Big Finish have announced details of an audio production of the classic HG Wells novel The Invisible Man starring the late Sir John Hurt.
This will be the first of six full-cast adaptations in 2017 of the works of British sci-fi writer extraordinaire, Herbert George Wells.
The Invisible Man
In the midst of a snowstorm, a stranger arrives in an English country inn, seeking solitude. Soon, inexplicable goings-on at the Coach and Horses bring fear to the village.
Two very different men – the scholarly Dr Kemp and gentleman-of-the-road Thomas Marvel – are drawn into terrible events beyond their understanding.
A man named Griffin has defied the laws of nature, and is about to embark on a reign of terror. For he is… The Invisible Man.
The Invisible Man is a 2 CD set starring: John Hurt (known for his role as The War Doctor to Who fans), Dan Starkey (numerous roles in Doctor Who including Strax), Annette Badland (best known as “Margaret”, or Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen), and many more. This title goes on general release from Feb 28, 2017.
The BBC has just announced that The Ice Warriors will return in Series 10, a story written by Mark Gattis.
Mark Gatiss announces the return of some old friends, but with a new twist…
One of Doctor Who‘s most enduring monsters will be returning to face Peter Capaldi’s Time Lord in the next series.
The Ice Warriors – first introduced to the show in 1967 – will reappear in a new episode written by Mark Gatiss.
Gatiss previously reintroduced the Martian villains in the 2013 episode ‘Cold War’ – their first outing in modern Who.
His new adventure, to air tenth in the series run, will be set on the Ice Warriors’ home planet Mars, and is a “kind of Jules Verne / Edgar Rice Burroughs story of derring-do”.
In an official announcement video teasing their return, Gatiss also revealed that his episode – as yet untitled – will introduce “a new kind of Ice Warrior”.
Colour us intrigued about this resurgence of the green meanies, who battled the second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and the third (Jon Pertwee) throughout the ’60s and ’70s.
Gatiss’s latest episode will be one of the last for current Who lead Capaldi, who’s announced he’ll be retiring from the show this Christmas.
“This’ll be the end for me,” he confirmed last night (January 30). “I feel sad. I love Doctor Who. It’s a fantastic programme to work on. It’s been a huge pleasure to work with… a family. I can’t praise the people I work with more highly.
“I’ve never worked the same job for three years, and I feel like now is the right time to move on. I’ll still be the Doctor for a while.”
Doctor Who will return to BBC One – with Capaldi, Matt Lucas and new companion actress Pearl Mackie – on April 15.
Doctor Who: The Companion’s Companion – Official Guide
Coming in the Spring is a comprehensive guide to travelling with the Doctor, by the people who know him best – his companions!
Doctor Who: The Companion’s Companion is the next fantastic official guide in the series started by How to Be a Time Lord, which has been a real favourite with Doctor Who fans.
Check out all the details and cover art below.
The Companion’s Companion
If there’s one thing the Doctor ought to remember, it’s this: he should never travel alone.
And to help make sure he always has someone suitably brilliant by his side, Clara has compiled this comprehensive guide to travelling with the Doctor.
Packed full of hints and tips on topics such as introducing the Doctor to your family, packing for life on the TARDIS and practising alien first aid, this guide will fully prepare you for life as a companion!
Peter Capaldi said he will stand down as Doctor Who in December. Credit: PA
As Peter Capaldi prepares to step aside at the end of 2017, we play the regeneration game and look at who could be the new Doctor?
Ben Whishaw
Whishaw is the bookies’ favourite at 6/1 with credits including tech wizard Q in Bond blockbusters Spectre and Skyfall.
He has previously been mentioned as a leading contender for the role of the Doctor.
In 2013 he won the best leading actor TV Bafta for his performance as Richard II in the first of the BBC’s epic production of Shakespeare’s history plays, and he was nominated again in 2016 for his performance in London Spy.
Should Bedfordshire-born Whishaw, 36, be interested in taking up the Time Lord mantle he may have the chance to get some tips from Capaldi as they reprise their roles in Paddington 2 later this year.
Richard Ayoade
The IT Crowd star won a Bafta for his portrayal of lovable geek Maurice Moss in the hit Channel 4 sitcom.
He also also earned plaudits in the director’s chair for 2010 rom-com Submarine and more recently voiced The Snowman in the BBC’s reboot of the cartoon classic Danger Mouse.
While studying law at Cambridge he was president of the university’s famed theatrical group, the Footlights, whose former presidents included Hugh Laurie, Sue Perkins and Eric Idle.
The 39-year-old is hot on Whishaw’s heels with the odds for him taking the keys to the TARDIS put at 8/1.
Rory Kinnear
Once tipped to take over from Matt Smith as the Doctor, the son of character actor Roy Kinnear is again among the favourites with the bookmakers.
The 38-year-old, who has appeared in several Bond films, said in 2013 that he had never watched Doctor Who and had no idea what it was all about.
However, he would have had plenty of time to learn the difference between a Dalek and a Voord in the intervening years and William Hill placed him at at equal odds with Ayoade.
Rupert Grint
The ex-Harry Potter star was tipped as a possible replacement for Matt Smith in 2013.
David Harewood
The ex-Homeland star would be the first non-white lead in the hit drama.
“It would be very exciting if the phone rang. I doubt it somehow,” he has said.
Olivia Colman
The next Doctor doesn’t have to be a man, of course.
New Doctor Who boss Chris Chibnall has been working with Colman on his other show, Broadchurch.
MP Yvette Cooper is among her fans, once saying that seeing the award-winning actress playing the Doctor would be “ace”.
Billie Piper
Could the actress, who previously played companion Rose Tyler, return as the Time Lord?
Hayley Atwell
The Agent Carter and Captain America actress has previously said she would love the role.
Asked by a fan whether she would like to appear in the BBC sci-fi series, she tweeted in 2015: “I’d like to be Doctor Who”.
Matt Smith pays tribute to Doctor Who co-star John Hurt
Matt Smith may have been at the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards to celebrate Netflix drama The Crown but that didn’t stop him taking time to pay tribute to his former Doctor Who co-star, Sir John Hurt.
The renowned British actor passed away last week at the age of 77.
“He was a wonderful man and a brilliant, brilliant actor,” said Smith, who was on the red carpet with his Crown co-star Claire Foy.
Smith shared the screen with Hurt in Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special The Day of The Doctor, and spoke fondly of his time working with the acting legend: “I was like, ‘oh my God that’s John Hurt’ and he turned out to be an absolute hero”, Smith revealed.
“He’ll be really really sadly missed. I’m thinking of him today.”
The full list of writers for Doctor Who series 10 has finally been completed, after official YouTube series The Doctor Who Fan Show revealed that “[episodes six and seven] are written by Steven Moffat and Peter Harness”.
The addition of Harness, who wrote series 8’s Kill the Moon and Series 9’s acclaimed two-parter The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion, brings the total of series 10 writers to nine, all of whom but one (Doctor Foster writer Mike Bartlett) have written for the series at least once before.
Harness’ inclusion also suggests that his story will be one of the only two-parters this year, after the previous series made all but two episodes in the double format.
Interestingly, while most of the writers enlisted have penned episodes for the last two series, one has a rather older pedigree – Rona Munro, who previously wrote an episode for Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor in 1989. Hopefully the young guns can keep up with her.
Doctor Who will return to BBC1 this April 15th 2017
You can see the full list of writers (and a few titles) below:
Episode One – by Steven Moffat
Episode Two – by Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Episode Three – by Sarah Dollard
Episode Four – ‘The Haunted Hub’ – by Mike Bartlett
Episode Five – by Jamie Mathieson
Episode Six – ‘Extremis’ – by Steven Moffat and Peter Harness
Episode Seven – by Steven Moffat and Peter Harness
Episode Eight – by Toby Whithouse
Episode Nine – ‘The Eaters of Light’ – by Rona Munro
Episode 10 – by Mark Gatiss
Episode 11 – by Steven Moffat
Episode 12 – by Steven Moffat
Peter Capaldi to leave Doctor Who and Start Date Announced!
Peter Capaldi playing Doctor Who in the 2016 Christmas special
Actor Peter Capaldi is stepping down from the lead role in the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who at the end of the tenth series which starts transmitting on BBC1 from Saturday 15th April 2017.
It’s going to be a Good Friday followed by a VERY good Saturday for Doctor Who fans as Peter Capaldi has confirmed that the long awaited series ten will debut on Easter Saturday!
Capaldi told Whiley that the upcoming series was quite “vintage Doctor Who” and said it “rolls along in a very vintage kind of way”.
“It’s full of explosions and adventures,” he added, promising that the Doctor would meet some old adversaries, but mostly new villains.
The actor confirmed that he’s still filming the series and revealed that they’re “about four episodes away from the end”.
Capaldi shocked fans by making the announcement during a BBC Radio 2 show with presenter Jo Whiley.
Peter Capaldi with Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2
He said he will leave Doctor Who at the end of the year. “I feel it’s time to move on,” he said.
The 58-year-old Glasgow-born star became the 12th actor to play the Doctor in 2013.
While speaking about the forthcoming 10th series, he said it would be his last.
“I feel sad, I love Doctor Who, it is a fantastic programme to work on,” he said. “It can’t praise the people I work with more highly, but I have always been someone that did a lot of different things.”
He said he was asked to stay on after his contract ran out, but he wanted to move on to other challenges.
The new series airs in spring and Capaldi said his final episode will be shown at Christmas.
In his interview, Capaldi assured listeners that he is still Doctor Who at the moment, as filming in ongoing.
The next series will also be the last with Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer, at the helm.
Moffat praised the star’s performance in a BBC announcement: “Peter’s amazing, fiery, turbulent Doctor is still fighting the good fight, and his greatest adventures are yet to come. Monsters of the universe, be on your guard – Capaldi’s not done with you yet!”
He added: “Like Peter, I’m facing up to leaving the best job I’ll ever have, but knowing I do so in the company of the best, and kindest and cleverest of men, makes the saddest of endings a little sweeter.”
Charlotte Moore, director of BBC Content, said: “He has been a tremendous Doctor who has brought his own unique wisdom and charisma to the role.
The popular sci-fi series features a Time Lord known only as “The Doctor” who travels through time and space in a ship called the Tardis, which outwardly resembles a 1960s police telephone box.
The main character has the ability to regenerate, a quirk that has allowed a number of actors to have played the role over the years.
Dr Who was first broadcast in 1963 and underwent a relaunch in 2005, the 10th series of which will be Peter Capaldi’s last.
Capaldi was previously best known for his role as foul-mouthed spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker in the BBC series The Thick of It.
Colin Baker adds star quality to a Leicester hotel’s new Space Room
Colin Baker in front of a picture of him from the series.
A city centre hotel has unveiled a family bedroom that’s truly out of this world.
Former Doctor Who Colin Baker parked his TARDIS in New Walk outside the Belmont Hotel to open its new Space Room.
One of the features of the Space Room.
The room commemorates Leicester’s location as home to the National Space Centre and the University of Leicester’s successful developments in space research since the late 1960s.
Baker, the sixth in the series of time lords in the world’s longest running Sc-fi show, popped along to add a bit of star quality.
The hotel also unveiled its new King Richard III room – themed around the discovery of the remains of the last Plantagenet king of England in the city in 2012 and subsequent reinterment in Leicester Cathedral in 2015.
A room dedicated to the historic Premier League victory by Leicester City Football Club in 2016 is planned for later this year.
General manager Eloic Montagnier said: “The Belmont Hotel has been at the heart of Leicester for over 80 years now and these two themed bedrooms pay homage to two of the city’s most famous connections.
“The Space room is ideal for families whose children aspire to be astronauts and will provide an out of this world experience. The King Richard III room will take guests back to the days of the Battle of Bosworth when the Richard III became the last English King to be killed in battle.”
In the latest edition of Doctor Who: The Fan Show, official BBC YouTuber Christel Dee confirmed that Peter Harness has returned to write for Doctor Who series 10. His previous timey-wimey credits consist of Kill The Moon, The Zygon Invasion and The Zygon Inversion.
“[Episode 6 and episode 7] are written by Steven Moffat and Peter Harness”, Dee revealed in the video linked above. Since Harness cowrote his Zygon episodes with Moffat, this collaboration shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.
