Pearl Mackie has been named as the new Doctor Who Companion, Bill.

The BBC released the details in a specially shot trailer shown on BBC One this evening, and released on the official Facebook and Twitter pages.

The actress is currently starring in London's West End, at the Gielgud Theatre, in a production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Mackie comes from Brixton in South London. She trained as an actor at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating in 2010.

Since drama school she has worked across Theatre, Film, Television and Radio appearing at the RSC, The Park Theatre, The Finborough, for the BBC and on London’s West End.

On joining the cast in her first major television role, Pearl Mackie said: Peter Capaldi said: Steven Moffat, Lead Writer and Executive Producer adds: Charlotte Moore, Acting Director of Television said: Brian Minchin, Executive Producer adds: Filming for the next series of the show, the 36th in its long history, begins soon, with the next episode due to be screened at Christmas, followed by a full twelve-part series in 2017.

Canadian broadcaster SPACE have announced that they will be also be revealing who will play the new companion in Doctor Who tomorrow afternoon, during a re-run of the last three episodes of the previous series on the channel (which saw the departure of the Doctor's former fellow time-traveller Clara).

The three episodes will be shown twice, from 10:00am and 1:20pm - with the broadcasts scheduled in Eastern Daylight Time this places the end of Hell Bent at about the same time as half-time during the F.A. Cup game in the United Kingdom, meaning that the announcement will be very close to the latter's!

As reported in February, BBC Books are to republish a number of Doctor Who novelisations that were originally part of the Target range.

To tie in with their release on the 28th April, the Cartoon Museum in London is to hold an exhibition featuring original artwork from the range:


The exhibition will run between the 28th April and 11th May.

To celebrate the revived interest in what was an essential part of Doctor Who fan reading in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Telos have announced that they will be re-publishing an updated version of David J Howe and Tim Neal's guide to the entire range, also on the 28th April:

David J Howe told us:
The book is available to pre-order from the Telos website.


Forbidden Planet in London will also be holding a book signing on the 23rd April between 1:00pm-2:00pm, featuring the authors Terrance Dicks, Eric Saward, and cover illustrator Chris Achilleos.

---

Meanwhile, as well as their literary form, the Target novelisations continue to be released as audiobooks, read by well-known personalities in the Doctor Who world; coming up in the next few months are Death To The Daleks (written by Terrance Dicks and read by Jon Culshaw), The Invasion (Ian Marter, David Troughton), The King's Demons (Terence Dudley, Mark Strickson), The Claws of Axos (Terrance Dicks) and The Sontaran Experiment (Ian Marter).

The BBC have announced that they plan to reveal who will playing the latest sidekick to join Peter Capaldi in the TARDIS in Doctor Who this coming Saturday, 23rd April, during the half-time interval of the F.A. Cup Semi-Final match between Everton and Manchester United that will be shown live on BBC One from 4:50pm.

With kick-off due at 5:15pm this is likely to feature just after 6:00pm.

This week sees Titan release new comics featuring The Fourth and Eleventh Doctors




Both comics are available from Wednesday 20th April

BBC Worldwide North America and Titan Comics have revealed reveal that this summer’s special Doctor Who event comic will feature the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors from Titan’s four ongoing Doctor Who series. This comic will be a spectacular five-part, bi-weekly adventure featuring one of the Doctor’s most iconic foes – the Cybermen.

Penned by best-selling authors George Mann (Eighth Doctor, Dark Souls) & Cavan Scott (Ninth Doctor, Vikings) with art by Alessandro Vitti (Secret Warriors, Captain America & Hawkeye), this highly anticipated event comic kicks-off in stores and on digital platforms Wednesday, July 6th 2016, supported by Titan’s third annual Doctor Who Comics Day event on Saturday, July 9th 2016.

2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the show’s iconic cyborgs, the Cybermen. The Cybermen first appeared in the serial ‘The Tenth Planet’ in 1966, and have been featured in Doctor Who numerous times since, including the 2006 two-part modern origin story, ‘Rise of the Cybermen’ and ‘The Age of Steel.’

This special crossover event comic entitled ‘Supremacy of the Cybermen’ stars the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith), and Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), and their comic companions – Gabby, Cindy, Alice, Rose (Billie Piper) and Captain Jack (John Barrowman)!

The debut issue comes with five variant covers to collect: an art cover by series artist Alessandro Vitti, a photo cover by Will Brooks, a Cybermen variant by Fabio Listrani, a blank sketch variant, and a coloring variant .

This year’s global Doctor Who Comics Day event on Saturday, July 9th, is set to be even bigger than previous years with new comics and collections, merchandise, variant covers, signings, and events across the globe at comic shops, bookstores, retail chains, libraries, and on digital platforms. New to this year’s event, Doctor Who comics fans can register for an event kit to hold their own reading group parties. Doctor Who comics fans, retailers, and librarians should visit Titan-Comics.com for details to sign-up.

To keep up to date with news about Doctor Who Event 2016: Supremacy of the Cybermen and this year’s Doctor Who Comics Day, follow Titan Comics on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.

Live +7 Figures are finally available for the whole of Series Nine of Doctor Who.

The Live+7 figure is calculated by the BBC to try to get an accurate estimate of the total unique audience for an episode of a programme. Unlike official BARB figures the Live+7 uses data to include those who watched one of the broadcast repeats of the episode and those who watched the episode on iPlayer all within 7 days of the original transmission.

The figures show an average of 60% of the audience watch Doctor Who on the day of transmission, either as a Live broadcast or as a delayed viewing via a PVR. The number is slightly higher for the series finale and the Christmas spacial. A further 26% of the audience watch the programme, via a recording, within 7 days of the original transmission. The highest delayed viewing was for The Zygon Invasion.

Around 11% on average watch on iPlayer, although this dropped to around 5% for the Christmas special.

The number watching a scheduled repeat dropped sharply this series, from an average of 4% last year, to an average of just 1.3% this year. The decline of the audience watching on BBC Three caused the BBC to cancel the regular repeat on BBC Three from episode four onwards. The only repeat was the late night. signed version on BBC Two, which had an average of 40,000 viewers.

Overall Doctor Who's total Live +7 ratings are down around 1.5 million on the 2014 figures, to average a total of around 6.7 million watching each episode.

The overall chart position for each week ranged from 13th for The Magician's Apprentice down to 30th for Sleep, the lowest chart position since the series returned in 2005. The lowest chart position in the series history was 170th for the second episode of Full Circle in 1980. The only episode this year to make the top ten was the Christmas Special, The Husbands of River Song, which came in 8th.

Full ratings data can be found on the Doctor Who Guide

Two new magazines are now available from Doctor Who Magazine.

The actor Gareth Thomas has died at the age of 71.

Gareth Thomas played Ed Morgan in the 2006 Torchwood story Ghost Machine. He also appeared in a 2001 Big Finish production, Storm Warning.

However Thomas was best known for playing the eponymous hero of the 1970's science fiction series Blake's 7.

Thomas played Roj Blake, leader of a disparate band of rebels, pitted against a corrupt federation, in the series conceived by Doctor Who writer, and Dalek creator, Terry Nation. The series ran on BBC One from 1978-1981, with Thomas taking the lead role for the first two series. When Thomas decided not to renew his contract for series 3, the character of Blake was killed off. The ghost of Blake was present throughout the remaining series and Thomas returned twice, once at the end of series 3 and once for the climatic final episode, Blake.

Gareth Thomas was born in Wales in 1945. He trained at RADA and made his TV debut in a 1965 production of Romeo and Juliet.

A steady succession of TV roles followed, including parts in Coronation Street, Z-Cars, Harriet's Back in Town, Sutherland's Law, Edward VII, Jackanory and How Green Was My Valley where he played Rev. Gruffydd. In 1972 he was nominated for a BAFTA for his performance in the BBC Play for Today, Stocker's Copper. He played Adam Brake in the 1977 children's series Children of the Stones, and Shem in the ITV series Star Maidens.

Following his role as Blake, Thomas played Philip Denny in the 1983 version of A.J. Cronin's The Citadel and took the lead in the BBC One drama Morgan's Boy, about a Welsh hill farmer who finds himself looking after a teenage boy, a performance which won him his second BAFTA nomination.

He appeared in By the Sword Divided and Knights of God and had a regular role in the ITV series London's Burning. In 1998 he took on the role of Nathaniel Clegghorn in Heartbeat.

In 2012, Thomas returned to the role for which he was best known, playing Roj Blake in the Big Finish Production, Blake's 7: The Liberator Chronicles.

Gareth Thomas died Wednesday 13th April. He is survived by his wife Linda.

Titan Comics have announced that Doctor Who TV spinoff Torchwood is back, in an all-new ongoing comic series starring the daring Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper.

The series is written by Captain Jack himself – John Barrowman – and Carole E. Barrowman, and with issues illustrated by Antonio Fuso (Drive, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest) and Pasquale Qualano (Batman ’66, She Hulk, Harley Quinn).

In continuity with the new hit Torchwood audio dramas from Big Finish, as part of the official continuation of the Torchwood saga, the comic arrives in stores on July 6 – the week of Titan’s third annual Doctor Who Comics Day event – Saturday, July 9 2016.

The BAFTA-winning cult science-fiction drama by Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies, which aired for four successful seasons from 2006 to 2011, follows the exploits of Captain Jack, Gwen (Eve Myles - Broadchurch), and their team as they investigate the unusual, the strange, and the extraterrestrial.

The hotly anticipated Torchwood comic sees Captain Jack return to Cardiff to engage the help of the last person who expected to see him again, Gwen Cooper! A dark technology from a forgotten species has been claimed by a conspiratorial power… and in this collision between an ancient civilization and an all-new evil, the Earth itself may be forfeit! Only Jack, Gwen, and their allies from what remains of Torchwood hold the key to stopping a cataclysmic wave of destruction… On the road, on the run, and under fire – can Jack and Gwen put aside their differences and rebuild the heart of Torchwood… before its flame is stamped out forever?!

The debut issue comes with variant covers to collect from Doctor Who artists including Tommy Lee Edwards (Tenth Doctor, Turf), Elena Casagrande (Tenth Doctor, The X-Files), Blair Shedd (Ninth Doctor), and Rod Reis (Doctor Who, C.O.W.L.).