Actor Olaf Pooley has been talking to ABC News on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The centenarian told the station the secret of a long life.

A Facebook fan page for the actor has been set up here.

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A two-part, fully illustrated & extensive interview with Doctor Who companion actress Katy Manning has just been released online.

Both parts are available to be heard on her official website, katymanning.com. The interview covers her early career, her friendship with Liza Minnelli, Doctor Who, her TV/theatre work in Australia, and beyond. It's also available as a free download. Katy Manning has also recorded a comedy sketch during this interview, which is an affectionate parody of both classic Who and Big Finish.

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Marian Deuchar who was interviewed in Return To Devils End and had a scene in The Daemons where she grabbed a young child and took it indoors, died peacefully in Aldbourne Nursing Home on 24th February 2014 aged 91. Her funeral service was held at St Michael's Church as used in The Daemons.

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Siv-Art Productions has announced that Sylvester McCoy is joining the Inspector Chronicles guest cast that already includes Robert Picardo (The Doctor in "Star Trek: Voyager", "Stargate: Atlantis"), Chase Masterson ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"), and Mayim Bialik ("Big Bang Theory", "Blossom"). They'll all be joining existing cast members Travis Richey (Inspector Spacetime on "Community"), Eric Loya, and Carrie Keranen.

Instead of a second season of the web series, the team will be producing a feature-length film. "Untitled Web Series" will now become The Inspector Chronicles: Untitled Motion Picture About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time.

The film is currently entering the pre-production phase, and is seeking help from fans and investors. Pledges can be made here.

The BBC have announced that actress Keeley Hawes is to join the cast of Doctor Who playing a villain.

Hawes will play Ms Delphox, a powerful out-of-this-world character with a dark secret. Travelling across space and time, the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and his companion, Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), will come face to face with the mysterious Ms Delphox, when they arrive on a strange and puzzling planet.

The character will appear in the fifth episode of the series, written by Steve Thompson and directed by Douglas Mackinnon, which is currently being filmed in south Wales.

Hawes is best known for roles in The Last September, an adaptation of Elizabeth Bowen's 1929 novel, as well as playing Zoe Reynolds in Spooks, Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes and Lady Agnes in Upstairs, Downstairs. She is currently playing Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton on the second series of the BBC Two drama Line of Duty. She was the voice of Lara Croft in several Tomb Raider video games.

Commenting on her role, Hawes said: Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat added:

The Horror Channel in the UK is to broadcast 30 adventures from the classic series of Doctor Who, starting this Easter.

The channel has completed a deal with BBC Worldwide to broadcast adventures featuring the first seven Doctors, starting with William Hartnell and concluding with Sylvester McCoy. This specially curated season give fans old and new a chance to get re-acquainted with favourite companions Jamie McCrimmon, Jo Grant and Sarah Jane Smith, rogue Time Lords such as The Master, Omega and The Rani and all those iconic monsters including Daleks, Cybermen, Sea Devils and Ice Warriors.

Launching on Friday 18th April (Good Friday) the season begins with the very first story An Unearthly Child, starring William Hartnell as the Doctor. It then leads into a special Who On Horror weekend - a classic marathon featuring one story from each of the Doctors across the Easter weekend. There will then be weekday double-bills in daytime and evening slots with stories shown in chronological order starting on Easter Monday 21st April. Horror Channel is screening some of the most memorable adventures that the show produced including The Mind Robber, The Daemons, Genesis Of The Daleks, The Talons Of Weng Chiang, The Caves Of Androzani, Attack Of The Cybermen and The Curse Of Fenric.

Alina Florea, Director of Programming, said today: Sam Tewugwa, Commercial Director, TV and VOD Sales at BBC Worldwide commented: Other cult television series available on the channel are Wonder Woman, Xena: Warrior Princess, New Twilight Zone, Star Trek and The Invaders.

The Horror Channel is available on Sky 319 and 198, Virgin 149 and Freesat 138.

Production has now begun on Episode Five of Series 8, with two of the actors involved tweeting "We're on our way". The episode forms the second story to be filmed as part of Block 2, directed by Douglas Mackinnon, whose last story was the 2013 adventure Cold War.

It has been written by Steve Thompson, who returns to the series after writing two Eleventh Doctor stories: The Curse of the Black Spot and last year's Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS. Filming has been taking place this week on locations around south Wales.

Writer Mark Gatiss has been talking about writing for the Twelfth Doctor, telling how Peter Capaldi has a very different energy to Matt Smith and David Tennant, and described his first episode as thrilling. He told Digital Spy: The series returns later this year.

The actor James Ellis has died at the age of 82.

Ellis played Peter Warmsly, the archaeologist in charge of the dig in the 1989 Doctor Who story Battlefield.

He was best known for the role of Bert Lynch in the hit Sixties BBC TV police series Z-Cars, appearing in 565 episodes between 1962 and 1978.

Born in Belfast, the actor began his career with the Ulster Group Theatre in 1952. He got his big break in television in 1961 when he was cast as Dandy Jordan in the BBC television production of Stewart Love's Randy Dandy. Subsequent roles included Philip in The Sugar Cube before winning the role of Bert Lynch, where his character rose from the rank of PC to Inspector over the series run. He also played Paddy Reilly in the 1984 zoo vet series One By One (created by Anthony Read who, coincidentally, wrote for Z-Cars in 1962). From 1982, he portrayed Norman Martin, the violent and troubled father in BBC Northern Ireland's series of Billy plays. Sir Kenneth Branagh, who was just out of drama school, played his son Billy.

Ellis also appeared in Eternal Law, Casualty, Heartbeat, Playing the Field, Sunburn, Ballykissangel, Big Bad World, Birds of a Feather, The Precious Blood, Oliver's Travels, The Detectives, Lovejoy, Perfect Scoundrels, In Sickness And In Health, So You Think You've Got Troubles, Woof!, All Creatures Great And Small, Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense, Boys From The Blackstuff, ITV Playhouse, The Long March, Till Death Us Do Part and The Adventures Of Robin Hood.

As well as being an actor, Ellis was also a writer of poems and prose and a translator. The BBC broadcast a selection of his adaptations from French in 2007. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Queen's University in 2008 for services to the performing arts.

He died from a stroke in Lincoln Hospital early today. In line with his wishes, he will be buried in his home city of Belfast.

Other Casting News:

More Season 8 casting news has also been announced, with Episode 4 co-starring Robert Goodman (Gangs of New York, Game of Thrones) and episode 5, co-starring Jonathan Bailey (Broadchurch, Groove High), and Pippa Bennett-Warner (The Smoke, Death in Paradise).

The latest in our ongoing feature centring on significant Doctor Who occasions sees the show accorded a very special publishing honour - but just like the programme itself, it wasn't without wrangles before and after . . .

In the run-up to Doctor Who starting, hopes had been high that the first episode would be given a prestigious publicity boost by the BBC's much-respected listings magazine Radio Times in the form of a cover feature. This was, after all, a show like no other: it was innovative and ground-breaking, with skills, experimentation and imagination pushed further than ever.

However, it was not to be. After initial interest, the magazine had a change of heart at the last minute, falsely believing that the corporation itself didn't have much faith in the programme, and despite protestations by head of serials Donald Wilson editor Douglas Williams ditched the idea, although the show was granted a mention on the relevant cover and an article was included that gave a taster of what adventures might lie ahead - with one of them being the possibility of a journey "to far Cathay in the caravan of Marco Polo."

And it would be that very journey that would see Radio Times finally give in and award the much-coveted prime spot on its cover to Doctor Who - in all probability helped by the fact that with the arrival of the Daleks a few weeks previously, the show had rapidly seared itself into the national consciousness.

With The Roof of the World going out on 22nd February 1964, the cover of the corresponding week's Radio Times - number 2102, volume 162 - depicted lead actor William Hartnell with guest stars Mark Eden as Marco Polo and Derren Nesbitt as Tegana. It was accompanied by an unbylined feature on page 7 that set the historical scene after a brief recap of the previous two adventures. (It should be noted that back then Radio Times also printed its publication date at the top of the pages, hence the references to "February 20, 1964".)

Although the feature's picture included all the companions, the fact that the three actors hadn't appeared on the cover with Hartnell caused some upset. The day after the broadcast of The Roof of the World, William Russell, who played Ian Chesterton, contacted his agent, T Plunkett Green, with a number of concerns relating to the programme as a whole, one of them being the fact that the co-stars had been bumped in favour of the guest stars on the cover of the listings magazine. This grievance would be relayed to Wilson, who subsequently apologised to the agent, saying it had been "confidently expected" by the production team that one of the photos including all the regulars taken at the photocall would be used as a cover image. Wilson assured Plunkett Green that he would complain about it to the magazine.

From a somewhat hesitant start, Doctor Who and Radio Times would, over the years, continue to have something of a love-hate relationship, ranging from the highs of the stunning artwork by Frank Bellamy gracing its pages during the early-to-mid-1970s, as well as special editions, to the lows of the Tom Baker era when it would merit few articles and no covers at all, back to the embarrassment of riches we have in terms of coverage in the 21st century. Today, though, on the 50th anniversary of the broadcast of the opening episode of the seven-part epic - ironically, the earliest Doctor Who story to be missing from the archives - we mark an auspicious event in that relationship between programme and publisher with Doctor Who's first Radio Times cover . . .

Karen Gillan has posted online one of the first pictures of herself and Matt Smith in costume as Amy Pond and the Doctor - taken at their initial camera test.

The actress shared the image via Twitter on Tuesday, saying: "1st pic of Matt and I [sic] in character was released 4 yrs ago today [sic], but, I have the real one..from the 1st camera test".

Having already appeared in the show as a soothsayer in The Fires of Pompeii in April 2008, Gillan made her debut as Amy two years later in The Eleventh Hour on 3rd April 2010.

On 17th February 2010, the BBC released a montage shot featuring the duo to promote the start of Series 5, as reported by Doctor Who News, with the world having been given its first look at Gillan and Smith in costume seven months earlier, when an official image was released as filming began on the series - also reported by Doctor Who News.

It is currently unknown when exactly the test photo - shown below - was taken.

Veteran director Christopher Barry has died at the age of 88.

Christopher Barry was responsible for some of the most admired stories from the classic series of Doctor Who, where he was the longest serving director, responsible for 43 episodes spanning the years 1963-1979. He directed all of the first four Doctors - one of only three directors to do so.

He joined the Doctor Who team in the late summer of 1963, when he was assigned to direct the second story, The Daleks, replacing Rex Tucker who had left after artistic differences with producer Verity Lambert. The script he would bring to life would see the introduction of the Daleks and ensure the success of the fledgling series. Barry would end up directing episodes 1,2,4 and 5 of the story, creating the 'sink-plunger' cliff hanger at the end of episode 1 which would see the nation on the edge of their seats until the full revelation of the Dalek machine in episode 2. He was in the studio directing episode 2 when the news of President Kennedy's assassination broke.

Barry returned to the series a year later, directing The Rescue, the story which saw the introduction of the first new companion since the series start, Vicki, played by Maureen O'Brien. He stayed on to direct the next story The Romans, a historical romp which saw much more humour introduced to the series. Having introduced a companion, his next Doctor Who assignment was to see the departure of another, as his final story with William Hartnell, The Savages, was to be the last story to feature Steven Taylor, as played by Peter Purves.

In 1966, Barry masterminded the introduction of a new Doctor, when he directed Patrick Troughton's first story, The Power of the Daleks. The story, long missing from the archives, had the difficult job of introducing a new lead actor to the series and cementing the long term success of the series.

His next outing was with the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, when he directed the 1971 story The Dæmons. Long regarded as a classic, the story is often cited as a favourite by members of the cast and production team. Barry returned the following year to direct the six part story The Mutants.

Having overseen the debut of one Doctor in 1966, Barry was able to do so once again when, at the end of 1974, he directed Robot, introducing the world to the man who would become the longest-serving (continuous) on-screen Doctor - and arguably the most famous in the public eye from the 'classic' era - Tom Baker. The story was one of the first with all location work recorded direct onto video tape using a BBC OB unit. The following year he directed another classic, The Brain of Morbius, which saw the fourth Doctor encounter the eccentric surgeon Solon and his Time Lord secret. It was in this story Barry featured on screen alongside other production team members as one of the faces projected onto the screen during the Doctor's mind battle with Morbius.

Barry's final story for classic Doctor Who came in 1979 when he directed the four part story The Creature from the Pit, with the DVD release of that story containing a retrospective of his work. While the series was off air he also directed the 1995 story Downtime, a direct-to-video story produced by the independent production company Reeltime Pictures.

He began his film and TV career in the movies, working as an assistant director on star vehicles including Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953), The Love Lottery (1954) and The Ship That Died of Shame (1955). By 1958 he was directing, working on the BBC’s Starr and Company, the crime drama Private Investigator and the long-running soap opera Compact. He directed episodes of Paul Temple, Moonbase 3, Poldark, Angels, Nicholas Nickleby, The Onedin Line, Z Cars, All Creatures Great and Small, Nanny and Juliet Bravo. He also directed eleven episodes of the TV adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripods.

UPDATE - 16th FEBRUARY: It has emerged that Barry died on Friday 7th February after falling down an escalator at a shopping centre in Banbury, near his home in Oxfordshire, earlier that day. He was taken to hospital but while there he suddenly stopped breathing and doctors could not revive him. An inquest into his death will be held on Thursday 5th June.

A shooting script from Doctor Who series four is being offered for auction to raise money for the National Literacy Trust.

The signed script was used by actor Steve Pemberton who played Strackman Lux in the two-part 2008 story Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead.

The script is dated 11 January 2008 and signed by Pemberton.

The National Literacy Trust works to improve the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in the UK's most disadvantaged communities, where up to 40 per cent of people have literacy problems.

Bids can be made at the NLT auction website.