Colin Baker Interview

Friday, 20 April 2007 - Reported by R Alan Siler

The online edition of the News Shopper currently features an interview with Sixth Doctor Colin Baker about his upcoming appearance in the Alan Ayckbourn play Bedroom Farce at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley.

Bedroom Farce is a comic assault on the middle-class, revolving around three couples and the conversations and encounters within their three bedrooms.

"Alan Ayckbourn is a genius. I've done four Ayckbourn plays and they have always been the best fun I've ever had. I've never been to an Ayckbourn I haven't enjoyed and never taken part in one the audience haven't enjoyed. It's the main ingredient for success I think, Alan Ayckbourn."

Colin talks about his long career (both acting and writing), his entry into the Eurovision Song Contest last year, and about his co-star in the play, Louise Jameson.

"Around 90 per cent of what I do (in Bedroom Farce) is with Louise Jameson, who I know terribly well. We've worked together two or three times before and we're great friends. We even have a show we do together called Love Letters. This means rehearsals will be fun. She's always ticking me off for misbehaving."

FILTER: - People

Daleks Top Online Poll

Friday, 20 April 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

The Daleks are Doctor Who's scariest villains, according to a new survey.

An online poll of Doctor Who fans was commissioned by the BBC for theofficial programme website to mark the Daleks' return to the show tomorrow night in the UK.

More than 21,000 voted, and Nick Briggs, who voices the monsters, said: "I've been fortunate enough to provide the voices for a wide variety of Doctor Who villains over the years, but the Daleks seem to have stood the test of time as the scariest and most iconic space terrors that the Doctor has ever encountered."

Doctor Who lead writer and co-executive producer Russell T Davies said: "Every time the Daleks return we make them bigger and better than ever before, and this time, their plan is the most audacious Dalek scheme yet."

He added: "Even the Doctor finds himself out of his depth."

Second in the poll were the Empty Child Zombies from 2005, while the Beast from last year's two-parter The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit was third.

The top ten are detailed below.

1. The Daleks
2. The Empty Child Zombies
3. The Beast
4. The Cybermen
5. The Clockwork Droids
6. The Ood
7. The Empress of Racnoss
8. The Werewolf
9. The Autons/Nestenes
10. Chloe's Dad

FILTER: - Online

Posters Promotion

Friday, 20 April 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

The Western Mail newspaper, based in Cardiff, has a promotion starting tomorrow and running every day until Friday, April 27 in which a series of exclusive, glossy, double-sided, official Doctor Who posters featuring different characters and villains will be given away free.

Click on the image below for a larger version of one of the posters.

FILTER: - Press

Smith And Jones Shooting Script Online

Friday, 20 April 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

The full shooting script for Smith and Jones has been put online at theBBC Writers Room.

Series head Russell T Davies gave the go-ahead for the script to be made available, according to the official programme website.

The Writers Room is used by the BBC to find and champion new talent.

Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to download the script.

FILTER: - Production - Series 3/29

Robot DVD Cover

Friday, 20 April 2007 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

From our friends at Tenth Planet, we've received the cover illustration for the forthcoming UK DVD release of Robot, the first Tom Baker serial from 1974. The DVD will be issued on 4th June 2007. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the cover.

FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

In Their Own Words 3

Thursday, 19 April 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper

Doctor Who Magazine has released the third installment of their In Their Own Words series. This Special Edition covers 1977 to 1981 and features interviews with Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Graham Williams, John Leeson, Robert Holmes, Mary Tamm, Douglas Adams, Lalla Ward,John Nathan Turner, Christopher H Bidmead, Matthew Waterhouse and hundreds more - plus an Afterword by Shakespeare Code writer Gareth Roberts!

"I was the great children's hero. I was known all over the world. I didn't need credit cards, I was welcomed into everybody's house. The Doctor isn't just what I did in the studio, you see.

I had to carry the concept of this semi-perfect man into my own life so that, of there were children around, I wouldn't be seen as a disappointment! It was very, very exhausting at times, but rewarding as well. Being Doctor Who comes with this responsibility..."

FILTER: - Magazines

Bloodtide At The Globe

Thursday, 19 April 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

According to the official exhibitions website, Bloodtide - one of the witches from The Shakespeare Code - will be appearing for a limited period at Shakespeare's Globe in London, where some of the Series Three episode was filmed, as part of the tour and exhibition.

Information on the Globe's website would suggest, however, that it is actually the Carrionite's costume that is on display at the exhibition rather than the actress who played Bloodtide, Linda Clarke, taking an interactive part.

FILTER: - Special Events - Series 3/29

Shakespeare Code final ratings

Wednesday, 18 April 2007 - Reported by Marcus

According to the latest figures released by BARB, The Shakespeare Code gained an official viewing figure of 7.23 million, placing it 14thin the British television viewing charts for the week. It was beaten in the charts by all of the week's episodes of Coronation Street andEastEnders, and all but one episode of Emmerdale.

The figure places the episode 21st out of the 30 episodes of new Doctor Who for which the final viewing figures are known, withGridlock's final viewing figure due this time next week. The 14th position in the chart maintains the programme's extremely strong run in the top twenty. Since the return of the series two years ago, only The Empty Child has failed to make the top twenty, finishing 21st in its week.

In the multichannel charts, Doctor Who was the most watched programme of the week with an official rating of 1.039 Million viewers; an impressive achievement for a programme shown on BBC One the night before. Saturday's Confidential was 8th with 656,000 viewers, while Sunday's repeat was 22nd with 560,000 viewers.

Top Twenty Programmes w/e 8th April 2007

1 CORONATION STREET (MON 2029) 13.07
2 CORONATION STREET (MON 1934) 11.76
3 CORONATION STREET (FRI 1934) 10.10
4 CORONATION STREET (WED 1930) 10.05
5 EASTENDERS (MON 2000) 9.22
6 EASTENDERS (TUE 1930) 9.06
7 CORONATION STREET (SUN 1929) 8.36
8 EASTENDERS (FRI 1959) 8.26
9 EMMERDALE (MON 1902) 8.14
10 EMMERDALE (TUE 1901) 8.08
11 EASTENDERS (THU 1930) 7.94
12 EMMERDALE (WED 1858) 7.29
13 EMMERDALE (FRI 1903) 7.27
14 DOCTOR WHO (SAT 1859) 7.23
15 THE ROYAL (SUN 2001) 7.10
16 EMMERDALE (THU 1900) 6.75
17 MY FAMILY (FRI 2030) 6.65
18 LIFE ON MARS (TUE 2100) 6.39
19 CASUALTY (SAT 2112) 6.35
20 GEORGE GENTLY (SUN 2059) 6.33

Multi Channel Top Twenty

1 DOCTOR WHO (Sun 2001) 1,039,000 - BBC3
2 EASTENDERS (Thu 2200) 958,000 - BBC3
3 MY BIG BREASTS AND ME (Thu 2100) 946,000 - BBC3
4 EASTENDERS (Tue 2159) 835,000 - BBC3
5 LOST (Sun 2201) 824,000 - Sky 1
6 60 SECONDS (Sun 1959) 766,000 - BBC3
7 FILM: THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (2004) (Tue 2249) 692,000 - ITV2
8 DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL (Sat 1946) 656,000 - BBC3
9 ENTERTAINMENT NEWS UPDATE (Tue 2248) 653,000 - ITV2
10 FILM: THE MUMMY RETURNS (Thu 2023) 653,000 - ITV2
11 60 SECONDS (Thu 2157) 647,000 - BBC3
12 BONES (Thu 2101) 647,000 - Sky 1
13 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (Wed 2302) 633,000 - E4 In
14 HOLLYOAKS (Tue 1859) 623,000 - E4 In
15 AMERICAN IDOL (Fri 2131) 620,000 - ITV2
16 FILM: THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (2004) (Tue 2205) 607,000 - ITV2
17 THE REAL HUSTLE (Thu 2229) 593,000 - BBC3
18 EASTENDERS (Mon 2200) 589,000 - BBC3
19 HOLLYOAKS (Wed 1859) 574,000 - E4 In
20 AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (Mon 2100) 573,000 - Living TV

Source BARB

FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 3/29

Torchwood Series Two in 08

Wednesday, 18 April 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper

In a recent interview with The Stage, Julie Gardner confirms that series two of Torchwood, set to begin filming on Monday April 30th, will be returning to screens on BBC2 in January 2008.

"Last year, we started filming in March and we were on air with 13 episodes from late September, which was just so, so hectic. And we didn’t really have enough time – it was absolutely frantic from day one of prep, it was all hands on deck.

And so, it just works for the BBC2 schedule that we can go in January. So it’ll just give us a little bit more time in our post-production. Which would be lovely, because we were delivering an episode every single week for transmission. It was incredibly tight. So it was just as well we didn’t have any last-minute technical difficulties last year!"

FILTER: - Torchwood

The Viyrans invade Big Finish

Wednesday, 18 April 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper

In the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Big Finish Productionsannounced that a new race of monsters will be making their first appearance before the end of the year. The Viyrans will be introduced through an extended storyline called The Virus Strand. This story thread will consist of the single episode stories which accompany the new three-parters on double cd releases.

The first installment of this series, due out this month, is Urgent Calls.Urgent Calls is set to be released with three-part story I.D., with both featuring Colin Baker.

May sees the release of the second installment, Urban Myths, alongsideExotron. Both stories feature Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant.

FILTER: - Audio

Previous 10 Stories

Colin Baker Interview

Daleks Top Online Poll

Posters Promotion

Smith And Jones Shooting Script Online

Robot DVD Cover

In Their Own Words 3

Bloodtide At The Globe

Shakespeare Code final ratings

Torchwood Series Two in 08

The Viyrans invade Big Finish

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