The BBC has released the fourth Episode in The Adventure Games Series: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada in the United Kingdom.

The game was expected on Christmas Day, but today has been made available to download from the BBC Website.

The game is written by Phil Ford - author of the first 'gamisode' in the series, City of the Daleks and is available in a Windows and a Mac version.

As with the previous games, Shadows of the Vashta Nerada will be available for purchase worldwide on the PC platform at a later date from Direct2Drive, who will release both this and the third game TARDIS together as a bundle; however, the Mac version will not be available outside the UK.

Scottish media have today reported that actress Karen Gillan is to become the ambassador for Theatre Art Education at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness.

The theatre had an influence on the Doctor Who star's career, being the place where she first performed during her studies at the Charleston Academy.

Commenting in the new theatre brochure, she said:
Part of the aim of the appointment is to help raise awareness of the Higher Drama and Dance courses available at the theatre, which itself remains the only one in Scotland to offer such qualifications.

Theatre director Colin Marr commented:


News coverage from: Inverness Courier, Aberdeen Press and Journal

Karen Gillan is featured on the front cover of this week's Shortlist Magazine.

You can read the full interview online (pages 40-44). Karen also took part in a photo shoot for the magazine, some of these can be viewed below.





The magazine is handed out every Thursday in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, West Yorkshire, Dundee and Aberdeen. It is available from distributors at around 100 main line and Underground stations and bus terminals. [Wikipedia]

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are to become guest presenters on BBC Radio 1 as part of the Top 10s of 2010, where celebrities from both the music and entertainment world will present their ten favourite tracks from the year.

The duo's broadcast will be on Christmas Eve, between 8:00-9:00am, and will be available to listen to through all the usual BBC media facilities.

Read the BBC Press release for more details about the Top 10s of 2010.

Karen Gillan has been cast as as a time-travelling Juliet in a new film to be directed by David Baddiel. Romeo And Brittney is about a high school teenager from New Jersey who finds herself travelling back in time to 13th-century Verona. Also cast is Gillian Anderson who will play the dual roles of Karen's mother and the Nurse, and Robert Sheehan plays Romeo in the comedy. Shooting begins in May.

John Barrowman is to appear in the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special. The show is expected to go out on Christmas Day. Barrowman has also signed up for a cameo in Goodnight Burbank, a news satire webcomedy that stars Laura Silverman and Dominic Monaghan. Meanwhile Russell T Davies has let slip that Steven Moffat would like to see Captain Jack back in Doctor Who, opening up the way for Barrowman's possible return to the series.

The Press Association has uploaded video from Saturday's appearance of Karen Gillan at Hamleys toy store in Glasgow to promote the release of the Amy Pond action figure. The event was limited to 250 people, which led to a number of complaints from people unable to gain access to the event, somthing picked up by The Glasgow Herald.

Sylvester McCoy has enjoyed a return to his home town of Dunoon in his role as this year’s Chieftain at Cowal Highland Gathering, first reported here. He told the local paper, the Argyllshire Standard, that he is in talks for a major role in the upcoming feature film The Hobbit which is due to start filming in 2011. "I am being cast in The Hobbit," he told the paper, "We're currently in negotiations - there are two of us under consideration. It's not the Bilbo role, but could be bigger."

Doctor Who featured as a question subject in the long running BBC Two quiz show University Challenge on Monday evening. Contestants were asked to identify different versions of the series theme music and state who played the Doctor when they were broadcast. The quiz is available to UK viewers on the BBC iPlayer for the next seven days. International viewers may find it on YouTube.

Karen Gillan will join Steven Moffat at the Edinburgh International Television Festival for a question and answer session about Doctor Who. The Masterclass is being held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on Sunday morning. Moffat will also appear on the panel for special Question Time on Saturday night alongside Diane Abbott MP and Mariella Frostrup.

Update: It was announced Saturday that the Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss production of Sherlock has been recommissioned by BBC One controller Jay Hunt. There will be three new 90-minute episodes in Autumn 2011. Talking of the Sherlock recommission, Gatiss and Moffat, said: "We've been overwhelmed by the warmth of response to our new Sherlock Holmes and John Watson and can't wait to take them on three new adventures next year. There'll be baffling new puzzles, old friends and new enemies – whether on two, or four legs. And we might well be seeing the cold master of logic and reason unexpectedly falling. But in love? Or over a precipice? Who can tell?"

David Tennant has been listed as one of the top ten Hamlets by The Guardian newspaper. Tennant, who played the role in Stratford and London in 2008, was described as sardonic and volatile, a Hamlet so graceful that at times he seemed almost to dance across the stage.

BBC4 is to dramatise Douglas Adams's 1987 novel about anti-hero Dirk Gently. Adams was Script Editor for Season 17 of Doctor Who and wrote The Pirate Planet and co-wrote City of Death. He was writing a third Dirk Gently book, The Salmon of Doubt, at the time of his death in 2001. The books have formed the basis of a play and a BBC Radio 4 series but have never before been filmed for Television.

Andrew Smith has been talking to the Rutherglen Reformer about his return to Doctor Who and his new script for Big Finish Productions. Smith wrote the 1980 Fourth Doctor story Full Circle. The new story is called The Invasion of E-Space and once more features Lalla Ward as Romana. Smith told the Reformer: "I wrote the first draft, sent it off, and I didn’t hear back for a little while. I was getting really paranoid as I had no idea how it had gone down, but I was quite relieved when they got back to me and said they loved it."

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are to appear on The One Show, it has been reported today. The two will be joining new presenter Chris Evans on his first show tomorrow (Friday).

The Sun reports that the pair came to the rescue of the show, which was having difficulty in booking a guest for the DJ's first outing on the revamped BBC1 magazine programme.

Update: The One Show's official site information on the Friday programme:

Fans of Karen Gillan north of the border will get a chance to meet the actress when she visits Hamleys toy store at the St Enoch Shopping Centre in Glasgow, on 28th August.

The event, which runs from midday until 2pm will see Gillan signing copies of the new Amy Pond action figure. Fans should collect a wrist band from the store, available from 9am, to ensure their place in the queue.

Talking about the visit Gillan said,

The official site has released details of a new Doctor Who game, Amy's History Hunt, to be released next week.

The game will is not part the Adventure Games series and does not need to be downloaded. It stars Karen Gillan as Amy and features a series of specially shot videos. The challenge is to unlock the Doctor's safe and if you're successful you'll release a special short story by Paul Cornell, writer of Father's Day, Human Nature and The Family of Blood.

Throughout the quest you'll find out more about the Doctor's friends and places he's visited. Plus, you'll get Amy's unique point of view about some of the people she's met during her adventures with the Time Lord.