The Daily Mail has taken exception to the length of Amy Pond's skirt in the upcoming series of Doctor Who.

Writing in the Femail section, columnist Allison Pearson displays a woeful ignorance of the series when she asks "since when was Doctor Who's assistant supposed to be sexy?" and makes a plea to keep Doctor Who as family TV.

As any Doctor Who fan could tell her, the Doctor has a long tradition of travelling with sexy companions in short skirts which dates right back to the sixties.

What's next she asks, "Cybermen become Cyberchicks with metal boobs?" Perhaps she should view Torchwood's Cyberwoman.

The official BBC Doctor Who website has been updated in preparation for the launch of the new series on April 3rd.

The website features exclusive videos and features on the new series as well as archive material from the programme's long history.

The first minute of The Eleventh Hour will be available online from Saturday at 6.25pm, one week before the series launch.

The website also confirms the return of Doctor Who Confidential. The first episode, Call me the Doctor, captures all the backstage excitement from Matt Smith's first episode and gives a taster of life as the Doctor. There's an exclusive look at the read-through for The Eleventh Hour and Production Designer Edward Thomas and Matt Smith give a guided tour of the new look TARDIS.

With the new series just around the corner, prepare for a deluge of UK television and radio coverage! As with Christmas, the Doctor Who News Page is presenting a summary of coverage, which you can find from our Coming Up menu tab at the top.

If you come across anything we haven't listed, please do let us know!

Matt Smith becomes the first Doctor to grace the cover of a gay magazine when he features on the front of this months Gay Times.

The magazine has unprecedented coverage of the new series, with exclusive content including the first ever interview with the latest addition to the cast, Arthur Darvill. They speak with the Doctor’s assistant Karen Gillan, head writer Steven Moffat, executive producer Piers Wenger and and writers Mark Gatiss and Gareth Roberts, who reveals that Matt Smith is set to appear pretty much naked in episode eleven. Costume designer Ray Holman tells what kind of underwear the new Doctor prefers.

Matt Smith on his new role as the Doctor:
On being described by executive producer Steven Moffat as “Patrick Moore in the body of an underwear model”:

The magazine also features additional interviews with Tom Ellis and Tracy-Ann Oberman and a special competition to win signed photos of Smith and Gillan, new sonic screwdriver toys, books, action figures and DVDS.

April’s issue of GT Magazine is on sale in the UK from Today. It is also available around the world by mail order or as a digtal download.

The new series of Doctor Who will premier on BBC One and BBC HD at 6.20pm on Saturday 3rd April.

The Eleventh Hour is proceeded by the game show Total Wipeout, which got 4.7 million viewers when last shown in January. It will be followed by the new talent series Over the Rainbow, in which Andrew Lloyd Webber tries to find a star for his new production of The Wizard of Oz.

ITV1 have put up their now traditional opposition to a new series of Doctor Who, a Harry Potter film, this week, The Prisoner of Azkaban. This film premièred on ITV1 in January 2007 when it got 8 million viewers. It was repeated in July 2009 when it got 3.9 million watching.

On BBC Two Doctor Who faces Private Life of a Masterpiece looking at the stories behind iconic pieces of art, whilst Channel Four has put up Come Dine with Me a Cookery-based reality show in which amateur chefs compete for the title of ultimate dinner party host. On Five you can see the western Two Mules for Sister Sara with Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine.

The Doctor Who start time is one of the earliest since the series returned in 2005. Episodes in the first three series started around 7pm. Only the first few episodes of Series Four started at 6.20 after which it was moved back to around 6.45pm following criticism from Russell T Davies over the programme's time slot.

Doctor Who Confidential will be shown on BBC Three at 7.25pm.

With the launch date of the new series rapidly approaching, Matt Smith makes a number of appearances on UK Television and Radio over the next few days, including as a guest on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross this Friday and on Blue Peter next Wednesday.

The 1 minute teaser on the BBC Red Button service appears to have been pushed back until the weekend. Final transmission times of The Eleventh Hour will be confirmed sometime today so details can be sent to listing magazines.

BBC America will screen Doctor Who, The Ultimate Guide on Saturday April 17, just before the US premier of The Eleventh Hour. The program is described as an original, all-access look inside the world's biggest, most successful sci-fi television program.

A number of new stills from The Eleventh Hour have been released.

BBC America have updated their Doctor Who Website in preparation for the new series launching on the channel on April 17.

The updated site includes profiles on The Doctor and Amy Pond and a photo gallery from The Eleventh Hour as well as guides to the series and a trailer.

Executive Producer Steven Moffat talks to The Guardian today about his hopes and plans for the new series. He talks about taking over one of the BBC's biggest brands and his fears for the BBC should there be a change of government this year.

Moffat speaks of his excitement in writing both the opening and closing episodes of the series and of how he wanted to do more fun, following his reputation as a writer of darker episodes. Although no past characters appear in the forthcoming series, Moffat hints he would not be averse to Captain Jack meeting Matt Smith's Doctor in the future.

Sculptress of Sound - The Lost Works of Delia Derbyshire is a new documentary commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to celebrate the life and work of the BBC Radiophonic composer; presented by broadcaster and Doctor Who fan Matthew Sweet, it will investigate the wealth of material of her work that has been passed onto researchers at the University of Manchester.

Production company Made in Manchester's producer Phil Collinge says:
The documentary also examines her work with poet Barry Bermange, her 1971 piece marking the centenary of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and also includes a 1960s track composed for The Dance from children's programme Noah

The show forms part of the Archive on 4 strand on the radio channel, and will be broadcast between 8:00-9:00pm on Saturday 27th March.

A new trailer has been broadcast by the BBC for the forthcoming series; like the first one broadcast on New Year's Day, this one features a variety of clips of scenes and monsters that we can look forward to in the series, though the broadcast date has still yet to be formally revealed, again simply cited as "Easter 2010".




BBC America have also released a trailer for the series, starting in the USA and Canada on the 17th April. This version is a variation of the UK one, presenting a number of different clips to the former.


Both the UK and US versions will appear on official sites soon.