Filming has begun in Cardiff on a new series of Doctor Who, which will see the exits of his companions, played by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill.

Matt Smith is teaming up for the last time with characters Amy Pond and Rory for his third series as the Doctor.

Rory and Amy have been with the BBC Wales-produced show since Smith took over as the time traveller in 2010.

Smith said: “It’s thrilling and exciting to be back and working with two of my closest friends.”

‘Best years’

Guest stars so far confirmed to appear in the 14-episode series include David Bradley, Rupert Graves and Mark Williams.

Scriptwriters are promising “blockbuster movie episodes” with new monsters for the Doctor and his friends to encounter as well as some old enemies “as you’ve never seen them before”.

Head writer Steven Moffat announced in December last year that Gillan and Darvill would leave the show and their story would come to a “heartbreaking end”.

Gillan, who won a national television award for her performance as Amy Pond, said last month that she was sad to be leaving after the “best years of my life” on the Saturday night sci-fi show filmed in south Wales.

Her work outside the series includes playing Jean Shrimpton for the BBC Four drama We’ll Take Manhattan and she is set to begin work on a new comedy film playing an eccentric author with writer’s block.

She said: “It’s just brilliant to be back on the Tardis with Matt and Arthur for our craziest adventures yet.”

Darvill is moving from Doctor Who to Dr Faustus, as he is in rehearsals for the Globe’s first production of Christopher Marlowe’s tragedy.

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Matt Smith is swapping the Tardis for the test track this Sunday as he becomes Top Gear’s latest Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.

Following in the skid marks of former Time Lords Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, Smith will don a crash helmet and drive the fastest lap possible in a Kia Cee’d, hoping to top a celebrity leaderboard that this series boasts such famous names as Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Michael Fassbender.

The real question, though, is whether Smith can win the battle of the Doctors and beat Eccleston and Tennant’s times?

In 2005, ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston set a lap time of 1:52.4 in a Suzuki Liana – at the same time becoming the only celebrity to drive the car with an automatic transmission, as he wasn’t qualified to handle a car with manual transmission.

In 2007, Smith’s predecessor, David Tennant, drove 1:48.8 in a Chevrolet Lacetti, controversially losing out to his co-star, Billie Piper, by just half a second.

Tennant complained that Piper had failed to properly negotiate some corners but Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson pronounced Piper’s time valid on the grounds that she had worn a see-through top during her lap.

Perhaps there’s a lesson there for Matt Smith ahead of Sunday’s show…

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He’s about to throw himself into months of intensive work on new episodes of Doctor Who – but Matt Smith is once again looking towards his future outside the show. In a new interview, he’s reiterated his desire to graduate to the silver screen.

This time, Smith hinted that he’d like to be behind the camera. Asked by The Guardian if he was considering a move into films, he said: “God yeah, absolutely – I’d quite like to direct.”

Smith said he was already talking about a specific project to Simon Stephens – author of the plays Punk Rock, Wastwater and On the Shore of the Wide World, the last of which featured Smith in 2005. “It’s a way down the line,” Smith explained. “[But] we’re on the road. It’s just trying to find a window to do it, because obviously my filming commitments take up so long. Ahh, there’s plenty of time!”

Of the new Who series, which begins filming on 20 February and continues for the rest of the year, Smith said: “I’m very excited. It’s a long shoot, but we’ve got four or five scripts which look in really good shape. The casting is going very well. I found out a lovely bit of news this morning actually, about somebody who’s going to be in it. I couldn’t possibly tell you, but it’s exciting. You’ll know him.

“Or her,” added Smith after a pause, keen to give nothing away.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I love making it.”

As well as hankering after cinema work, Smith – who is the patron of the Young Writers Festival at London’s Royal Court theatre, where the interview was conducted – said the stage was calling him. “I’m itching to come back,” he enthused. “I’d love to come and work here. I’m trying to grow a Chekhovian beard, which I just can’t. It’s patchy and rubbish.”

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Karen Gillan and Stephen Fry are among the stars who will feature in Sky Arts’ series of programs celebrating the works of Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward.

The In Love With series, which will air in February and March, will feature stars of stage and screen performing readings of the authors and playwrights’ finest works.

Miriam Margolyes, Simon Callow, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Douglas Booth will pay tribute to Dickens.

Doctor Who‘s Gillan – who will tackle the voiceover from Brief Encounter – Patricia Hodge, Celia Imrie, Robert Sheehan and Sheila Hancock will appear in the Noel Coward show.

Fry, Paterson Joseph, Caroline Quentin and Being Human star Russell Tovey will head up the Oscar Wilde tribute.

Sky Arts channel director James Hunt said: “I couldn’t imagine a better cast to celebrate the colourful work of Dickens, Coward and Wilde. The performances are remarkable. This is a fitting tribute to the body of work they celebrate and to the craft of delivering monologue.”

In Love With… Dickens airs on February 21 at 8pm on Sky Arts. The Coward special follows on March 12, while the Wilde tribute airs on March 19.

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John Barrowman has revealed his first children’s book was inspired by the effect the Harry Potter books had on his niece and nephew.

The Torchwood star and his sister Carole have written a supernatural story called Hollow Earth, but they were keen not to emulate a scene from a certain school of magic.

“I don’t want people to think that we’re writing the next Harry Potter because we’re not,” John said. “We just wanted to write a really good story.”

Yet he admits they wrote it with a TV series or film in mind and are currently negotiating rights in a deal that would see John’s production company make the series, in which he would star.

They’ve also been approached by a Hollywood film company, so there may be a movie deal too.

However, they were inspired by the effect the Harry Potter books had on Carole’s two children when they were younger, John said.

“I used to buy the first editions and ship them over to my niece and nephew so they had them before all their friends. We were at a cabin in Wisconsin, by a lake where there’s plenty for kids to do outdoors, and we looked through the window and all the kids were just reading these books,” he recalled.

He went on: “If people compare us to Harry Potter, it would be awesome. I love reading those books and watching the movies. It’s ironic that’s all coming to an end, but we’re chuffed that people are already saying it could be the next Harry Potter.”

:: Hollow Earth by John and Carole E Barrowman is published by Buster Books, priced £6.99. Available now.

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Matt Smith has been appointed as patron of the Royal Court’s Young Writers Festival.

Smith’s first professional acting job was at the Royal Court in Fresh Kills by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, as part of a special young playwrights season in 2004. He later went on to appear in Polly Stenham’s debut play That Face at the Royal Court in 2007. The Doctor Who actor follows in the footsteps of previous festival patrons Ruth Jones, Catherine Tate, Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke.

This year’s Young Writers Festival will run from February 23 until April 14.

It will feature two full productions of new plays, four staged readings, ten short plays and a series of free workshops, talks and late night events in the Royal Court bar.

The two full productions featuring as part of the season are Luke Norris’ Goodbye to All That, which runs from February 23 to March 17, and Hayley Squires’ Vera Vera Vera from March 22 to April 14.

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Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has dropped more hints about the show’s seventh series.

Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) and Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams) will both exit the sci-fi drama in a “heartbreaking” final episode, it was revealed in December.

“I’m writing that right now, the big Rory and Amy heartbreaking finale,” Moffat told Dublin University’s Observer. “I think you’ll be in trouble watching it.”

The writer also confirmed that pre-production on the new series, which will feature episodes by Toby Whithouse and Chris Chibnall, recently began in Cardiff.

“We just had our official day commencing pre-production on Doctor Who,” he said. “Knowing when it’s actually going to be shown is a little bit optimistic, but… I’m pretty sure it will be the autumn.”

Moffat, who has served as showrunner since 2009, added that he still finds it “very, very exciting” writing new Doctor Who episodes.

“I remember sitting down for the first time and thinking ‘Bloody hell, I’m actually writing Doctor Who‘ [and] that never completely wears off,” he admitted.

“I’m always very excited about writing Doctor Who, but it’s now harder for me to recapture the feeling of it being entirely a novelty.”

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Toby Whithouse and Chris Chibnall will both write for the next series of Doctor Who.

Whithouse’s episode is expected to air third in the new run, according to SFX.

Doctor Who stars Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill will both exit the sci-fi drama midway through the seventh series, it was announced in December.

Whithouse has now confirmed that his installment will be “one of the final ones” to feature their characters Amy Pond and Rory Williams.

The Being Human creator previously wrote 2006 episode ‘School Reunion’ for the series, as well as 2010′s ‘The Vampires of Venice’ and 2011′s ‘The God Complex’.

Chibnall, who served as a co-producer on Who spinoff Torchwood from 2006 to 2008, contributed to 2007′s ’42′ and 2010 two-parter ‘The Hungry Earth’ and ‘Cold Blood’.

Doctor Who is expected to return to BBC One in the autumn.

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Like most brothers and sisters, John and Carole Barrowman fought like a cat and dog as kids.

Now, after she has grown up to be a renowned academic and author, and he is one of the biggest stars of stage and screen with Doctor Who fame, they are happy to admit they are no different.

The Scots siblings have just teamed up to write their first novel together and, after months of collaboration, planning and swiftly delivered skelps to the back of a younger brother’s head, have launched their work.

Hollow Earth, a children’s book about a Scottish brother and sister who discover they have incredible magical gifts, which could hold the secret to saving the world, is the first novel from the Barrowmans, who have previously collaborated on both of John’s autobiographies, as well as a Torchwood comic book.

And the bubbly pair agreed, despite their sometimes fiery sibling rivalry, it has been a treat to get to work on such an exciting project together.

Carole said: “The first book I wrote was Anything Goes with John, and we had so much other material we had to do another, so we did I Am What I Am.

“Then we thought about doing different things like the Torchwood comic, and then started brainstorming ideas for a novel. It turned out a lot of those ideas worked best for a kids’ novel.

“It’s a lot of fun working together, sometimes we have to rein it in to get the work done if we’re having too much fun.

“And there have been times in the car we have had to pull over because we needed to get ourselves under control.

“I’m not saying we don’t bicker, and I didn’t have to occasionally slap him but we work well if there is a conflict.

“That relationship for our characters, Matt and Em, is ­something we knew well.

“Even though we aren’t twins, we are very close and have been known to finish each other’s sentences.”

John added: “We used to smack each other about a lot as kids – Carole and Andrew nearly killed me.

“I was one and Carole was nine or 10. She was babysitting. My parents came home to find me choking. She had tried to stuff me with three bags of crisps.

“We were always hitting each other – that’s what kids do. Carole was the big sister so, because of the age gap, we didn’t hang out as much. But as we have got older, we have really gotten closer and now kind of relive the childhood that the age gap didn’t allow for back then. But now we get to have a bevvy while we are doing it.”

John and Carole grew up in Mount Vernon, Glasgow, with their parents and middle brother Andrew (now a successful businessman). They emigrated to Michigan in the 70s when John was eight.

While John, now 44, was a born performer, Carole, 53, has a lifelong obsession with writing. She studied ­literature and became a professor of English in Milwaukee, with writing in her spare time including book review columns and short stories.

John’s move into novels follows his increasingly diverse media domination plan. He started off on stage, acting and singing, and progressed into TV acting, via Doctor Who, Torchwood and Desperate Housewives, while he has done movies, released his own album and enjoyed sellout singing tours.

He has also been a TV presenter, a talent show judge and a reality TV star, and now, as an aspiring best-selling author, the print media is his next stop.

Is there any field he doesn’t plan to conquer?

“I can’t write music,” he admitted.

“I can hear a song in my head but I can’t sit down and write music in that way. I have other people around me to do that – I am realistic with things I can’t do.

“Which is why we have a team around that can do other things like that and choreography.

“I also know I can’t sit down and write like this. I’m not the writer, Carole is.

“The way we work is that we brainstorm the ideas, come up with plot lines and talk about characters, while she takes notes.

“Once we have done that, she goes and writes them down and hands me a chunk of pages, which I will either say are perfect or we will work on changes.

“It’s a true collaboration.”

The writing process for Carole and John began 15 years ago when John returned to the States to visit his family on a summer holiday. He had taken several copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as gifts for his nieces and nephews.

When the kids eschewed the ­sun-soaked lakeside playground of their holiday home to glue themselves to the books, Carole and John were inspired by just how immersed they were in the story and delighted at being able to pass on such a love of reading.

They both agreed that with John’s ­creative and flamboyant imagination and Carole’s wordsmith ability, they should try to write a kids’ book. Although, with life getting in the way, it has taken all this time to complete it, they are proud to have unveiled the finished result.

Carole admits a lot of the dynamic of the relationship between heroes Matt and Em Calder, who discover they have an ability to bring drawings to life and immerse themselves in art works with a talent connected to a shady mythological world, is based around themselves.

Other characters are based on their own ­relatives, who have made a difference in their lives, such as a beloved auntie, while much of the action takes place on Firth of Clyde island Cumbrae, which is renamed Auchinmurn, as tribute to their granny Murn.

Carole said: “One of the most fun things about this writing has been getting to pay tribute to our roots and our heritage.

“A couple of characters, not just the twins who are like John and I, are based on real people or named after them, and that’s important to us.

“And now that we brought all these people to life, we like to keep them around for a while.

“We have a story arc planned for three books, and we have a lot more ideas and adventures for these kids to have, if they are successful enough and kids want to keep reading them.

“We are in negotiations for TV and film rights, so it seems they have sparked an interest out there.”

John chimed in: “It’s been a very emotional process at times. And I think it’s lovely that we have both been able to do that, because the more personal a story is and the more it comes from you, then the more the audience can connect.”

For the busy pair, a sequel to Hollow Earth is in the works, while they are also putting together a Torchwood novel.

Never ruling out a return to his beloved character time traveller Captain Jack on screen, John admits it’s great to be able to create their own adventures for his alter ego.

“We’re very excited about what we’ve got planned for Captain Jack. Sorry but I have to swear here, because it’s going to be f****** awesome.”

Hollow Earth is out on Michael O’Mara Books. For more information, visit www.hollow-earth.co.uk

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Going topless is not often a choice for an actor tackling a Shakespearean scene, but Kai Owen is considering getting his shirt off for his latest stage role.

Last seen on screen battling aliens in BBC’s Torchwood, the Llanrwst-raised actor, who has just filmed new BBC series The Syndicate,  is getting to grips with one of the bard’s most physical roles at Mold’s Clwyd Theatr Cymru.

He’s playing Charles, a court wrestler, in Terry Hands’ latest production, As You Like It. The tale is a witty comedy, and a celebration of the transforming power of love. It’s one of Shakespeare’s most complex story-lines with girls dressing as boys, and also contains some of the best known speeches, such as “All the world’s a stage…”

For Kai, it means squaring up to Alex Felton, who is playing  Orlando, a duke’s son jealous of his own brother.

“We’ve been wrestling hard for the last few weeks,” said Kai in a break from rehearsals. “Daniel Llewelyn-Williams, the fight director, has been training both myself and Alex, so the moves are getting nice and sleek. I’ve never wrestled before, other than doing stage combat at drama school.

“I’m not a fan, though I do follow boxing. Rugby is the closest I get to contact sports.

“At school at Ysgol Dyffryn Conwy  I wasn’t really involved in fights either – I was busy either playing football or doing drama.

“Alex is taller than me and leaner  – he’s a very good looking boy! I think there may be some topless scenes. You will have to wait and see what we decide to do.”

The plot is set in a court and  the Forest of Arden. Duke Senior (Robert Blythe) has been usurped by his brother Frederick (Dyfrig Morris) and is wandering among the trees with his right-hand man Jaques (Philip Bretherton) and other supporters.

The Duke’s daughter Rosalind (Hedydd Dylan)  has stayed on at court to be with her best friend and cousin Celia (Antonia Kinlay). But Rosalind is banished by her uncle – though not before she falls for Orlando thanks to his wrestling prowess. He is equally smitten. Celia, along with Touchstone the Jester  (Christian Patterson), accompany her to the forest. There they don men’s clothes, taking new names,  and set out to find the Duke and his men.

Lovelorn Orlando follows and posts love letters to Rosalind over the forest, but she maintains her disguise to woo him.

A series of mistaken identities and amorous encounters unfold as, away from the rigid world of court, the forest becomes a place of freedom and discovery.

It’s been six years since Kai’s last play at Mold, though he’s an associate for the theatre. He’s relishing the chance to stay at his parents with his wife and their son Bobby, plus  teaming up with old friends and being directed by Terry Hands, a Shakespeare expert.

“People in the US would pay a fortune for a master class with Terry – he knows the work inside and out.”

As You LIke It, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold. Feb 9-March 10. clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk, 0845 330 3565

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