BBC Radio 4 is to investigate the history of electronic music in Britain, in a new documentary featuring interviews with many past Doctor Who contributers.

A Sound British Adventure is being broadcast next Tuesday, 14 August, at 11.30am. It is presented by comedian Stewart Lee and looks at how, following the end of World War II, a group of electronic pioneers used their army surplus kit to create new sounds and music.

The programme looks at the work of the first commercial electronic music studio in Britain, which was started in 1969 by Tristram Cary, who also wrote incidental music for 48 Doctor Who episodes between 1963 and 1972. It examines the make do and mend approach in the industry which led to Cary's partner, Peter Zinovieff, developing synthesizers from a shed at the bottom of his garden in Putney.

Also interviewed is long time Doctor Who contributor Brian Hodgson, who worked on 321 episodes of the classic series, creating special sounds, most famously the sounds of the TARDIS. In the programme he tells about 1960s experimental and electronic festivals, including The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave (1967) at which The Beatles' electronic piece Carnival Of Light had its only public airing, as well as discussing how the BBC Radiophonic workshop broke new musical ground with Doctor Who.

Experts in the history of electronic music, including author and Doctor Who musician Mark Ayers give the boffins' view and Portishead's Adrian Utley explains why the early forays in electronics are still relevant today.

The programme can be heard on FM in the UK and around the world via the BBC Website.

NASA has announced that its latest mission to Mars, the Curiosity Lander, successfully touched down early today. This mission - the most ambitious to date - aims to comprehensively search for evidence that life once existed on the Red Planet, seeking to locate the basic building blocks necessary to enable microbial life to evolve. The Lander will explore Gale Crater plus a nearby three-mile-high mountain that previous missions have indicated consists of sediments rising from the crater's floor.

Life and the Waters of Mars:

The search for life on Mars has been an inspiration for centuries. In the 18th century astronomer William Herschel believed that there was active life on the planet, with a viable atmosphere that included clouds. This continued throughout the 19th century, with Richard A. Proctor 'mapping' seas, islands, and inlets, and then Giovanni Schiaparelli mapping what were to become known as the 'canals' on Mars, as described by Percival Lowell.

The romantic notion of life on Mars continued throughout the 20th century, though as the years progressed further observations led to the belief that the planet was now lifeless, with only the canals as proof that intelligent beings had indeed lived there. Then, in 1976, the Viking 1 orbiter beamed back an image in the Cydonia region that startlingly resembled a face, leading many to think that the final proof had indeed been found! However, several return visits during the past decade have presented higher-definition imagery revealing that sadly this was merely an illusion.

Of course, for life to have existed, water too needs to have been present. The earlier 'observations' of clouds, seas, and of course canals had all suggested that it was abundant on Mars, at least at some point, and missions such as the Mariner 9 space orbiter, which reached Mars in November 1971, continued to support that theory with what appeared to be dry river beds. It wasn't until the Viking landings and their images of a barren landscape that the idea of finding life-supporting water on the planet dwindled.

However, the past decade has generated renewed optimism for finding evidence of life, with the polar icecaps identified as containing huge ice deposits. Herschel's original ponderings on clouds are even vindicated with observations of cloud formations caused by evaporation in sunlight discovered by the Opportunity mission in 2004.

Mars and Doctor Who:

Being a close planetary neighbour of such interest, it was inevitable that the programme would utilise its potential for drama. The Martians first 'invade' the series during The Ice Warriors, as the discovery of an "armoured giant" in a glacier on Earth leads to the revitalisation of an isolated group of Warriors from the Red Planet. In The Seeds of Death the Doctor fought off an attempt by the aggressive, reptilian-like species to transform Earth into a new home in the mid-21st century. However, by the 25th century the Martians had joined the Galactic Federation and were (mostly) devoted to peace in the galaxy. (The Curse of Peladon/The Monster of Peladon)

During the British space programme's manned landings on Mars, General Carrington developed paranoid delusions after meeting another visiting race on the planet from outside the galaxy. Tricking ambassadors to travel to Earth on the next mission, he kidnapped them and attempted to use their radioactive nature as a weapon to "prove" they actually intended to invade Earth. It was only through the Doctor's negotiations that the Earth avoided being plunged into an intergalactic war! (The Ambassadors of Death)

The Doctor was later forced to travel to Mars itself during the titular Pyramids of Mars as the Osiran Sutekh used him to take his servants to where they could stop the transmissions that imprisoned him on Earth. Many years later Sarah Jane Smith, who had accompanied the Doctor to Mars, had her computer Mr Smith block live transmissions from a NASA mission on the planet before the aforementioned pyramid would be discovered! (The Vault of Secrets)

In the 21st Century series of Doctor Who, the evidence of water on Mars became an inspiration for the 2009 special The Waters of Mars, where the Doctor discovers how 'water' was an entity in its own right that had ultimately subjugated and caused the extinction of other life on the planet.

Richard E Grant is to be a guest star in the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas Special, the BBC announced today.

First announced on Twitter just after midnight, in the later press release Grant said:

No information has been released about his role as yet, though the Sun newspaper has suggested that he will play the Doctor's adversary.

An actor with a lengthy career in film and television, Grant is best known for the film Withnail and I in which he starred alongside former Doctor Paul McGann. Grant is not a stranger to Doctor Who either, having played the Doctor himself on two occasions: he first appeared as the "Quite Handsome" Tenth Doctor in the Steven Moffat-penned Comic Relief special The Curse of Fatal Death in 1999; as mentioned above, the actor then had a brief spell as the official Ninth Doctor for the online adventure Scream of the Shalka by Paul Cornell in 2003 - until the television series was announced with Christopher Eccleston at the helm.

The Christmas Special starts filming this week and is directed by Saul Metzstein, who worked on the Blue Peter special, Good as Gold and the first two stories recorded for the next series (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and A Town called Mercy).


Another actor announced for the Special is Tom Ward, who is best known for playing Harry Cunningham in the series Silent Witness.

Billie Piper is to make her National Theatre debut this autumn, starring in The Effect, by Lucy Prebble, at The Cottesloe. The play, described as "a clinical romance", deals with sanity, neurology, and medicine's limits. Tom Goodman-Hill will be among the co-stars. It runs from 6th November to 2nd March, and tickets go on sale to the public on 24th September. [BBC News, 3 Aug 2012]

Christopher Eccleston recently undertook a Q&A session at the National Theatre, where he is appearing as Creon in Antigone, during which he was asked about playing the Doctor: In response to a question about whether he felt he'd taken the character as far as he could he (very tellingly) said he felt that one series isn't enough to get under the skin of the character and that if he'd had two or three series he'd have developed the role considerably. He said that if you looked at the other Doctors (with the exception of Tom Baker) you can see them working out how to play the character through their first series because it's such a complex and challenging role. He said several times that there was more for him to do with the character... [BadGirlSeeksGoodMan@GallifreyBase, 19 Jul 2012]

Matt Smith commented on having Eccleston make a guest appearance: "Chris will be alright. Well, I mean, who knows? I'd love it. I'd love him to come back. I love his Doctor. I really do. He was from Manchester. Proper hard. Leather jacket. He'd give my Doctor a bit of a whopping, wouldn't he?" [Esquire via FemaleFirst, 3 Aug 2012]

Eccleston's name has also been associated with the film sequel Thor: The Dark World. If cast he would be playing the principal villain Malekith The Accursed. [Cinema Blend, 1 Aug 2012]

Bernard Cribbins is to return to television next year in his own series, Old Jack's Boat, playing a retired fisherman named Jack who tells stories to children. The actor said: "I am delighted to be back on CBeebies telling stories as I am storyteller. There are some marvellous writers, such as Russell T Davies, who I have been in touch with for a long time and who, of course, I worked with on Doctor Who. I am looking forward to sitting back and being able to tell some wonderful stories." As well as Doctor Who's former lead writer Davies, another familiar name in the show will be Freema Agyeman, who will play Shelley. [Mirror, 4 Aug 2012]

Karen Gillan met the actress to play her double in Not Another Happy Ending, the movie she is currently filming. Rebecca Davidson will double for Gillan in shots where her character Jane Lockhart meets her perfect double in a pub. [Huffington Post, 1 Aug 2012]

Neve McIntosh talks about meeting the new co-star, Jenna-Louise Coleman: "She's absolutely gorgeous as well, she's lovely. I've not had much work with her. I think she's got a lovely quality to her so I think is going to be really exciting. And obviously I don't know the rest of whatever's been going on, so it'll be interesting to start watching the new series and see how she's introduced." [Cultbox, 2 Aug 2012]

Alex Kingston is to feature in the next series of Who Do You Think You Are?, the BBC genealogy series that looks into the ancestry of celebrities. Now into its ninth series, it will also include celebrities like singer Annie Lennox and actor Patrick Stewart. Former Doctor David Tennant explored his family history in Series Four (2006).

Tennant came top in a poll of favourite Doctors recently undertaken by Entertainment Weekly.

Former costumer designer Leslie Rowland-Warne has been talking about his experience of working on Death To The Daleks, following his appearance in the extra features on the DVD, which was released in June. He said: "On the disc is a documentary asking all the stars and crew about their experiences working on it and I'm on it. I was the costume designer and mostly I talk about how I came up with the idea for the costume of the character Bellal. The script said he lived underground so I thought he should be small, and I told the director to hire a small actor to fit into it. Then I added some reflective strips to liven the suit up." [Leatherhead Advertiser, 4 Aug 2012]

The read-through for this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special took place yesterday (2nd August), with the show's Facebook page releasing a tantalising glimpse of the cover page for the script (title redacted!). The Special will see the series debut of Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara, though a number of episodes have already been recorded with the newest TARDIS traveller. Guest stars for the Special have yet to be revealed.

Principal photography is expected to kick off in the next couple of days, with a number of 'familiar' locations being pressed into action. Monday-Tuesday next week will see Cardiff's Coal Exchange in use once again; the building has appeared in a number of episodes over the years, including the 2007 Christmas Special Voyage of the Damned where it became the Titanic passenger lounge. Wednesday-Thursday will then see a visit to Fields House in Newport; though used as the Angels' haunt in Blink, this time filming will instead take place in the renovated half of the building (the lounge of which can be seen in Steven Moffat's other series Sherlock's A Scandal in Belgravia as Irene Adler's apartment). And at the far end of the month the production team will descend upon Treowen Manor on Bank Holiday Monday, whose notable staircase played a 'starring' role as part of Torchwood House during Tooth and Claw.

Character Group – the company that produces Doctor Who action figures and toys – has issued a profit warning, blaming poor trading performance on a variety of factors including the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee.

A Trading Update states that although international sales have held up well, the UK side of things has proved much more difficult than the company had believed would be the case:
This has led to a rise in price cuts by retailers in a bid to persuade people to part with their cash, as well as some retailers delaying orders for new items. As a result, the company's directors have now told the City that they believe Character Group won't be able to achieve its forecasts for the current financial year, which ends on 31st August, and that the Group's results will therefore be below current market expectations.

In April, it was revealed that Character's pre-tax profits for the six months to the end of February 2012 fell by 16 per cent from £6.64m to £5.57m year-on-year, with executive chairman Richard King saying:
However, Character still has high hopes for this year's autumn and Christmas selling period, boding well for the new financial year, which starts on 1st September.

Other product licences that Character has in its portfolio include Deadly 60, Bob the Builder, Mike the Knight, Fireman Sam, and Zhu Zhu Pets.

Fantom Films have released a calendar for 2013 highlighting six of the Doctor's companions; Who Girls features fully endorsed images of Anneke Wills, Deborah Watling, Katy Manning, Sarah Sutton, Nicola Bryant and the late Mary Tamm.

The calendar is available directly from Fantom Films via their website.


Katy Manning and Deborah Watling will be signing copies of the calendar at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore on the 18th August between 1:00-2:00pm.

The BBC have released an extended trailer to herald the new series of Doctor Who, the date of which is yet to be announced.

The 1 min 37 sec promo, which brand manager Edward Russell has described as being for Series 7a, will also be broadcast on BBC One in the UK this evening around the 8pm mark (Olympic coverage permitting). Among the clips, viewers are treated to tantalising glimpses of a vast gathering of Daleks, dinosaurs, robots, cowboys, River Song, a Screaming Angel, plus a stone cherub.



The online teaser trailer is still available to watch via BBC's iPlayer and BBC America's YouTube channel.

The BBC have released a striking new publicity image by artist Lee Binding to promote the return of Doctor Who to television in the next few weeks, depicting the Doctor and Amy amongst his greatest foes in the series opener, Asylum of the Daleks. It is available to download as wallpaper in both 4:3 and 16:9 formats.


Lee explained the process of creating the portrait via Facebook:


A new trailer for the series is due to be broadcast on BBC1 later this evening. However, it will receive an online premiere first, with Edward Russell (Doctor Who's brand manager) confirming: "6am (BST) tomorrow - what happens? The Doctor Who series 7a trailer goes live on YouTube and http://bbc.co.uk/doctorwho."

AudioGo have released details on audio titles in their spoken word range due to be released in September.

The latest adventure for the Eleventh Doctor will be The Empty House, written by Simon Guerrier and read by Raquel Cassidy; meanwhile, Torchwood continues with The Exodus Code written by Captain Jack himself, John Barrowman with his sister Carole. For the classic series, this month's Target novelisation will be The Highlanders read by Anneke Wills, whilst the soundtrack release of Horror of Fang Rock will include linking narration by Louise Jameson. Finally, the complete series of Serpents Quest starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor is to be released as a boxed set.

The Doctor Who adventures will be released on CD from 6th September, and can also be purchased as downloads from AudioGo from 1st September; Torchwood: The Exodus Code will be released in both formats from 13th September.