Doctor Who Magazine have released the cover for Issue 429, via their Twitter account. The magazine, to be published on 16th December, will feature an exclusive preview of A Christmas Carol, and comes with three bonus art cards.

BBC America have confirmed that the 2010 Christmas Special, A Christmas Carol, will be released on DVD/Blu-ray in North America on February 15th.

It was previously announced that the story will be released in the UK on January 24th, 2011.

The Discs will include the hour long version of Doctor Who at the Proms.

The TARDIS has returned to Portmeirion for the Christmas period! Talking to the Daily Post, Estates Manager Meurig Jones said:
The police box will be on-site until the 3rd January 2011.

Meanwhile, the Lynn News reports that another police box is materialising in King's Lynn today, as part of a local police "Town Talk" event to provide information and advice to people in the town's Vancouver Centre.

As reported last week, some twenty-two police boxes were seen packed onto lorries, off to a mysterious destination.

GT Magazine are currently holding an auction to raise money for the Terrence Higgins Trust. A number of Doctor Who related items are featured in the auction, including signed posters of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, a signed picture of Katherine Jenkins from A Christmas Carol, and a signed Eleventh Doctor Crash Set, plus signed photos including Matt Smith's from Christopher and his Kind. More items are expected to be added in the next couple of days.

You can find an auction list on Ebay here, via the gtnakedauction account.

Former Doctor David Tennant joined a number of celebrities (including current James Bond actor Daniel Craig and singer Geri Halliwell) who took to the ICAP trading floor in order to raise money for Prince Charles's charities, Youth Business International and Prince's Teaching Institute.

Having announced having a role in the forthcoming The Hobbit film back in October, the official press conference for the film formally confirms Sylvester McCoy as playing wizard Radagast the Brown; other names in the film include Martin Freeman (who plays Watson in Steven Moffat's other popular show Sherlock), Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, and the return of Cate Blanchett (who played Elven Queen Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings trilogy).

Christopher Eccleston attended a special charity screening of what he has called his most important work, Hillsborough, after which he gave a 30 minute discussion about the film with attendees; the actor had nominated the drama to be shown as part of fund-raising for the Clapperboard Youth Project.

Writer Stephen Gallagher (Warriors Gate, Terminus) will be writing and producing a new drama for Fox Television: The Danger List will be a medical thriller in which a doctor with a complicated past investigates medical abuses, crimes and conspiracies.

The latest star to join the Doctor Who 'family', Sir Michael Gambon (in this year's Christmas special A Christmas Carol), is in the Stage's shortlist for the Greatest Stage Actor; the public poll also includes the likes of Sir Ian McKellen, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Laurence Olivier, Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith.

The BBC have started to promote the forthcoming Christmas special, A Christmas Carol as part of their "Everyone's Home for Christmas" trailers for Drama, airing on the BBC channels. A number of clips from the story appear in the trailer, though these have all appeared previously in the Doctor Who trailer broadcast during last month's Children in Need.


You can still find last year's drama trailer featuring Doctor Who on the BBC's YouTube site.

The sixth series of BBC Radio 4’s 15 Minute Musical kicks off on Christmas Eve at 6.15 pm with The Regeneration Game, a musical written by Richie Webb in the style of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop featuring a character called Doctor Bruce. The show, which spoofs both Bruce Forsyth and Doctor Who, also incorporates a singing Dalek voiced, by Dave Lamb. Webb himself and Jess Robinson are the other performers.

15 Minute Musical is a comedy series on BBC Radio 4, which has been running since 2004. Each episode is in a different musical style with a story featuring current celebrities and politicians. The show won the 2009 Writers' Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy.

Radio Four can be heard worldwide on the BBC iPlayer.

Catherine Tate (Donna), Mark Gatiss (actor and writer) and David Troughton (King Peladon, The Curse of Peladon, Professor Hobbes, Midnight) are all appearing in the National Theatre production of Alan Ayckbourn's play Season's Greetings, which opens tonight.

John Barrowman has made a number of appearances on television recently, promoting the release on DVD of "John Barrowman Live At The Royal Albert Hall", and the new 3-CD release of his music, "The Collection"; this included a half-hour stint singing songs from the collection live on shopping channel QVC in November. He will shortly be appearing in Aladdin at the Glasgow SECC.

Barrowman has also become newsworthy in the India media, in association with photos of him apparently kissing Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan backstage during Friday Night with Jonathan Ross back in February!

Former producer Phil Collinson has been subject to media speculation in recent months as to what changes he would make to Coronation Street since becoming its producer, and appeared on Lorraine Kelly yesterday morning, as part of coverage of the aftermath from the show's disaster as part of the show's 50th Anniversary. (The show also saw the work of other Doctor Who 'regulars' under Collinson's reign, effects supervisor Danny Hargreaves and CGI company The Mill).

Carey Mulligan (Sally Sparrow, Blink is playing socialite Daisy Buchanan in the film version of The Great Gatsby by Baz Luhrmann. (Though not confirmed, she is believed to be starring with Leonardo Di Caprio as millionaire Joe Gatsby and Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway.)

Mulligan picked up the Best Performance trophy at the Women in Film and TV Awards on Friday (3rd); the event also saw a lifetime achievement award for actress Sheila Hancock (who played Helen A in The Happiness Patrol).

After some eight years in the role, BBC's head of Television Jana Bennett will be moving onto a new role in BBC Worldwide; Bennett is widely credited as the overseer for the return of Doctor Who, and the launch of BBC3 and BBC4, and has recently been acting as controller of BBC1 since Jay Hunt's departure from the role.

And finally, another former BBC1 controller and BBC governor, reformed Doctor Who critic Michael Grade, is in line for a peerage.

A special Doctor Who celebrity edition of the BBC Two quiz show Eggheads, is scheduled for Monday 20th December at 6pm.

The show will star Sixth Doctor Colin Baker along with Katy Manning, Frazer Hines, Louise Jameson and John Leeson who take on the Eggheads to win money for their chosen charity.

This Christmas sees Character release a new figure of Eleventh Doctor's companion Amy Pond in her original 'Kissogram' police uniform, as seen in The Eleventh Hour.

The figure will be available separately (reported by the Mirror as an Argos exclusive), and as part of a boxed set with the Eleventh Doctor and TARDIS. Both are due to be released in the week leading up to Christmas.