Paul McGann has joined the list of former Doctors and companions who have indicated an interest in being involved in Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary: "Being Doctor Who, there's always anniversaries looming large - celebration programmes and episodes. I'm often asked, 'If they get the five Doctors together, would you do it?' and of course, I'd do it. They've just got to ring me up! Although I was [in] Doctor Who for six weeks, sixteen years ago, it never goes away - it only ever seems to get stronger - I'd love to do that again, but that's not up to me." [Digital Spy, 15 Mar 2012]

Three Doctor Who-related names join the principal cast of What The Butler Saw, which opens in the West End in May. The lead character of Dr. Prentice will be played by Tim McInnerny, with his wife to be played by Samantha Bond and secretary by Georgia Moffett. [Playbill, 15 Mar 2012]

Mark Gatiss talks about creating his appearance for his character Mr Snow in Being Human: "I wanted to have red hair, because you never have ginger vampires, and terrible teeth, and these really dirty fingernails. And they gave me everything I wanted. So there's lots of lovely close-ups of my filthy hands and terrible teeth. He's about 3000 years old, he's literally rotting from the inside." [Guardian, 15th Mar 2012]

The Fourth Doctor, aka Tom Baker, was the subject of a Forbes "Geek Picture of the Day", depicting him in costume with two Daleks for a publicity photo in 1975. [Forbes, 16 Mar 2012]

Maureen Lipman is to be one of the guests in Matt Lucas's new comedy show The Matt Lucas Awards. It will air on BBC One in the spring. [BBC Media Centre, 16 Mar 2012]

Talking of awards, June Whitfield was honoured with a proper one at this year's TRIC Awards. The Television and Radio Industries Club event, held at the Grosvenor House in London, saw her given the TRIC Special Award. Sian Williams was named Best Newscaster/Reporter. [BBC News, 14 Mar 2012]

Steven Moffat, John Simm, James Corden and The Sarah Jane Adventures lost out last night in their respective categories at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards, but Moffat's mother-in-law, Beryl Vertue, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. While representing writers at Associated London Scripts, Vertue negotiated Terry Nation's partial rights deal for the Daleks. Among her many other achievements, she founded the production company Hartswood Films, which makes the BBC One series Sherlock, co-created by Moffat and Mark Gatiss. At the awards ceremony, Russell Tovey jointly won (with Sarah Solemani) the Best Comedy Performance prize for the BBC Three anti-romantic comedy Him And Her. Full details of the awards ceremony - which, as with the TRIC Awards, was held at the Grosvenor House in London - are online here.

Michael E Briant is to publish his memoirs about his time on Doctor Who. The director's connection with the show stretches back to the 1965 story The Crusade, for which he was assistant floor manager. He was subsequently production assistant on a number of stories before notching up his first directorial credit on Colony In Space in 1971. Briant directed five more stories, finishing with The Robots of Death in 1977. Who Is Michael E Briant?, to be published by Classic TV Press, comes in at 216 pages and is due out on 4th May 2012. It can be pre-ordered here.

Talking of memoirs, a heartfelt and public thank-you has been said via one to Janet Fielding by writer Grant Gordon. In a piece taken from his forthcoming memoir Cobras In The Rough, Gordon recalls being a 12-year-old desperate to see the actress at the 1983 Longleat convention and how ensuring that he got his wish proved to be his father's salvation, following financial and personal problems. [Independent, 17 Mar 2012]

Tom Baker's novel The Boy Who Kicked Pigs is being adapted for the stage.

The book, first published in 1999 and subtitled "A grotesque masterpiece", will be presented by theatre company Kill The Beast, receiving its world premiere at The Lowry arts and entertainment complex at Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, this June.

Directed by Clem Garritty, the cast will comprise Natasha Hodgson, Oliver Jones, and Zoe Bob Roberts. It is being adapted by the four of them as a development project with The Lowry and in conjunction with Arts Collective.

The black farce centres on 13-year-old Robert Caligari and features - among other things - talking piggybanks, shark mutilation, and weedkiller-cornflakes.

Porl Cooper, theatres programmer at The Lowry, said:He added that the production also had Baker's full backing.

Suitable for people aged 12 upwards, it will be at the Lowry Studio from Thursday 21st June to Saturday 23rd June. It is hoped that the production will also go on tour this year and in 2013.

United Kingdom

A bit of nostalgia for Boston as 1977 saw a report on a visit to the Oldrids store by Tom Baker, who was there to autograph books about the television series and "proved a hit with the locals." [Boston Standard, 20 Feb 2012]

A Doctor Who-themed day was held at Long Close School in Slough to herald the beginning of half-term. A special poster replaced the school emblem, pupils wore costumes, time travel stories and quantum mechanics got a look-in on the curriculum, a Dalek, Weeping Angel, Cyberman, and Tardis made an appearance - and even headteacher David Brazier got in on the act by dressing up as the Ninth Doctor! [Slough and South Bucks Observer, 17 Feb 2012]

Daleks helped raise more than £1,000 for the British Heart Foundation when they appeared as part of a fund-raising day at the Ashley Centre in Epsom. [Epsom Guardian, 20 Feb 2012]

Twickenham Film Studios has gone into administration, with very little likelihood of it making movies again. Due to celebrate its centenary next year, it is, instead, being wound down between now and June. It was also host to TV productions over the years, including the BBC drama serial Our Friends In The North, which co-starred Christopher Eccleston, and Coupling, the BBC comedy created and written by Steven Moffat. On the cinematic front, An Education, which was filmed there, featured Carey Mulligan in her first leading role, while trivia buffs may like to know that the Amicus Films offering The Terrornauts featured shots of the Dalek flying saucer model from the same production company's Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. A partial Twickenham filmography is available here. [BBC News, 20 Feb 2012]
(With thanks to Jeremy Bentham)

United States

An outdoor advertising campaign by BBC America that uses Doctor Who among its references has proved to be an internet smash. Billboards and commuter transit ads have been appearing in the New York City area to promote the network - among them posters on all three suburban commuter train lines that say "My other commute is in a TARDIS" (which has reportedly been downloaded 1,000 times) and "If you were a Time Lord, you would be home by now or 700 years ago". The channel has also logged more than 12,500 posts and likes on Tumblr, plus nearly 500 tweets of photos or comments. [Multichannel News, 10 Feb 2012] [BuzzFeed, 8 Feb 2012]

Writing for Washington University's independent newspaper in St. Louis, David Sargeant rates Doctor Who amongst the best of British shows: "Arguably the most popular British show of all time, Doctor Who is the easiest show to jump into and the sole entry on this list still in production. The Doctor is an alien with a time machine, a fondness for humans and an out-of-this-world personality. He travels through time and space with a human companion, confronting various alien menaces and setting an example of tolerance and cool logic. The franchise is approaching its 50th anniversary but has yet to show its age." [Student Life, 20 Feb 2012]

Andrea Shelton reflects on her experience at the GallifreyOne Convention that took place in Los Angeles last weekend: "This weekend I made my first trip to the 23rd installment of Gallifrey One – a Doctor Who convention held annually in LA – and it was nothing short of OUTSTANDING. The defining characteristic of this event is that it is 100% fan-run. This means every staff member and volunteer is participating out of sheer love and enjoyment of the series, and it shows in every detail of the programming. The charm of this convention goes beyond the quality of programming. Just as important to the overall experience is the character of the fans. I am pleased to say I have never been surrounded by so many friendly, enthusiastic, and kind people that I immediately felt a connection with. This convention has everything a Doctor Who fan could ask for, and I am already counting down the days until next year. It is a trip worth saving for, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for next year’s 50th Anniversary special." [What Culture, 21 Feb 2012]

Lastly, a selection of photos taken at the convention. [LA Weekly, 20 Feb 2012]

A deal has been struck to show Doctor Who in Japan via the on-demand website subscription service Hulu.

As of today, BBC Worldwide is making available some 600 hours of TV - covering drama, comedy, music, lifestyle, natural history, science, and history - on the multi-device platform. It is said to be the largest volume of BBC Worldwide content on any platform in Japan.

Also among the titles in the initial phase of the multiple-year agreement is Little Britain, narrated by Tom Baker.

The Hulu service allows people to watch unlimited content on multiple internet-connected devices.

Joyce Yeung, general manager and senior vice-president for BBC Worldwide Sales and Distribution Asia, said:

Doctor Who has previously been shown in Japan, as detailed by BroaDWcast.

The BBC and 2|Entertain have given further details about the forthcoming DVD releases of The Dæmons, Nightmare of Eden, and the Ace Adventures box set comprising Dragonfire and The Happiness Patrol.

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A reminder to our readers that the Revisitations 3 DVD box set, comprising special remastered, repackaged and reappraised editions of The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Three Doctors, and The Robots of Death is released on 13th February 2012 and is available for pre-order. The special features for each story are as follows:

Star Cutouts have launched the first of their Classic Doctor Who range of life-sized cut-outs, kicking off with arguably the most famous and recognisable in the form of the Fourth Doctor as played by Tom Baker. The new range celebrates the upcoming 50th anniversary year of the series, with more releases in the coming months - next up will be his successor the Fifth Doctor, as played by Peter Davison.

Meanwhile, the modern series range continues with the release of two figures of Rory, as played by Arthur Darvill, in both his "Rory the Roman" guise and in an initial Forbidden Planet exclusive of the character in his familiar bodywarmer.


The figures will be available to order online in the next week or so.

The DVD releases of Nightmare of Eden, Dragonfire and The Happiness Patrol have been cleared by the British Board of Film Classification.

Extras for all three stories were also cleared, with the details as below.

Nightmare of Eden will have the following extras:
Dragonfire's extras comprise:
while those for The Happiness Patrol are:
Release dates for the DVDs have yet to be confirmed. A trailer for Dragonfire that was cleared on 18th January states that the story will form part of The Ace Box.

(with thanks to Dave Ashby)

The first Big Finish titles starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor have been released.

Destination: Nerva is a two-part story by Nicholas Briggs in which the Doctor and Leela (Louise Jameson) travel to the distant future and face a new enemy in a familiar place. Raquel Cassidy guest-stars as Dr Alison Foster and Tim Bentinck plays Giles Moreau.

The first ten minutes of Destination: Nerva can be heard for free via the Big Finish website.


Also available is Doctor Who: The Lost Stories – The Fourth Doctor Box Set, a six-disc collection of two adventures previously devised for the small screen in the 1970s and now finally made on audio.

In The Foe From the Future by Robert Banks Stewart, the Doctor and Leela face ghostly apparitions and an evil enemy in a Devon village, while The Valley of Death by Philip Hinchcliffe sees the travellers join an expedition to the Amazon jungle and uncover the secret of a lost city of gold. Guest stars in the box set include Paul Freeman, Louise Brealey and Anthony Howell.


Both titles are available to purchase from our Amazon shop: Destination: Nerva / The Lost Stories.

BBC Worldwide and 2|Entertain have released a synopsis for the forthcoming DVD of First Doctor adventure The Sensorites, which is due to be released on 23rd January.
The DVD's commentary features William Russell (Ian Chesterton), Carole Ann Ford (Susan), Joe Grieg (Second Sensorite), Martyn Huntley (First Human), Giles Phipps (Second Human), Frank Cox (director), Raymond Cusick (designer), and Sonia Markham (makeup).

Other extras on the DVD include Secret Voices of the Sensorites, Vision On, Looking for Peter, plus the usual production notes, photo gallery, and PDF extras.

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The latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine has confirmed the commentary participants for the stories currently due out in March.

• Fourth Doctor adventure The Face of Evil (5th March) features Louise Jameson (Leela), Leslie Schofield (Calib), David Garfield (Neeva), Michael Elles (Gentek), Harry H. Fielder (tribesman), Philip Hinchcliffe (producer) and John McGlashan (film cameraman).
• Eighth season finale The Dæmons (26th March) features Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Richard Franklin (Mike Yates), Damaris Hayman (Olive Hawthorne) and Christopher Barry (director).

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A number of feature clips from the U.N.I.T. Files Boxed Set (released last week) have been made available online via the BBC's Classic Doctor Who YouTube channel. From Invasion of the Dinosaurs, presenter Matthew Sweet discusses politics in the story, director Paddy Russell discusses capturing a deserted London on film, and Jon Pertwee talks about the creation of the Whomobile. From The Android Invasion, Philip Hinchcliffe discusses making a cliffhanger more effective, reflects upon the Kraal costumes, and Milton Johns reflects upon his own eyepatch story!

Back in November, the BBC Northern Ireland programme Those Were The Days broadcast a vintage clip of Tom Baker visiting a school, which had been part of a number of news items following the actor as he visited Belfast during the 1970s. The clips were discovered by archivist Evan Marshall when researching for the archive television series, which as well as the school also included the actor visiting a hospital, 'mobbed' in a shopping centre, and doing an interview for BBC Radio Ulster.

Additionally, Tom Baker was filmed as he turned on the Christmas lights, and the BBC's Adventure Calendar has now made both this festive themed clip and the original raw school footage shown in Those Were The Days alongside the shopping centre appearance available to watch online.