After some six years Doctor Who has returned to Christmas Day, which of course makes it a candidate for being the most watched show on the day!

Though it is unlikely to make the top slot tomorrow - the King's Speech is almost certainly going to have that honour owing to its simultaneous showing across the major broadcasters - the bookies seem to generally agree that The Church On Ruby Road might well be the second-most watched programme of the day at 6-1! This is followed up by Call The Midwife at 8-1, and both Eastenders and Strictly Come Dancing at 9-1. ITV1 shows include Coronation Street at 16-1 and Emmerdale at 25-1.

Of course with six years between Christmas Specials, it's been six years since our ratings competition for Christmas Day, and this year you can win a copy of The Church On Ruby Road on Blu-ray or DVD. To enter, simply email us at comp-ratings@doctorwhonews.net with your name and the consolidated one week figure you expect the episode to achieve, as reported by BARB early next year.

Please specify the number in millions to 3 decimal places, for example 6.848m as achieved by The Giggle at the start of the month. For guidance, the highest rated non-King's speech programme last year was 7.814m achieved by Call The Midwife, who also took the 'silver crown' in 2021 with 7.831m.

The competition is open to UK residents, the closing date is Tuesday 26 December at 8:00am.

Today, 23rd November 2023, marks 60 years since the first episode of Doctor Who was transmitted. 

That first episode, An Unearthly Child, was broadcast at 5.16 pm on BBC Television where it was watched by 4.4 million viewers.

Since that first episode was screened the series has become a global success, holding a number of Guinness World Records and becoming one of the BBC's best-known brands. 

Overall 871 episodes of the series have been broadcast, not including spin-offs and special celebrity episodes. To watch every single episode back to back would take 17 days, 23 hours, and 54 minutes. Unfortunately, 97 episodes are currently missing from the BBC archive although the audio exists from all episodes. 

13 people have taken on the lead role in the series, William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker.

Today we pay tribute to the thousands of people who have worked on Doctor Who and made it the success it has become, as well as the millions of fans around the world who follow and support the adventures of the excentric Time Lord. 

And we look forward to the future, with three special episodes and a brand-new Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, taking us into Doctor Who's 7th decade. 

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan is set to trade the ballroom for the TARDIS, as she joins the cast of Doctor Who.

The Galway-born actress has made a huge impact in film and television having starred in roles such as Clare Devlin in the award-winning drama comedy series Derry Girls, Penelope Featherington in the regency-era international sensation Bridgerton, and not to forget one of the Barbies in mega-blockbuster Barbie, alongside the Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa.

Coughlan is now set to make a big impact when she takes a trip through time and space in this undisclosed role.

On joining Doctor Who, Nicola Coughlan says:

Showrunner, Russell T Davies says:

Nicola Coughlan will appear in Doctor Who next year

Doctor Who returns in November 2023 with three special episodes with David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor to coincide with the 60th anniversary. Ncuti Gatwa’s first episode as the Fifteenth Doctor will air over the festive period.

This week marks the launch of The Whoniverse, the place where British Doctor Who fans can find resources on every era of the programme. 

From the 1st of November, The Whoniverse will become the official name, and dedicated home, for all shows within the orbit of Doctor Who which will live on BBC iPlayer. With over 800 episodes of Doctor Who content already in the back catalogue, The Whoniverse will launch with a brand new logo, and every piece of Doctor Who content will carry a brand new ident, instantly bringing all the Doctor Who worlds together in one place and it will continuously expand.

One story likely to be missing from The Whoniverse will be the first-ever story of Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child. A dispute between the BBC and the estate of Anthony Coburn, the credited writer of the story, means that the four episodes of this story will not, for now, appear on the service. 

The first exclusive content to land in the Whoniverse will be Tales of the TARDIS a brand new six-part series that reunites beloved classic Doctor Who duos, as they board a very special TARDIS on a nostalgic voyage through space and time.

Reprising their roles as the Doctor and companions to go on a timey-wimey spin down memory lane in these unmissable adventures are; Maureen O’Brien and Peter Purves, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury, Katy Manning and Daniel Anthony, Peter Davison and Janet Fielding, Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant, and Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred.

These Doctor Who legends step back into character to reflect on their adventures and in the process they discover something new, leaving viewers with a new insight into the story of each timeless pair.

Over six parts, each episode of Tales of the TARDIS features a different duo, with brand new scenes woven together with classic episodes to create a feature-length omnibus episode.

With new scenes written by Showrunner Russell T Davies and previous Doctor Who writers Phil Ford and Pete McTighe, Tales of the TARDIS allows fans to rediscover the stories they love whilst inviting new viewers to explore the vast mythology of the Doctor.

Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Showrunner says:

Dan McGolpin, Director of iPlayer and Channels added:

Viewers can discover Tales Of The TARDIS when The Whoniverse launches on 1st November, with the extensive back catalogue of Doctor Who.

To mark the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who, the BBC is to make over 800 episodes of the series and its spin-offs available on iPlayer.

The episodes will be released on iPlayer from the start of next month, with each one having subtitles, audio description, and sign language available. It will be the biggest collection of Doctor Who ever available on the iPlayer with hundreds of episodes available with multiple accessibility features for the first time.

With the Anniversary Specials due to hit our screens, next month, viewers will have the opportunity to travel back in time with any of the Doctors through the show’s 60-year history with the classic series, as well as explore the vast world of Doctor Who with spin-offs like the Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood and Class, or step behind-the-scenes with every episode of Doctor Who Confidential – all available in one place - BBC iPlayer. 

With over 800 episodes of Doctor Who programming on iPlayer, Russell T Davies, Showrunner said:

Dan McGolpin, Director of iPlayer and channels, said:

As the companion to the back catalogue, the BBC will simultaneously launch an extensive online archive from the show’s history at bbc.co.uk/doctorwho, with everything from interviews with cast to written documents, long unheard audio, and behind-the-scenes photos. Together, they tell the story of the ground-breaking series through 60 archive gems for the 60th anniversary.

The archive invites fans to delve even deeper into the show with curated journeys such as the genesis of Doctor Who, where audio from former Head of Drama, Sydney Newman alongside documents with his original handwritten notes guide you through the origins of Doctor Who. 

In its beginning stages, this new site will feature curated journeys through the archive to bring the show’s extensive history to life for fans – with items like interviews with cast members, news pieces, audio, imagery, and written documents.

Over time, more content will be added to the archive including a special collection of photos that have been scanned at 8k resolution from an estimated total of 25,000 prints, negatives, slides and digital images, which will give an unprecedented insight into the show with access to all areas throughout the years. 

The expanded archive will also feature additional gems from over 100,000 documents, including memos, correspondence, designs, and audience research, alongside orchestral scores of sheet music.

Also being added is a selection of audio clips about Doctor Who, including radio programmes, documentaries, interviews, and music.

BBC iPlayer’s back catalogue and the online archive will launch on 1st November before David Tennant returns as the Fourteenth Doctor for three special 60th-anniversary episodes.

Toby Hadoke has published his annual memoriam of those who have delighted us both in front of and behind the scenes of Doctor Who and its extended worlds, who sadly passed away in 2022.

Doctor Who In Memoriam 2022
Remembering those whom we lost from the worlds of Doctor Who this year. Includes a small number from before 2022 whose deaths only came to light this year.

The actress Millie Gibson has been revealed to be the companion to join new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa on his travels in the TARDIS - she will be playing Ruby Sunday, and will appear in his debut festive story next year.

The actress is best known as Kellie Neelan in Coronation Street, and received the Best Young Performer Award at The British Soap Awards earlier this year. Other roles have included ITV's Butterfly, BBC's Love, Lies and Records, and CBBC series Jamie Johnson.

Speaking of her new role, Millie said:

Ncuti Gatwa added:

Returning showrunner Russell T Davies said:

The reveal took place live on this year's Children in Need telethon - you can donate to the charity via thier website.

The BBC have confirmed that the new companion to accompany Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor on his adventures will be revealed during the annual Children in Need appeal this evening on BBC One.

The weekly consolidated ratings for the week 17-23 October have been released by BARB, indicating that Jodie Whittaker's swansong The Power of the Doctor achieved 5.295 million viewers, making it the second most watched programme on the Sunday and the fifth most watched programme overall for the week.

Top of the week went to Saturday's Strictly Come Dancing (which saw contestant Tyler West and dance partner Dianne Buswell performing the Tango to the Doctor Who theme) with some 9.894m, followed by Sunday's Results show with 8.634m; third place went to Channel 4's The Great British Bake Off with 7.794m, and ITV's Doc Martin was fourth with 5.610m.

The episode achieved 5.1m via TV viewing which placed it sixth (with Wednesday's Coronation Street some 46000 viewers more),; however, once other ways to watch were factored in (4-Screen) it enabled the episode to overtake the soap into fifth place by some 45000 extra viewers! Sunday's BBC News at 10 (which featured an interview with David Tennant on his return to the role) which originally was ahead of Doctor Who on overnights eventually settled into 23rd place with 3.919m viewers (very few people tend to watch the news on catchup  unlike soaps and drama!)

Breaking down the ratings, the episode was watched by 2.37m viewers live, gaining another 1.25m/1.34m overnight via TV/4-Screen respectively (VOSDAL). The last seven days saw an additional 1.48m/1.59m catch up on the show.

The position marks the highest place the show has achieved since Whittker's first few episodes back in 2018 (where her debut hit the top spot and the next three episodes all made 4th place). It is also the highest veiwing figure for the show since The Halloween Apocalypse a year ago today.  

The signed repeat of the episode broadcast early Saturday morning on BBC2 was watched by 35000 viewers. 

Figures for other regions include ABC in Australia with 103000 viewers, and BBC America in the United States with 317000 viewers (64th place in the cable charts with a Neilsen 18-49 rating of 0.06).

As part of the promotion for the new series and the deal with Disney, the BBC have released a video featuring the next Doctor Ncuti Gatwa discussing the role and what he'd like to see and do in his episodes.

Ncuti Gatwa's guide to Doctor Who