The BBC has had to correct itself over the make of boots being worn by Peter Capaldi as the Doctor.

The entire costume ensemble was revealed last Monday, with the BBC stating that the footwear was Dr Marten shoes. However, it was subsequently realised that the corporation had erred and that they were, in fact, made by Loake - a Kettering-based footwear firm with a warrant of appointment to the Queen. It also transpired that Capaldi had bought the boots himself.

In a report in the Daily Telegraph, Nicholas Roumana, the owner of the British Boot Company (spot the coincidence as regards the shop's initials!) in Camden Town, said of the Loakes:
According to reports, a second pair was bought last Tuesday to be used by Capaldi's stunt double.

A tweet from the official Doctor Who Twitter account last Friday stated the following:



The new outfit has been deconstructed in a Telegraph online piece in which Crombie is reported as saying that it didn't make Capaldi's coat, although it was labelled a Crombie coat by the BBC. However, this could simply be a case of the coat having been made out of Crombie cloth. According to the online piece, Crombie has provided the BBC's costume department with several coats for the new series.

The BBC have released the first promotional image of the costume for the Twelfth Doctor, as played by Peter Capaldi.


Commenting on his costume, Capaldi said:
Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat added:
Charlotte Moore, Controller of BBC One, commented:

A creative decision - as opposed to a contractual one - was behind Peter Capaldi keeping his native Scottish accent as the Doctor, the BBC has been quoted as saying. And according to an unnamed "insider", Capaldi "was delighted when he found out he could play the part with his own voice. It gives his character a stronger identity as well." (The article takes pains to point out that fellow Scot David Tennant used an English accent because then showrunner Russell T Davies didn't want the Doctor "touring the regions". It neglects to mention that the Highlands-set episode Tooth and Claw did see Tennant talking with a Scottish brogue. Sylvester McCoy, of course, kept his Scottish accent as the Doctor.) [Mirror, 30 Dec 2013]

Meanwhile, The Musketeers - the TV drama that Peter Capaldi was filming when he learnt that he had won the role of the Doctor - begins on BBC One on Sunday 19th January at 9pm. Consisting of ten one-hour episodes and set in 17th-century Paris, it sees Capaldi portraying the villainous Cardinal Richelieu in a contemporary take on the characters created by Alexandre Dumas. Talking about the hazards of filming the swashbuckling series, Capaldi said: "The production suffered from a lot of injuries: dislocated shoulders, bruised shins, the odd concussion. It's one of the occupational hazards of being a swashbuckler. I myself suffered a nasty dislocated thumb, but embarrassingly not from swinging a sword around. Instead, my injury came from a domestic the cardinal was having with Milady, Maimie McCoy. I threw her against the wall not realising I'd caught my thumb in her large frock. I felt a jab of pain. And when the director said "Cut" I looked down and saw my thumb was on the wrong way round. Nasty! Instinct took over and I shoved it back. Which made my eyes water and my knees weak. The lesson clearly was, never get into a fight with Maimie McCoy!" The series has been directed by - among others - Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, and Farren Blackburn, with music by Murray Gold. [BBC Media Centre, 7 Jan 2014]

The Crouch End Festival Chorus will be launching its 30th-anniversary year with the world première of Murray Gold's heartfelt tribute to his late sibling Jolyon Gold, who was born in 1971 and died in 1996. When My Brother Fell Into The River . . . will be performed at the Barbican in London on Saturday 18th January at 7.30pm. It is described as "a passionate ode to life, motorbikes, Walt Whitman and India; a dramatic tribute to his brother Jolyon who lost his life in the River Narmada." A memorial bench can also be found on Hampstead Heath. [CEFC website].

Jenna Coleman was the runner-up in RadioTimes.com's poll of breakthrough actor of 2013 for her roles in Doctor Who and Dancing On The Edge, being pipped to the title by Jamie Dornan (The Fall). She garnered 2,319 (23.73 per cent) of the votes against Dornan's 2,467 (25.24 per cent). Meanwhile, Sacha Dhawan came 15th for his portrayal of Waris Hussein in An Adventure in Space and Time (114/1.17 per cent). [Radio Times, 30 Dec 2013]

David Morrissey is starring in the three-part BBC One drama The Driver, which began filming in Manchester this week, to be broadcast later this year. Directed by Jamie Payne and also featuring Shaun Dingwall, it is billed as "a gripping tale of an ordinary life turned upside down", which sees Morrissey's character, Vince McKee, driving for a criminal gang after blaming himself and his inadequacies for a family mystery. Morrissey is also a co-executive producer. [BBC Media Centre, 10 Jan 2014]

David Troughton is the new voice of Tony Archer in the long-running BBC radio drama series The Archers, taking over from Colin Skipp who has retired on health grounds after more than 40 years in the role. [Archers website, 2 Jan 2014]

The BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales are to mark the fifth birthday of their home in Cardiff Bay this month with a celebratory concert at BBC Hoddinott Hall, based within the Wales Millennium Centre. The hall has been used not just as a rehearsal venue and concert hall but is often used as a soundtrack studio and television studio too, with the studio being used to record soundtrack music for Doctor Who. The concert takes place on Tuesday 21st January at 7.30pm and will be broadcast on Radio 3 Live in Concert. It will also be available for seven days after broadcast via BBC iPlayer Radio. Tickets cost £15. Fees are applicable unless tickets are bought in person at the box office using cash or with Millennium Centre gift certificates. No music relating to Doctor Who is understood to be forming part of the concert. (BBC radio broadcasts are available to listen to free worldwide.) [BBC Media Centre, 9 Jan 2014]

A Doctor Who audio play and Claire Rushbrook are in the running for gongs in this year's BBC Audio Drama Awards. Dark Eyes, written by Nicholas Briggs for Big Finish, is among the contenders for Best Online or Non-Broadcast Audio Drama, while Rushbrook has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress in an Audio Drama for her portrayal of Jules in King David, produced for BBC Radio 3. Ruth Jones and Nina Wadia are among the judges. The awards cover audio dramas first broadcast in English in the UK between 1st October 2012 and 31st October 2013 or first uploaded/published for free listening online in the UK during the same period. The ceremony will be held on Sunday 26th January in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House in central London, hosted by comedian and writer Lenny Henry and BBC director-general Tony Hall. [BBC Media Centre, 8 Jan 2014]

The thought-provoking drama The Events, starring Neve McIntosh and Rudi Dharmalingham, which was written by David Greig and premièred at the Edinburgh Fringe, was first on The Guardian's list of Best Theatre of 2013. [The Guardian, 31 Dec 2013]

Mark Gatiss and Katy Manning exchanged touching tweets earlier this week following last Sunday's episode of Sherlock - the BBC One series created by Gatiss and Steven Moffat - after Manning spotted a heavy reference to the final scene of The Green Death, with Holmes's downbeat departure from the Watsons' wedding reception echoing that of the Doctor's exit from the engagement party of her companion character Jo Grant and Clifford Jones:




Bath-based actress Francisca Garcia made her local press thanks to roles as an extra in Doctor Who, alongside Commander Strax, and as a bridesmaid in Sherlock. [The Bath Chronicle, 31 Dec 2013]

An accountant from Somerset who admitted swindling £80,000 from the programme budgets of Doctor Who and Casualty has been jailed for two years. Oliver Ager pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to 17 fraud offences, which were uncovered when he was based at the Roath Lock studios. He was sacked in October 2012 by BBC Finance. The 35-year-old, of Rock Avenue, Nailsea, who was a production accountant for 20 episodes of Doctor Who in 2007 and 2008, has repaid £30,000 from his pension fund. The court made no order relating to the rest of the money. Ager, who was also credited on The Sarah Jane Adventures pilot episode Invasion of the Bane, will serve one year of his prison term before being released on licence. In a statement after sentencing, the BBC said it had reviewed its cash processes and tightened procedures since the offences were committed "to prevent a crime like this from happening again." [Wales Online, 6 Jan 2014]

New Year Honours:

A number of luminaries received recognition in the 2014 New Year Honours List. Nicholas Parsons was promoted to a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for charitable services, particularly to children's charities (he was made an OBE - Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - in the 2004 New Year Honours for services to drama and broadcasting), while Lynda Bellingham and Katherine Jenkins were each awarded the OBE for, respectively, voluntary service to charitable giving in the UK and for services to music and for charitable services, and Ruth Jones was made an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to entertainment. [Official 2014 New Year Honours List, 30 Dec 2013]

Production on the eighth series of Doctor Who in the 21st Century is now in full swing, with filming taking place in Cardiff at the Roath Lock studios and on location in Cardiff. The BBC have announced details of the first couple of episodes to be filmed, alongside the first official image of new Doctor Peter Capaldi alongside Jenna Coleman:


Arriving on set in Cardiff to begin filming, Peter Capaldi said:
Steven Moffat, Lead Writer and Executive Producer, added:
Ben Stephenson, Controller of Drama Commissioning, said:
Charlotte Moore, Controller BBC One, commented:

Moffat has written the first episode of this series, which is directed by Ben Wheatley. Wheatley is a newcomer to Doctor Who, but his previous work includes The Wrong Door and Ideal. The director will also undertake the following episode, which has been written by Phil Ford, whose previous credits include The Waters of Mars for Doctor Who, as well as several episodes of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Other confirmed production crew include Brian Minchin (The Time of The Doctor) as executive producer alongside Moffat, and the return of producers Nikki Wilson (The Waters of Mars, The Sarah Jane Adventures) and Peter Bennett (several episodes from Series 5 and also Torchwood: Children of Earth).

Filming is expected to continue until August 2014.

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As reported above, filming has commenced on location in Cardiff, which revealed other characters involved with the opening episode.

Doctors:

John Hurt has been voted joint first in the annual Beard of the Year Awards, alongside choirmaster Gareth Malone and England rugby player Geoff Parling. The trio came top of the poll from the Beard Liberation Front, which attracted over 10000 votes. [Telegraph, 28 Dec 2013]

David Tennant commented that he currently doesn't know whether he'll be involved in the second series of Chris Chibnall's Broadchurch: "We don’t know where the characters are going. We don’t know the story he is telling. Some people say they know they are in it. I am not sure they do, though. I think some might get a shock. I was dying of a heart attack, so I don’t know how able Alec Hardy will be to do any more crimefighting, so we will have to see." [Radio 4, via Mirror, 28 Dec 2013]

Speaking of which, a Radio Times poll saw critics name Tennant's show the best TV show of 2013. Tim Glandfield, RadiotTimes.com editor, said: "The death of event TV has been greatly exaggerated. Broadchurch drew the nation into a collective hysteria every Monday night for eight weeks, as who killed Danny Latimer became the talking point in the press, pubs, front rooms and factories up and down the country. A brilliant piece of homegrown drama with an exquisite cast of actors, Broadchurch is a fantastic example of British TV at its very best.". [Radio Times, 27 Dec 2013]

Peter Capaldi has been put forward as a candidate for the position of Rector at the University of Glasgow, though the actor himself has yet to agree to run for election. A petition was started by politics student Fiona Duncan, who said: "I’m trying to show that there is a demand from the student body for him to stand before contacting him. It would be great to have someone from the arts representing Glasgow students." [Times Higher Education, 25 Dec 2013]

Peter Cushing is considered the number one thespian from Kent, according to a county news source. Correspondent Chris Britcher observed: "He lived for much of his life in Whitstable, moving there in 1959, in a seafront home he shared with his wife. A popular figure about the town, he would love to sit and paint the view along the beach. Cushing’s View today marks the spot he so adored, while the town’s museum has a permanent section devoted to him.". The "alternative" Doctor is not alone, however, with Tom Baker also listed at number eight: "He remains, for a whole generation, their favourite Doctor Who – and is destined to be synonymous with the character at the very height of its fame. Mr Baker lived for many years in Boughton Monchelsea, near Maidstone, and now resides in Tunbridge Wells. He is a familiar sight in and around the town." [Kent News, 24 Dec 2013]

Writers:

Neil Gaiman has been named the winner of the 2013 Book of the Year Award, with his book The Ocean At The End Of The Lane winning the public vote in the National Book Awards. The writer commented: "I've never written a book before that was so close to my own heart: a story about memory and magic and the fear and danger of being a child. I wasn't sure that anyone else would like it. "I'm amazed and thrilled that so many other people have read it, loved it, and made their friends read it too." [Radio Times, 28 Dec 2013]

A new publication in the Time Trips series of e-books, The Death Pit is now out, and its setting of Arbroath in Scotland has attracted local interest. Dundee-born author Alison Kennedy said: "I know Arbroath a bit. I lived there for a few months and in Carnoustie for about a year. It just seemed a suitable place. I wanted it to be in a small town." Writing for the fourth Doctor, she said: "I was a fan of the series as a child, and I am now. When it’s at its best it hasn’t changed - it’s very resilient. It was a very happy editorial experience." [Evening Telegraph, The Courier, 28 Dec 2013]

The Time of the Doctor Christmas special has been named the most watched programme in BBC America's history.

The 800th episode in the show's run attracted 2.47 million viewers overnight, the highest ever audience achieved on the channel, beating The Day of the Doctor's record of 2.4 million viewers.

It was however beaten by showings of The Big Bang Theory (3.96m) and Duck Dynasty (2.69m), all broadcast in a 9:00pm slot on cable.

The Farewell to Matt Smith special, broadcast before the incumbent's final adventure however, drew in a respectable audience of 1.54 million.

In the UK, Time was the second most watched on Christmas Day while becoming the eighth highest rated show of the day in Australia.

On Twitter, 183,550 tweets were generated, becoming the most tweeted show of the day on the social network and beating previous Christmas special The Snowmen's 64,049 total. Peter Capaldi's entrance, meanwhile, brought in 18,844 tweets.

With The Time of The Doctor nearly upon us, here is a roundup of videos associated with the episode, plus the currently known times of broadcast.

An extended video featuring two of the Eleventh Hour panels at the Doctor Who Celebration has been published on the BBC's 50 Years of Doctor Who website.

Filmed at the Excel in London on the 24th November and presented by Matthew Sweet, the panel brought together Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, Steven Moffat and Nick Hurran following the celebratory broadcast of The Day of the Doctor. The team discussed the most notable scenes in the 50th anniversary special involving Tom Baker, past Doctors, the regeneration of John Hurt into Christopher Eccleston and the brief appearance of Peter Capaldi.

Teased was The Time of the Doctor Christmas special, which executive producer Steven Moffat described as Matt Smith's "finest ever performance as the Doctor and possibly the finest performance ever by a Doctor". Moffat also talked of a world without Doctor Who (also available as a separate YouTube video).

Set over the course of three days from November 22nd to the 24th at the Excel, the event saw fans from around the world and stars from the show attending the celebration in honour of the show as part of its anniversary weekend.

The Press Association caught up with incoming Doctor Peter Capaldi at the Sky Women in Film & Television Awards in London on Friday, during which he reflected on becoming the long-lived Time Lord and of his predecessors in the role:
The actor was attending the event alongside the show's head writer Steven Moffat.

BBC America have now confirmed that they too will be broadcasting The Time of The Doctor on Christmas Day, in the primetime evening slot of 9:00pm EST/8:00 CST.

SPACE in Canada have yet to confirm their time, but it is expected that they will also broadcast the episode during the evening of the 25th.