BBC Worldwide have signed a deal with Sony Pictures Television for some 114 hours of entertainment to be shown across Central and Eastern Europe, including countries like Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovenia and Montenegro. The package includes Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Primeval.

Says Eddie Nelson, GM of Sony Pictures Television's networks businesses in the region:

The press release comes from the BBC Showcase event taking place in Brighton; the show enables BBC Worldwide to promote television programmes to potential buyers from around the world.

This Wednesday sees the Bonhams Auction of many Doctor Who costumes and props take place, and the auction rooms are now open for public viewing up until Tuesday. Entrance to both the viewings and the auction is by purchase of the auction programme, which costs £15.00 (£5.00 goes to the charity Children in Need).

Stephanie Connell, entertainment specialist at Bonhams said: "Doctor Who is without doubt one of the most important and best loved television programmes, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to offer some of the iconic costumes and props from the show."

As might be expected, the media is taking an interest in the auction, most of which revolves around the sale of two Daleks which featured in their last 'classic' story, Remembrance of the Daleks (MKI and MKII versions).

The BBC1 magazine programme The One Show is expected to run a feature on the auction on Tuesday evening, from 7:00pm.


For full details on the auction, including openings times for public viewing, see the Bonhams website.

The actress Carey Mulligan - best known to Doctor Who fans as popular character Sally Sparrow from Blink - has won the Orange British Academy Film Award for Best Actress for her role in the film An Education. The 24 year old actress said: I was here a year ago and I didn't imagine in a million years that this would happen. I wish I could do a speech like Colin Firth and talk about fridges but I can't."

Mulligan has also been nominated for an Oscar in the 82nd Academy Awards taking place on 7th March.


The British Academy Awards are available to watch in the UK on the BBC iplayer until the 28th February.

Part Two of The End of Time has debuted in Australia to good ratings. The special averaged 840,000 in the five major capital cities, again against stiff competition from the commercial networks, including a 20/20 international cricket match. It was up 40,000 viewers from Part One and was the ABC's top-rating program of the day, rating higher than the popular Sunday 7pm news.

The Sydney Morning Herald TV Guide has rated Part Two of 'The End of Time' its 'show of the week' with Michael Idato writing that it is 'is nearly but not quite the equal of the series's best episodes...it is, instead, a strange ballet of noise and movement, a super-charged run around the block set to the outstanding musical motifs of Murray Gold, which swirls around the simpler truth of the episode's purpose-to give Tennant's Doctor a final, glorious moment of universe-saving indecision and to serve up a helping of sentiment (with a side-order of tears) as he says a fitting goodbye to his life, as we know it, and the lives of those he holds dear.' Idato and Doug Anderson also rate the finale highly in their daily online video TV guide. Melinda Houston of the The Age is less kind, writing of the departure of Russell T. Davies that 'it's been a fun ride but [he] has an undeniable taste for high melodrama and while he's brought some welcome rough edges to the new-style time lord, and a wicked sense of humour, he's also brought a fair whack of sentimental emoting that's not always so much fun.'

Meanwhile, ABC Online's 'The Drum Unleashed' has an amusing blog comparing the different hosts of the long-running Media Watch program with various incarnations of the Doctor.

The new trailer for Doctor Who has now been broadcast, featuring a couple of the Doctor's old adversaries and some new ones!

The new series is scheduled to arrive on UK television screens during Easter 2010.

Every year, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films hold the Saturn Awards; the 36th award ceremony will take place on 24th June, and Doctor Who has been nominated in a number of categories.

For the Best Television Presentation award, The End of Time is up against sister show Torchwood's Children of Earth. Other contenders include the new versions of The Prisoner and V, plus Alice and The Tudors.

Best Actor in Television includes David Tennant for The End of Time; he'll be up against Josh Holloway and Matthew Fox from Lost, Stephen Moyer from True Blood, plus Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Michael C. Hall (Dexter) and Zachary Levi (Chuck).

Best Guest Starring Role in Television sees Bernard Cribbins nominated for his portrayal of Wilf in The End of Time; others up for the award are Raymond Cruz (Breaking Bad), Michelle Forbes (True Blood), John Lithgow (Dexter), Leonard Nimoy (Fringe) and Mark Pellegrino (Lost).

In media, Best DVD Television Release sees both Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead and Torchwood: Children of Earth in the running, against Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season, Primeval, Volume 2, Lost: The Complete Fifth Season and Life on Mars: The Complete Series

The actor George Waring has died at the age of 84.

The actor portrayed the role of Arden in the Patrick Troughton adventure The Ice Warriors. Arden was a scientist whose team discover an "Ice Warrior" buried deep in a glacier, and ultimately becomes the Martians' first victim.

Born in Eccles, Lancashire, Waring made his career in theatre and then television, appearing in a number of notable roles in shows like Six Days of Justice and Mixed Blessings. However, he will be best remembered for the character of Arnold Swain in Coronation Street.

SeeSaw is the latest online streaming service to provide episodes of Doctor Who for viewing over the Internet. Stories currently available are The Space Museum, Tomb of the Cybermen, Planet of the Spiders, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Caves of Androzani, Mark of the Rani, and Survival.

SeeSaw's controller John Keeling says:
SeeSaw joins existing streaming companies BlinkBox and MSN in providing Doctor Who stories online.

Broadcast are reporting that - as well as the traditional '2D' trailer that will start appearing on TV from Saturday evening - a 3D version has been created by Red Bee Media and The Mill.

The 40 second trailer is expected to be seen in cinemas, and at external promotional events around the country entitled "Meet a Monster".

Says the ubiquitous BBC spokesperson:

The final story to be included in the forthcoming DVD Revisitations Box Set will be Peter Davison's swan song as the fifth Doctor, The Caves of Androzani.

The story, first shown in 1984, is one of the highest regarded in Doctor Who's history and was recently voted as best story by the readers of Doctor Who Magazine. The story features Nicola Bryant as Peri, John Normington as Morgus, Robert Glenister as Slateen, Christopher Gable as Sharaz Jek and Maurice Roeve as Stotz.

The story was one of the first released on DVD in June 2001. The updated version will contain new behind the scenes features. The set will also contain the 1977 Tom Baker story The Talons of Weng Chiang and the 1996 Paul McGann  TV Movie,

The set will be released in the UK later this year.