Matt Smith and Karen Gillan both triumphed at the National television Awards held Wednesday night at London's O2 Arena.

Matt Smith beat Torchwood star John Barrowman, Doc Martin and Snakedance star Martin Clunes and David Threlfall of Shameless, to win the award for Outstanding Drama Performance (Male) in the awards voted for by the British public. Both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant have previously won the award for their performance of the Doctor.

Speaking after receiving his award Matt Smith gave some clue to the future telling Radio Times that he has one more year of Doctor Who left and then he was going to try his luck in Hollywood. Although he later told the BBC Entertainment News Team he has no plans to leave.

Karen Gillan won her award for Outstanding Drama Performance (Female) over Torchwood's Eve Myles, Suranne Jones from Scott & Bailey and who also stared in The Doctor's Wife last year, and Jaye Jacobs from Waterloo Road. She becomes the first Who companion since Billie Piper to win a National Television Award, both Freema Agyeman and Catherine Tate both received nominations.

Doctor Who lost out in the main award for Most Popular Drama which was won by ITV's Downton Abbey

Doctor Who won in 5 categories at this year's Virgin Media TV Awards. The show itself won "TV Show of the Year" with 43.63% of the vote, beating off competition from Merlin. Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) won "TV Character of the Year" and the Doctor getting shot at Lake Silencio in The Impossible Astronaut won the "Most Explosive TV Moment of the Year". Karen Gillan won two awards; one for her acting talents ("Best Actress") and one for her good looks ("Hottest Female").

Doctor Who will be hoping for the same success tonight at The National TV Awards; which will be broadcast live on ITV1 from 7:30pm.

Matt Smith narrowly missed out being named Britain's Coolest Man in a poll by Zoo Magazine; the actor lost out to magician Dynamo, with other runners up including F1 driver Jenson Button, Prince Harry and singer Noel Gallagher. [Huffington Post, 17 Jan 2012]

Karen Gillan is about to start work on her first film, Not Another Happy Ending, directed by John McKay (who also directed We'll Take Manhattan); McKay said of the actress: "Every now and again, we produce somebody who really holds your attention on the screen and she’s got it. She is not just a small screen star, she is a big screen star. She really is one of Scotland’s greatest talents and can go all the way." [Daily Record, 20 Jan 2012]

John Barrowman and his sister Carole are due to appear at Waterstones in Bluewater on 4th February to sign their new book, Hollow Earth. [Dartford Messenger, 20 Jan 2012]

Actor and Never Mind the Buzzcocks captain Noel Fielding has his eye on a particular role: I wouldn't mind being on Doctor Who. I like the guy who does it at the moment and I thought David Tennant was amazing, but next I think we need an androgynous, slightly dippy Doctor who gets everything wrong... [Radio Times, 20-26 Jan 2012]

Speaking at the Radio Times Cover Party, actor Warwick Davis said about networking at the event: "Mr. Steven Moffat is somebody I want to talk to, certainly, cos I love Sherlock and I would love to be in Doctor Who. It's been a dream of mine for many years - I don't want to play the Doctor, but a villain or something like that would be good." [Radio Times (video), 18 Jan 2012]

John Simm has indicated on Twitter that he would consider reprising his Doctor Who persona; when asked, he said: The Master - of course! Mr Moffat is a brilliant writer. [@john_simm, 16 Jan 2012]

Writer Richard Curtis (Vincent and the Doctor) is about to direct a film based upon his own script; About Time is described as "a low-budget time-travel picture", and will be made by Working Title. [Hollywood Reporter, 18 Jan 2012]

Tickets are now on sale for the forthcoming run of Punchdrunk's The Crash of the Elysium at the Ipswich Arts Festival this summer.

The immersive theatre experience is part of the London 2012 Festival, celebrating the Olympic Games taking place in the summer, and from 15th June to 8th July 2012.


New Wolsey Theatre Chief Executive Sarah Holmes said:

Tickets can be purchased via the New Wolsey Theatre, with three types, School Performances (aged 4-7), Family Performances (aged 7-12 with adult), and After Dark Performances (aged 13 and above).

Having fielded off Downton Abbey in the Christmas ratings, Doctor Who will face the popular ITV1 drama again in this year's National Television Awards, taking place at the O2 Arena in London on 25th January. The nominees for the Best Drama Award also include BBC1's Merlin and last year's winner Waterloo Road.

Meanwhile, the Doctor Who team are up against sister show Torchwood in both the Drama Performance: Male and Female nominations, with Matt Smith facing John Barrowman and Karen Gillan facing Eve Myles respectively. The categories also include Martin Clunes (for Doc Martin, ITV1), David Threlfall (Shameless, C4), Jaye Jacobs (Waterloo Road, BBC1), and Suranne Jones (Scott & Bailey, ITV1).

Voting for the shortlist of nominees is now open, with the results to be announced at the award ceremony hosted by Dermot O'Leary, broadcast live on ITV1.

United Kingdom

Last week we reported on the party thrown for terminally ill children in Downing Street; mother Jane Berman from Chigwell was there with her son Ross and said: "“Ross was absolutely thrilled to meet Doctor Who. He's a real fan. Matt Smith came running down Downing Street and ran up to Ross and said 'I've come all the way from Gallifrey to see you'" [Epping Forest News, 20 Dec 2011]

Matt Smith, who is an ambassador for organisers Starlight, said: "Thousands of children will spend this Christmas in hospital and, along with a White Christmas, this year I am wishing for some much-needed festive cheer for these kids." [Watford Observer, 20 Dec 2011]

Fan Erica Quinn from Glasgow has turned her front door into the TARDIS doors: ""I call it my double take door. People walk by and just stop and stare. People have started calling me the Doctor Who House Lady. Once I was getting a taxi on the other side of Glasgow - and I went up to the taxi rank and asked to go to the West End. One of the drivers said: 'I'll take you, because I want to go past the Doctor Who House. I was like, 'That's my house'." Erica also has life-sized figures of the 10th, 11th Doctors, Daleks and Captain Jack amongst others: "They switch around and sometimes they come out of the windows They are an excellent deterrent against having your house broken into because it looks like someone is watching." [Belfast Telegraph, 26 Dec 2011]

Daleks and K9 were on hand to entertain visitors to Robots Live at Snibston Discovery Park, Coalville. Organiser Alan Young said: "It was a great day and a lot of fun. I think it's safe to say the Daleks stole the show. We normally stage big arena events but this was a chance for people to get up close and personal with the robots and the people who built them." [Leicester Mercury, 28 Dec 2011]

BBC Radio Leicester presenter Karl Cooper is an avid Dalek collector: "They adorn windowsils and the fireplace at home. When friends are short on gift ideas, the collection seems to grow!! A life long fan of The Doctor (Jon Pertwee era is his fave), he'd love a full sized Dalek but complains he has neither the cash or space to get one. He's also not sure how the two cats would react to such an invasion!!" [BBC Radio Leicester, 28 Dec 2011]

Australia

New series Outland writer and comedian Adam Richard reveals his Doctor Who inspiration: "My scariest TV moment was when ... Noah took his hand out of his pocket and it had mutated into green bubble-wrap. (The Ark in Space). I decided a television career was for me when ... I started noticing my favourite episodes of Doctor Who seemed to be written by the same man (Robert Holmes - genius)" [Sydney Morning Herald, 22 Dec 2011]

Matt Smith appeared on The Graham Norton Show tonight, during which he chatted about his Christmas plans, his brushes with fandom, and of course about a certain show he's become associated with that airs on Christmas Day!


When asked about the recent announcment regarding Karen Gillan's departure from the show, he said:


Talking about fandom, both he and fellow guest Gillian Anderson discussed attending Comic-Cons, with Matt mentioning how he met up with all the other 'Doctors', and when he and co-star Karen Gillan met 'themselves':

The full show can be watched in the UK via the BBC iPlayer until the 30th December.

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Karen Gillan will be a guest on The Graham Norton Show on the 6th January 2012.

The BBC have released three videos covering highlights from the Q&A that followed the press screening of The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe last week. The session was hosted by Radio 5 Live presenter Richard Bacon, and included a discussion of the episode that had been shown, the announcement over Amy and Rory's future, and answering questions posed by the audience.

The Doctor Who immersive theatre experience, The Crash of the Elysium is to be recreated at the Ipswich Arts Festival from 15th June to 8th July 2012, as part of the London 2012 Festival celebrating the Olympic Games taking place in the summer.

The event was originally created by Punchdrunk for the Manchester International Festival that took place last June/July, and is described as:
The performances will take place at the Crown Car Park, and is sponsored locally by the New Wolsey Theatre; there will be three variations of the show, catering for schools, families with children aged 7-12, and for those aged 13 and older.


Ruth Mackenzie, Director, Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival, said
Ipswich Borough Council Leader David Ellesmere said:
Sarah Holmes, New Wolsey Theatre Chief Executive said:
Councillor Kathy Gosling, Suffolk County Council's portfolio holder for sport, culture, diversity, health and wellbeing, said:
Andrea Stark, Executive Director, Arts Council England, said:


There is a website for the event, though at the time of writing it is not currently active.