UK fans take note: Lalla Ward and Adrienne Corri can be seen in the cult film "Vampire Circus" on BBC1 just after midnight Friday night/Saturday morning, August 13/14.

Today's Daily Telegraph has an article asking "Is Mastermind dumbing down? Pass", which includes brief interview with Gavin Fuller, who won in 1993 with Doctor Who as his specialist subject. He defends the inclusion of 'populist' subjects like Who on the ground that it's actually a very broad area - 158 shows to Jane Austen's six novels. You can read the article here. (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

New series (and longtime Doctor Who fiction) writer Mark Gatiss has penned "The Vesuvius Club," a novel due out in November in hardcover from Simon & Schuster. Says the promo: "The League of Gentlemen writer/actor with an oddball comedy about Lucifer Box, Edwardian portrait painter, dandy, serial seducer and secret agent, who frequents London's seedy underworld. The cover - emulating Strand magazine - is terrific, and this is to be the first of many Lucifer Box adventures." Apparently, the promotion for the book will include hand-outs of sample chapters on London railway stations!

BBC7 Radio will be rebroadcasting the Colin Baker/Nicola Bryant Doctor Who adventure Slipback in three 20-minute installments on Saturdays at 18.40 and 00.40 from August 21; you can listen online here.

An article in today's Media Guardian today is laden with PR conspiracies about the return of the Daleks. The article by Mark Borowski asks, "was this 'crisis' just a piece of well-placed PR?" Says the article, "Yes, 'our' soaraway Sun has been railing against the BBC's inability to come to an agreement with Terry Nation's estate... And now? Quelle surprise! The publicity has made the forthcoming show as famous as the original, and LOOK OUT! THE DALEKS ARE COMING BACK AFTER ALL!" You can read the article (registration is required)... and see if you agree or disagree. (For the record, everyone involved says it was not planned and was a legitimate disagreement.) (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

At right is the cover illustration for Short Trips: Repercussions, the latest Doctor Who short story anthology from Big Finish. Originally due in late July, it was pushed back to early August and will be out next week. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version. (Thanks to Gary Russell)

As expected, the British press, and some overseas papers, have been reporting on the return of the Daleks for the new series. We've added more links to various media reports below...

The Sun has run with the ball, claiming "victory" in their campaign. Their Page Three item features the expected Dalek flanked by two topless young women in the buff, a traditional Sun feature.

There's also a bit of spoiler in today's Telegraph; click on the spoiler tag for information.

The following is a list from the British Board of Film Classification of cleared extras from the Lost in Time DVD set, with running times and other miscellaneous items. We don't know what the "Untitled" items are, but otherwise, no big surprises from the lists published previously. (Thanks to Richard Bignell)

Great news this morning: the BBC and the Terry Nation Estate have achieved an agreement that allows the Daleks to return to Doctor Who in the new TV series, despite word to the contrary earlier in the year. Tim Hancock of the Terry Nation estate told BBC News, "I am absolutely delighted that the Terry Nation estate and the BBC have been able to reach agreement on terms for the use of the Daleks in the new Doctor Who series. We look forward to working closely with the production team in the forthcoming months." The Nation estate, said BBC News, had accused the BBC of trying to "ruin the brand of the Daleks" by trying to wrestle control of the image. "We are absolutely delighted that the Daleks will be back," publicist Antony Wainer of the DWAS told BBC News. "Doctor Who without Daleks would be like Morecambe without Wise or Wimbledon without strawberries." By the way, for those wondering: this was NOT a publicity stunt. According to several sources, this went straight down to the wire, a desire by both sides to reach an equitable agreement. There was never any attempt to use the "will they/won't they" as a publicity tactic for the new series (and we get that straight from the source). The Sun newspaper, naturally, is claiming "victory" in their "campaign" to bring back the Daleks (obviously unaware that they likely had nothing whatsoever to do with it) and the Media Guardian has an amusing quote in their August 4 edition: "Oh Lordy. Stand by for a gloating 'It was the Sun wot won it' style headline in tomorrow's current bun, after the BBC today announced that the Daleks would, indeed, be returning to give Chris Eccleston the willies in the new Doctor Who series. The Sun will no doubt be claiming its Save The Daleks campaign - launched last month after the BBC said negotiations with the estate of Doctor Who writer Terry Nation to bring the croaky-voiced baddies back had broken down - made all the difference. Maybe they have a point. After all, the impact of plastering a Dalek with Sun stickers, a Sun hat and a cross of St George flag and wheeling it through New York's Times Square, accompanied by reporter Bryan Flynn, should not be underestimated."

We're keeping track of the various news reports that come in as this story breaks (thank you Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Chuck Foster, Richard Kirkpatrick); the following is the running list of news reports as we get them.

Official Doctor Who Site (BBC) BBC News The Scotsman Waveguide The Sun The Register News.com.au Sydney Morning Herald Telegraph (second article) Brand Republic The Age (Australia) The Guardian (subscription)

Reuters Irish Examiner The Telegraph The Examiner Ireland Online The Guardian Yahoo! News NewsWales The Independent The Mirror IC Wales FilmForce

Also covered in the Associated Press, the Daily Mail, Belfast Telegraph, South Wales Echo, the Times, the Journal, the Birmingham Post and various other publications and online sources.

The following is a press release issued by the BBC a short while ago (with thanks to the BBC website).

According to today's BBC press release about the return of the Daleks (see below), in addition to the three names we've already mentioned as cast in the new series -- Camille Coduri, Noel Clarke and John Barrowman -- two new ones appeared: Penelope Wilton and Annette Badland. Penelope Wilton (at right, left side) is the former wife of actor Ian Holm ("Lord of the Rings") and has starred in the films "Cry Freedom," "The French Lieutenant's Woman," "Blame it On the Bellboy," "Calendar Girls," "Pride and Prejudice" and "Clockwise". She's also played Simon Pegg's mother in "Shaun of the Dead," and on television, starred in "Ever Decreasing Circles" alongside Richard Briers, the BBC telefilm "The Borrowers," "Victoria and Albert," "The Tales of Beatrix Potter," "Tom's Midnight Garden," and with new series producer Russell T Davies in "Bob and Rose". Wilton was given the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth in 2004. Her IMDb profile is here. Annette Badland (at right, right side) is a character actress with extensive television credits including "Poirot," "Jackanory," "Holby City," "All Creatures Great and Small," "Casualty" and "Doctors," as well as roles in "Secret Society," "Little Voice," "Beautiful People," "Hollow Reed," "Out of Order" and "Sacred Hearts"; you might remember her from the small part of Griselda Fishfinger in Terry Gilliam's "Jabberwocky". Her IMDb profile is here.