Friday Press Items

More about "The Christmas Invasion" has been revealed in the latest issue of SFX Magazine by Russell T Davies. "I love the title," he tells the magazine. "What else could you call it? It will be a great, adventure that's really big in scale. It will be Christmassy – there's nothing I like more than a Christmas special set at Christmas! There's a big story in it for Rose as well as a massive threat to the Earth going on beneath the surface, so Christmas as usual!" Says the article, "With the Doctor still suffering the after-effects of his regeneration, the TARDIS returns to Earth, arriving back at Rose’s council estate. The festive period is just beginning, but the Doctor, recuperating in his pyjamas, is too ill to enjoy it, while his companion attempts to come to terms with the fact that her best friend has changed his identity. But as Rose shares some quality time with her family and friends (Camille Coduri is back as Jackie Tyler, along with Noel Clarke as Mickey), an alien force is stirring. The Sycorax invasion is beginning... So what else can we expect from the story? 'I can tell you that the words 'Arthur Dent' are said in the Christmas special,' reveals Davies, rather teasingly. 'It's got scary Christmas trees, Santa attacks, there's an invasion, and the Doctor stays in bed for a long, long time,' Billie Piper recently told the press. 'I am carrying most of the show.'"

The Mirror says that Billie Piper is "at the centre of a tug-of-love between the BBC and ITV... Since quitting the hit sci-fi show - as revealed by The Mirror last week - 23-year-old Billie has already been snapped up for two major new projects, one with each of the main channels. For ITV1, she will don a ribboned bonnet to play priggish Fanny Price in a new adaptation of Jane Austen's most controversial novel, Mansfield Park. ... Meanwhile, BBC bosses have got a secret project waiting in the wings for her. Our insider tells us: 'This is very, very different to Doctor Who. Billie has proven herself at the BBC, first with The Canterbury Tales, then as Rose in Doctor Who, and recently in Much Ado About Nothing. The camera loves her. She has the sort of face which comes across really well on screen. Any critic who claims she is only good at playing ditzy characters is wrong - there were some very dark scenes in Doctor Who which she handled really well. All her performances have been brilliant. We can't wait to work with her again.'" Of course, this is forgetting the fact that she's still working on the show... take this for what it's worth.

More reports of the lighting of Cardiff at icWales, Ham High News; the lighting also gets coverage on CBBC Newsround and the official site has a brief report and a link to a new, permanent clip from Wales Today on the Media Player (the Wales Today programme itself being only briefly available online).

Is Ross Kemp (who plays Grant Mitchell in "EastEnders") soon to be a guest star in the new series? The showbiz correspondent on HeartFM Radio seems to think so, noting in an 'exclusive' that he might be in the series, but we haven't heard anything about it elsewhere.

The official Doctor Who website has been updated with a Christmas theme today.

In The News has picked up the David Beckham story from yesterday; other print-only media to pick it up includes the Press Association and Newsquest Media Group (so expect it in a variety of papers by next week!) Also, Playbillmentions a December 19 holiday concert in which John Barrowman is slated to appear.

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, Stephen James Walker and Chris Howell of The Great Link)