The new police box in Boscombe was officially revealed to the public today in front of a large enthusiastic crowd.

Dorset Police Band entertained onlookers beforehand and then it was time for Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood to deliver a speech before unveiling the steel-framed construction, which is based on the iconic 1929 design created by Gilbert Mackenzie Trench for the Metropolitan Police and subsequently used in Doctor Who.

Clouds of dry ice poured out of the box as it was opened.

Former Bournemouth AFC forward Steve Fletcher was among those present, as were Inspector Chris Weeks and Sgt Chris Amey, who both have responsibilities for the area and have previously spoken about the policing and tourism benefits of having the box. Also there was Dorset Police Federation chairman Tony Tester who, as he set off for the event, tweeted: "Off to the launch of the new police box this morning by car not time travel."

The MP said:
A report by ITV station Meridian about the police box's opening is available to watch via this link. Doctor Who News reader Nick Joy was interviewed for it and he took the pictures below:


For more photos, see Dorset Police's Twitter feed.

Doctor Who makes the front cover of the Radio Times once again as the magazine celebrates this year's BAFTA Nominations. As mentioned yesterday, the Radio Times Audience Award is open to the public vote over which of Doctor Who (The Day of the Doctor), Broadchurch, Educating Yorkshire, Gogglebox, Breaking Bad, and The Great British Bakeoff is the best British drama over the last year.

As well as the latest Matt Smith/Jenna Coleman cover joining a Doctor Who collection way exceeding 50 in recent years, actor David Tennant has adorned over 20 himself, this time alongside Olivia Colman to represent writer Chris Chibnall's crime drama Broadchurch!


Readers can vote for -D-o-c-t-o-r- -W-h-o- their favourite drama via the Radio Times website.

Polyband, the German media distributor for Doctor Who, have announced the release of Ein Abenteuer in Raum und Zeit, aka An Adventure in Space and Time, on Blu-ray for the end of July.

The release marks the first time the high definition format of the 50th Anniversary drama will be available in Europe, and will feature both the English and an exclusive German language soundtrack made especially for this release - the drama did not air in Germany itself.

The set is also expected to include all of the special features present on the North American version, which is due to be released in May.

A press release was issued for announcement, tying into this week's BAFTA nomination for the drama.

A second proposal for a Lego Doctor Who set has won support from the 10,000 people needed to take it on to the review stage.

In February, Andrew Clark put forward the following idea for a set entitled Doctor Who And Companions.

More details were also put on his website.

In addition, Clark has uploaded a video to YouTube that shows his idea:


Now that Clark's proposal has gained the backing of 10,000 people, Lego has said the project will officially move from the idea stage to the review phase. In the following congratulatory statement, it wrote:
It was announced in February that Lego was looking for Doctor Who-related proposals, and last month the first one to reach the all-important support of 10,000 people was announced.

As with the first idea to reach the 10,000 threshold, Clark's will now be examined by a Lego review board comprising designers, product managers and other key team members. Concept models will be built to help decide if it meets the required standards to become a Lego product, which will include factors such as safety and playability. The review will begin next month and end in September, and when it ends a "go/no go" decision will be made to develop and sell a product based on the concept.

Again, as with the earlier proposal, if it gets the green light it will then go into the development phase - billed by Lego as the longest one of the entire project - during which Lego model designers will refine the product and develop it for release. In addition, product materials such as the packaging and marketing will be created in preparation for a production run. Lego says that this particular phase "also takes several months".

The BBC announced today that Ben Miller will be appearing in an episode of the currently filming eighth series of Doctor Who.

The actor said:
Executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat observed:
The Armstrong and Miller and Death in Paradise actor is the latest guest star to have been recently announced, joining a line-up this year that includes Tony Way, Keeley Hawes, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, and Tom Riley.

With just one day to go before the TARDIS-style police box is officially opened in Boscombe, Dorset Police has tweeted an image showing it on the back of a flatbed lorry, as shown below.

The picture is undated but, as previously reported, the steel-framed box was placed into position at the western end of the precinct in Christchurch Road last Thursday.

The box will be opened tomorrow at 11.30am by Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood, with a family fun day to follow. Dorset Police hopes that as well as serving policing purposes it will become an iconic landmark, attracting tourists.

The BBC and ITV have told Doctor Who News that they intend covering the opening in their local news bulletins, subject to last-minute changes to their news diaries. For those able to receive them, BBC One's South Today programme broadcasts tomorrow at 1.30pm, 6.30pm and 10.25pm, while Meridian News will be going out at 1.55pm, 6pm and 10.30pm.

The police box's design is based on the iconic 1929 version created for the Metropolitan Police by Gilbert Mackenzie Trench. Built by AMK Industries, of Christchurch in Dorset, it has been funded by local firms and organisations via donations or services, either free or at a significantly reduced cost. The sponsors will be recognised with an engraved paving stone at the foot of the box.

Doctor Who Magazine has won an Ace Press Award for Circulation Excellence by a Monthly Magazine.

The award follows the record breaking figure from the Audit Bureau of Circulations which showed that the magazine, published by Panini, had a total average net circulation of 36,151 per issue, up 14.1 per cent on the previous six months.

The award was presented at the 2014 ACE Press Awards held at the Museum of London on 27th March 2014.

Circulation Manager, Katie Wilkinson says Tom Spilsbury, Editor of Doctor Who Magazine, commented on the ACE AWARD

The drama based on the origins of Doctor Who, An Adventure in Space and Time, has been nominated for an award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

The Mark Gatiss story, is up for Best Single Drama in the main television awards, the winners of which will be announced Sunday 18 May 2014.

Television | Single Drama in 2014
• The Wipers Times
David Parfitt|Andy De Emmony|Ian Hislop|Nick Newman
• Black Mirror: Be Right Back
Barney Reisz|Charlie Brooker|Owen Harris
• An Adventure In Space And Time
Mark Gatiss|Matt Strevens|Terry McDonough|Caroline Skinner
• Complicit
Guy Hibbert|Niall MacCormick|Kevin Toolis|Jolyon Symonds

Doctor Who itself is up for an audience award, with the 50th Anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor being nominated in the category where the winner is voted for by the British Public.

Television | Radio Times Audience Award in 2014
• Doctor Who: Day Of The Doctor
• Educating Yorkshire
• Breaking Bad
• Broadchurch
• Gogglebox
• The Great British Bakeoff

Voting in now open and can be done via the Radio Times Website.

Doctor Who and An Adventure in Space and Time, have also been nominated in the 2014 BAFTA craft awards, the winner of which will be announced on Sunday 27 April.

A book that takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the era of the Seventh Doctor is to be brought out in July 2014 by Miwk Publishing, with the authors' profits going to the Alzheimer's Society.

Wallowing In Our Own Weltschmerz is being written by Andy Davidson, Chris Orton, Andrew Orton, Steven Duckworth, Robert Hammond and Matthew West – a fanzine collection of writers known as "Auton" – with the cover designed by Andrew Orton.

"Auton" dates back to 1989 and since then has produced "nineteen and a half" fanzines and two books.

(Editor's note: "Weltschmerz" is German for "world-weariness".)

The actor and writer Glyn Idris Jones has died at the age of 82.

Jones was one of a select group who not only wrote for Doctor Who but also appeared in it.

Born in Durban in South Africa, Jones trained as an actor, touring the country with the National Theatre Company. He arrived in London in the 1950s, having worked his passage to the United Kingdom, entering the country with about five pounds in his pocket. He worked for The Sunday Times and Kemsley Newspapers before returning to acting in weekly rep first at New Brighton and then at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.

In 1964 he met David Whitaker, the first story editor on Doctor Who, at a dinner party hosted by Trevor Bannister of Are You Being Served fame. The result was that he was commissioned to write The Space Museum for the second series of the show. By the time the script entered production the story editor was Dennis Spooner, who cut much of the humorous elements from the script, much to Jones's dismay. He would later write the Target novelisation of his scripts, reinstating much of this material.

Jones would write only one script for the series, a second was rejected by a later production team, but he would return as an actor, appearing as Krans, one of a group of GalSec colonists stranded on Earth, in the 1975 story The Sontaran Experiment.

Other work as an actor included appearing in London's West End in Reunion in Vienna, Brassbound's Convention and Measure for Measure. In America he played Dodge in Buried Child and Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge. He wrote the screenplay for the 1964 Oscar-nominated film A King's Story, based on the life of Edward VIII, and was chief writer for the fondly-remembered children's series Here Come the Double Deckers.

His autobiography No Official Umbrella was published in 2008.

Jones died peacefully at home in Vamos, Crete, on Wednesday 2 April 2014. His death was announced on his blog.