Torchwood star Burn Gorman has been confirmed in the role of Bill Sikes in the upcoming West End production of Lionel Bart's Oliver!. Torchwood guest star Julian Bleach will also be appearing, as Mr Sowerberry.

Fagin is being played by Rowan Atkinson, who portrayed the Doctor in the 1999 Comic Relief spoof The Curse of Fatal Death, which was written bySteven Moffat.

Adding to the Torchwood element of the musical, John Barrowman was on the panel of judges for the BBC One showI'd Do Anything, which led to the selection of Jodie Prenger as Sikes's lover, Nancy.

Previews of Oliver!, which is being staged at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane, begin on December 12. The opening night is January 14, 2009.

Thanks to Silent Hunter. Additional reporting by John Bowman.

Tickets are selling fast for the Royal Shakespeare Company's production ofHamlet staring David Tennant in the title role and Patrick Stewart as Claudius.

The season, which runs from 24 July until 15 November 2008, at the Courtyard Theatre, is almost sold out before rehearsals have even begun. The websiteseatchoice.comreports that the show is the fourth hottest ticket in the United Kingdom, beating West End blockbusters such as Hairspray.

Hamlet is penciled in for a London run following the season in Stratford.

David Tennant discussed his role in the production with Jonathan Ross on BBC Radio 2 last Saturday. The interview can be heard on a Podcast and on the Radio iPlayer. The interview contains spoilers for the 2008 Christmas episode.

Tennant will also be a guest on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday 8th June.

Thanks to Daniel Smith

Episode eight of series four, Silence in the Library, was the most appreciated programme on any of the four main channels on Saturday with an Appreciation Index of 89. It was the highest score for series four and equal to the highest score for the programme for all time.

Sunday's highest rating was 5.4 million, so Doctor Who is still the 28th most watched programme of the week. This position is likely to rise when corrected figures, including numbers for those recording the programme, are released by BARB in 9 days time. A top twenty place is just possible but unlikely.

Some of the viewers who went missing on Saturday turned up to watch Sunday's BBC3 repeat which got an overnight audience of 1.14 million, nearly double the audience for the repeat of Episode 7. It was a 5.6% share of the audience and the most watched programme on all multi-channel TV for Sunday, comfortably ahead of the repeat of Britain's got Talent.

Saturday's edition of Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 0.52 million viewers. The programme, which had a share of 2.7 %, was the 3rd most watched on multi-channel television on Saturday. The Sunday repeat got 0.60 million viewers and was 10th in the chart.

TV Guide is reporting that John Barrowman has been signed up for Torchwood Series Three - which may only be five episodes long.

The site quotes co-executive producer Julie Gardner as saying: "We've decided to do a five-part mini-series, one big story that will run during one week."

However, more episodes may be given the go-ahead, says the report, which adds that the series will begin filming in August for transmission on BBC1 next spring.

Thanks to Darren Bevan and TardisKid.

After winning a Sony award for The Chain Gang, his serial for BBC7, Robert Shearman (DALEK, The Chimes of Midnight) has been nominated for two major awards for his short story collection Tiny Deaths.

He's on the shortlist for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, awarded in July, one of the highest honors in the UK for single author collections. Last year's nominees included Neil Gaiman.

Tiny Deaths is also longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize, the highest prize in the world for the form, which will be announced in September. Press releases for both make great mention of Shearman's work on Doctor Who, and his dealings with Daleks!

Doctor Who suffered at the hands of the ITV1 hit Britain's Got Talent with unofficial figures showing that episode eight of Series Four, Silence in the Library, was watched by 5.4 million viewers, giving it a 25.4% share of the total television audience.

Britain's Got Talent got 11 million viewers for the main show, with the results programme getting a massive 13.1 million. Doctor Who was only the 5th most watched programme for the day and the second highest rated programme on BBC1. For the first time since the series returned in 2005, the programme did not win its timeslot.

The programme is currently the 28th most watched of the week. Final figures will be released by BARB in ten days time.

Steven Moffat has given his first full-length interview since being announced as the next lead writer and executive producer of Doctor Who to the new issue of Big Issue Scotland, the weekly magazine sold by the homeless in Scotland.

In the interview, Moffat admits that he had to think hard about whether to accept the role, comparing his replacing Russell T Davies with fellow Scot Gordon Brown succeeding Tony Blair as Prime Minister.

"You wouldn’t immediately say yes to that job. You imagine that you would say yes immediately, but it’s a huge job and you have to think about it," he tells the magazine. "I was kind of the other contender, which puts me sort of in the position of Gordon Brown. And look how that turned out. The surly Scot comes in and it all goes to ******."

The full interview is available in Big Issue Scotland, on sale now across Scotland.

Posted By John Bowman

Freema Agyeman is to star in the BBC's remake of the Terry Nation series Survivors.

According to the BBC Press Office, filming for the action adventure drama is currently taking place in Manchester and will continue until September for an autumn 2008 transmission on BBC One.

The Doctor Who and Torchwood star is playing the role of primary school teacher Jenny Collins.

The original BBC show ran for three series from 1975 to 1977 and the remake reimagines some of the original characters. Based on the character synopsis, it seems likely that Agyeman's role is a reimagining of the character of Jenny Richards (originally played by Lucy Fleming).

Also appearing in it are Shaun Dingwall, who played Rose Tyler's father, Pete, and the parallel-universe Pete Tyler, as well as Paterson Joseph, who portrayed Rodrick in Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways.

BBC Drama Productions acquired the rights to develop the series from the Terry Nation estate last year. The writer and co-executive producer is Adrian Hodges, who wrote the screenplays for The Ruby In The Smoke and The Shadow In The North, both of which starred Billie Piper.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Agyeman had secured the role of Tattycoram in the BBC's television adaptation of Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens, which is also to be broadcast on BBC One this autumn.

Posted By Brigadier Bill

In an interview with BBC NEWS Billie Piper talks about her return to Series Four of Doctor Who. Check out the link for more info but it does contain some minor spoilers.

"I wouldn't have missed this for anything," the 25-year-old told Doctor Who Magazine.

"It means so much to me, this show, and so do the people that make it, so I really wanted to be here for these final episodes."

ROSE TYLER IS BACK

In this months Doctor Who Magazine actress Billie Piper talks about her imminent return to Doctor Who and how Rose's character has developed. "She's changed. She's hardened. She's been through a lot in her parallel world. I think she's been through emotional turmoil. She's quite sad and lonely, but also really bolshy and, that great quality that Rose has, just so headstrong and single-minded."

Billie promises another healthy quota of tear-jerking, heart-rending moments in this year's finale. Are those sorts of scenes as exhausting to perform as the technically-complex effects sequences? "It's just a different kind of intensity, but equally as intense, because you really have to focus. You're imagining things, seeing things, that aren't there. That takes a lot of concentration. But this series will make you cry. That’s a promise."

ALSO THIS ISSUE:

• DWM talks to The League of Gentlemen’s Steve Pemberton about his role in the much-anticipated Doctor Who story, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead.
• Previews of the forthcoming Series Four episodes – Midnight and Turn Left – featuring new and previously unpublished photos
• Russell T Davies talks candidly to DWM readers about his latest trip to the BAFTA awards and meeting an acting legend in Production Notes.
• Who's best? UNIT or the Sontarans? There was only one way to find out. FIGHT! DWM was there to file an exclusive report on the epic battle.
• Whodunnit? And why – and how? DWM investigates the mysterious happenings at Eddison Hall with a behind-the-scenes look at The Unicorn and the Wasp, featuring excusive interviews with the cast and crew.
• The Doctor and Donna encounter Zombies and Sycorax in Part Two of the latest, full colour, comic strip adventure, The Widow’s Curse.
• Who are the great 'unsung heroes' of Doctor Who? Discover the surprising answers in You Are Not Alone!
• Actor Joe Dempsie, star of The Doctor's Daughter, reveals all on love, war and, er, kissing a Hath.
• It's the end of the series and Davros is back! Find out what happened when the Time Team watched 1985’s Revelation of the Daleks.
• Which story do fans most want out on DVD? Discover the answer, and much more, as the results of the DWM merchandise poll are finally revealed.
• PLUS all the latest news, exclusive photos, reviews, previews, competitions… and a double-sided poster.