Peter Capaldi was paid between £200,000 and £250,000 for his work on Doctor Who in the previous financial year, according to figures published by the BBC today.

The BBC has been instructed by government to publish the salaries of all on screen staff members who earn more than £150,000 each year, as part of the 2016 charter renewal.

The BBC has 96 staff members who fit into this category with Radio 2 and Top Gear presenter Chris Evans topping the chart with a salary of over 2 million pounds.

The highest paid actor is Derek Thompson from Casualty who earned between £350,000 and £400,000 in the year. The list only includes those working directly for the BBC and not those working on independent productions comissioned by the corporation, such as Sherlock.

The figure just reflects the amount of licence fee money paid to the actor and does not include any money paid by the commercial company BBC Worldwide for any other work undertaken.

Patrick Ness writer and creator of the Doctor Who Spin-off Class, has confirmed he will not be writing any more episodes of the series.

The BBC has not officially commented on the future of the series, which was released on the BBC Three online channel last Autumn and shown on BBC America in the last couple of months. However, with the series creator now withdrawing from the drama it looks increasingly unlikely that a second series will be made.

Ness confirmed his withdrawal from any new series on Twitter saying Class was created to appeal to the young adult market and initially released in the UK on an online platform. The project was part of the BBC's initiative to serve young adult consumers by focusing on online content, a decision that led to the closure of the BBC Three Broadcast channel.

It was hoped that high-quality original content would drive young viewers to the online station, which has struggled to make an impact in the market. However, the decision meant that Class was initially only seen by a fraction of the audience it would have received on a broadcast channel.

The series was later screened on BBC One, but as a late night double bill, where it struggled to find an audience, getting viewing figures around a third of the timeslot average.

Ness, on his Twitter feed, said he was baffled by the scheduling decisions of BBC1, given the show had been critically-acclaimed, but reiterated he was grateful for the chance to make it. He talked about some of his plans for Series Two, which will not now be realised. Ness also paid tribute to the fans of the series and the cast

Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has confirmed that Rachel Talalay will be directing the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas episode, the last one before new showrunner Chris Chibnall takes over the series

Talaley has directed the final two episodes of both series 8 and 9 of Doctor Who, including the highly acclaimed Heaven Sent, as well as directing the upcoming finale to the current series.

Moffat confirmed her involvement while speaking at the first ever US Sherlock convention. The Christmas episode will also be the last one featuring current Doctor Peter Capaldi.

On Twitter Talalay said how pleased she was to be working on the series again.

Knock Knock: Known Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sat 6 May 2017	7:20pm BST
Middle East	BBC First	Sat 6 May 2017	9:20pm AST	(Sat 7:20pm BST)
United States of America	BBC America	Sat 6 May 2017	9:00pm EDT	(Sun 2:00am BST)
Canada	SPACE	Sat 6 May 2017	9:00pm EDT	(Sun 2:00am BST)
Finland	YLE2	Sun 7 May 2017	11:00am EEST	(Sun 9:00am BST)
Australia	ABC	Sun 7 May 2017	7:40pm AEST	(Sun 10:40am BST, also on ABC ME)
Brazil	SyFy	Sun 7 May 2017	8:00pm BRT	(Sun 11:00pm BST)
Latin America	SyFy	Sun 7 May 2017	11:00pm CDT	(Mon 4:00am BST)
New Zealand	PRIME	Sun 7 May 2017	7:30pm NZST	(Mon 8:30am BST)

A special 3D sound mix of this week’s episode makes it feel as if you’re part of the action, according to a group of Welsh students.

Speaking at an exclusive screening of the binaural audio edition of episode four, Knock Knock, the students called it a great experience, saying the enhanced version sounds as if at any minute the monsters could be coming after you.

The enhanced binaural audio episode will be available on BBC iPlayer immediately after the adventure premieres on BBC One and BBC One HD from 8.10pm on Saturday, 6 May. Viewers can find it by searching Doctor Who Enhanced on BBC iPlayer or visiting: www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwhoenhanced

The binaural edition creates a 3D surround soundscape for anyone wearing headphones, placing the audience at the heart of the action while the bumps, scrapes, shrieks and screams echo around them as if they were actually there. To create the enhanced version, the team used new software developed by BBC Research & Development to artificially mimic the subtle effect the shape of the viewer’s head and ears have on what they hear. This lets sound engineers give the impression of specific sounds like the creaks and groans of the old house in Knock Knock being in front, behind, or all around viewers.

Brian Minchin, executive producer, Doctor Who, said: Catherine Robinson, audio supervisor at BBC Wales, said:

The BBC has confirmed that this week's episode of Doctor Who, Knock Knock, will be available on the BBC iPlayer in special binaural edition, available immediately after the episode has broadcast on BBC One.

Binaural is a method of sound reproduction that is intended to replicate the way the human brain understands sound to give the listener as natural an experience as possible. Rather than using a series of speakers to reproduce a soundscape, the Binaural process records sound using two microphones separated by the width of a human head. When listening to the replay through headphones, the effect is to replicate the sound going into each ear giving the listener the effect of actually being in the room where the sound was recorded.

The binaural edition of Knock Knock will be available on BBC iPlayer from 8.10pm on Saturday, 6 May.

The binaural process can be heard on the preview clip on the official BBC Doctor Who page. To experience it you need to listen to the clip on headphones.

The latest issue of the fan magazine Whotopia has been released and is now available to download from the Whotopia website

In this issue

• IN CONVERSATION WITH PETER DAVISON
Roger Crow chats with Fifth Doctor Peter Davison on the set of his new movie
• THE DOCTOR IS NOT MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD
Jessica Chaleff explains quite to the contrary that the Doctor isn’t as old as you think
• THE STORIES THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN: THE MCCOY ERA
Bob Furnell examines the unmade stories from Sylvester McCoy’s era
• OMEGA: THE LOST TIME LORD
Steve Traves considers one of the series’ more enigmatic villains
• UNDERAPPRECIATED MONSTERS & VILLIANS IN DOCTOR WHO
Jessica Chaleff points the spotlight at a sample of less-looked-for antagonists
• AN EVENING WITH MATTHEW WATERHOUSE
Paula Hammond reports on this special event with Matthew Waterhouse
• COLUMN: TARGET TRAWL
Nick Mellish continues his journey reading every single Target novel
• COLUMN: THE DOCTOR WHO SCHOLAR
This issue Jeremy examines Doctor Who as transmedia
• WHO YOU BUILD
Steve Traves explores more full-scale Doctor Who model making
• THE BLACK ARCHIVES: THE MASSACRE REVIEWED
Andrew Screen reviews one of the Black Archive books
• WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT…?
Whotopia interviews authors Will Hadcroft and Ian Wheeler
• COLUMN: THE AUDIO ARCHIVES
Andrew Screen continues his look at the works of Big Finish
• MASTER WHO PART 3: ANTHONY AINLEY
Dan Tessier details Anthony Ainley’s version of ‘The Master’
• POLARITY DAY: REMEMBERING JON PERTWEE
Paula Hammond attends this special DWAS event celebrating third Doctor Jon Pertwee
• CLASS REVIEWED
Jon Arnold turns his critical eye on the first few episodes of the latest Who spinoff
• THE BLACK ARCHIVES VOLUME 1-3
Andrew Screen takes a look at the series of books from Obverse Books
• COLUMN: THE CURATE’S EGG
With the end of an era looming, Richard Michaels fires off a defence of Steven Moffat

The magazine can be downloaded for free from whotopia.ca.

A fan produced audio adventure exploring one of the biggest ‘What Ifs…?’ in Doctor Who history has been released to coincide with the show’s 53rd anniversary.

Ken Campbell was the Time Lord who almost was when he lost out to Sylvester McCoy for the role of the Seventh Doctor in 1987.

In this new adventure, the actor finally claims the helm of time and space in an original, fan-made episode, written by long-time fan Tom Calderbank, that introduces a brand new companion, a new villain and the TARDIS’ elusive Eternity Room…

The Lost Doctor is available online for free.

The BBC has confirmed that classic series writer Rona Munro and new series writer Jamie Mathieson have both written episodes for series Ten of Doctor Who.

Rona Munro wrote the final story in the original series of Doctor Who, Survival, first shown in 1989. She has since become a highly respected scriptwriter working across the industry. She wrote the script for Ken Loach's Ladybird, ladybird as well as Oranges and Sunshine and Aimee and Jaguar. She has been prolific on the stage and written eleven Drama's for BBC Radio 4's Stanley Baxter Playhouse.

Munro becomes the first classic series writer to write for the revived series. She has written Episode 9, The Eaters of Light, for the upcoming series which is currently being shot in Cardiff, as part of the fourth recording block

Munro tells the new edition of Doctor Who Magazine Also being filmed at present is Episode 5 by Jamie Mathieson, who previously contributed the 2014 stories Mummy on the Orient Express and Flatline as well as co-writing last year's The Girl Who Died. Mathieson tells DWM The end of the fourth recording block marks the half way point in the production of series ten,

The BBC has released Behind the Scenes pictures from the first two episodes of Class.

The pictures contain spoilers from the episodes which are available on BBC Three in the UK

The BBC has released a new set of pictures from the first episode of the upcoming Doctor Who spin-off - Class


Class is due to be released on the BBC Three channel next weekend, as well as being screened in Australia, Canada and the Middle East.

A set of Character Portraits have also been released