The Daily Mail has provoked a comment on the new series from an organisation with a long track record of expressing concerns about the classic series, Mediawatch-UK.

Mediawatch is the successor to the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, the organisation founded by Mary Whitehouse in 1965. Whitehouse was extremely critical of Doctor Who during the period produced by Philip Hinchcliffe between 1975 and 1977. She made complaints about several of the serials during this era, particularly The Ark in Space, Genesis of the Daleks, The Brain of Morbius, The Seeds of Doom and The Deadly Assassin.

The latest comment comes in a Daily Mail article which claims 'dozens' of fans are upset with the BBC, accusing the production team of trying to 'sex up' the programme to attract more adult viewers. The main focus of the complaint is the final scene in Flesh and Stone, a scene which the Daily Mail was convinced would worry viewers when it previewed the episode last Saturday. In the article, Vivienne Pattison, of Mediawatch UK, is quoted as saying "I have to say the scene was slightly out of place in a children's programme. I thought it sailed pretty close to the wind."

The BBC is also quoted in the article, confirming that it had received 43 complaints about Saturday's episode. A spokesman said "Millions of Doctor Who fans watched and enjoyed last Saturday's episode, including the lighthearted and humorous scene in which Amy kissed the Doctor."

The Doctor Who Proms have sold out on the first day of ticket release. The two proms will take place in July at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Tickets went on sale Tuesday morning and the event was sold out by lunchtime. Over 500 Arena and Gallery tickets will be available on the day to members of the public queuing at the Royal Albert Hall. The Saturday Prom will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and recorded for future broadcast on BBC Three.

Discworld creator Terry Pratchett has questioned Doctor Who's Sci-Fi credentials. Talking to SFX magazine, the best selling author admits he finds the series very, very entertaining, with "its heart in the right place" but thinks "its head is often in orbit around Jupiter". "I just wish that it was not classified as science fiction. Doctor Who’s science is pixel thin."

Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston has said he will like to turn his hand to comedy. Eccleston who has recently completed a John Lennon biopic for BBC4, told the Radio Times he had not worked since last year as he selects his TV roles so carefully. "I'm more slapdash about the film choices I make, whereas I choose my TV projects very carefully. But it's a tough time and I haven't worked since December because I'm choosy. I would actually like to do comedy for the rest of my life and surprise everyone and myself."

Final figures for The Time of Angels published today by BARB show the story was watched by 8.59 million viewers.

The figure is, once more, much greater than the initial overnight figure, indicating many record the programme for watching later.

The programme got 8.13 million viewers on BBC One, where it was the fifth most watched programme for the channel for the week. An additional 0.46 million watched on BBC HD. When the figures are added together it gives Doctor Who a total of 8.59 million viewers and makes it the eighth most watched programme of the week.

The BBC Three Sunday repeat did not appear in the top ten for the week for the channel. The HD showing of Confidential did make it into the HD chart with 0.092 million watching, 9th for the channel for the week.

Flesh and Stone 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. The score was the highest of the day on either of the two main channels.

Sunday's BBC Three the Doctor Who repeat was watched by 0.63 million and was the eighth most watched programme on multi channel television. It had a remarkable AI of 91, although it should be noted AI figures for the minority channels are usually higher than those for the main five.

Satuday's Doctor Who Confidential had an audience of 0.52 million with the cut down repeat on Sunday being watched by 0.32 million viewers.

The BBC have uploaded the Graham Norton reference to Nortongate to their YouTube site.





The full programme, which features Karen Gillan as a guest, can be seen on BBC One Monday evening.

Victory of the Daleks has debuted in Australia to excellent ratings. TV Tonight reports that the episode averaged 915,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, despite stiff competition from the commercial networks including Masterchef Australia and the annual Logie Awards (the major Australian TV awards). The Daleks proved popular, with Doctor Who improving its ratings by 64,000 viewers from the previous week's episode. Again it was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's top-rating program of the day, rating higher than its popular Sunday 7pm news. (By comparison, the final of the mini-series Burn Up only rated 375,000 viewers for the ABC in the following 8.30pm timeslot.) The corresponding Confidential Cutdown also rated a respectable 523,000 viewers in the five major capitals.

The BBC have released a trailer for The Vampires of Venice, on BBC One and BBC HD, Satuday 8th May, 6pm.

The BBC has reiterated its apology for the Nortongate incident, this time on the feedback programme Points of View. In a special programme presented from the BBC Election studio, four letters from viewers were read out along with the BBC official response which the presenter Jeremy Vine called a rare, unreserved apology. The whole programme is available on the BBC iPlayer.

Meanwhile The Sun reports that Graham Norton will poke fun on the incident as part of his BBC One show on Monday. The paper claims a Norton animation will dance on to the screen, followed by a Dalek who promptly blows him up. The programme features Karen Gillan as a guest.

BBC Australia have dubbed Saturday 12 – Monday 14 June as The Greatest Doctor Who Weekend of all Time, with UKTV screening 10 stories from the Ninth and Tenth Doctors.

The channel is asking viewers to vote for their favourite episodes in a competition on the UKTV website. Prizes include a weekend of pop culture in Melbourne with a double Gold pass to Armageddon Multimedia Expo on October 16 & 17 where you will have photos with media guests including the seventh Doctor!

The three Greatest Adventures documentaries, shown in the UK last summer, will also form part of the weekend as well as the first Doctor Who special shot in HD, Planet of the Dead.

Unofficial overnight figures show Flesh and Stone was watched by 6.9 million viewers with a share of 34.5% of the audience.

6.53 million watched on BBC One, where it was again the most watched programme of the evening, with an additional 0.34 million watching on BBC HD.

The audience on BBC One once more built throughout the episode to a peak of 7.15 million, before dropping by around 2 million as the episode finished.

Britain's Got Talent once more won the evening with 10.3 million watching.

With one day to come, Doctor Who is the twelfth most watched programme of the week so far, a position which should rise when final figures are calculated next week.