Watching Doctor Who

Julie Gardner, Executive Producer of Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Head of Drama for BBC Wales is making a change. Piers Wenger will be taking over as Executive Producer of Doctor Who starting with series five, after spending a year learning the ropes with Julie. He will also be taking over as Head of Drama for BBC Wales. Julie will remain as Executive Producer for Torchwood and Sarah Jane, which would seem to indicate that there will be another series of The Sarah Jane Adventures in the works. It looks like Julie will continue to work on programming for BBC Wales, and she will also be working with Jane Tranter, Controller of BBC Fiction, on several projects. In addition, Ms. Gardner will remain in charge of development and commissioning of new Saturday evening drama for BBC One. Whew! Wherever does she find the time? Julie Gardner is one busy woman. I’m sad to see her go, but it’s good to see that she will be there to help Piers learn the ropes before he takes over.

Other news:

Doctor Who has been nominated once more for the Best TV Drama award at the South Bank Show Awards. The show was previously nominated in 2005, but lost out to a Drama about Elizabeth I. The awards will be given out on 29 January 2008. I, for one, am hoping that Doctor Who wins this time. They’re sort of on a roll right now, aren’t they?

Speaking of awards, does anyone know if the winners were ever announced for the UK Adult Film and TV Awards? Billie Piper’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl was up for an award, as you may recall, and the award show was a couple of weeks ago. The winners aren’t listed on the website. I’ve tried sending them an e-mail to inquire, but I haven’t heard anything yet. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.

Have you heard that Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass and The Ruby in the Smoke, is interested in writing an episode of Doctor Who? It would seem that he’s quite the fan of the new show. Can you imagine how interesting that would be? It would certainly be a way for him to combine his mystery side with his fantasy side. Definitely a “wouldn’t it be cool if.” I’ll be filing that alongside my hope that Patrick Stewart ends up doing an episode of Doctor Who. (Oh! Imagine if these two What Ifs were combined. I’d probably pass out from too much squeeing.)

Billie Piper to wed on New Year’s Eve. Billie and her fiance Laurence Fox are planning to tie the knot in their local church in Midhurst, West Sussex. They are then planning to hold the reception at the Lickfold Inn, which is owned by Billie’s ex-husband. Congratulations, Billie! Here’s hoping that everything goes smoothly.

Julie Gardner, Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, South Bank Show Awards, Billie Piper