Bedford Who Charity Con 5, due Saturday 13th April is offering 10% off tickets for readers of Doctor Who News.

Now in their fifth year, Bedford Who Charity Cons have established a reputation for being friendly, informal, relaxed and welcoming. and huge fun Colin Baker said last year’s was “The best one day event I’ve ever done”.

Bedford Who Charity Con 5 is taking place on Saturday 13th April at the University Theatre, Bedford MK41 9EA. The event starts at 10am and finishes at 5.30pm. Bedford itself is about 50 miles north of London and transport links by road and rail are very good.

This year’s guests are Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Janet Fielding, Carole Ann Ford, Louise Jameson, Michael Jayston, and Mike Tucker.

Bedford Who Charity Con 5 is a traditional style convention, with panel interviews, signings, photo sessions and the opportunity to meet the guests and have your photo taken with them. (No charges for group photos with the actors, though the organisers ask for a donation to the charity bucket.) The actors are also going to take part in some Doctor Who related sketches. Everything made by the event, once costs are paid, goes to Bedford Foodbank; each month, they provide emergency food to some 600 adults and children in the local area.

Full details of ticket prices are on the convention’s website and Facebook page

To take up the offer of 10% off your tickets, please email the organiser Simon Danes on info@bedfordwhocharitycon.co.uk and say that you read about the convention on Doctor Who News.

The new Doctor Who cast will make their first-ever panel appearance at this year's Comic-Con International held at San Diego 2018 this July.

The Doctor Who panel will feature new Doctor Jodie Whittaker alongside two of her Doctor Who co-stars Tosin Cole, and Mandip Gill. They will be joined by Showrunner Chris Chibnall and Executive Producer Matt Strevens.

The panel will be moderated by legendary Doctor Who fan, comedian Chris Hardwick (The Talking Dead, Talking with Chris Hardwick).

The panel will be the cast’s first-ever panel appearance ahead of Doctor Who returning this Autumn on BBC One and BBC America. .

NERVA is a special event organised by the Ark in Space Facebook group celebrating the visual effects and other designers who brought Doctor Who to our screens.

Current guests include visual effects designer Colin Mapson (e.g. The Green Death), sculptor and prop maker Stephen Mansfield (e.g. Battlefield), K9 assistant operator Steve Cambden (e.g. Full Circle), documentary director Kevin Jon Davies (e.g. Thirty Years in the TARDIS), and researchers Richard Bignell (Nothing At The End Of The Lane), Jon Green and Gavin Rymell (Dalek 6388).

Alongside the event, a special poster has been commissioned from artist Ian Wells, inspired by the work of Frank Bellamy. There are three versions of the poster available that can be purchased separately to the event itself: the image with event information as displayed, one with the addition of Ian's autograph, and a third version with the text replaced with a personalised message from the artist. Full details can be found via the organisers' website.

All proceeds from the event and posters will be donated to the Thames Valley Air Ambulance.

The event itself is limited to members of the Facebook group, who can register their interest via the relevant thread, and to followers of the @ClassicDrWho Twitter account, who can tweet or send a direct message instead. You can find out mote about the event via the group or the organisers' event page.

Bedford Who Charity Con 4 is offering readers of Doctor Who News a 10% Discount off tickets to the charity event.

The Convention takes place on Saturday 7th April with a mixture of panel interviews, signings, photo sessions.

Once costs are paid, everything made at the convention goes to Bedford Foodbank, who provide emergency food for 600 local children and adults every month.

Bedford Who Charity Cons are a fairly recent addition to the convention scene, but they've established themselves a niche for being friendly, informal and relaxed events. With around 200 people in the audience, their relatively small scale gives them an intimate atmosphere.

Guests this year are Colin Baker, Sophie Aldred, John Leeson, Angela Douglas (Doris Lethbridge-Stewart), Elen Thomas (who played a large number of the aliens in Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant stories) and Mike Tucker, the BAFTA award-winning special effects designer.

The normal ticket prices are £42.50 for adults, £22.50 for 14-18-year-olds, and £15 for under 14s. Readers of Doctor Who News can, though, receive 10% off their tickets.

To take advantage of this offer, please email Simon Danes on info@bedfordwhocharitycon.co.uk , saying that you read about the event on Doctor Who News

For more details about the day, please go to the official Website or the Facebook page.

The third Bedford Who Charity Con takes place on Saturday 8th April – and readers of Doctor Who News can get 10% off their tickets.

Bedford Who Charity Con is supporting Bedford Foodbank; every month, they provide emergency food to some 500 local adults and children in crisis. Doctor Who fans in the area have managed to raise £8000 in the last twelve months. The Foodbank will receive everything made at the convention, once costs have been covered.

Bedford Who Charity Cons have established a strong reputation as fun, relaxed, friendly and informal events, with audiences and guests equally effusive in their praise. This year, Maureen O’Brien will be making a rare convention appearance alongside Peter Purves, Geoffrey Beevers, Neve McIntosh, Anneke Wills and Mike Tucker.

Tickets for Bedford Who Charity Con 3 cost £42.50 for adults, £22.50 for 14-18 year olds and full time students, and £15 for under-14s. Family tickets are also available.

To secure your 10% discount, you need to email Simon Danes on info@bedfordwhocharitycon.co.uk and mention that you saw the event advertised on Doctor Who News. Tickets are also available direct from the venue, The Quarry Theatre in Bedford, but you need to contact Simon to activate the discount.

Further convention details are on the website and Facebook page

We have a pair of tickets up for grabs for the TV Utopia convention which takes place on the weekend 20th-22nd January, courtesy of organisers Fantom Films. To be in with a chance to win the tickets, simply answer the following question:


Please send your answers along with your name, address and where you heard about the competition (news site, news app, other website, etc.) to comp-fantom@doctorwhonews.net with the subject "Tuning In". The competition is open to UK readers only, closing date 13th January 2017. Only one entry per household will be accepted.

Today marks the Tenth anniversary of the transmission of the first episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

The Doctor Who spin-off, starring the late Elisabeth Sladen, made its debut on BBC One at 4.51pm on New Year's Day 2007, with a special 60 minute special written by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts called Invasion of the Bane.

Also starring Samantha Bond, Yasmin Paige, Tommy Knight, Porsha Lawrence-Mavour and the voices of John Leeson and Alexander Armstrong, the episode led to a full series being comissioned, which was screened later that year. The Sarah Jane Adventures would run for five series, only ending after the death of star Elisabeth Sladen during the making of series five.

To mark the Anniversary a special Celebration video has been released on YouTube by The Attic, the group organising a reunion event for the series in Cardiff this summer.

Guests will include Tommy Knight, Daniel Anthony, Yasmin Paige, Anjli Mohindra as well as Elisabeth Sladen's husband and daughter, Brian Miller and Sadie Miller.

The day will raising money for Ty Hafan, a children's hospice based in Cardiff.

Full details on The Attic Website.

Celebration Video.

There have been a few recent developments on the German market that are of interest.

• Pandastorm Pictures are going to release the TV Movie on DVD and Blu-Ray early 2017. There will be three different editions. First of all on 17th February there will be a limited "Collecter's Edition Mediabook", which will contain two DVD's and one Blu-Ray. The regular editions of the DVD (2 discs) and Blu-Ray (one disc) will be released on 31st March 2017 and feature a different cover. All three editions will contain the German and English language soundtracks, as well as all bonus features of the UK releases. Also included will be exclusive material for the German market. Details to follow.
• German books publisher Cross Cult are going to release the novelisation of The Pirate Planet ("Der Piratenplanet") by James Goss on 27th February 2017. This will be Cross Cult's last confirmed Doctor Who novel.
  One of Germany's biggest publishers, Bastei Lübbe, will take up the reign and release the novelisation of Remembrance of the Daleks ("Die Hand des Omega") on 21st July 2017. It will also be available in the audio book format.
• Adding to their German editions of the popular Titan Doctor Who comic books, Panini Comics Germany just released the first volume of the IDW story Prisoners of Time ("Gefangene der Zeit"). There was also a limited to 200 copies variant cover, drawn by popular 80's/90's comic book artist John Ridgway, only available on the German Doctor Who convention TimeLash II last October. Volume 2 will be released on 28th February 2017.
• Germany's only Doctor Who convention TimeLash will take place for a third time on 28th to 29th October 2017 in Kassel. Guests announced so far are Daphne Ashbrook (Grace Holloway) , Philip Hinchliffe (70's producer and writer) and Annette Badland (Margaret Slitheen). More guest announcements to follow on the official TimeLash Facebook page in the coming weeks. Tickets will be available in early January on the TimeLash Homepage.

The Doctor Who Appreciation Society have updated us with the following changes to their forthcoming event to celebrate former Doctor Jon Pertwee:


More details on the event can be found in our previous news article and on the DWAS website.

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It is still possible to purchase a set of TARDIS Roundel badges from the Society, the proceeds of which go towards raising funds for the plaque, and for Pertwee's favourite charity, the Water Rats. For full details see the DWAS website.