Radio Times is trying to find the nation's most-loved drama series, with Doctor Who featuring in the final shortlist.

The magazine is celebrating its ninetieth birthday by creating a fantasy TV schedule made up of the most popular TV shows in history. This week, in a poll to find the best drama series, readers are invited to choose their favourite show, the one they would most love to watch on a Saturday night.

The Time Lord faces competition from some of the greats, from Brideshead Revisited to Our Friends in the North, from Cracker to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Classic adaptations are also included, such as Bleak House, Pride and Prejudice and The Jewel in the Crown, as well as the soap operas EastEnders and Coronation Street. Political thrillers are represented in the form of Edge of Darkness and House of Cards, alongside crime dramas such as Prime Suspect, State of Play, Inspector Morse and Life on Mars. All-time classic Upstairs Downstairs is also nominated, with Broadchurch, Downton Abbey and Sherlock representing the recent past.

Voting is via the Radio Times website.

The seventeenth in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

Production is now well under way on the new science-fiction series, the main actors had been cast and issued with their contracts.

It was clear to the production team that a vital element of the new drama's success would be the title music and special sounds. On Monday 12th August, exactly 50 years ago today, director Waris Hussein contacted the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to discuss the requirements for the first episode of Doctor Who.

The Radiophonic Workshop had been founded in 1958, with a brief to produce effects and new music for radio and television using new techniques available in the new electronic age. It was based in the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in Delaware Road, north-west London.

Verity Lambert had by now abandoned her original idea of asking the French group Les Structures Sonores to provide the title music. A meeting with the head of the Workshop, Desmond Briscoe, had persuaded Lambert that what she needed was "something electronic with a strong beat", something "familiar, but different" - something the Radiophonic Workshop could provide. Lambert was keen to obtain the services of Ron Grainer to write the music.

Grainer was an Australian composer who had been living in London for the past ten years. After working as a pianist in a nightclub, he had achieved some success as a composer, creating the scores for a number of TV series and a couple of features films. In 1961 he had won an Ivor Novello Award for the theme to Maigret, the series based on the books by Georges Simenon. Grainer had already worked with the Radiophone Workshop when creating his score for Giants of Steam, a documentary about railways.

Assigned to create the music would be one of the Radiophonic Workshop's staff, Delia Derbyshire. She had joined the BBC in 1960 working as a radio studio manager before joining the Workshop in 1962. The music she provided to herald the start of each episode of Doctor Who is now regarded as one of the most significant and innovative piece of electronic music ever produced. That it was created in the early Sixties, in the days before multi-track recorders and commercial synthesizers, is truly amazing. Aided by assistant Dick Mills, Derbyshire created each note separately by cutting, splicing, speeding up, and slowing down recordings of a single plucked string, white noise, and the output of test-tone oscillators. The notes were then edited together on quarter-inch tape. Mixing was done by starting several tape machines simultaneously and mixing the outputs together.

Grainer was highly impressed with the final result, famously asking Derbyshire, "Did I write that?" Her reply became equally famous: "Most of it."

Another important element of the show would be the special sounds. In charge for the first episode would be Brian Hodgson, who had joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1962. One of the most important effects that would be needed for the new series would be that of the Doctor's time-and-spaceship dematerialising. The ship had by now been named the TARDIS. Hodgson produced the effect by dragging the key to his mother's back door along the strings of an old, gutted piano. The resulting sound was recorded and electronically processed with echo and reverb. Hodgson would provide most of the special sounds for the series until 1972, creating much of the soundscape of Doctor Who.

While the music was being put together, events around the series were moving on. William Hartnell had attended Television Centre in west London for make-up and costume tests in the first week of August, and Carole Ann Ford would attend the following week. Terry Nation had submitted his scripts for the fourth story of the season and the production team had decided to up the episode count to seven to better serve the story. The story was, however, likely to be moved back to fifth in the season as script editor David Whitaker was keen to include a story where the TARDIS crew get reduced in size. This, however, was dependent on getting a better studio allocation with more up-to-date equipment to help achieve the effects needed for such a story.

.As previously reported, Splendid Chaps is a year-long performance/podcast project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who hosted by comedian Ben McKenzie (Dungeon Crawl, Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour) and writer John Richards (ABC1 sitcom Outland, Boxcutters podcast).

Described by its creators as part intellectual panel discussion, part nerdy Tonight Show, Splendid Chaps is a combination of analysis, enthusiasm and irreverence. The first episode went to number 1 on the iTunes TV & Film Podcast chart in Australia, and to number 4 in the UK. The podcasts to previous episodes are now available at www.splendidchaps.com or at iTunes.

Tickets are now on sale for their Ninth Doctor show! Their ninth major episode brings the Splendid Chaps finally to new Who, that time when the seemingly impossible happened and the show returned! Russell T Davies reinvented the Doctor by casting renowned TV and film actor Christopher Eccleston, famous for serious roles in dramas like Cracker, Our Friends in the North and Elizabeth. His simultaneously light-hearted and tortured portrayal of a man who has lost everything won over old and new fans alike, though the revelation after the smash success of the first episode that he would only be staying for one year took fans and media by surprise. Despite his short stay in the role, Eccleston defined the new era of Doctor Who and laid the groundwork for the format that persisted ever since.

Just as important to new Who was new companion Rose Tyler, played by pop star turned actor Billie Piper. For some she was a revelation compared to the “scream queens” of the past; but is this a fair assessment? Splendid Chaps take as their theme women in Doctor Who: was having a proactive and near equal status companion for the Doctor really such a radical idea? Has Doctor Who been as terribly sexist as has often been claimed? Are the women in the show as varied and multifaceted as the men? And is the modern series really better in its portrayal of women than the old?

Hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott are joined by a panel including feminist organiser and writer Karen Pickering (Cherchez la Femme), author and podcaster Tansy Rayner Roberts (Galactic Suburbia, Verity!) and more, plus a musical performance, giveaways and excellence!

Space: The Gasometer Hotel, 484 Smith Street, Collingwood (corner of Alexandra Parade)
Time: Sunday 15 September; recording starts 5 PM
Accessibility: Splendid Chaps regret that this venue is not wheelchair accessible.
Tickets: $15 (plus booking fee where applicable)
Bookings: via trybooking.com or at the door (subject to availability)
Podcast: not yet available; released 23 September 2013.

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, StoryBundle is offering a specially curated set of six full length e-books featuring episode guides, producer autobiographies, coming-of-age stories and recipe books themed around Doctor Who.
StoryBundle is a platform for indie authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog.

Buyers pay what they like, subject to a minimum fee of $3.

The initial titles in The (Unofficial) Doctor Who Bundle are:

• Dalek I Loved You: 50th Anniversary Edition by Nick Griffiths
Nick Griffiths' memoir of life as a Doctor Who fan, which has been praised by the UK Guardian and a former Doctor Who himself, David Tennant, and comes in a special 50th Anniversary update.
• Who & Me by Barry Letts
The fascinating behind the scenes autobiography by the late Doctor Who producer Barry Letts - a key creative force on the show in the Jon Pertwee years, and who also worked with iconic Doctor Tom Baker.
• TARDIS Eruditorum Volume 2: Patrick Troughton by Philip Sandifer
The second volume of collected and expanded posts from the popular blog TARDIS Eruditorum offers a critical history of the Patrick Troughton era of Doctor Who.
• Dining With The Doctor: An Unauthorized Whovian Cookbook by Chris-Rachael Oseland
A cookbook to remember, celebrating the return of The Doctor with recipes themed around the first six seasons of the 2005 Doctor Who reboot - including dishes like Open Faced Dalek Ironsides, Sontaran Soldiers, Fish Custard Tacos, and a Cinnamon Pull Apart Crack in the Wall.

If you pay at least $10 you get two bonus books:

• VWORP! by Earl Green
A key primer to the Doctor Who canon from 1963 through to the 2011 Xmas special, for both novices and experts alike.
• The Best of TARDIS Eruditorum, by Philip Sandifer.
The Best of TARDIS Eruditorum collects twenty-one of the best and most popular essays from Philip Sandifer's acclaimed blog TARDIS Eruditorum.

Full details on the StoryBundle website.

The BBC has revealed the extent to which Sunday's announcement of the next Doctor took over the twitter-sphere, with the Corporation counting a total of 542,000 tweets reacting to the news that Peter Capaldi would be taking on the role come Christmas.

During the live show, Doctor Who Live; The Next Doctor, the number of tweets averaged 9,000 per minute, jumping to 22,081 a minute as the new Doctor was revealed, the highest TV tweet minute peak recorded this year.

The tweet with the first photograph from the official site was re-tweeted over 25,000 times.

For most of Sunday, during the build up to the announcement, #DoctorWho trended in the UK. Showrunner Steven Moffat trended number 1 in the UK and worldwide while former Doctor David Tennant trended at number 3 worldwide. The Twitter domination continued and at one point 7 of the ten UK’s trends were Doctor Who-related.


The audience for the live show peaked at 6.9 million in the UK and scored an Appreciation Index of 73.

As mentioned in earlier articles, Peter Capaldi is a self-confessed fan of the show. With the Radio Times report of his letter from 1974 posted last week, Doctor Who News reviewer and correspondent Matthew Kilburn has discovered in his own fanzine archive an article by Capaldi dating from May 1976.

The news of Peter Capaldi becoming the Twelfth Doctor made the front pages of several Monday editions of British Newspapers, including the Times, Guardian, i, Telegraph, Express, Mirror, Sun and Daily Mail (with the latter two focussing on the betting patterns over the last week).


Mark Lawson of the Guardian said:
Serena Davies of the Telegraph:
Jon Cooper of the Mirror:
James Legge of the Independent:

Other general media coverage includes the BBC, Independent, Telegraph, Metro, Independent, Guardian, Mirror, Belfast Telegraph, Daily Mail, WalesOnline, NME, MTV, Herald Scotland, The Sun (paywall), USA Today, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Entertainment Weekly, Empire, CBC, TVNZ.

On Twitter:

A selection of comments on Capaldi's casting from Doctor Who names and celebrity fans.

• Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor): "Delighted to hear Peter Capaldi is the new Doctor, very good choice. Another Scot eh? Nice to have a more mature Doctor too. Bring it on!!"
• Sophie Aldred (Ace): "Fantastic to have another fan on board as the Dr. I think he will be ace!"
• Bonnie Langford (Mel): "Have to break my #twittersilence to congratulate Peter Capaldi on his new role. Xx"
• Karen Gillan (Amy): "CAPALDI! Superb choice. Swear I've seen him in Pompeii..."
• John Hurt ("The Doctor"): "Congratulations, Peter Capaldi. I'm suboth and we will have a lot of fun."
• Richard E Grant (Dr Simeon): "Bravo on the brilliant BBC choice to Tardis the talents of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Dr Who!!"
• Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voices): "Well I'm over the bloody moon. Worked with him in Torchwood and he was brilliant and a lovely man. He will be brilliant!"
• Mark Gatiss (writer/actor): "Thrilling, moving, beyond exciting. Cometh the hour, cometh the man! Peter Capaldi is the PERFECT choice. Welcome, Doctor!"
• Andy Pryor (casting director): "I broke #twittersilence but it had to be done after a night like this. New Doctor is very happy and dealt with his unveiling with class"
• Stephen Fry (actor/fan): "Well, at least they’ve chosen a wonderful actor..."
• Craig Ferguson (presenter/fan): "Great news that Peter Capaldi is the new Doctor. A spectacular talent and a beautiful man."
• Armando Ianucci (writer of The Thick of It): "There can't be a funnier, wiser, more exciting Time Lord than Peter Capaldi. The universe is in great hands."
• Ben Daniels (in the booking odds): "Peter Capaldi will ROCK!! Fab fab choice!"
• Aneurin Barnard (in the booking odds): "Huge great congratulations to master Peter Capaldi he's going to be a wonderful #DoctorWho"

Peter Capaldi - the one and only:

Steven Moffat has revealed that Peter Capaldi was always his choice in mind for the Twelfth Doctor.

Speaking to Sky News after last night's show, the executive producer said:
The Radio Times added:
During Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor Moffat had commented on the then unknown actor's eligibility when casting for the Twelfth Doctor:

Peter Capaldi is to play the Twelfth Doctor, it has been revealed tonight.

In a live show that featured a number of studio and recorded guests chatting about Doctor Who and what it meant to them, Capaldi was introduced to millions of viewers from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Australia in the special live programme Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor.

Met with resounding applause from the studio audience, the actor then went on to discuss with presenter Zoe Ball his enthusiasm for being the new Doctor. When asked how he found out about the role, he answered:
Talking about the differences between the Doctor and the role he's most known for - currently - Malcolm Tucker from The Thick Of It, he said:

As Doctor Who News reported on Wednesday, he has been a life-long fan of Doctor Who, making a confession to SFX back in 2008. When asked about his audition for the Doctor, he observed:
Also this week, the Radio Times reprinted a letter from a fifteen year old Capaldi congratulating the production team on another successful series.

When asked what he thought about the show's endurance and its fans, he answered:

Matt Smith also had a special message for his successor:

You can watch the interview with Peter Capaldi below (may not play outside the United Kingdom):

Biography:

Peter Dougan Capaldi was born in Glasgow on 14th April 1958; his mother's family hailed from Killeshandra, County Cavan, Ireland, and his father's family from Picinisco, Italy. He was educated at St Teresa's Primary School in the city's Possilpark district, St Matthew's Primary School in Bishopbriggs and at St Ninian's High School, Kirkintilloch, before attending the Glasgow School of Art.

Prior to his announcement tonight, the actor was best known for playing the acerbic political spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the political satire series The Thick of It and the affiliated feature film In the Loop. In 2006, he was nominated for the BAFTA and RTS Best Comedy Actor Awards, and later won the 2010 BAFTA Television Award for Male Performance in a Comedy Role. He also won the 2010 British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor.

As well as The Thick of It, Capaldi has appeared in over forty films and television programmes since his debut as Danny Oldsen in 1983's Local Hero. Lead film roles came in 1988 with The Lair of the White Worm Dangerous Liaisons, and then on television in the BBC drama series Mr Wakefield's Crusade. In 1995 he won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film for Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life which he wrote and directed (it also starred Richard E Grant as Kafka and Barry Letts's son Crispin as Gregor Samsa). Other notable roles have included the fictional Songs of Praise producer Tristan Campbell in The Vicar of Dibley, a university professor in Aftersun, a prime suspect in Waking the Dead, Mark Jenkins in Skins, and the Angel Islington in Neil Gaiman's gothic fantasy Neverwhere. He has most recently been seen on television as BBC boss Randall Brown in The Hour, and in the film World War Z as the coincidentally named W.H.O. Doctor! As mentioned earlier he is due to appear as Cardinal Richelieu in the new BBC adaptation The Musketeers.

A life-long fan of Doctor Who Capaldi has played two roles previously, as Roman merchant Lucius Caecilius in The Fires of Pompeii, and more prominently as the Home Office Permanent Secretary John Frobisher in Torchwood Children of Earth: Day One.

A more comprehensive biography of Capaldi's career can be found in our followup article here.

BBC Press Release:

We're now into the final hour before the live programme that will introduce the World to the new Doctor, following on from a day of intense speculation over who it might be. Peter Capaldi has remained the bookies' favourite, with odds at the time of writing hovering between 2/5 and 1/2 (at one point reaching 1/4) - however, the "runners up" have bounced about between the known suspects throughout the afternoon, with Daniel Rigby, Andrew Scott, Aneurin Barnard and Damien Molony sharing the top spots between them - plus 'newcomer' to the party today being Sam Troughton, a grandson of former Doctor Patrick Troughton.

As one might expect, a number of Internet sources have claimed to already know who it might be, with some taking advantage of the default landing page of the BBC's Doctor Who site to 'reveal' "Peter-Capaldi-is-the-Twelfth-Doctor" and the like - suffice it to say these are not legitimate links! Meanwhile, comic actor Chris O'Dowd continued to play to the rumours of his casting, tweeting: "Anyone know a good breakfast place in Cardiff? ... gonna be spending quite a bit of time here.". Supernatural's Misha Collins also continued his own 'campaign' when he followed up last night's comment with "Yesterday I said I had an announcement regarding the UK & phone booths. Well, the announcement is... (see photo)".

The person to play the Doctor is apparently ready and waiting (and well hidden) at Elstree, with photographer Rankin reporting that he'd taken the official photo for publicity tonight. Cloudbass Graphics reported on the studio itself: "Quiet in BBC Elstree Studio D gallery. Live graphics on Dr Who Live: The Next Doctor at 7 pm tonight on BBC1".

Meanwhile, outside the studios, the huge queue for tonight's programme has continued to grow, with fan Jacqui Connell tweeting "This is the scene outside as we wait to be let in!! Excitement mounting", with Kier Husband observing "a queue for Who at BBC Elstree" as it weaves around the street corner! Entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba was on hand to report on the event and some of the more colourful characters in the queue!


With the doors opening imminently, it won't be long until the next Doctor is unveiled ...

With less than twelve hours to go, the odds on who will portray the next Doctor have entered 'temporal grace', with nigh on all betting shops having closed their books on the actors over the last couple of days after it became clear that Peter Capaldi was clearly the favourite for the role. William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly reported: As betting proceeded, a flurry of activity saw some new names gain popularity. The IT Crowd actor Chris O'Dowd became a focus of Internet discussion, causing the actor himself to tweet: "has anyone seen my scarf? #WinkWink". Billie Piper's cousin-in-law Freddie Fox became popular on Friday afternoon, with his odds dropping to 12/1 before bets were suspended. Eddie Redmayne was another new contender at 25/1. However, when asked about the possibility of him becoming the next Doctor tonight on this morning's Sunday Brunch, John Hannah seemed surprised, saying "Well, it will come as a surprise to me if I get named tonight!" Finally, Supernatural actor Misha Collins caused more heated debate on Saturday after he tweeted: "also, in totally unrelated news, i'll have a very exciting announcement tomorrow. Hint: it has something to do with the UK and phone booths." Whether such claims have any substance is debatable at present, but they certainly indicate the widespread interest and impact the casting of the Doctor has across the world!

A summary of odds was given on this morning's BBC Breakfast, with Capaldi at 6/4, followed by Daniel Rigby (9/2), Ben Daniels (4/1), Andrew Scott (10/1), Russell Tovey (10/1), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12/1), Idris Elba (12/1), Rory Kinnear (15/1), and Olivia Colman (20/1). Entertainment correspondent Liza Mzimba reported on how the interest in a new Doctor has changed over the years, with his main contenders being Capaldi, Harewood, Rigby and Ejiofor. Doctor Who Magazine editor Tom Spilsbury was also in the studio to chat about the atmosphere surrounding the impending announcement and the enduring popularity of the show.

Newsround explored younger viewers' expectations in Friday's edition of the children's news programme, with names suggested including Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, James Bond actor Daniel Craig, footballer David Beckham, Blackadder Rowan Atkinson, and actrss Helena Bonham-Carter. CBBC presenter Chris Johnson said that his favourite for the role would be Idris Elba, though he felt it would more likely be an unknown actor. As for the favourite, he noted that though Capaldi had been in the show before, that hadn't stopped actors coming back again!

At the time of writing, Betfair have indicated all change on the popularity front. Though they continue to report Peter Capaldi as favourite at 10/12, Karen Gillan's We'll Take Manhattan co-star Aneurin Barnard has now jumped to second at 94/11, and they are followed by Rigby (119/10), Elba (161/10), Kinnear (31/1), Martin Freeman (47/1), Daniels (51/1), and Scott, Damian Moloney and John Hurt at 56/1.

Someone in the know is director James Hawes, who tweeted yesterday: "I have just found out who the new Doctor is... Didn't guess that!!" BBC News has reported that only ten people know the true identity of who it will be - for the rest of us all will be revealed tonight on Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor!