BBC Studios have announced the next Blu-ray release in their 'classic' season boxed sets will be Tom Baker's final year as the Doctor, the 1980/81 Season Eighteen.

As well as the seven stories from the season, the set will also include the Christmas spin-off special, K9 & Company.

As with the previous release of Season Twelve and the imminent release of Season Nineteen, this new collection will feature a host of new features to supplement the remastered high-definition upscaled episodes themselves:

• revealing new 2019 commentaries moderated by Matthew Sweet (Tom Baker on The Leisure Hive, Lalla Ward and Rachel Davies on State Of Decay)
• rare behind-the-scenes footage from The Leisure Hive, Full Circle and Logopolis
• surround sound mix for Warriors’ Gate
• new special effects for Logopolis, including new especially shot footage at the originally planned but ultimately unused University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory for the Pharos Project location
• a new Making-Of documentary for Logopolis
• eight more editions of Behind The Sofa
• brand new documentaries The Writers Room and Weekend With Waterhouse
• a new interview with K9 & Company’s Ian Sears
• another dip into the Panopticon convention archives with Tom Baker
• HD photo galleries plus scripts, production files and rare documentation provided as PDFs
• plus extensive features previously released on DVD

The material has been remastered by Peter Crocker and Mark Ayres, with packaging/artwork by Lee Binding; the set will also feature a booklet by new series writer and content consultant Pete McTighe.

Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 18 is currently scheduled for the UK on 25th February 2019, though as with the previous volumes the date may change before its intended release.

You can pre-order the set from our Amazon Shop.

Candy Jar Books have announced the first of their standalone Lethbridge-Stewart novels to be released next year:


The novel is a sequel to the 1990s video film Downtime, and is published in co-ordination with producers Reeltime Pictures. The novel continues the story of a pre-UNIT Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and her son Gordon, set some nine years after the events in the original film and a little after its sequel, Dæmos Rising; it also serves to introduce Reeltime's forthcoming release in the series, Anomaly (in which Beverley Cressman reprises her role as Kate). As a Candy-Jar book, the story incorporates elements from their own Lethbridge-Stewart series, including the Brigadier's eldest son, Conall Wilson.

Range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen, and author of the book, explains how it came to pass:
Cover art is by popular Doctor Who artist Adrian Salmon, who said:

There will be two editions of Downtime: Children of the New World, a standard paperback limited to 500 copies, and and limited hardback edition of 50 copies. Both are avaialable for pre-order from the Candy Jar website. Please note that this novel isn't part of any subscription offer.

The actor Andrew Burt has died at the age of 73

Andrew Burt played Valgard, one of the Vanir, in the 1983 fifth Doctor story Terminus.

Born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, he trained at Rose Bruford College of Drama.

He was a regular on television throughout the 1970's, 80's and 90's. One of his first TV roles was in 1972, playing Jack Sugden in the new TV soap Emmerdale Farm. He played Captain FitzRoy in the TV drama The Voyage of Charles Darwin.

In 1979 he took the title role in The Legend of King Arthur alongside former Doctor Who companion Maureen O'Brien playing Morgan le Fay. Another folk hero came his way when he starred in Gulliver in Lilliput alongside Elisabeth Sladen. He played Ven Jarvik in a 1980 episode of Blake's 7.

Regular roles in Mystery!: Campion, Angels, Bergerac, The Bill and Oscar Charlie followed. He was the voice of Radio Norwich for both series of I'm Alan Partridge, appearing in one episode as Alan's old Headmaster.

In recent years Burt worked as a counsellor for people with stress-related illnesses.

The BBC have released the first promotional image for the New Year's Day adventure for the Doctor:

Doctor Who: Kerblam! had an official rating of 7.46 million viewers, according to figures released by the Broadcasting Research Audience Board, BARB.

7.23 million watched the episode on a conventional TV set. However the BARB 4-Screen Dashboard shows that an additional 120,000 watched on their PC, 61,000 watched on a Tablet device and 52,000 watched on a smartphone These figures make Doctor Who the 9th most watched programme of the week ending 18th November.

Top for the week was Sundays edition of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here getting 14.17 million watching.

Kerblam! had an Appreciation Index score of 81, again scoring higher with female viewers.

Rose Tyler, as played by Billie Piper, is returning for a new Doctor Who audio spin-off, and she’s bringing along her family and friends.

Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon,is a new audio series made by Big Finish Productions in association with BBC Studios. It follows Rose’s journey through dying parallel worlds and also stars Camille Coduri as Rose’s mum Jackie, Shaun Dingwall as her dad Pete, Mark Benton as alien investigator Clive Finch and Elli Garnett as Caroline Finch.

Producer David Richardson tells how the series came about.
The four episodes follow Rose’s mission to seek out the Doctor, the only person who can save the doomed multi-verse.

1. The Endless Night by Jonathan Morris
2. The Flood by Lisa McMullin
3. Ghost Machines by AK Benedict
4. The Last Party on Earth by Matt Fitton

The series has its own distinct tone. Focusing on the era of Russell T Davies, there are no alien threats or villains to defeat. Instead these amazing stories capture and showcase the beautifully rich human characters of Doctor Who.

Billie Piper shared her excitment at returning to the role.
From the worlds of Doctor Who, Rose Tyler – The Dimension Cannon will be released in September 2019, available for pre-order now on CD at £25 on CD and £20 on download.

Doctor Who: The Witchfinders was watched by 5.66 million viewers, a share of 27.9% of the total TV audience, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The rating makes Doctor Who the fourth highest rated programme for Sunday and the 19th for the week ending 18th November.

Highest for the day was ITV’s celebrity show, I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here which had 9.73 million watching. Strictly Come Dancing - Results Show had 8.86 million viewers, while Dynasties, the David Attenborough series had 6.79 million. The BBC Drama The Little Drummer Girl had 2.29 million.

The week was dominated by I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, which took seven out of the top ten places for the week, each episode getting over 8 million watching. Strictly Come Dancing still took top position for the Saturday show getting 9.98 million viewers.

Coronation Street and Emmerdale pushed The Doctor down to 19th place on the overnight figures.

Final figures should be available next Monday.

The actor George A Cooper has died at the age of 93.

George A Cooper was known to a whole generation of children for playing the caretaker, Mr Grifiths, in the children's drama Grange Hill, appearing in 103 episodes between 1985 and 1992. He appeared in Doctor Who in 1966, playing Cherub in the First Doctor story The Smugglers.

George Alphonsus Cooper was born in Leeds in 1925. After training as an electrical engineer and architect he was called up for National Service, working for the Royal Artillery in India. During that period he became interested in performing and on his discharge joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in Manchester. To avoid confusion with American actor George Cooper he used his middle initial in his stage name.

His first appearance on television was in 1946. Over the next fifty years, he was a regular on the screen developing a career out of portraying slightly bumbling authoritarian characters. In 1964 he won a recurring role in ITV's Coronation Street playing businessman Willie Piggott who famously tried to bribe Ken Barlow to give his son Brian a pass on his tech exam.

He had regular roles in Z-Cars and Dixon of Dock Green. In 1960 he appeared in the West End play Billy Liar playing the father of the title character, later reprising the role in the 1973 television series. He appeared in comedies such as Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Sykes and Mind Your Language.

In 1985 he took on the role of no-nonsense caretaker Eric Griffiths in the incredibly successful children's drama Grange Hill, playing the role for seven years and earning a place in the hearts of a generation of children.

His last TV appearance was in a 1995 episode of Casualty.

George A Cooper died at a nursing home in Hampshire last Friday. He is survived by his son Adam.

Candy Jar Books have announce the official release of The Lucy Wilson Mysteries novel Curse of the Mirror Clowns, which will be celebrated with a book launch on Saturday the 24th November from 11 until 3 o’clock at Heroes, Aliens and Monsters Comics in Tonypandy, featuring the book's author, Chris Lynch alongside Kangazang illustrator and author Terry Cooper.

Chris says of Curse of the Mirror Clowns:

Terry Cooper, often found impersonating Captain Jack Sparrow all over South Wales, is author of the science fiction trilogy Kangazang!, the third installment of which was recently launched at Cardiff Film and ComicCon; he will be signing copies of the book and CD (voiced by Sixth Doctor Colin Baker).

Head of publishing Shaun Russell states that: