Lindsay Duncan will star in this year’s second Doctor Who special as the Time Lord’s companion, the BBC confirmed today.

Duncan, who is starring as Baroness Thatcher in the BBC2 drama Margaret, will play Adelaide – the Doctor’s cleverest and most strong-minded companion yet.

She will join David Tennant, who continues his role as the Doctor in the second instalment of four specials to be screened throughout 2009.

The second special will follow Planet Of The Dead, due to air this Easter on BBC1.

Duncan said: “I’m thrilled to be involved in Doctor Who. I’ve never done anything like this before and I’m really looking forward to working with David Tennant and the Doctor Who team.”

The second episode is being written by executive producer Russell T Davies and Phil Ford.

It is due to go into production in spring 2009 and will be screened on BBC1 later this year.

Davies said: “Lindsay is an incredibly talented actress and I’ve been an admirer of her work for some time.

“We are delighted to announce that she will be joining the team and playing the Doctor’s most strong-minded companion yet.”

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David Tennant’s return to the stage as Hamlet was named the Theatre Event of the Year at an awards ceremony.

The Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards, hosted by Gavin and Stacey stars James Corden and Sheridan Smith, were voted for by 35,000 theatre fans online.

Doctor Who star Tennant was forced to spend much of the acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production out of action with a bad back, but after undergoing surgery he gamely returned to the stage before the end of the run.

Hamlet, which moved from Stratford-upon-Avon to London, also won the Best Regional Production award.

The glitzy London ceremony also saw Kenneth Branagh named Best Actor for Ivanov. Comedian Eddie Izzard bagged Best Solo Performance for his stand-up show Stripped, which launches a UK arena tour this autumn following its sell-out West End season.

The entertainment schedule for the night included a preview of Moonshadow, a new musical by Yusuf Islam, the British singer-songwriter formerly known as Cat Stevens. There were also performances by Phantom of the Opera star Ramin Karimloo and X Factor finalist turned Blood Brothers leading lady Niki Evans.

And Hollywood heartthrob Josh Hartnett, who made his professional theatrical debut in the stage adaptation of Rain Man, was named London Newcomer of the Year.

The Awards were dominated by the Donmar Warehouse, with five wins across three productions – Ivanov, Othello and The Chalk Garden.

Jersey Boys, the blockbuster Broadway musical import telling the story of The Four Seasons secured all four of its nominations, including Best New Musical and Best Actor in a Musical for on-stage Frankie Valli Ryan Molloy.

Original Four Seasons member and composer of The Jersey Boys Bob Gaudio flew in from the United States to collect the Best New Musical award on behalf of the show, which follows four blue-collar boys – Gaudio, Valli and their friends Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi – on their journey to international success.

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Who is Matt Smith? is working on a project to welcome Matt Smith, the 11th Doctor, to the Tardis.

As stated by the webmistress,

The main point of this project is make Matt Smith feel like he is welcome and that we are glad he got the part.

I will be making a Card/Scrap book depending on how many submissions I get will see how big the book is. A message can send a really short or long message or some art max size is 1 A4 page.

Email address for the project is project@whoismattsmith.com

Deadline 27th Feb

You can find more info by clicking on the banner below.

The Doctor Who team are descending on the Arabian Gulf to film scenes for the show’s Easter special.

Planet Of The Dead, which stars David Tennant as the Doctor alongside Michelle Ryan and Lee Evans began filming last month.

The action is moving from Cardiff to Dubai for filming of the show.

Bionic Woman and Merlin star Ryan plays the mysterious Lady Christina de Souza, who joins the Doctor on a bus trip which takes an unexpected detour into danger.

Comedian Evans plays a character named Malcolm, whose life becomes connected to the Doctor’s.

Producer Tracie Simpson said: “We rarely take Doctor Who abroad although we did visit Rome for series four’s The Fires Of Pompeii, which gave us some spectacular footage.

“The locations in Dubai are a perfect match for writer Russell T Davies’s vision of the episode and we expect to film some incredible scenes while we are here.”

Planet Of The Dead is the first of four Doctor Who specials which will be broadcast this year.

Written by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts, the episode will be screened on BBC1 this spring.

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Eva Green and new Doctor Who star Matt Smith have signed up for futuristic drama Womb.

The project, which tackles the controversial subject of human cloning, is Hungarian director Benedek Fliegauf’s first English-language film.

Green will play a grieving widow who decides to clone her late husband, according to Variety. Smith’s role in the film has not been confirmed.

“Womb is one of the most touching and impressive love stories we have read in recent times,” said Match Factory’s Michael Weber, who is handling the film’s international sales.

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Doctor Who star Noel Clarke scooped a top prize at the British Academy Film Awards, winning the rising star award.

Clarke, who played Micky Smith in Doctor Who, picked up his Bafta from Hollywood star Shia LaBeouf, who was the rising star in 2008.

After winning Clark offered advice to other people hoping for success too.

He said: “For all the young fans and people out there voting for me out there, work hard and you can do it, I have three words, yes we can!”

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Congratulations, Noel!

Doctor Who is to be filmed in high definition (HD) for the first time, it has been confirmed.

The upcoming Easter special, ‘Planet of the Dead’, will be the first episode to be broadcast in the high quality format. Time and budgetary constraints have thus far prevented Doctor Who from going HD, although spinoff series Torchwood has been shot in the format from the start.

“I’m delighted that the Doctor Who specials are going to be shot in HD,” Danielle Nagler, head of BBC HD, told Doctor Who Magazine. “The programme team has consistently tried to push at television boundaries, and to raise the quality bar for our audiences, and I’m glad we’ve been able to work with them to do so again.”

‘Planet of the Dead’ features guest appearances from Michelle Ryan and Lee Evans.

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K-9 is to make make a return in the third series of Doctor Who kids spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures.

The canine companion has previously appeared twice in the spinoff series and was last seen in the Doctor Who series four finale ‘Journey’s End’.

Now the character will appear in at least half of the episodes of the third run, which has begun pre-production ahead of transmission later this year.

Sarah Jane producer Nikki Smith told Doctor Who Magazine: “We’ve already got ten scripts at first draft stage, and I can now announce that K-9 is going to make a return to Sarah Jane’s attic. He’s been locked away in that safe, saving the world from a Black Hole, for far too long now.”

She added: “K-9 won’t be in every single episode. Right now, we estimate he’ll appear in approximately six of the 12 episodes.”

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Matt Smith has revealed he can never shake being Doctor Who from his mind – a year before viewers see him in the role.

The relatively unknown actor is taking over the Tardis from David Tennant and will first appear on screens as the Time Lord in 2010.

“This show is so alive, it really is,” he said in an interview with Doctor Who magazine.

“I can’t ever quite forget that I’m the Doctor – which is weird, because it’s still so far away. But it’s always there in my subconscious, because it’s the Doctor!”

Matt – who at 26 is the youngest of all 11 Time Lords since the series started in 1963 – went on: “It’s like, there’s Sherlock Holmes, James Bond and Doctor Who. It has resonance in our cultural fabric.”

The actor also told how he would need to tone down his dress sense for the part.

Asked what he might wear as the Doctor, he said: “I’m a big fan of long coats and rather dashing scarves in everyday life, so who knows? For the audition, I rocked up in whatever, so I think they’re having to tone down what I wear in real life for the Doctor!

“I am a rather elaborate dresser. That’s what’s lovely, there are all these exciting things – what’s he going to wear, what’s he going to do in his first scene with his companion, which monsters will he meet, will he meet the Daleks?”

The full interview appears in issue 405 of the official Doctor Who magazine, out today.

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New Doctor Who Matt Smith says he has already received fan mail even before shooting any scenes for the new series.

The actor, in his first interview since landing the part, told Doctor Who magazine he would “try to respond to all of them”.

Smith, 26, added that he goes “largely unnoticed” at present, adding: “I am enjoying my anonymity.”

The youngest actor to take the role was unveiled last month, and will star in the new series in 2010.

Smith, who was in Brazil when the announcement was made, said that he would make his Doctor “as varied, brilliant, dark, unpredictable and happy and sad as I can”.

“I’m really going to work my socks off in the next few years and do my best to enjoy it as much as I can,” he added.

The actor, who will become the 11th Time Lord, revealed that he hopes he will have a say in his new costume – and hinted at the attire of past Doctor Tom Baker.

“I’m a big fan of long coats and rather dashing scarves in everyday life, so who knows?”

Smith, whose previous credits include Ruby In The Smoke and Secret Diary of a Call Girl, is promising to get to the heart of his new role and its long history.

“I’m going to make it my business to do so, and fall into it with as much depth as I possibly can.”

The Northampton-born actor also said that he was already immersed in his new part.

“There’s Sherlock Holmes, James Bond and Doctor Who. It has resonance in our cultural fabric.”

He also revealed that he has already read two “inventive and funny” scripts for the fifth series, written by Steven Moffat, and is “desperate to read more”.

“They rocket along. He’s going to talk me through the whole series, what happens and stuff. It’s so exciting,” added Smith.

The new series starring Smith is expected to run in spring 2010.

His predecessor David Tennant will appear in four special episodes, the last of which is scheduled to screen early next year.

Doctor Who began in 1963, and seven actors played the Doctor before the show was dropped in 1989.

After a TV movie in 1996 – starring Paul McGann – the TV series returned in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston in the lead role. Tennant took over the same year.

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