Veteran director Christopher Barry has died at the age of 88.

Christopher Barry was responsible for some of the most admired stories from the classic series of Doctor Who, where he was the longest serving director, responsible for 43 episodes spanning the years 1963-1979. He directed all of the first four Doctors - one of only three directors to do so.

He joined the Doctor Who team in the late summer of 1963, when he was assigned to direct the second story, The Daleks, replacing Rex Tucker who had left after artistic differences with producer Verity Lambert. The script he would bring to life would see the introduction of the Daleks and ensure the success of the fledgling series. Barry would end up directing episodes 1,2,4 and 5 of the story, creating the 'sink-plunger' cliff hanger at the end of episode 1 which would see the nation on the edge of their seats until the full revelation of the Dalek machine in episode 2. He was in the studio directing episode 2 when the news of President Kennedy's assassination broke.

Barry returned to the series a year later, directing The Rescue, the story which saw the introduction of the first new companion since the series start, Vicki, played by Maureen O'Brien. He stayed on to direct the next story The Romans, a historical romp which saw much more humour introduced to the series. Having introduced a companion, his next Doctor Who assignment was to see the departure of another, as his final story with William Hartnell, The Savages, was to be the last story to feature Steven Taylor, as played by Peter Purves.

In 1966, Barry masterminded the introduction of a new Doctor, when he directed Patrick Troughton's first story, The Power of the Daleks. The story, long missing from the archives, had the difficult job of introducing a new lead actor to the series and cementing the long term success of the series.

His next outing was with the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, when he directed the 1971 story The Dæmons. Long regarded as a classic, the story is often cited as a favourite by members of the cast and production team. Barry returned the following year to direct the six part story The Mutants.

Having overseen the debut of one Doctor in 1966, Barry was able to do so once again when, at the end of 1974, he directed Robot, introducing the world to the man who would become the longest-serving (continuous) on-screen Doctor - and arguably the most famous in the public eye from the 'classic' era - Tom Baker. The story was one of the first with all location work recorded direct onto video tape using a BBC OB unit. The following year he directed another classic, The Brain of Morbius, which saw the fourth Doctor encounter the eccentric surgeon Solon and his Time Lord secret. It was in this story Barry featured on screen alongside other production team members as one of the faces projected onto the screen during the Doctor's mind battle with Morbius.

Barry's final story for classic Doctor Who came in 1979 when he directed the four part story The Creature from the Pit, with the DVD release of that story containing a retrospective of his work. While the series was off air he also directed the 1995 story Downtime, a direct-to-video story produced by the independent production company Reeltime Pictures.

He began his film and TV career in the movies, working as an assistant director on star vehicles including Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953), The Love Lottery (1954) and The Ship That Died of Shame (1955). By 1958 he was directing, working on the BBC’s Starr and Company, the crime drama Private Investigator and the long-running soap opera Compact. He directed episodes of Paul Temple, Moonbase 3, Poldark, Angels, Nicholas Nickleby, The Onedin Line, Z Cars, All Creatures Great and Small, Nanny and Juliet Bravo. He also directed eleven episodes of the TV adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripods.

UPDATE - 16th FEBRUARY: It has emerged that Barry died on Friday 7th February after falling down an escalator at a shopping centre in Banbury, near his home in Oxfordshire, earlier that day. He was taken to hospital but while there he suddenly stopped breathing and doctors could not revive him. An inquest into his death will be held on Thursday 5th June.

Not On Your Telly is a new book by broadcast historian Tim Worthington, looking into the dustier corners of the TV Archives.

There's plenty of Doctor Who-related content, including in-depth features on The Android Invasion and The Space Pirates, as well as the story behind the first ever Dalek radio show from 1966, an account of what it was like to see the recovered episode 2 of Evil Of The Daleks for the first time, and a look at the 'Sunday Classics' serials produced by Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts.

There's also lots on other shows including Fist Of Fun, Play School, and little-known TV appearances by The Beatles and Bob Dylan.

Not On Your Telly in paperback for £4.99, and as a eBook for £1.99.

The New Zealand mint has released a new coin featuring a Dalek, the first in a five coin series featuring classic Doctor Who Monsters.

The Doctor Who Monsters series is a limited mintage of 5000 coins only per release, and is crafted from ½ Ounce of fine silver (0.999). Each coin is sold with an individual presentation case, along with an individually numbered certificate of authenticity. Like recent New Zealand releases, the coins will be issued under the licensing authority of Niue.

The coin, with a face value of $1, depicts a relief engraved Dalek, set against a colour background. This is surrounded by a finely engraved border design. The obverse features the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The remaining coins will be issued over the course of the next four months and will feature the Weeping Angels, the Cybermen, the Silurians and the Sontarans.

Customers who purchase from the New Zealand Mint website will recieve low certificate numbers in the series, numbers 50-999. In addition, everyone who purchases the Dalek coin will have the opportunity to receive identically numbered certificates for each further release in the series.

Silva Screen have been nominated for an International Film Music Critics Association Award for the 2013 release of Doctor Who: The 50th Anniversary Collection

The four CD set, released in December, featured 129 tracks of music music from five decades of Doctor Who. It included many pieces that had never before been released, with tracks from composers including Tristram Cary, Brian Hodgson, Dudley Simpson, Geoffrey Burgon, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, Malcolm Clarke, Keff McCulloch, Dominic Glynn, John Debney, Mark Ayres and Murray Gold. The album was produced by Mark Ayres, Reynold DaSilva and David Stoner with liner notes by Mark Ayres and album art direction by Stuart Ford.

The nomination is for BEST ARCHIVAL RELEASE OF AN EXISTING SCORE – COMPILATION

Other nominees are Lethal Weapon Soundtrack Collection, music by Michael Kamen, Eric Clapton and David Sanborn; Michel Legrand Anthology, music by Michel Legrand; Varèse Sarabande: A 35th Anniversary Celebration, music by Various Composers; The X-Files: Volume Two, music by Mark Snow.

The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) is an association of online, print and radio journalists who specialize in writing about original film and television music. The annual IFMCA Awards, which were first presented in 2004, are the only awards given to composers by film music journalists.

The winners will be announced at the 10th IFMCA Awards on February 20, 2014.

The CD Collection is available from Amazon.

Character Options have announced a new series of Doctor Who figures including the newly regenerated Twelfth Doctor.

Other figures in the set are The Eleventh Doctor, Clara Oswald, Weeping Angel, Assault Dalek, Imperial Guard Dalek and a Zygon.

The new figures will be available at all the usual outlets from early March although some retailers will allow pre-orders from next week.

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine looks back on Matt Smith's four years as the Doctor. Also in this issue:

• Model-maker extraordinaire Mike Tucker and members of the Model Unit talk to DWM about creating the visual effects for Doctor Who in the 1980s.
• Doctor Who's new executive producer Brian Minchin writes exclusively for DWM in Production Notes.
• A detailed look at the Fact of Fiction of 1980's Meglos.
• The Blood of Azrael – the first part of a new comic strip adventure for the Doctor and Clara.
• The Time Team welcome Donna aboard the TARDIS as they watch Partners in Crime.
• A preview of the recently rediscovered The Web of Fear on DVD.
• A review of the newly released Moonbase DVD from Matthew Sweet.
• Jacqueline Rayner debates the ethics of telling the truth to her children in Relative Dimensions.
• The Watcher talks about his favourite Doctor Who planets and outs another helpless supporting artiste in Wotcha!
• Reviews of the latest DVDs, CDs, and books.
• Competitions, puzzles, and much more.

DWM 470 is on sale from Thursday 6 February 2014.

The BBC has taken to Twitter to warn people to avoid tweets claiming to be from either Peter Capaldi or Jenna Coleman, as neither actor has a Twitter account. In a tweet sent out from the official Doctor Who account last week, it said:
Meanwhile, Coleman has been talking about her life in travel, including her earliest holiday memory (Cornwall) and her favourite destination in Britain (Derbyshire). She says her best holiday was in The Maldives. "I went after finishing series seven of Doctor Who. I had to pinch myself because it was so picturesque. Especially because I'd gone in January, from grey London skies and concrete to all this colour and sea. It took about five days to settle in. We arrived by seaplane and barely saw anyone else the whole time. We did a catamaran trip where the hotel took us out with a picnic and snorkelling gear to a strip of sand in the middle of the ocean and left us there. You couldn't see anything else except the horizon and water. We were totally stranded." Her worst travel experience was "Christmas Eve at London Euston railway station, trying to get home to Blackpool. Everybody turns into animals. Humans stop being humans." [The Independent, 1 Feb 2014]

Tomorrow's episode of ITV drama Midsomer Murders sees an End of Time reunion of sorts take place, with Bernard Cribbins, Jacqueline King and June Whitfield among the guest cast caught up in the goings-on of The Flying Club, when an airfield owner is murdered. Cribbins plays veteran mechanic Duggie Wingate, Whitfield portrays Molly Darnley, a former Air Transport Auxiliary member with a dark secret, and King is Laura Wilding - the mother of resident pathologist Kate. Chatting about the episode last week, Cribbins said that Whitfield's character would be a love interest for Wingate. The two-hour episode airs from 8pm. [ITV Press Centre]

Paul McGann and Sophie Aldred will be among the star guests at sci-fi convention The SF Ball in Bournemouth later this week. The event takes place from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th February and Aldred, who filmed a number of her Doctor Who stories in the county, spoke of her fond memories of the place. "It was always a delight. I love Dorset and it was great to be filming there," she said, adding: "I remember having a barbecue on the sand at Lulworth Cove. Somebody had managed to wire up lights on an extension cable. We had a disco. Then we would go for walks off along Durdle Door. I remember watching shooting stars one night. It was wonderful." Aldred also said how much she enjoyed meeting the show's fans. "They are incredibly bright people. Doctor Who attracts really brilliant, brainy people," she said. (NB: McGann will only be at the event on the Friday and Saturday.) [Dorset Echo, 3 Feb 2014]

Sylvester McCoy and Karen Gillan join the guests taking part in the Sci-Fi Expo in Irving, Texas, at the weekend. Organised by Dallas Comic Con, the event will be held at the Irving Convention Center on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th February, with Gillan there on Saturday only. [TheForce.net, 30 Jan 2014]

If you miss her then, Gillan will be on the Wizard World Comic Con Tour later this year, appearing at Philadelphia Comic Con from Thursday 19th to Sunday 22nd June, Chicago Comic Con from Thursday 21st to Sunday 24th August, and Austin Comic Con from Thursday 2nd to Saturday 4th October. [Wizard World]

Staying with the Stateside theme, Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall has spoken about David Tennant's American accent in Gracepoint - the US remake of the ITV crime drama. Tennant played Det Insp Alec Hardy in the British original and is portraying Det Emmett Carver in the US version, and Chibnall said of the actor's accent: "I've heard it's fantastic." [Radio Times, 30 Jan 2014]

Meanwhile, Broadchurch co-star Olivia Colman has been talking of the agonies of keeping a tight lid on the plot of the second series after enduring similar tongue-holding for the first one. "Now it’s all starting again, it's awful - there's no end to the secret keeping."
[Radio Times, 30 Jan 2014]

Colin Baker had a jovial dig at the BBC over the gender of the Doctor, saying: "There should [be a female Doctor]. It won't happen because they are too timid but there should be. First female Doctor? I will have a sex change and do it. I am in touch with my feminine side." [Radio Times, 29 Jan 2014]

Brian Cox is to return as Broughty Ferry burger-seller and failed politican Bob Servant for a second - shorter - TV series of the comedy Bob Servant Independent. Filming begins in May, with Bob and his long-suffering campaign manager Frank (played by Jonathan Watson) left to pick up their lives after a by-election disaster. Cox joked: "Doing Bob Servant was the worst experience of my long career, working with no-hoper talents like [series writer] Neil Forsyth and the rest of them. But these things are sent to try us and occasionally we must fly the flag for the afflicted. One has to be generous at my great age so I am happy to endorse the new series of Bob Servant. For no-hopers they're awffy nice people. I remember when I used to make movies!" The show follows in the footsteps of the Bob Servant books and radio series, with last year's TV series comprising six episodes. The second series, consisting of three episodes, will air later this year on BBC Four and BBC Two Scotland. [BBC Media Centre, 3 Feb 2014]

Following the announcement of the opening of a musical version of Back To The Future in the West End next year, speculation has been rife over who will land the plum role of Marty McFly, with Arthur Darvill being given odds of 16/1 by Paddy Power. [The Independent, 2 Feb 2014]

Billie Piper caused a stir at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin last week when she dropped by to give her support to friend Ben Power on the opening night of his play A Tender Thing. The actress is filming forthcoming psychosexual horror TV series Penny Dreadful in the area, playing Irish immigrant Brona Croft. The programme - also starring Timothy Dalton - is due to start airing on Showtime in May. [Irish Independent, 1 Feb 2014]

Alex Kingston reprises the role of Dinah Lance in an episode of Arrow, the series based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow. Entitled Heir To The Demon, the episode - which also features a character called Nyssa! - is due to air on The CW tomorrow at 8pm ET. A preview clip including Kingston is available to watch below:


And Kingston is being reunited with Sir Kenneth Branagh for a radio production of Antony and Cleopatra. The duo - who are playing the eponymous roles - starred together in Macbeth last year at Manchester International Festival, and Branagh said he was "excited to be reunited with Alex Kingston after our hugely rewarding partnership in Macbeth on stage. To play another pair of Shakespeare's great couples is a privilege." It is due to air on Radio 3 on Sunday 20th April. [The Stage, 29 Jan 2014]

Jessica Raine will be appearing as new recruit Det Con Georgia Trotman in the second series of BBC Two's police corruption drama Line of Duty, which starts on Wednesday 12th February at 9pm. She said that what worried her most was her style of running. "What I was most concerned about was not running like a girl in a police vest. I practised that a few times," she said, adding that having watched playbacks she reckoned she did OK. [Radio Times, 30 Jan 2014]

Meanwhile, Raine and David Walliams were among those pictured at the Radio Times Cover Party. [Radio Times, 29 Jan 2014]

Robert Webb is to replace Stephen Mangan as Bertie Wooster in Perfect Nonsense at The Duke of York's Theatre in London from Monday 7th April. [The Stage, 3 Feb 2014]

The BBC has had to correct itself over the make of boots being worn by Peter Capaldi as the Doctor.

The entire costume ensemble was revealed last Monday, with the BBC stating that the footwear was Dr Marten shoes. However, it was subsequently realised that the corporation had erred and that they were, in fact, made by Loake - a Kettering-based footwear firm with a warrant of appointment to the Queen. It also transpired that Capaldi had bought the boots himself.

In a report in the Daily Telegraph, Nicholas Roumana, the owner of the British Boot Company (spot the coincidence as regards the shop's initials!) in Camden Town, said of the Loakes:
According to reports, a second pair was bought last Tuesday to be used by Capaldi's stunt double.

A tweet from the official Doctor Who Twitter account last Friday stated the following:



The new outfit has been deconstructed in a Telegraph online piece in which Crombie is reported as saying that it didn't make Capaldi's coat, although it was labelled a Crombie coat by the BBC. However, this could simply be a case of the coat having been made out of Crombie cloth. According to the online piece, Crombie has provided the BBC's costume department with several coats for the new series.