The Red Nose Day edition of The Sarah Jane Adventures was watched by around 8.3 million viewers according to unofficial overnight figures, out rating Emmerdale on ITV1.

The David Tennant part of the evening had an average of 9.2 million watching, peaking at 11.3 million at 8pm. Comic Relief peaked at 9pm with 12.7 million watching.

David Tennant hosted the first 90 minutes of the programme along with Big Brother star Davina McCall. As well as the special Sarah Jane episode, Tennant and McCall went head to head in a live edition of Mastermind, with Tennant answering questions on Doctor Who 1963-2009. The whole programme is available to viewers in the United Kingdom for the next seven days, via the BBC iPlayer with highlights on theBBC YouTube channel.

A short selection of highlights can be seen around the world on the BBC Newswebsite. A number of images are on the Red Nose flickr site.

The evening raised a record 57 million pounds, around 80 million US Dollars, smashing the previous record of 40.5m pounds from 2007. The money raised from Red Nose Day will go towards helping disadvantaged people across Africa and in the UK.

K9 creator Bob Baker has revealed more details about the forthcoming K9 TV series. Of K9's appearance, Baker said that he and associate producer Paul Tams are "very pleased with the new look and especialy with his CGI movement."

Baker confirmed that in his first appearance in the series, K9 will look "identical to the one Leela had on Gallifrey", before regenerating into his new form.

Replying to a question about whether John Leeson would be performing K9's voice, Baker said, "There is great debate about the voice, I take your point about using John, but, it being a co-production we have many masters to please, but I'm sure you and all K9 fans will like what we eventually come up with since new K9 is the same character and his speech patterns are the same."

Baker said that K9 will contain "a menagerie of super monster 'uglies'." He also noted that more images from the series will be released soon, probably atMIPTV in Cannes (which will be held from March 30 to April 3 this year). Baker's posting can be read in full at his forum.

The series' premise has changed from earlier plans. Details, from the website of production company Park Entertainment, can be seen by clicking on the spoiler box below.

A partial list of episode titles is also available, at the Metal Mutt production site. Australian actor Remi Broadway will appear as Robin Hood in episode 4, titled "The Last Oak Tree in England".

Thanks to "NewtonDKC" of the Doctor Who Forum.
From the writer of Wallace and Gromit, Bob Baker, comes…

K9 – The Series

GENRE: Comedy
Running Time: 26 x 1/2 hr episodes

PREMISE
Somewhere in the future...

COMING SOON

Originally created for the 1970s DOCTOR WHO series by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, K9 has long been an iconic television character. Now comes a brand new adventure series featuring everyone’s favourite robot dog!

K9 is a children’s sci-fi/adventure series combining comedy, action and suspense "X Files" meets "Men in Black" with a zany dash of "Ghostbusters". K9 mixes live action characters with stunning visual-effects.

London, in the future: STARKEY (14) orphan and rebel ultimately plans to bring down the system but for the time being he is prepared to simply slip through the cracks. While evading the police he takes refuge in a large detached house, now the residence of reclusive scientist, Professor GRYFFEN. He is followed by JORJIE (14) an adventurous girl who partly admires Starkey’s dissident stance, but mostly wants to share whatever excitement is afoot.

Inside the dilapidated mansion, they see Gryffen absorbed in an experiment with a strange piece of alien technology, a Space Time Manipulator (S/TM). DARIUS (15) an artful dodger who, among his many occupations, runs errands for Gryffen, confronts the pair, but at that moment a portal opens and through the hole torn in the fabric of space/time burst two reptilian warrior JIXEN. The Jixen attack Starkey. The teenager is saved from certain death by a small dog-like robot, K9 Mark I, who follows the Jixen through the portal and places himself between the monsters and boy.

In the ensuing battle, the only way K9 can defeat the Jixen is to blow himself and them to pieces. One surviving Jixen limps out of the mansion. Before expiring, K9 is able to give instructions that allow Starkey to initiate a regeneration program. A new, more sophisticated and futuristically designed K9 is regenerated.

K9 and Starkey, with the assistance of Jorjie, Darius and Gryffen, become the earth’s front line defence against dangers threatening from anywhere and anytime in the galaxy. They will have a lot of fun, action, adventure, and some scares along the way, saving the earth from alien creatures, monsters and more than a few human threats.

Various DVD sites are listing the 1976 Tom Baker story The Deadly Assassin for DVD release in early May.

The story, written by Robert Holmes and directed by David Maloney, was the third of Doctor Who's fourteenth season. It features Peter Pratt as the Master, as well as Angus MacKay playing Borusa and Bernard Horsfall as Chancellor Goth.

It is only serial of the original Doctor Who series in which the Doctor does not have a companion.

Some sites also have the 1987 Sylvester McCoy story Delta and the Bannermen listed for release in the later part of June. This story was written byMalcolm Kohll and directed by Chris Clough.

Other stories scheduled for release in 2009 are The Keys of Marinus; The War Games and the Dalek War box set (Frontier in Space / Planet of the Daleks).

An additional box set of three stories, and a stand alone release, are also due in 2009.

Director Euros Lyn speaks exclusively to Wired.com about his two upcoming directorial projects: Torchwood: Children of Earth and the two-part finale for the Tenth Doctor.

Speaking of the Torchwood shoot, Lyn said: "It's been an endurance test. It was a 16-week shoot for the Torchwood season - longer than most feature films. But the intensity keeps you focused on the work."

"For the first time, we'll see Torchwood facing a threat from home while they're also investigating an alien invasion. When they try to discover why all the children in the world have suddenly stopped at the same time, Torchwood also has to deal with human beings who are trying to hide a past mistake."

Work on the Doctor Who specials begins immediately after the work on Torchwood wraps. "I've seen the scripts, and they're amazing," he said. "I'm being very careful not to give anything away, but I think fans will be thrilled with David's farewell and how we set up the 11th Doctor."

The article includes the first look at the BBC promo poster for Torchwood (pictured below; click for larger view) as well as a video of the trailer.

In this month's issue of Doctor Who Magazine, David Tennant, talks about presenting this year's Comic Relief. "I'm co-presenting this year's TV extravaganza, on BBC One on Friday the 13th, which won't be unlucky this year, I promise. Live telly is always exhilarating, but I'm sure this will be even more so, because I'm expected to be fronting it, well, the first hour or so, which does give me some more responsibility."

Also in issue 406:

The Daleks' Master Plan.
Back in the 1960s, while the First and Second Doctors were on TV, the Daleks came very close to starring in their own big-budget, full colour film series, made for the USA. For the first time, DWM researcher Andrew Pixley reveals the full story behind the Doctor Who spin-off that never was.

The Nightmare Begins.
A brand new comic strip adventure starts for the Tenth Doctor and Majenta, Mortal Beloved by Dan McDaid, with art by Sean Longcroft. Arriving at a bizarre party, terrible secrets from Majenta's past begin to catch up with her.

The Death of Doctor Who.
It the end, but the moment has been prepared for. The Fact of Fiction takes an in-depth look at the very last adventure to star Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, a story that redefined the concept of Time Lord regeneration, 1981's Logopolis.

Daleks in Manhattan.
Well the Sixth Doctor is. Colin Baker chats to DWM from the Big Apple.

The Planet of Decision.
Head writer and executive producer Russell T Davies muses over whether Planet of the Dead will really be the 200th TV Doctor Who story, in Production Notes.

Devil’s Planet.
Why on Earth does Neil Harris argue that the Fifth Doctor's last adventure, 1984's The Caves of Androzani, is the one Doctor Who story that should never have been told? Find out the surprising answer in You Are Not Alone.

Day of Reckoning.
The Time Team cast their critical eyes upon the Seventh Doctor's only TV encounter with the armoured mutants from the planet Skaro. Join them and discover what they think about the nostalgic 1988 adventure, Remembrance of the Daleks.

The Dead Planet.
DWM speaks to acclaimed scriptwriter Gareth Roberts about his work on Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures and the forthcoming Doctor Who Easter Special, Planet of the Dead.

The Daleks
Nicholas Pegg pays tribute to the greatest Dalek operator of them all, actor John Scott Martin.

Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell has adapted the Iain M. Banks short story The State of the Art for radio. The adaptation will air on Thursday, March 5th at 14.15 on BBC Radio 4. Afterward the programme will be available internationally via the BBC IPlayer.

Several issues of the Doctor Who DVD Files magazine have been released in the UK and Ireland since the magazine and DVD series was launched by publisher GE Fabbri in January. The content of the magazine has now been made availableonline for the benefit of fans who already own the DVD episodes or who live outside of Great Britain or Eire.

"We were contacted by loads of people who already owned the DVDs but were interested in the new magazine," explains project manager at GE Fabbri,Ben Robinson, "so we decided to explore a new online opportunity which would also let us reach out to fans who normally wouldn’t be able to get hold of Doctor Who DVD Files.”

The content of the first two issues is available on the site as a free preview. The magazine contains features on the Doctor, his companions, enemies and adventures (including "Flashback" features to stories from classic Doctor Who, accompanied by original artwork by Lee Sullivan and Tom Connell). Features in the first two issues include profiles of Mickey, Rose, and the Face of Boe; Davros, the Master and the Zygons; behind-the-scenes interviews with Will Cohen of the Mill (the company which creates all the computer-generated imagery for Doctor Who) and model-maker Mike Tucker; episode features for the first four episodes of Series One; a survey of the Doctor's early life before he left Gallifrey; and "technology" features of the TARDIS, Cyber-upgrades and the Slitheen ship that crashed into Big Ben in "Aliens of London", the last including a detailed cut-away drawing of the ship.

The content of subsequent issues is available on the website by monthly or yearly subscription. A subscription to the online content also includes access to over 150 pages of Tenth Doctor comics which originally appeared in the pages ofDoctor Who: Battles in Time from the same publisher. More content will be made available as each issue of the magazine is released every two weeks.

The publishers will also enter everyone who subscribes online before May 31, 2009 into a prize drawing to win one of 10 radio controlled Supreme Daleks. The magazine content and subscription information are available here.

The magazine also has a website here, which contains downloads, games and interviews.

The Stage reports that Laurence Payne, who appeared in three classic Doctor Who serials, has died at the age of 89. Payne played gunslinger Johnny Ringo in "The Gunfighters" (1966), dying Argolin leader Morix in "The Leisure Hive" (1980) and morally compromised scientist Dastari in "The Two Doctors" (1985).

Beyond the world of Doctor Who, Payne had a distinguished stage career, including a long run at the Old Vic in the 1940s, and played Romeo in Peter Brook's 1947 production of "Romeo and Juliet" at Stratford-upon-Avon. On television, he was best known as the 1920s detective Sexton Blake in the ITV children's serial, which ran from 1967 to 1971.

Payne died on February 23, 2009.

Thanks to Mark Terry.

The Sarah Jane Adventures has been nominated for the Royal Television Society Awards, in the "Children's Drama" category. The series was also nominated last year, but lost to CITV's "My Life as a Popat". A full list of nominations can be found at Broadcastnow; the winners will be announced on 17 March 2009.

The Los Angeles Times' Hero Complex blog has an overview of the current status of the Doctor Who world, with quotations from fans and writers in attendance at the recent Gallifrey One convention in L.A.

The South Wales Echo reports that researchers at the University of Glamorgan have received a 20,000 pound grant from the BBC to investigate the "Doctor Who effect" on the public image of Wales. The scholars will interview Doctor Who fans, production personnel, and Welsh tourism officials to determine what effect the filming of Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures in Cardiff has had on the public perception of South Wales. Contact information for the researchers is available in the news story and at the University of Glamorgan website.

Finally, BBC News has an item about celebrity impersonators on Twitter and other social media, focusing on a woman who set up a Twitter account pretending to be David Tennant. The counterfeit Tennant is also mentioned in an E! Onlinearticle about real and fake celebrity Twitters.

Thanks to "rplon" and "PolyG" of the Doctor Who Forum.