Dark Bunny Tees have announced a new range of officially licensed t-shirts to tie in with Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary.

Owner Alex Chenery said:

Details on Dark Bunny Tees can be found via their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger.

The seventh instalment in our series looking at events leading to the creation of a true TV legend.

As stated in our previous feature, having joined the BBC in December 1962 as its new Head of Television Drama, Sydney Newman, pictured below, had been somewhat dismayed from the off, feeling that most of the directors, although perfectly nice people, were stuck in old-fashioned ways. He needed to implement long-overdue changes to re-energise the department - and a newly-published report helped the "new broom" do just that.

The Pilkington Committee, chaired by glass magnate Sir Harry Pilkington, had been appointed in July 1960 to look into the organisation of the entire broadcasting industry and programmes. It eventually reported in June 1962, and among its recommendations it said that the BBC should be awarded a second national TV channel as an alternative to what was perceived as a populist approach by the BBC (whose Television Service had begun regularly-scheduled electronically-scanned programmes on 2nd November 1936 and was renamed and restyled BBC tv in 1960) and its commercial rival ITV (which began broadcasting on 22nd September 1955, initially in the London area). As a result, BBC2 (as it was originally styled) would be launched on 20th April 1964, with BBC tv becoming BBC1.

Then, in January 1963 - 50 years ago this month - Newman received some very welcome news. He would later recall being summoned to the office of Kenneth Adam, the BBC's Director of Television, to be told that as a result of BBC2 being given the go-ahead the Drama Department would now have a 40 per cent budget increase. Newman said: One of the far-reaching decisions Newman made during January 1963 was to disband the Children's Department at the BBC, meaning that every children's drama programme would now be made by the Drama Department.

Further fundamental changes to working practices followed. Newman had found the Drama Department an unwieldy beast and impossible to control by himself. He therefore took the decision to break it down into three separate departments: Series, Serials, and Plays - each of which had its own head with direct control but doing his bidding.

In addition, Newman gradually abandoned the all-in-one producer/director role, replacing it with the production-team style used greatly by ITV and, hitherto, to a far lesser degree by the BBC. Directors would be appointed - either from staff or on a freelance basis - to make individual episodes or programmes, whereas producers would now act in a more executive capacity, with total financial and artistic control over a specific project. A story editor would also form a permanent part of the team, and their job would be to find writers and work with them to produce scripts. A move that would take some three months to fully put into place, this brave new world of drama production would ultimately see the Script Department become mostly redundant, leading to its eventual closure.

During March 1963, Newman would also hold talks with Donald Baverstock, pictured left, newly promoted from being BBC tv's Assistant Controller of Programmes to the role of Chief of Programmes for BBC1 (in anticipation of the launch of BBC2), and Joanna Spicer, pictured far left, the Assistant Controller (Planning) Television, on the need for a new drama serial to plug an important gap in the Saturday-evening schedule.
Here's what Newman would later say about it: Among the possibilities was a series centring on two lads in a boys' school, but Newman later settled on a science-fiction show. He gave a general outline of his idea to Baverstock and Spicer, who were extremely positive about it, and Newman subsequently asked Donald Wilson, head of the still-remaining Script Department, to think of format ideas for a 52-week science-fiction series made up of shorter serials. A meeting in Wilson's office was then scheduled for 26th March to talk about suggestions for the new series, using as the basis for discussion the April 1962 and July 1962 Survey Group reports concerning science-fiction.

Back in December the BBFC classified a trailer for Second Doctor story The Ice Warriors - this trailer has now been confirmed for the forthcoming The Aztecs - Special Edition DVD, though it should be noted that, as the name implies, the trailer illustrates a release that is "Coming Soon". Restoration Team member Steve Roberts clarified:
Though the trailer indicates that the story is to be released, there is no indication as yet if the new DVD presentation will also feature animated recreations of the missing episodes two and three in the same way as this week's release of The Reign of Terror. Steve Roberts has reported previously, however, that the DVD would include the reconstruction of those episodes that appeared on the original VHS release back in 1998.

The official confirmation of story releases beyond The Aztecs will be announced later in the year.

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Meanwhile, the colour restoration work undertaken on The Mind of Evil is almost complete, with the Restoration Team reporting on Monday: "At TV Centre, grading episode one of The Mind of Evil - back in colour and looking stunning!". Unlike episodes two to six, which contained the chromadot information enabling Richard Russell to restore their original colour, the first had no such detail and needed to be painstakingly coloured from scratch by Stuart Humphryes and Peter Crocker.

The fruits of everybody's efforts will be premiered at the BFI on 10th March. The DVD release of the story has yet to be announced.

David Tennant is to return to the Royal Shakespeare Company in October; the actor will play the title role in Richard II at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon in a production helmed by his former Hamlet director, Gregory Doran, and will be joined by another Hamlet compatriot Oliver Ford Davies. An interview with Tennant on the role can be watched via the RSC. Priority Booking opens on 11th February for the five week production which runs from 10th October to 16th November, with public tickets available from the 18th March.

The BBC have released the warm-up video for Matt Smith's appearance on Top Gear as the Star in a reasonably priced car last year, during which he engages in a rendition of Singing In The Rain!

'River Song' is to meet 'Captain Jack' as Alex Kingston is to be a guest star on CW series Arrow, which also features John Barrowman as a guest character. The actress is to play Dinah Lance, the separated wife of police sergeant Quentin Lance and mother of Laurel. [Entertainment Weekly, 22 Jan 2013]

Bernard Cribbins spoke about the way children's television has developed over the years: "It's all very fast and noisy now I think. You think of the gentleness of Jackanory, somebody would walk onto the set, sit down and say 'hello I'm going to tell you about Ratty and Mole and the Wind in the Willows' and off you went. Nice and gentle, and the only thing you saw, apart from the guy or lady talking to you, was a few captions and illustrations, which were stills. That was how it used to be. Pure, simple storytelling. Now there seems to be - sometimes, not always - a tendency to use every single opportunity to put in CGI and animation and a lot of it is, I think, gratuitous when the story is actually doing the work for you." [BBC News, 19 Jan 2013]

Talking about her role as Larissa Loughton in The Carrie Diaries - and more importantly her fashion sense - Freema Agyeman said: "I always look forward to my costume fittings because I walk in and I can instantly tell which rail is mine, because they have the brightest shiniest outfits that make me smile because they are so outrageous and so wacky but beautifully put together. I think they look like pieces of art." [Celebuzz, 23 Jan 2013]

Brian Cox has been re-elected as the University of Dundee's rector, serving students' interests. He said: "It is such a privilege and honour to be allowed to serve the students of Dundee for another three years. I hope to reciprocate in my heart the tremendous trust you have given me." [BBC News, 18 Jan 2013]

Adam Woodyatt spoke about his interest in appearing in Doctor Who: "I want to be an alien, heavily made up so people wouldn't be able to tell it was me. I think everyone of my generation would like to do Doctor Who because we all have something significant from the show that we remember from childhood. For me it was Jon Pertwee, the Brigadier and these giant maggoty slug things. I have this memory of watching it when I was off school ill. So it must have been repeated in the daytime. Or maybe it was the school holidays. I do like the new series as well, though - I enjoyed the Christmas special and I think Matt Smith is brilliant." [Radio Times via RTE, 18 Jan 2013]

Neil Gaiman, a patron of the Bookend Trust (a Tasmanian education charity) visited Dunalley Primary School, which was unfortunately destroyed during recent wildfires that rampaged across the island. Niall Doran, director of the Trust, told us:

A new publicity picture has been released following yesterday's announcement that Doctor Who will be returning on Saturday 30th March for the first episode of eight in the next part of Series 7.

The image, as seen below, shows Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman. Although newly released, it appears to hail from a photo shoot last March when Coleman was announced as the new companion.

The cover and contents of the forthcoming two-disc special edition DVD release of The Ark In Space in the UK have been finalised.

All four episodes have been newly remastered, using advances in technology and technique, and are supported by an expanded collection of bonus features.


UPDATE: 11th FEBRUARY: The release date - originally set for 18th February - has been pushed back a week to 25th February.

Matt Smith is to make his directorial debut on an episode of Playhouse Presents... on Sky Arts. The episode is entitled Cargese and is described as "a unique piece of poetic realism which mines the tragic seam of adolescent love and loss.". Talking about his new challenge, Smith said: "Sky Arts offers creative opportunities that many other channels don't. To collaborate with (writer) Simon Stephens in this capacity was a thrilling and rare opportunity and one we both were keen to embrace." The episode airs on Thursday 25th April. [Sky Arts]

Marc Warren has also written and directed for the series with Hey Diddly Dee, which will feature Kylie Minogue in a starring role. Warren said: "Writing and directing for Playhouse Presents... has been one of the most magical experiences of my career. To give myself the best chance I called in every favour to surround myself with a dream cast and an incredible crew. And then by some miracle, Kylie appeared, and the fate of our film was sealed." As for Minogue, she said: "When the script was sent to me, I read it and knew instinctively I wanted to be part of this project. In Hey Diddly Dee, Marc has created a beautiful and quirky story." The episode launches the season on Thursday 14th March.

Other names to feature in Playhouse Presents... this year include Frances Barber, David Harewood, Suranne Jones and Reggie Yates.

As reported last year, a new series starring Bernard Cribbins with Freema Agyeman is to feature on CBeebies. Old Jack's Boat starts its 25-episode daily weekday run on Monday 21st January at 5.40pm, and sees Cribbins as the retired, story-telling fisherman of the title, with Agyeman featuring as café-owning character Shelly Periwinkle. The story to be broadcast on Friday 25th January is written by Russell T Davies and involves the Moon. "Sitting watching Bernard Cribbins reading out some lines that you've written, I can't tell you how good it was, it was a joy," said Davies. [BBC News, 15 Jan 2013]

Agyeman also made her US debut in The Carrie Diaries this week. The Sex And The City prequel series is airing on Mondays on The CW Channel and she plays Larissa Loughlin, a style editor at Interview magazine who also acts as a mentor to the eponymous young Carrie Bradshaw.

David Morrissey isn't averse to a return to Doctor Who, should he be asked. "I would absolutely love to do it again. I had such a ball doing it," he said. "Mark Gatiss says, you know, there's nothing more blissful for him to write than 'Interior TARDIS: Day' or whatever on the top of one of his scripts, it's living the dream. And for me, when I went down and worked on it, I thought 'This is great', it's a really well-run show, people take it very seriously but you have fun on it. And l loved that character, I really loved Jackson Lake, I thought he was a really interesting man, he was in some sort of trauma himself and the Doctor liberates him from that..." [Den of Geek, 17 Jan 2013]

A play starring Billie Piper and Tom Goodman-Hill has won a gong in the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards. The Effect, by Lucy Prebble, was named Best Play. Billed as a clinical romance, it is at the National Theatre until Saturday 23rd February, although all performances are sold out except for day tickets and possible returns. [BBC News, 15 Jan 2013]

Mark Williams - currently starring as the eponymous crime-solving priest Father Brown in the BBC One daytime drama - has spoken of his fondness for GK Chesterton's clerical detective. "He has a huge appetite for the detail of life and for humanity, and he cares very much about people's souls. That's the most interesting thing about him as a sleuth: it's not him solving a conundrum or a crossword, he's dealing with what he sees as people's eternal damnation. And when he works it out, the sky turns black and is full of harpies; he's desperately committed to his morality." [Radio Times, 13 Jan 2013]

Olivia Colman joins Tim Pigott-Smith and Shaun Dingwall in the cast of the ITV drama The Suspicions of Mr Whicher II: The Murder In Angel Lane. She will play Susan Spencer, who employs Whicher as a private inquiry agent to investigate the murder of her niece. Pigott-Smith reprises his role as Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Richard Mayne, while Dingwall will play Inspector George Lock. The two-hour story is being filmed in Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, and central London over the next four weeks. [ITV Press Centre, 11 Jan 2013]

James Moran talks about the temptations of writing darker stories: "It's when people decide to make something dark for the sake of it, and then work out the story and force it, that never ends well. Children of Earth was just a story idea that gradually turned dark all by itself, so I think it worked. But I've certainly seen it hurt other shows and movies, where they decide to make it grim just to be edgy, without it flowing naturally from the story. And sometimes, blimey, you just want to have a laugh when you sit down for a bit of telly in the evening" [Den of Geek, 10 Jan 2013]

Amy Manson has been short-listed for the title role in the new series of Wonder Woman that goes into production this year for the CW Network. [STV, 16 Jan 2013]

Mark Benton is to star in an advertising campaign for electronic cigarettes that could prove to be a landmark case, as there is currently a ban in the UK on promoting tobacco-related products. [Radio Times, 15 Jan 2013]

After the campaign last year, David Tennant, Sir Richard Branson and Usain Bolt are back to promote Virgin Media in a second series of adverts for the cable broadcaster's TiVo service.

Karen Gillan was a victim of hacking earlier in the week on Twitter when she apparently became a heavy promoter of weight-loss pills! The actress has since regained control of her account.

BBC Books authors Gary Russell, Jacqueline Rayner and Steve Cole are to be guests for Dr Who: Past, Present and Future, an event in Chelmsford on Sunday 24th March that forms part of the Essex Book Festival. [Essex Book Festival]

Eoin Colfer was revealed last week as the author of the first Puffin book for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary. The author said: "When I was asked to write one of the 11 e-shorts for the Doctor's 50th anniversary it was like being whisked away by my own Tardis back to the 1970s when Kevin, my brother Paul and I were three science-fictioneers immersing ourselves in the lore of Doctor Who in the sunny south-east of Ireland. I chose the First Doctor because I always imagined him to be a crank who was jaded by the Universe's cruelty rather than amazed by its wonders. There was no naivety about him whatsoever. He had seen far more in his life than he ever wanted to, and his fight against evil‑doers was dogged and not punctuated by repartee. The First Doctor's companion was his granddaughter Susan and her love for her granddad was perhaps the purest thing in his world, and something he was prepared to protect fiercely." [Guardian, 12 Jan 2013]

Colfer also discusses the e-book in a video released by BBC Worldwide as part of the promotion for A Big Hand For The Doctor.

David Tennant and wife Georgia Moffett are expecting their second child together, it was revealed on The Jonathan Ross Show last Saturday (5th).

During the show, the actor also talked about how he is still recognised as the Doctor in spite of four years away from the role: "It does carry on, yeah, because people are enthusiastic about it, it's one of those shows that people love. It becomes part of what you do, it's not a difficult thing to deal with.".

Talking about filming Spies of Warsaw - which is on tonight at 9:00pm on BBC4 - he commented on how wide-reaching his recognition is: "I didn't realise Doctor Who plays in Poland – but it obviously does. I've had a few fans coming up, wanting to say hello, or get a photograph or a signature. It doesn't happen quite on the scale that it happens at home – but then I don't think I've been to a country yet where I haven’t met someone who's a Doctor Who fan ... except maybe Uganda!" [Mail, 6 Jan 2013]

Burn Gorman - who appears with Tennant in Spies of Warsaw - has joined the cast of Revenge. He will play a recurring character named Trask, a member of the American Initiative. [Hollywood Reporter, 7 Jan 2013]

Tamsin Greig and Catrin Stewart will be on stage in Longing at the Hampstead Theatre in London. Adapted by William Boyd from two Anton Chekhov short stories, the play will run from Thursday 28th February to Saturday 6th April. The venue is currently staging Old Money, with Maureen Lipman and Tracy-Ann Oberman, ending on 12th January, which will be followed by Di And Viv And Rose, with Anna Maxwell-Martin and Tamzin Outhwaite (17th January to 23rd February).

An adaptation of Tom Baker's novel The Boy Who Kicked Pigs will be performed at Jacksons Lane in north London by theatre company Kill The Beast between 5th and 16th March. The actor said: "I wondered how a small theatre company could stage my story - which has a cast of hundreds, and includes a motorway pile-up with coachloads of people. I also wondered how they would manage to make my tale of evil horror funny, as I intended it to be." [EntertainmentWise, 8 Jan 2013]

Fenella Woolgar and David Troughton are up for honours in this year's BBC Audio Drama Awards. Woolgar is nominated for Best Actress for her portrayal of Rosemary Kennedy in BBC Radio 4's An American Rose, while Troughton is in the running for Best Supporting Actor as the Earl of Leicester in BBC Radio 3's Singles and Doublets. In addition, The Minister of Chance, by Dan Freeman, which stars Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Paul Darrow, and Tamsin Greig, is nominated for the title of Best Online-Only Audio Drama, while Kafka The Musical, which aired on BBC Radio 3 and is by Murray Gold, has been shortlisted for the Tinniswood Radio Drama Award 2012 for Best Radio Drama Script. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Sunday 27th January at BBC Broadcasting House in central London. [BBC Media Centre, 8 Jan 2012]

In Memoriam:

The latest edition of BBC publication Prospero (page 15) has revealed that former Doctor Who crew member Marion McDougall died last March. Her first involvement with the series was as an assistant floor manager on The War Games, and she went on to be a production assistant on a number of stories between 1971 and 1977. Other BBC productions that she worked on included The Mayor of Casterbridge, Prince Regent, Mackenzie, Smiley's People, Mansfield Park, Blott On The Landscape, and Fortunes of War.

Doctor Who and its stars have been shortlisted in three categories in this year's National Television Awards.

In the Drama section, the show itself is up against Sherlock (co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss), Merlin (starring Colin Morgan), and Downton Abbey (starring Hugh Bonneville).

Matt Smith is nominated for Drama Performance: Male, for which he is competing against Benedict Cumberbatch (the title role in Sherlock), Colin Morgan (the title role in Merlin), and Daniel Mays (Ronnie Biggs in Mrs Biggs).

Meanwhile, Karen Gillan faces Sheridan Smith (Charmian Biggs in Mrs Biggs), Suranne Jones (Det Con Rachel Bailey in Scott & Bailey), and Miranda Hart (Chummy Browne in Call The Midwife) for the Drama Performance: Female gong.

In other categories, Would I Lie To You?, featuring David Mitchell, is among the nominees for Comedy Panel Show, The Apprentice (with Lord Alan Sugar) and Paul O'Grady: For The Love Of Dogs are included in Factual Entertainment, Absolutely Fabulous (with June Whitfield) and Benidorm (co-written by and co-starring Steve Pemberton) are up for Situation Comedy, Coronation Street (produced by Phil Collinson) is nominated for Serial Drama, and The Chase, hosted by Bradley Walsh, is nominated in the Daytime category.

Both Smith and Gillan won in their respective categories in last year's NTAs, but the show lost out to Downton Abbey as Most Popular Drama.

Votes can be cast via this link and must be confirmed by midday on Wednesday 23rd January, when voting closes. The ceremony - the 18th NTAs - takes place at the O2 Arena in London and will be broadcast live on ITV1 from 7.30pm the same day.

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have been nominated for the Long Form Television category for Sherlock in the 2013 Producers Guild Awards, which take place on the 26th January. The show is up against American Horror Story, The Dust Bowl, Game Change, and Hatfields and McCoys.

Matt Smith has recorded a couple of pieces for Disney Junior's new series entitled A Poem is .... Set amongst animated clips from various Disney animations, he presents a traditional folk song De Colores on the 5th January and Jack Prelutsky's Once They All Believed In Dragons on the 19th January - a video of the latter can be found via BBC America. [BBC America, 3 Jan 2013]

Bernard Cribbins talks about working on a new story-based series Old Jack's Boat: "It was lovely to be asked, it is a bit like Jackanory - it's me, sitting telling stories, with my dog Salty beside me. And it has the bonus of a few extra characters and some animation, and we got the chance to wander about Staithes, a lovely fishing village in North Yorkshire." The series also sees two episdoes written by Russell T Davies: "I asked them if they had all the stories in place and when they said no, I approached Russell to ask if he would do it. It was a change for him, to write for such a young audience but his stories are lovely." [Evening Times, 2 Jan 2013]

Bill Pullman reveals his love of fruit in a new documentary The Fruit Hunters. The actor, who owns over two acres of Orchard in Hollywood, said: "Growing things and being able to live off the land has always appealed to me. I think in California it really blossomed. This climate is sensational for growing a lot of different variety of rare fruit plants from other climates all year-round. That idea was intoxicating to me. I would say the biggest surprise to me, the tree that I just find so cool (is) Persian mulberries; they're so fragile, the farmer's market will sometimes sell a single layer of them to gourmet chefs, but they're pretty pricey. But, if you stand under a tree and eat away, you just feel so lucky to have a sensation that very few people get to have." [USA Today, 4 Jan 2013]

The actor also continues his 'presidential' credentials in a new series from NBC, 1600 Penn; Pullman plays President Dale Gilchrist in the show, which debuts on the 10th January.

John Barrowman suffered an accident during the matinee of his pantomine Jack and the Beanstalk in Glasgow on Friday; the performer fell from a horse and was taken to Glasgow's Western Infirmary as a precaution. However, his injury was reported to be minor and that he expected to be back for the matinee on Saturday.

"The Next Doctor" David Morrissey speaks very favourably about current Doctor Matt Smith: "I love Matt; I think he's a fantastic actor. I've known him for a long time and he's a great guy. He's a really brave choice for them. There was lots of names around – and those were tough shoes to fill, David Tennant's. You know what I mean? David Tennant really made it his own, and for Matt to come in and do that is something else ... he's the first [Doctor] to really break through in America." [Paranormal Pop Culture, 6 Dec 2012]

Brian Cox is to star in the BBC Four comedy series Bob Servant Independent, in which he plays the wannabe MP for Broughton Ferry. The six-parter (originally planned to be in three parts and airing late last year) stems from the hit BBC Radio Scotland comedy The Bob Servant Emails and best-selling Bob Servant books. It begins on Wednesday 23rd January at 10pm.

Frank Skinner appeared alongside Billie Piper on The Graham Norton Show, where he confessed he'd accidentally called her Rose backstage! Talking about the show itself, he said: "I said to my manager 'Do you think you could get me a part in Doctor Who? I don't mean like a big part, I'll be a monster, I'll be a lunar rock, but I really would love to be able to say to my grandchildren I was in Doctor Who', and he said 'oh sure, it won't be a problem'. He got in touch and he got an email back from one of the senior people saying 'I'm really happy to hear that that's a thing that Frank would like to do ...' Somehow the end of the email seems to have been be cut off!" [The Graham Norton Show, 4 Jan 2013]

In Memoriam:

Daphne Oxenford died on Friday 21st December aged 93. She played two roles in Doctor Who, first as the Archivist in Seventh Doctor story Dragonfire from 1987, and then as an older Agatha Christie in the Tenth Doctor story The Unicorn and the Wasp in 2008 (her scenes in the latter were not broadcast, but can be seen on the Complete Series Four Boxed Set). She will perhaps be best remembered, however, as the voice of Listen With Mother and the immortal saying "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.".