John Barrowman has revealed that he enjoyed filming his guest role on Desperate Housewives.

The 43-year-old actor, who portrayed Patrick Logan on the dramedy, also admitted that he relishes seeing himself on television.

He told TV Times: “Often actors say they can’t bear to watch themselves on TV, but I’m not like that – I love watching myself.

“I’ll be getting the popcorn and the vodka tonics, and I’ll be jumping up and down. When I saw it in America with my friends, we had cocktails and they all applauded when I walked on screen. I am so chuffed.

“I really enjoyed working in America. I had a lot of fun and I got to see lots of family and friends – including [former Doctor Who producer] Russell T Davies.”

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Doctor Who sidekick Karen Gillan has laughed off claims the show has been sexed up – but wants another kiss in the Christmas special.

The redhead, who plays Amy Pond, found it “strange” that people had complained about her short skirts and bids to seduce Matt Smith in the BBC1 teatime series.

In a recent episode, Amy locked lips with Doctor, before trying to drag him to bed for a one-night stand.

“We’re not sending out bad messages because the Doctor wasn’t reciprocating,” said Karen. “And, actually, people who do find that quite raunchy: really?”

The Scot cheekily added that both Matt and on-screen fiancé Rory, played by Arthur Darvill, were great kissers.

“I bring the best out in them,” she joked.

“For the Christmas special? Who knows? Another kiss would be fine.” And on her skirts, Karen added: “They’re not that short! I’ve seen shorter on the street.”

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The fantasy author Neil Gaiman has spoken of the divine power he felt while writing his TV episode of Doctor Who.

The author of Stardust and Coraline has already submitted his story, which is due to air in 2011.

“I don’t know what it’s like to be God – obviously,” Gaiman told the BBC.

“Until that very first moment when you get to sit down and type the words in your script: INTERIOR. TARDIS.”

He said: “Suddenly I got a very good idea of what it must feel like. I went: ‘I’m writing it now this scene in the Tardis. I’m writing it!’ And that was amazing, it was wonderful.”

‘Bit flabby’

Gaiman met Doctor Who show-runner Steven Moffat for a script read-through last week.

He posted a picture of himself on Twitter – with Moffat and writer Richard Curtis – holding up a copy of the script. His fingers obscured the episode title.

Gaiman said: “It’s going to be shooting in August and we were going through it and figuring out ways that money could be saved and ways we could have some things happen faster.

“It was a little bit flabby.”

The author also commented on Terry Pratchett’s recent comments in SFX Magazine that Doctor Who shouldn’t be “classified as science fiction”.

“Doctor Who has never pretended to be hard science fiction,” Gaiman said.

“At best Doctor Who is a fairytale, with fairytale logic about this wonderful man in this big blue box who at the beginning of every story lands somewhere where there is a problem…”

Gaiman, whose Neverwhere TV series was shown on the BBC in 1996, said he’d had to spend a long time “being coy” before it was revealed he was writing a Doctor Who story.

“Now I know what I can tell people: It will be on television – and it’s in colour!” 

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What a great opener to a two-part story! I’m definitely looking forward to the conclusion next week

Now in the gallery are almost 2,000 screencaptures from the episode as well as almost 2,000 screencaptures of the corresponding Confidential. As usual, there are also some episode stills.

You can also find the preview for Cold Blood here in the video archive or below.

Enjoy!

Daleks and Cybermen are to tread the boards as TV hit Doctor Who regenerates into a live action arena tour.

The Tardis will materialise in nine UK cities on a 25-date Doctor Who Live tour in a spin-off that will see epic on-stage battles and special effects.

While Doctor Who Matt Smith will not appear live on stage, he and assistant Karen Gillan have filmed special scenes for the show.

Writer Steven Moffatt said he wanted to recreate the excitment for the stage.

“This is everything I ever wanted since I was 11,” he said. “A live show, with all the coolest Doctor Who monsters, a proper story, and brand new screen material for Matt Smith’s Doctor.

“I’ll be writing scenes for it, and probably attending every single night.”

Doctor Who Live will open in wartime London and end with what is described as an “epic on-stage battle”.

The action will be set to a live soundtrack by TV show composer Murray Gold, with a 16-piece orchestra live on stage.

Gold said: “The live element always adds something extra, but these will also be brand new arrangements for a new band of very talented musicians. It’s very exciting.”

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A trailer for the next episode, The Hungry Earth has been added to our video archive. You can view it here or below.

Enjoy!

Well we definitely had a bit of a mind-boggle with the latest episode…

In the gallery you can now find almost 2,000 screencaptures from the episode and almost 1,500 screencaptures of the corresponding Confidential. There are some episode stills as well.

We also have the preview of The Hungry Earth in our video archive which you can watch here or below.

Enjoy!

The theme tune of Doctor Who has been voted the third most recognisable theme tune on British television in a new poll. The poll was conducted by the Performing Rights Society and the BBC science fiction series came third. The theme tune for Doctor Who was composed by Ron Grainer in 1963 and realised by Delia Derbyshire with various versions produced over the years.

Most recently new series composer Murray Gold has produced a new version of the theme tune – as he did in 2005 – which hasn’t gone down well with all fans of the series. The new version of the theme tune has come under criticism by some fans but the Sylvester McCoy era in the late 1980s also faced similar criticisms. Ahead of Doctor Who was Match of the Day which grabbed the top spot with BBC soap EastEnders in second place. The EastEnders theme tune was composed by Simon May who also created the Howard’s Way theme and worked on the ATV soap opera Crossroads with the legendary Tony Hatch. Hatch created not only the Crossroads theme tune but also the Emmerdale and Neighbours themes too.

Behind Doctor Who in the poll was the ITV soap Coronation Street which celebrates its 50th anniversary later this year and in fifth place was Channel Four’s Countdown.

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Desperate Housewives star John Barrowman said today he had a “humbling moment” the first time he walked down the street where the hit show is filmed.

Barrowman flew back from Los Angeles on Thursday after filming scenes for the US series.

The 43-year-old Glasgow-born actor said: “I really enjoyed it. It’s going to air in June here. That’s why my hair is so dark at the moment because they gave me what I call Bad Guy, Black Hair.

“I’m not a very nice guy in it.”

Barrowman continued: “When I first went to America we went on a tour of Universal Studios and at that time the houses on Wisteria Lane were used for The Munsters and quite a few other homes that you would recognise if you went back into the 60s and 70s and 80s for television.

“As a kid I went down that way for the Universal Studios tour not knowing that as an adult man I would actually be filming with some of the biggest TV stars in America, and also not knowing that I would be on Desperate Housewives which is ranked as one of the top three shows in the history of television around the world.

“So that was kind of a humbling moment when I walked down that street for the first time to film. It was good.”

He was speaking at a press conference for Christmas pantomime Aladdin in Glasgow, in which he is playing the lead role. The show is running at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre’s Clyde Auditorium from December 11 to January 9 2011.

Barrowman was joined by pupils from his former school, Mount Vernon Primary in the east end of Glasgow, as he posed for photographs for the pantomime which has 3D elements, including a 3D genie.

Speaking about his return to Glasgow with the pantomime, he said: “I’m very, very excited to be coming to Glasgow. I love pantomime because it’s an art form that many people turn their noses up at in the industry and I think that’s a load of rubbish.

Barrowman said he will go into “panto lockdown” during the performance.

He said: “I’m quite strict about it. I don’t do any other interviews I don’t do any other public appearances because my commitment is to the audience that are paying that amount of money to come and see the show.”

The actor said it felt “great” to come back to Glasgow: “When you leave Scotland you actually become more Scottish when you go away to a foreign country and you become more proud of your heritage. So when I come back I get quite emotional.”

The Torchwood star admitted he had not seen the new Doctor Who episodes with Matt Smith but that he had downloaded them to watch on his computer.

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