The Eleventh Hour - Final Figures

Monday, 12 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Eleventh HourFinal figures for The Eleventh Hour have today been published by BARB and give Matt Smith's debut story an final rating of 10.08 million viewers.

This total is over two million higher than the initial overnight figure of 8 million which implies a large number of viewers time shifted the programme by recording it and watching it later in the week.

On BBC One the story had 9.59 million watching, enough to make the story the second most watched on the channel for the week and the fourth most watched on all British television. However an additional 494,000 people watched the simulcast on BBC HD, giving the story a total audience 10.08 million and making it the third most watched overall. It was only beaten by two episodes of Coronation Street. The programme got nearly 4 million more viewers than any other programme on Saturday.

The Eleventh Hour has the eighth highest rating since the series returned in 2005. If the HD figure is included it is the first episode in the programme's history to be the third most watched of the week. Only twelve out of 757 episodes have ever made the top five. It is the third highest premier story with only Tom Baker and Christopher Eccleston's first stories rating higher.

The episode has also spent most of the week in the top ten list of iPlayer requests, with nearly a million downloads so far.





FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

The Beast Below - AI and Sunday Ratings

Monday, 12 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Beast BelowThe Beast Below achieved an AI score 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 same as that for The Eleventh Hour and is classed as excellent. Doctor Who had the joint highest score on BBC One and ITV 1 for the day, along with Casualty and Harry Potter.

The Sunday repeat was watched by 0.75 million viewers, where it was the 5th most watched programme of the day on multi -channel television. The share was 3.1%. On the main channels, Sunday's Coronation Street got 40,000 more viewers than Saturday's Doctor Who, pushing Doctor Who down to thirteenth place for the week. The position will almost certainly rise when final consolidated figures are published next week.




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

Victory of the Daleks - Trailer

Sunday, 11 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The BBC has released a trailer for Episode Three of the new series, Victory of the Daleks.

The episode is written by Mark Gatiss and stars Bill Paterson, Ian McNeice and Nicholas Briggs. It can be seen in the UK next Saturday at 6.30pm on BBC One and at 8.25pm on BBC HD.





FILTER: - Series 5/31 - Broadcasting

The Beast Below - Ratings

Sunday, 11 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Beast BelowThe Beast Below was watched by 6.7 million viewers, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The programme had an audience of 6.4 million on BBC One, with an additional 330,000 watching on BBC HD. The programme's share was 34%. Although a drop on the previous week, the programme was still the most watched of the day, beating the second-placed National Lottery by 0.8 million viewers. It is very rare for a programme placed so early in the evening to top the ratings for the day, especially on what was, wether-wise, one of the Saturdays of the year so far in the UK.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix performed the best for ITV1, with 5.7 million watching the network premiere. The FA Cup had an average of 3.3 million viewers, with a peak of 4.9 million against Doctor Who.

The highest peak of the day was between 4.15pm and 4.30pm when 7.6 million watched the Grand National horse race on BBC One.

Overall, the programme currently stands as the twelfth most-watched of the week, with Sunday's ratings still to come. A top ten place is still a possibility once the final ratings are calculated next week.

On BBC Three, Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 0.56 million viewers, a 2.7% share of the audience.





FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

Hubert Rees and Max Faulkner

Saturday, 10 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Two alumni of the classic series of Doctor Who have recently died.

Hubert ReesHubert Rees had three roles in the series working with two different Doctors.

He first appeared in the 1968 story Fury from the Deep, working alongside Patrick Troughton. He played the Chief Engineer, the head of engineering at a Euro Sea Gas refinery who assisted the Doctor in his efforts to defeat the Weed Creature. Rees returned to the series the following year in Troughton's swan song, The War Games, in which he played Captain Ransom, an officer in the British Army. His final appearance was in the 1976 Tom Baker story The Seeds of Doom, playing John Stevenson, a botanist at a scientific expedition in Antarctic.

Outside of Doctor Who he had roles in many well-known dramas, including Paul Temple, The Sweeney, The Duchess of Duke Street, By the Sword Divided and Howards' Way.


Max FaulknerMax Faulkner, born in 1931, was a stunt man and actor who has small roles in six Doctor Who stories. He played a UNIT soldier in the 1970 Jon Pertwee story The Ambassadors of Death, and a miner in the 1974 story The Monster of Peladon. In Jon Pertwee's final story, Planet of the Spiders, he played the Guard Captain.

Faulkner appeared with Tom Baker in three stories. In the 1975 story Genesis of the Daleks he played a Thal Guard before returning later in the year in The Android Invasion as Corporal Adams, a UNIT officer stationed at Devesham. His final appearance in 1978 was in The Invasion of Time where he played Nesbin, the leader of a group of Outsiders.

He was the fight arranger in the 1976 story The Hand of Fear.

Faulkner appeared in many British dramas such as Ivanhoe, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Richard the Lionheart, Colditz, Lorna Doone, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Secret Army, Blake's 7 and Robin of Sherwood.




FILTER: - Obituary - Classic Series

BBC Blog

Friday, 9 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The BBC has published a blog on the recent relaunch of the official BBC Doctor Who website.

Written by Andy Dudfield, the Delivery Manager, Future Media & Technology in BBC Wales, the blog explores the brief for the relaunch and the work done to try to make the official site the no.1 destination to experience the world of Doctor Who.

As well as introducing brand new sections for viewers to explore and learn more about characters and monsters from the series, the site will be bring a higher level of production news and will be used to break important Doctor Who stories.

The blog singles out the Fun and Games section of the site as a major priority. A brand new look and feel has been given to this section and it is hoped this will help keep it visually engaging and entertaining. There is also a significant piece of work underway to unlock the archive and move content from the old into the new site.




FILTER: - Online

BAFTA Cymru Nominations 2010

Friday, 9 April 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The nominations for this year's BAFTA Cymru Awards have been released, and once again Doctor Who and its spinoffs are up for several awards — in some cases against themselves!

Best Drama Series/Serial for Television
Doctor Who: The End Of Time (Part One) - Tracie Simpson
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Peter Bennett

Best Children's Programme
The Sarah Jane Adventures: Prisoner of the Judoon - Nikki Smith

Best Interactive
The Sarah Jane Adventures - Richard Jenkins, Anwen Aspden

Best Sound
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Julian Howarth, Tim Ricketts, Doug Sinclair, Howard Eaves

Best Editor
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Will Oswald

Best Design
Doctor Who: The Waters Of Mars - Edward Thomas

Best Costume
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Ray Holman

Best Make-Up
Doctor Who: The End Of Time (Part One) - Barbara Southcott

Best Screenwriter
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Russell T Davies

Best Original Music Soundtrack
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Ben Foster

Best Actress
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Eve Myles

The BBC itself has some 31 nominations in total. You can find the full list of nominations in the categories at the BAFTA website.

The winners will be anounced at the Bafta Cymru Awards ceremony on Sunday 23rd May at the Wales Millennium Centre. There are limited tickets available to the public, enquire at the Millennium Centre (029 2063 6464).




FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - Children of Earth (Series 3)

The Time Of Angels - Press Release

Thursday, 8 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Victory of the DaleksThe BBC Press Office has released details of the fourth episode of the new series The Time Of Angels.

The story by Steven Moffat will air in the UK on 24th April at a provisional time of 6.25pm. Schedules will be fixed next Wednesday.

The episode sees the return of two Steven Moffat creations, The Weeping Angels from the Series Three story, Blink, and River Song played by Alex Kingston, from the Series Four stories Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead.

The Doctor is recruited by Father Octavian to track the last of the Angels through the terrifying Maze Of The Dead.

Meanwhile, the mysterious River Song re-enters the Doctor's life – but can he trust her?




FILTER: - UK - Series 5/31 - Broadcasting

Doctor Who Adventures - 161

Thursday, 8 April 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Doctor Who AdventuresIn this week's edition of Doctor Who Adventures, find out all the facts on Prisoner Zero in this week’s ‘Fast Facts’, and Matt reveals his favourite bits from episode one and how he managed to eat fish fingers and custard!

Plus, the Doctor and Amy make their first appearance in the comic strip, and there's the chance to win a life-size Dalek.




FILTER: - Magazines - DWA

Week Three - Schedules (Updated)

Thursday, 8 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Victory of the DaleksSchedules for the 17th April have been changed slightly with Episode Three of the new series, Victory of the Daleks, now being broadcast on BBC One at 6.30pm.

NB: The BBC HD showing will be delayed until 8.25pm because BBC HD will be showing live football earlier in the evening.

On BBC One the programme will again be preceded on BBC One by Total Wipeout and followed by Over the Rainbow.

On ITV 1 Doctor Who is up against You've Been Framed, Extreme, a series with Harry Hill featuring the best camcorder and mobile phone calamities, the last showing of which was watched by 5 million viewers on 20th March. The last half is up against a new game show The Whole 19 Yards. 19 yards is the distance the contestants have to travel to reach their buzzer - over, under, across and through a gruelling obstacle course. The big hitter in the ITV lineup is the return of Britain's Got Talent at 8pm, the series which launched the career of Susan Boyle last year and the programme which is likely to win the night in ratings terms.

BBC Two offers football with Match of the Day Live and the game between West Bromwich Albion and Middlesbrough, while Channel 4 has Channel 4 News. On Five you can see the 1965 film Major Dundee, an offbeat western starring Charlton Heston and Richard Harris.

Doctor Who Confidential is on BBC Three at 7.15pm, with story writer Mark Gatiss meeting the curator of the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum to see what the conditions were like at the epicentre of the British war effort. Confidential is repeated on BBC HD at 9.10pm.




FILTER: - Broadcasting