBC Three does not start broadcasting until 7pm. The programme got 0.30 million watching, about 60% of its usual audience. With a 1.4% share it was 37th for the day on multichannel Television. An additional 68,000 watched on BBC HD.

Eight years after the last issue, the third edition of The Finished Product fanzine, looking behind the scenes of the Big Finish audio adventures, is now available.

The Fanzine concentrates on the first series of Eighth Doctor/Lucie adventures, with new interviews with actors, writers and members of the production team, as well as plenty of behind the scenes details.

It's 44 pages, with over 25,000 words, in the classic A5 black and white fanzine form.

It's £2.50 per copy UK, including first class postage, and £3.50 overseas.

For ordering details, send an email to editor Kenny Smith.

The actor Jimmy Gardner has died at the age of 85.

Jimmy Gardner had two roles in Doctor Who. In 1964 he played the role of Chenchu, the manager of the way station at Tun-Huang, in the fourth story of the series Marco Polo. He returned to the series in 1978 to play the role of Idmon in the fourth Doctor story Underworld. Idmon was a Trog on the planet formed around the P7E, and the father of Idas. He tried to encourage the other Trogs to rebel, but was arrested by the Guards and selected for sacrifice. He was rescued by the Doctor and escaped his planet's destruction on board the R1C.

Gardner had a long eventful life. He was a war hero, a survivor of two shipwrecks and numerous escapades on land. After the war he trained as an actor at The Central School and had a long career in television, film and stage. He appeared in many classic TV series including The Forsyte Saga, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars and The Onedin Line. In film he worked on Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and had his most notorious role as Ernie the bus driver in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Independent Obituary

The BBC Press Office has released details for the eighth episode of the new series, The Hungry Earth.

The Chris Chibnall story is scheduled for Saturday 22nd May. It stars Meera Syal, Robert Pugh and Samuel Davies.

This week's Doctor Who Adventures looks back at all the frights in the Angel-packed episodes.

Alex Kingston, who plays River Song, tells all about her mysterious character. Find out what she thought of Matt Smith the first time she met him and what she thinks River’s secret is.

Also in the magazine Matt Smith talks about the episodes with the Weeping Angels and how they were the first story he recorded in his exclusive diary.

Behind the scenes inside the TARDIS! Check out all the levers, switches and gizmos in the Doctor’s amazing spaceship.

Plus:

• Preview of episode six, The Vampires of Venice
• Doctor Who bag!
• The chance to win your own life-size Weeping Angel
• 10 terrifying facts about the Angels

Doctor Who will move back to 6.25pm for the UK premier of Episode Seven, Amy's Choice.

The schedule for the 15th May sees the programme keep its usual place in the schedules, sandwiched between All New Total Wipeout and Over The Rainbow. On ITV viewers can see You've Been Framed! Funniest 100 while BBC Two has Young Musician of the Year. Channel has Channel 4 News, with Five showing the film The Missing, a modern Western with Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett and Val Kilmer.

Full series information can be found here.