March 6, 2007 • Posted By Brigadier Bill
The US Sci-Fi Channel website has a brief interview with David Tennant where he talks about the pressure he felt taking over the role and changing companions and actresses.

There is a reference to the Doctor's upcoming encounter with Shakespeare but there are no spoilers.

The Restoration Team has released details on the upcoming DVD releases Robot and Timelash.

The team's website describes the technical hurdles that had to be cleared in each story (such as the CSO effects in the final episode of Robot) as well as a list of special features for each DVD (listed below).

As reported earlier, Robot is due out in the UK on 28th May, Timelash on 25th June.

Visit the Restoration Team website for full details.

The Doctor Who Information Network has been notified by Canadian broadcasterCBC that the 3rd Series of Doctor Who will air beginning in June 2007 and the 1st Series of Torchwood will air in Fall 2007. This will be a shorter wait for Series 3 than Canadians had for Series 2, where it aired from August to November (in French) and October to February (in English).

John Barrowman will again be presenting The National Lottery: Saturday Draws tonight (3 March) at 8.05pm on BBC1. Also tonight, he is listed to guest star on Al Murray's Happy Hour, ITV1 at 10.25pm (UK). (This show is repeated at midnight on Thursday 8 March on ITV2 and then at 11pm on Friday 9 March on ITV1.)

Barrowman is also to appear on the chat show A Taste of My Life on Tuesday, 13 March on BBC2, 6.30-7pm (UK). The show "explores the lives of celebrity guests through their personal food memories" (source: BBC). The Torchwood star is cookery writer Nigel Slater's guest as he "discusses the difficulties of coming out to his family. He is reduced to tears as his parents in Florida rustle up a banana cake from his childhood - and tell him how much they love him." (source: Digiguide) (This show is repeated on Wednesday, 14 March on BBC2, 2.15-2.45pm)

A deal has been struck between the BBC and Google to allow video clips to be shown on the popular video sharing site YouTube.com.

Two Doctor Who clips have already been added to the website.
The first is David Tennant's Video Diary and the second is Freema Agyeman's Video Diary.

The deal is the first major partnership for Google outside the US. For the BBC it means it can display and specially commission promotional content linked to its popular series such as Doctor Who and Life On Mars.

Acccording to a BBC Press Release, eventually YouTube will host three BBC "channels".

The first will be for the BBC itself. This channel will consist of a range of specially-created video diaries including the David Tennant and Freema Agyeman diaries.

The second will be BBC Worldwide and offer archive material from popular shows. This channel will feature Google's advertising which will feed back to BBC funds.

The third will be BBC World News which again will be ad-funded. This channel will not be available in the UK and will launch later than the first two.

The move has been welcomed by Chad Hurley, CEO and Co-Founder of YouTube. He said "The BBC is a premier source for quality programming. We hope to open up an entirely new audience for their content."

Actress Jacqueline Pearce will be doing a fund-raising signing session in Scotland next week at an event that could well be the last opportunity for people to meet her.

She will be at Voga in Leven St, Edinburgh, on Saturday, March 10 from 3pm to 5pm.

Pearce, most famous for her role as Servalan in Blake's 7, played Chessene in The Two Doctors, Admiral Mettna in the BBCi drama Death Comes To Time and Sherilyn Harper in the Big Finish audio The Fearmonger.

She is moving to the African bush indefinitely later this month to carry on her voluntary work with orphaned and wounded monkeys, and will be signing photos at the shop to raise funds.

Pearce, 63, writes more about it on her website.

Today saw This Morning cover the costume auction at Bonhams. The Fourth Doctor costume was discussed, where it was clarified that the costume wasn't used in the series itself, but was used by Tom Baker for public appearances like conventions. It was estimated at about 2,000 pounds. A velvet coat worn by Patrick Troughton was also mentioned, and is expected to make 10,000 pounds.

Jon Culshaw appeared on yesterday's This Morning, during which he debated whether to phone up Foreign Secretary Margeret Beckett as "Doctor Who" and try to sell her dimensional stabilisers for her caravan.

Tuesday 27th February saw BBC1's Breakfast discuss whether crying is good for you or not; the insert featuring opinions from the public was also interspersed with clips of Rose crying from Doomsday.

Charlie Brooker briefly mentioned Doctor Who's new 'rival' Primeval on Monday's Screen Wipe, during which he also compared their use of scary moments in domestic settings; he added that he felt it was better drama than Torchwood.

Back to last week, and Thursday's GMTV saw TV columnist Richard Arnold discussing the story about Hugh Grantregretting turning down Doctor Who; Friday's Comedy Connections covered the series Just Good Friends and linked actor John Ringham to his appearance as Tlotoxl in The Aztecs; whilst Billie Piper appeared on The Charlotte Church Show, during which she admitted that her favourite Doctor was David Tennant.

Don't forget that Billie Piper is on our screens again this weekend on Top Gear (Sunday 8:00pm BBC2)

Issue #24 of Doctor Who Adventures is out now.

Details from BBC Magazines are given below. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the cover.

(Thanks to Victoria Goddard/BBC Magazines)