Director James Strong will be helming the Easter Doctor Who Special, Executive Producer Russell T. Daviesannounced in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine.

"We're so happy that he's returning to the fold," Davies stated. "James has handled Daleks in sewers, hordes of Adipose and Satan himself, as well as a Titanic with Kylie on board. But believe me, none of that will have prepared him for what we're about to unleash in this next script!"

The Easter special is scripted by Davies and Gareth Roberts, whose previous credits on the show include "Attack of the Graske", "The Shakespeare Code" and "The Unicorn and the Wasp".

Various news sources are reporting that during his appearance at the Cheltenham Literary Festival this weekend, Doctor Who executive producer and chief writer Russell T Davies commented that Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, had turned down a cameo appearance in the series, with Davies jokingly calling him a "swine" for having done so.

The BBC News coverage of the story also includes an embedded video of Davies's appearance on the BBC News Channel on Sunday, where he answered questions sent in by viewers.

The report says that Prince Charles did not personally see the request, which was declined on his behalf by his staff. "We receive a great many requests and it's impossible to accept them all," the BBC quotes a spokesman as having said.

The story is also being run by CBC, The Daily Express, Digital Spy, The Sun, OK! Magazine and many others.

Posted By John Bowman

All the titles of the forthcoming 10-part multi-platform Doctor Who book project The Darksmith Legacy have been announced.

As reported earlier this month by this site, the first two books will be out in January 2009, followed by a new "episode" every month after that.

Published by BBC Children's Books in association with Penguin Books, they will offer the adventure of a book serialisation, complete with cliffhangers, plus interactivity and content that is only obtainable online.

Previously, only the first three titles and their authors had been confirmed. However, the full list has now been given as follows:

1. The Dust of Ages - Justin Richards
2. The Graves of Mordane - Colin Brake
3. The Colour of Darkness - Richard Dungworth
4. The Depths of Despair - Justin Richards
5. The Vampire of Paris - Steve Cole
6. The Game of Death - Trevor Baxendale
7. The Planet of Oblivion - Justin Richards
8. The Picture of Emptiness - Jacqueline Raynor
9. The Art of War - Mike Tucker
10. The End of Time - Justin Richards

An exclusive preview of The Dust of Ages will be available at www.thedarksmithlegacy.com which will also be hosting the interactivity aspect of the series.

However, the website will not be live until mid-November, although it is hoped that a holding page will be up soon once final approvals are given by the BBC.

The shortlists for the categories at this year's National Television Awards - the annual public-voted poll for the most popular programmes and performers on British television, run by the ITV network - have been unveiled, with Doctor Who once again well represented.

The programme itself is nominated in the Most Popular Drama category, which it won in 2005, 2006 and 2007. This year it faces competition from ITV1's The Bill, Channel 4's Shameless and American import Desperate Housewives.

At the past three awards ceremonies, the actor and actress who played the Doctor and his main companion in each series of Doctor Who have been nominated as Most Popular Actor and Most Popular Actress respectively. Christopher Eccleston won the former category in 2005, and David Tennanttook the award in 2006 and 2007, with Billie Pipernamed Most Popular Actress in 2005 and 2006. However, as BBC News reports, in a controversial change for this year's ceremony, the Most Popular Actor and Actress categories have been scrapped in favour of a combined "Outstanding Drama Performance" category.

Tennant and co-star Catherine Tate will both compete for this single award, with Philip Glenister (BBC One's Ashes to Ashes) and Alex Walkinshaw (The Bill) also nominated.

Votes can be cast online at the National Television Awards website here. The ceremony will be held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on October 29th, and broadcast live on ITV1 in the UK.

News services are reporting that this year's Children in Need will feature a special to include all seven living Doctor Who lead actors.

The report below is from the Telegraph. The story also appears in the News of the World and the Sunday Mirror.

[Remember: treat all such news as rumour until confirmed officially by the BBC.]

The BBC News website is reporting that the new Royal Shakespeare Company production of "Love's Labour's Lost", starring David Tennant, has proved a critical hit. The play is being staged in Stratford-upon-Avon in tandem with "Hamlet", in which Tennant also stars, until November 15th.

Says the article: "According to BBC arts correspondent Razia Iqbal, Tennant began rehearsals for Love's Labour's Lost 'almost immediately' after Hamlet opened in August. 'The RSC may have another hit on their hands, which is surprising given the play is Shakespeare's most forgettable early comedy,' she said." The piece also includes praise from critics Neil Norman and Michael Billington, and notes that Tennant performs his role in his native Scottish accent.

A lost sequel to "Love's Labour's Lost", called "Love's Labour's Won", featured in the 2007 Doctor Who episode "The Shakespeare Code", starring Tennant as the Tenth Doctor.

The latest issue of Doctor Who Adventures, the BBC's weekly comic for younger fans, has been released in the UK. The latest issue contains information on the return of the Eighth Doctor to the airwaves on BBC7, and the second part of the magazine's K9 competition. Also included this week are:

The website Den of Geek has published full details of the forthcoming DVD box set release of series four of Doctor Who, which is to be released next month. The article contains a full run-down of the documentary features, deleted and extended scenes and audio commentaries included on the set.

The same website has also published another article detailing information gleaned from some of the new audio commentaries. This includes the note thatDavid Tennant at one point refers to new head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat as his "new boss", which the website takes to indicate that they will be working together on the fifth series of the programme, to be broadcast in 2010.

Unofficial overnight figures show that Part Two of The Last Sontaranachieved an audience of 0.6 million. The Sarah Jane Adventuresprogramme got a 6.1 per cent share of the audience.

The average is slightly down on the previous week's, probably because the episode had already been shown on CBBC.

Final figures for the BBC1 and CBBC showings will be released by BARB next week.

The Appreciation Index for the episode was 86, putting the programme firmly in the excellent category. It was the highest figure on BBC1 for the day.

According to a post this morning on the Doctor Who Forum from Derek Hambly at Tenth Planet Events, Ian Collierpassed away. Collier was well known to fans as Omega, the renegade Time Lord villain from "Arc of Infinity," a role he later reprised in a special audio appearance for Big Finish Productions, the aptly titled "Omega". Collier also played Stuart Hyde in "The Time Monster" during the Jon Pertwee era, and also appeared in two additional Big Finish audios: as Bernice Summerfield's father Isaac in "Death and the Daleks," and Commisar Erco Sallis in "Excelis Decays" at the behest of the story's writer, the late Craig Hinton. Collier was a popular guest at conventions. He died October 1 due to unspecified causes.