BBC Christmas Trailer

Tuesday, 1 December 2015 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The BBC have released a video featuring the many highlights on television over the festive period including, of course, the Doctor and River from the Christmas Day special, The Husbands of River Song:

Christmas on BBC TV

Full details of the festive line-up can be found via the BBC Media Centre.

FILTER: - Publicity - Series Specials

The Husbands of River Song to be shown in Danish cinemas

Tuesday, 1 December 2015 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The Doctor and River Song (Credit: BBC/Simon Ridgway)

Cinemaxx in Denmark have confirmed that they will show this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Husbands of River Song, on Saturday 26th December, with two showings at 4:45pm and 7:00pm in their Copenhagen, Odense and Aarhus cinemas.

As well as the hour long special the performances will also include an additional thirty minutes of bonus material: though unconfirmed at the time of writing it is expected that this will be the Alex Kingston interview and behind-the-scenes footage that has already been announced for the US screenings of the Special on the 28th/29th December.

FEJR JUL MED ’DOCTOR WHO’ I BIOGRAFEN

Traditionen tro får alle Whovians også i år en ekstra julegave! ’Doctor Who’ er nemlig klar med sin Christmas Special 2015 –og som noget ganske særlig får du her i 2015 en enestående chance for at se dette særlige afsnit på det store lærred!

Det er juledag og the Doctor gemmer sig fra pynt og julesamler på en fjern menneske-koloni. Men heldigvis styrter et rumskib ned, og der er atter bud efter den kære doktor, som i samarbejde med River Songs hold kaster sig ind i en vild og hektisk jagt på tværs af galaksen.

Vil Nardole overleve? Og hvornår finder River Song ud af hvem the Doctor er? Alt dette og mere til vil blive afsløret, når the Doctor kaster sig ud i et rumeventyr af de helt store, som omfatter galaktiske superskurke og en destination, som the Doctor har forsøgt at undgå i rigtig lang tid…

Udover afsnittet, der er 60 minutter langt, vil der være 30 min. særlige ekstraoptagelser, der fordeles før og efter afsnittet, og som kun kan opleves i biografen, så husk at blive siddende til efter rulleteksterne.

Cinemaxx have previously shown The Day of the Doctor, Deep Breath and the 3D version of Dark Water/Death in Heaven in their cinemas.

FILTER: - Cinema - Denmark - Series Specials - Special Events

Christmas Special title announced

Tuesday, 1 December 2015 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The BBC have announced the title of the forthcoming Christmas Special, due to be broadcast on Christmas Day in the United Kingdom.

The Husbands Of River Song

It’s Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas Carols and Comedy Antlers. But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy. King Hydroflax (Greg Davies) is furious, and his giant Robot bodyguard is out-of-control and coming for them all! Will Nardole (Matt Lucas) survive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is?

All will be revealed on a starliner full of galactic super-villains and a destination the Doctor has been avoiding for a very long time.

FILTER: - Publicity - Series Specials

Christmas Special: new synopsis and publicity image

Tuesday, 24 November 2015 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The BBC have released a new synopsis and publicity image for the forthcoming Christmas Special, which stars Peter Capaldi as the Doctor with Alex Kingston as River Song, and also features Greg Davies as King Hydroflax and Matt Lucas as Nardole.

Doctor Who Christmas Special: The Doctor and River, as played by Peter Capaldi and Alex Kingston (Credit: BBC/Simon Ridgway)

Previous images:

Alex Kingston as River Song in the 2015 Christmas Special (Credit: BBC/Jon Hall)

It’s Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas Carols and Comedy Antlers. But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy. King Hydroflax is furious, and his giant Robot bodyguard is out of control and coming for them all! Will Nardole survive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is?

All will be revealed on a starliner full of galactic super-villains and a destination the Doctor has been avoiding for a very long time.

Radio Times (5-11 Dec 2015) (Credit: Radio Times)

The new edition of the Radio Times, published today, features an interview with writer Steven Moffat, during which he confirms where in River's convoluted timeline this meeting takes place:

It doesn’t really matter, but for those who care it's immediately after The Angels Take Manhattan: River’s just seen Matt Smith’s Doctor lose Amy and Rory, and obviously before The Name of the Doctor because she’s dead in that.

The Radio Times website has also revealed that the now traditional Doctor Who cover for the Christmas period will be on the issue dated 5th-11th December, covering both the special and this year's series finale, Hell Bent. It is due to be published on the earlier date of 28th November as editions begin to roll out for the festive season.

The Christmas Special is (of course) due to be broadcast on BBC One on Christmas Day, but the first channel to confirm exactly when they will broadcast the episode is FOX in Germany, whose schedules show that it is due to air there on Thursday 28th January at 9:00pm! This is later than in recent years (where the episode has aired on or close to the same day as the UK) owing to a delay in being able to dub the episodes into German.

Though no other regions have confirmed when they will show the episode as yet, last year's special, Last Christmas, was broadcast in over thirty countries within 24 hours of the UK premiere!

FILTER: - Publicity - Series Specials

River Song returns for Christmas

Wednesday, 2 September 2015 - Reported by Harry Ward

The BBC have announced this morning that Alex Kingston is returning to play River Song this Christmas. The 11th Christmas special, which has started filming this week, is written by Steven Moffat, directed by Douglas Mackinnon and produced by Nikki Wilson.

It’s Christmas Day in the future and the TARDIS is parked on a snowy village street, covered in icicles, awaiting its next adventure. Time traveller River Song meets her husband’s new incarnation, in the form of Peter Capaldi, for the first time this Christmas.

River Song made her first Doctor Who appearance in 2008 in Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead and has appeared in 15 episodes to date. She last appeared in The Name of the Doctor in 2013. Earlier this year it was announced the character would be joining Big Finish for an adventure called The Diary of River Song, which is to be released in January 2016.

Alex Kingston comments on her reappearance:

To be honest, I did not know whether River would ever return to the show, but here she is, back with the Doctor for the Christmas special. Steven Moffat is on glittering form, giving us an episode filled with humor and surprise guest castings. I met Peter for the first time at Monday’s read through. We had a laugh, and I am now excited and ready to start filming with him and the Doctor Who team. Christmas in September?, why not!

Steven Moffat adds:

Another Christmas, another special for Doctor Who - and what could be more special than the return of Alex Kingston as Professor River Song? The last time the Doctor saw her, she was a ghost. The first time he met her, she died. So how can he be seeing her again? As ever, with the most complicated relationship in the universe, it’s a matter of time...

FILTER: - Publicity - Series Specials

Last Christmas Live +7

Tuesday, 10 February 2015 - Reported by Marcus

Figures showing the Live+7 performance of the Doctor Who Christmas Special Last Christmas are now available.

The LIve+7 figure is calculated by the BBC to try to get an accurate estimate of the total unique audience for an episode of a programme. Unlike official BARB figures the Live+7 uses data to include those who watched one of the broadcast repeats of the episode and those who watched the episode on iPlayer all within 7 days of the original transmission.

Overall the episode had a audience of 9.62 million who watched either on the day of broadcast or within the following 7 days. Of that 6.29 million watched on Christmas Day, 0.53 million watched the repeat on BBC Three, 1.97 million watched a timeshifted recording while 0.83 million watched on iPlayer.

FILTER: - Ratings - Series Specials - UK

Last Christmas tops SPACE

Thursday, 8 January 2015 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Santa Claus (NICK FROST) (Credit: BBC / David Venni)

SPACE have reported that the Christmas Special Last Christmas not only ranked as the channel's most popular show over Christmas, but also the highest ranked programme on the channel so far this broadcast year.

Space audiences skyrocketed this past December – the most-watched month in the channel’s history – making it the #1 entertainment specialty channel for the key A25-54 and A18-49 demos. Drawing in an average audience of 101,000 total viewers, December 2014 saw Space’s key A25-54 demo rise 37% and jump four spots to #1. A major contributor to Space’s record-breaking month is its signature series DOCTOR WHO and the premiere of the 2014 Christmas special LAST CHRISTMAS, which drew an average audience of 792,000 viewers, making it the top broadcast on Space this broadcast year-to-date.

Other key December audience boosters were Space’s Magical Merry Marathon which featured HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN on December 27 and HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS on December 28, pulling in 510,000 and 746,000 viewers, respectively. On December 28, Space’s exclusive series THE LIBRARIANS, currently airing at Sundays at 8 p.m. ET, pulled in a series-high 675,000 viewers, making it the #2 entertainment specialty program. THE HUNGER GAMES, which aired as part of Space’s Super Team Marathon, delivered an average audience of 526,000 viewers December 29.

FILTER: - Canada - Ratings - Series Specials

Australian overnight ratings for Last Christmas

Saturday, 27 December 2014 - Reported by Adam Kirk

Last Christmas has debuted in Australia, averaging 563,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. It was the top-rating drama of the day and the thirteenth highest rating programme of the day overall. These ratings do not include regional or time-shifted viewers.

Media Links: TV Tonight

FILTER: - Australia - Broadcasting - Ratings - Series Specials

Last Christmas - AI:82

Saturday, 27 December 2014 - Reported by Marcus

Doctor Who Last Christmas had an Audience Appreciation Index score of 82.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. The score, out of a hundred, is compiled by a specially selected panel of around 5,000 people who go online and rate and comment on programmes.

The highest scoring programmes from Christmas Day were Call the Midwife and Downton Abbey.

The BBC Three repeat of Last Christmas had 0.42 million watching, a share of 1.9% of the total TV audience.

FILTER: - Ratings - Series Specials - UK

Last Christmas - Preview

Thursday, 25 December 2014 - Reported by Harry Ward

The BBC have released preview clips from Last Christmas and the accompanying Doctor Who Extra.

Last Christmas: Preview - Santa arrives!:

Doctor Who Extra: Preview Clip 1:

Last Christmas: Preview - Clip 2:

Meanwhile the latest Radio Times free downloadable retro poster, created by designer Stuart Manning is now available.

Manning told Radio Times:

The title for this episode provided an idea almost immediately. The Tardis trapped in the hourglass is a little nod to the Radio Times Doctor Who Christmas cover from 2005. The typography owes a debt to 1960s cocktail-era design, drawing on Christmas cards from the time. I wanted it to look a bit like an old Christmas card – pleasant at first glance, but more sinister when you look more closely...