BBC Audiobooks have issued a press release for The Dalek Conquests, a new CD release that we first reported on in December. The release is attached below and the cover illustration for the release is at right; click on the thumbnail image for a larger version.

The nominations for this year's Broadcasting Press Guild Programme Awards 2006 were published this morning, and Doctor Who is nominated five times in four categories. The shortlist for Best drama series contains just two shows, Doctor Who and Bleak House, while Russell T Davies is shortlisted for the Writer's award for Doctor Who and Casanova, against the writing team for The Thick of It Andrew Davies for Bleak House. Billie Piper is one of five nominees for the Best actress award, alongside Anna Maxwell Martin, who guest-starred in 'The Long Game' and is listed for her lead role in Bleak House. The shortlist for Best actor includes both of 2005's Doctors, with Christopher Eccleston nominated for Doctor Who and David Tennant for Doctor Who, Casanova and Secret Smile. The Awards will be presented on Friday 31 March; more details will be available at the Guild's website. This morning's (Thursday 2 March) Media Guardian carries registration-only reports on the nominations in "Timelords tussle for TV award" (story) and "Broadcasting Press Guild Programme Awards 2006" (story), and the announcement has also been picked up by the UK comedy guide, Chortle (link). (Thanks to Steve Tribe, Cliff Chapman)

The People says of "Kidulthood," Noel Clarke's new film, "I'm vexing, oh yes! Like a lot of smallscale features, Kidulthood has a pretty small, woolly storyline, and a pretty big cast - and most of them are first time actors. Essentially this is a look at the lives of a few lads and lasses, living in London and coping with sex, violence and bullying. It's hard not to feel you've seen something very similar before (say, Bullet Boy, which is quite a bit more accomplished). There are some nice bits though, and there's a fight at the end which looks as good as any I've ever seen in the cinema. Special mention to Noel Clarke, as the thuggish Sam, who seemed like a terrifying movie villain stuck in the middle of a long episode of Grange Hill. Kidulthood never quite gets you hooked, but I quite enjoyed it. Easy now, bruv, respect is due." Meanwhile, yesterday's Observer says that it's "a refreshing slice of urban life" and says, "Slicker and less worthy than last year's acclaimed Bullet Boy, Kidulthood has been described as London's City of God: it's not quite that, but it's a good sight closer to that kinetic portrait of street life than Love Actually. Kidulthood and its talented team of actors showcase what this country is really good at - anti-authoritarianism, music and lust. The fact that there's a mobile phone or two in there has led some (the Sun) to label Kidulthood the 'happy slapping movie' but, in fact, it examines every current teenage media cliche you'd care to name, from hoodies to unwanted pregnancy. ... Kidulthood has had some criticism, from those who accuse it of being unbelievably bleak or, weirdly, voyeuristic (as though we're only allowed to watch films that directly depict our own lives). But for Corrine, from Streatham, south London: 'The film definitely felt real to me. I mean, all that stuff wouldn't have happened in one day, they crammed it in. But the way everyone in that film is, that's how everyone I know is. And the talk is perfect, to be honest.' ... When I talk to Kidulthood's writer, Noel Clarke (Mickey in Doctor Who), who also plays Sam, the film's bullying bad guy, he agrees with Corrine. 'It seems like sex isn't a big deal these days. There's a weird hippy attitude, like all bodies are the same ... and everyone knows a girl like Becky, just dirty.' Clarke wrote the screenplay three years ago and based the trio of central male characters - Trife, Jay and Moony, played by Aml Ameen, Adam Deacon and Femi Oyeniran - on himself and his schoolfriends. He says that some of the film's action came from his own life (taxis refusing to stop for him, being falsely accused of shoplifting) and some from friends' experience or the media. ... It also captures another part of west London, the part the Japanese tourists have missed out on so far. 'Yeah, so far we've only seen one side of the road in films,' says Clarke. 'If you walk out of that nice house and cross that road, there's a council estate bang opposite.'" The film is released this Friday.

Canada's National Post says of the DVD release of the first season of the new series there that "The box set of the newest season of Doctor Who missed a great advertising opportunity: It could have been labelled 'Official purveyors of DVDs to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.' The story is that the first set of discs was ordered last summer by Her Royal Highness, a fan of the Doctor since the series premiered on the BBC in 1963. She thought her vacation at Balmoral in Scotland would be a good time to catch up with the Time Lord's latest adventures. The news appeared in Britain's Daily Mirror under the headline "Ext-EIIR-minate!", which is pretty funny if you're up on royal nomenclature as well as Doctor Who bad guys. In any case, every peasant and colonial can now enjoy the first new season of Doctor Who in 17 years; the five-disc set was released last week." The article then reviews the first season.

This past weekend's Daily Express said of Bonnie Langford, currently a finalist on ITV1's "Dancing on Ice", "For 30 years she has had to live down the legacy of her child star image and come to terms with the death of her best friend. Now Bonnie Langford is skating back to the big time as hot favourite in Dancing On Ice. Page-boy petite, eyes and teeth as bright as fog lamps, showbiz trouper Bonnie Langford gets her skates on tonight as hot favourite to win ITV1's Dancing On Ice. At 41, she is eerily reminiscent of the precocious child actress who, as lisping Violet Elizabeth Bott, used to shriek at poor Just William ... One source said: "Bonnie's every inch the professional. She was born to act, smile and dazzle. But this is all about her great comeback. She's had some terrible knocks. Bonnie may giggle and swoon like a schoolgirl and, even at 41, she still looks like one. But there's damage there – she's had more than her fair share of tough breaks." .. She may be a wee slip of a thing but in a catfight I'd back her over anybody, even Pete Burns." She has already seen off her Dancing On Ice arch rival Dame Kelly Holmes and Dr Who's John Barrowman. Olympic gold medallist Kelly, 35, was so incensed to lose to Bonnie that she stormed offstage without a word." The article discusses Langford's history in film and television including her role as Mel on Doctor Who during the 1980's.

Saturday's Financial Times - oddly - uses the fact that David Tennant's Doctor will not be wearing a scarf to introduce an article about scarves; more oddly, the article is headlined 'The scarf-clad Dr Who era dawns again'.

Nicola Bryant is interviewed at the Rainbow Network regarding her new role in the play "Taboo". Some of the questions regarding Doctor Who: "You're perhaps best known for your role in Doctor Who as Peri Brown, the companion of two Doctors (Colin Baker and Peter Davison). What do you think of the new series of the show? 'I love it.' ... So, Colin Baker or Peter Davison? 'As if I'd say!' ... Which of the Doctor's enemies would you secretly most like to have seen succeed? 'Probably the Rani. I loved Kate O'Mara in the role and I like the idea of a female adversary for the Doctor.' ... There's a rumour that in the new series of Doctor Who we'll get to meet one of the Doctor's past companions. Would you go back into the show if you were offered the chance? 'Just try and stop me.'"

Pauline Collins is featured in a mini-interview in this month's edition of BBCGood Food magazine. It states she's back in Doctor Who after nearly forty years (having appeared both in "The Faceless Ones" in the original series and as Queen Victoria in the forthcoming second season's "Tooth and Claw") and that, if she had a TARDIS, she'd travel forward 2000 years and have dinner with H G Wells, eating stardust sundaes.

UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's has started selling a Doctor Who celebration cake with soundchip. Priced at 7.99, it is a Genoese sponge coated with sugarpaste and filled with buttercream and strawberry jam. The cake is in the very rough shape of a Dalek and has a (presumably edible) image of a new-series Dalek on it. To the side of the cake, inside the box, is the (presumably inedible) soundchip. The box has the phrase "Exterminate" emblazoned across it, which may or may not be a clue as to what the soundchip emits. On the reverse of the box is a simple dice game a la ludo called Race To The Tardis and featuring counters depicting a Slitheen, the Moxx of Balhoon, Cassandra and a Dalek. It is unknown if Sainsbury's has the sole concession for the cake.

This months edition of the UK Model and Collectors Mart magazine features a full four-page feature on the new Doctor Who merchendise, as well as a full color cover dedicated to it, depicting several items from the range such as the foot tall David Tennant figure, and the Slitheen and Sycorax figures.

BBC Focus Magazine is offering a free copy of Paul Parsons' book "The Science of Doctor Who" to new subscribers; click here for details.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, John Bowman, Steve Tribe, Paul Armstrong, Peter Weaver, Chris Winwood)

Now on the website of America's Sci-Fi Channel - on the front page, in fact - is the new trailer being shown on the network in anticipation of the March 17 launch date of the new series in the US. The video is available on the site via Flash animation (so you need to have the proper plug-in).

"What is it that makes you a Doctor Who fan?" asks MEV Productions, which is currently seeking fans of Doctor Who to contribute their thoughts, experiences and stories "for a new feature length documentary about the weird, wacky and wonderful world of Doctor Who fandom. With the impact of the new series, it has never been a better time to embrace the affection the programme generates." Says their release, "This independent production is being produced by Director Marq English and Doctor Who historian David J Howe (Telos Publishing) and covers the vast spectrum of fandom such as conventions, fan fiction, fan films, artwork, merchandise, dressing up, organised fandom, the internet, meeting the stars and fans turned professional - plus a few surprises. If you would like to contribute to the documentary for interview, have video footage (conventions, fan groups etc.), or creative works (fan films, artwork, audios) that you would like to have included, please contact the producers by March 31st 2006 telling them a bit about yourself, where your from and why you're a Doctor Who fan." You can reach them via email. (Thanks to Marq English)

According to Play.com, release dates for the first two volumes of the second series batch of DVDs in the UK are now finalised. Volume One, featuring "The Christmas Invasion" and "New Earth," will apparently be released on May 1, and Volume Two, with "Tooth and Claw," "School Reunion" and "The Girl in the Fireplace," is reportedly due out June 5. Both are currently available for pre-order. (Thanks to Martin Hoscik atUNITNews)

Many websites are reporting on the casting of Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper in the new "Torchwood" spinoff series (reported yesterday); among the sites featuring stories about this are icWales, Brand Republic, WaveGuide,The Great Link. Also, the BBC Press Office has also posted the press release (with identical wording to what's on the official Doctor Who site)here.

Radio Times has put up a gallery of cover party shots that the magazine didn't have room for here, the first and last being Doctor Who related.

The latest issue of Forbidden Planet international home shopping (the quarterly mail order catelogue run by the large Forbidden Planet chain of UK Sci-fi shops) have a number of new Doctor Who products listed that we haven't previously mentioned, including a TARDIS Zipperobe (a wire frame wardrobe with cloth robe print of TARDIS to cover, making it appear that there is a TARDIS in the corner of your room, due out in August); aSonic screwdriver LED torch (replica model torch, release date TBA);Dalek-shaped moneybox; Whographs, an autograph book with 80 blank pages; aDalek shaped electronic alarm clock, a sculpted Dalek wall clock, a Dalek shaped webcam and a chrome wallclock with an image of the TARDIS in the vortex.

The Evening Standard has some feedback on the new film "Kidulthood" written by series star Noel Clarke. "Kidulthood is designed to lure a youthful audience. There's a soundtrack by cool British artists, and a young and attractive cast whose performances have the tang of authenticity. It shows how city teenagers today divide along issues of power - sexual, physical and economic - rather than of ethnicity, and how they are united in pursuit of kicks and 'respect'. There have already been calls for Kidulthood to be banned. Others have dismissed it as mere voyeurism. Director Menhaj Huda and the film's screenwriter-star, Noel Clarke, say Kidulthood is 'on the pulse' and 'real'. But is it? And if it is, doesn't putting such subject matter on screen automatically glamorise it?" Reactions include the wife of slain headmaster Philip Lawrence, who was killed by one of his pupils in west London: "I think I was expected to dislike this film, to be shocked at the violence, the sex, the 'bad language'. I think I was expected to protest that it should not be shown to young people because they might emulate the (undoubtedly) atrocious actions. Perhaps I would even call for it to be banned. But I didn't dislike it. I'm not shocked by it (I should as soon be shocked by scenes in EastEnders or Coronation Street). I'm not protesting at it. And rather than calling for its censure, I'm more inclined to think it should be compulsory viewing. I don't imagine that Noel Clarke, the writer and lead actor, was attempting to say that all young people live like this. He was showing us what it is like for some young people at a particular time, in a particular place. The subject matter may be unpalatable but there are moments of supreme tenderness. If there is a message, then it is a moral one; what goes around, comes around. The bullies become the losers. Even the vicious drug baron is shown as a vacuous, pathetic bully whose life has no semblance of warmth or happiness. It does not justify, and is no more likely to promote, a life of impersonal sex and drugs and happy-slapping than, for instance, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Indeed the ending, perhaps unconsciously, parallels that play. A young boy lies dying, having discovered for a few sweet moments that love is what matters. In the pleas of his pregnant girlfriend it is impossible not to also hear the cries of other young people who wake every morning to a dark and brutal dawn. Who can pretend that these things don't happen? If we turn away, aren't we are as bad as the oh-so-liberal mother who calls through her daughter's bedroom door, 'Use a condom, sweetheart' -- oblivious to the fact that her daughter is not making love but is being abused. It's about time a film like this was made. As Clarke says: 'You can wear all the blue wristbands you like, but unless we bring it to people's attention, right in their faces, I don't think enough is gonna get done.'"

Also, MTV.co.uk is giving away tickets for the film.

Tom Baker was on this afternoon's BBC Radio 1 Colin and Edith Show, and the interview can now be heard again from this page.

The official Doctor Who website notes that "the Cardiff Doctor Who Exhibition stays open. Originally due to close at the end of February, the Doctor Who Exhibition in Cardiff's Red Dragon Centre will now be extended through March at least. The Exhibition, which is currently free, will start charging from 1 March 2006. It'll stay open as long as the demand is there. 1 March will also see a new exhibit on display, the Sycorax Leader from The Christmas Invasion. More new exhibits are promised after the 2006 series starts airing."

IGN has a review of the First Series Boxed Set release for Canada.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Peter Weaver, William Gallagher, Chris Carabott, Dan McGrath)