Actor David Collings has died at the age of 79.

David Collings had a number of memorable appearances in Doctor Who appearing in eleven episodes of the Classic series between 1975 and 1983.

His first appearance was in the Fourth Doctor story Revenge of the Cybermen. Collins played Vorus, leader of the guardians on Voga. His performance as the proud renegade, trying to assert his races sovereignty but nearly bringing about their destruction was a tour de force.

He returned to the series in 1977 playing Poul in the story The Robots of Death. A very different role Poul was an undercover agent for the Kaldor City Company, eventually succumbing to Grimwade's Syndrome, the fear of Robots.

His final appearance came in the fifth Doctor story Mawdryn Undead, playing the title character Mawdryn, desperate to get the Doctor to give up his remaining regenerations.

David Collings was born in Brighton in East Sussex in 1940. His first television appearance came in 1964, playing Raskolnikov in a live production of Crime & Punishment. Over the next thirty years, he was a regular of the British screen appearing in such programmes as Dr. Finlay's Casebook, Point Counter Point, The Possessed, Canterbury Tales, Elizabeth R, By the Sword Divided, Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced, Sapphire & Steel and The Shadow of the Tower.

He played William Wilberforce in The Fight Against Slavery and Blind Pew in Treasure Island. In 1981 he appeared in the final episode of Blake's 7 playing Deva. He played Monkey in the late seventies adaptation of a Chinese folktale.

Film roles included Bob Cratchit in the classic 1970 film musical, Scrooge, as well as roles in The Thirty Nine Steps and The Outsider, while Radio listeners heard him as Legolas in the acclaimed BBC dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings.

In recent years Collins had worked for Big Finish appearing in several Doctor Who related productions.

David Collings died suddenly earlier today. He is survived by his children and by his wife, Karen Archer, who announced the death on Twitter.

A new, specially written scene is to be released online tonight at 6:30pm GMT to introduce the #SaveTheDay initiative for an international viewing of the 50th Anniversary story The Day Of The Doctor.

The scene has been written by the story's writer and former showrunner Steven Moffat; organiser Emily Cook told Radio Times:
Details of the scene, and who will present it, are being kept under wraps, but the writer has briefly returned to Twitter to celebrate the event, saying:

The worldwide "watchathon" takes place at 7:00pm GMT/3:00pm ET/6:00am AEDT/8:00am NZDT.
Tweet #SaveTheDay

Today at 7:00pm GMT, Doctor Who fans (and anybody else who wants to join in!) all around the world are invited to join in a special global viewing of the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who adventure, The Day Of The Doctor!

Organised by Doctor Who Magazine writer, Emily Cook, the idea is to bring some cheer during the current global pandemic by fans watching episodes simultaneously and sharing their views together as the stories unfold. Back in 2013, The Day Of The Doctor achieved a world record for the number of viewers globally, and this story has been chosen to kick off this new shared experience, using the hashtag that promoted the anniversary, #SaveTheDay.


If successful, further shared viewing days could follow, with provisional ideas including the 21st Century Doctor Who premiere Rose on 26th March to celebrate its 15th anniversary, and the eleventh Doctor opener The Eleventh Hour on 3rd April in celebration of its 10th anniversary!

Due to the recent advice from Government about the spread of the Corona-19 virus, Big Finish has taken the decision to temporarily suspend the recording of audio dramas.

Speaking about the precaution to pause recording sessions, Chairman of the production company, Jason Haigh-Ellery, said:

Silva Screen Records have now released details on the forthcoming CD releases of the soundtracks for the fourth Doctor adventure The Sun Makers by Dudley Simpson, and fifth Doctor tale The Visitation by Paddy Kingsland.



Both CDs are due to be released on 1st May 2020.

Candy Jar Books have announced the next book in their Bloodlines series of Lethbridge-Stewart.


Following last year’s crossover between the Lethbridge-Stewart and The Lucy Wilson Mysteries range of novels, comes a new crossover event. The George Kostinen Mystery is written by Chris Lynch, whose work includes The Lucy Wilson Mysteries novel, Curse of the Mirror Clowns.

Range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen says:

Chris Lynch says:

The cover is by regular Lethbridge-Stewart contributor, Adrian Salmon. Adrian says:

The George Kostinen Mystery will be followed by Back to the Past, which wraps up the Bloodlines saga, and then the final book of series seven which will see a return to the Schizoid Earth in I, Alastair.

The book is available for pre-order now, an is including in the book subscription with Candy Jar Books.

A set of Doctor Who virtual items are available for free this month for the Roblox community to enjoy.

BBC Studios and Roblox today announced the launch of a series of Doctor Who-themed virtual items on Roblox, a global online platform bringing more than 115 million people together through play.

Players can now personalize their avatar with a variety of Doctor Who-themed items, including a TARDIS backpack, and avatars of The Tenth and Thirteenth Doctor, all obtainable for free, from the Roblox Avatar Shop.

These items are available for a limited time (12th March-26th March) and include:

The Pterrible Pting
This tiny terror from Doctor Who can eat any inorganic material. Thankfully, however, it won’t eat any organic material (meaning you).

Portable TARDIS
Funny thing about this backpack…it’s much, much bigger on the inside.

The Tenth Doctor
Two legs, two arms, two hands, BIG hair…and sideburns! This bundle is based on David Tennant’s character in Doctor Who.

The Thirteenth Doctor
This bundle, made of a bit of adrenaline, a dash of outrage, and a hint of panic, is based on Jodie Whittaker’s character in Doctor Who.

Christina Wootton, Vice President of Brand Partnerships, Roblox, said: Sarah Bold, BBC Studios Global Franchise Head of Marketing for Drama, said:

The conclusion to this year's series of Doctor Who, The Timeless Children, had an official rating of 4.69 million viewers, according to figures released by the Broadcasting Research Audience Board, BARB.

The figure is the lowest consolidated figure for an epiosde of Doctor Who since the series returned in 2005, a record previously held by the 2017 story, The Eaters of Light. Out of 861 episodes of Doctor Who broadcast since 1963, only 33 have achieved a lower rating.

To put the figue in perspective, it was still the 30th most-watched programme on British TV for the week, much higher that the position achieved by the majority of episodes of Doctor Who shown over the years. The episode had a 21.5% share of the total TV audience.

In detail 4.55 million watched the episode on a conventional TV set. An additional 70,000 watched on their PC, 39,000 watched on a Tablet device and 34,000 watched on a smartphone.

Top for the week was Ant and Dec's Saturday Takeaway on ITV with 7.41 million watching. The top BBC programme was the drama Death in Paradise with 6.78 million.

Doctor Who had an Appreciation Index score of 82

The average viweing figures for 2020 now stands at 5.40m as oposed to 7.96m for Series 11 in 2018. This is lower than Series 10 which averaged 5.64m. It is still higher than the lowest rated season, season 26 which averaged 4.31m .

Hero Collector has launched the newest entries in its range of Doctor Who Chibi merchandise: fun pin badges and socks, decorated with chibi-style Doctor Who art.

Hero Collector designs, manufacturers, and publishers of high-quality collectables from across the worlds of pop culture. They already offer pin badges for each incarnation of The Doctor, from William Hartnell's first incarnation to Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor. Now the darker side of the Doctor’s adventures is coming out to play, with almost a dozen iconic monsters captured as chibi-style metal pin badges!

Fans can collect a relentless Cyberman, reptilian Ice Warrior, diminutive Sontaran, wide-eyed Slitheen, terrifying Weeping Angel, ominous Ood, cold-hearted Snowman, an eerie Silent, and three different designs of Dalek.

These badges can be collected individually or as part of three new box sets, collecting Classic Doctors, Modern Doctors, and Monsters. Each design makes a perfect addition to any outfit – even better than a decorative stick of celery…

Plus, fans looking to add a little menace to their footwear can grab three new pairs of Doctor Who Chibi socks – the Cybermen, Daleks, or Weeping Angels decorate these sinister socks, which are 80% cotton and equal parts scary and soft!

These new Chibi Pin Badges and Chibi Monster Socks are all available exclusively on the Hero Collector webstore.

Pin Badges retail at £5.99, or £34.99 in a3 seven-badge box set. Socks retail at £4.99, or £11.99 in a three-pair set.