Doctor Who Vs. Oliver Twist (2005)

By 2005, the French-born film-maker, Roman Polanski was keen to produce a child-friendly cinematic version of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist - actually the first adaptation since the Oscar-winning musical, Oliver! in 1968. This new rendition, shown on Film4 today, was shot entirely in the Czech Republic.

Literary classic Oliver Twist (also known as The Parish Boy's Progress, and originally published monthly in Bentley's Miscellany from 1837-39) was only Dickens' second novel.

The cast here was headed by Sir Ben Kingsley as Fagin, with the famous orphan now portrayed by Barney Clark (picutred left), and also featured these ten Doctor Who cast connections:

• Ian McNeice (Limbkins) played Winston Churchill in Victory of the Daleks, The Pandorica Opens and The Wedding of River Song (a role reprised for Big Finish's The Churchill Years), and also voiced Zeus for Immortal Beloved (2007), and Reginald Harcourt for The Renaissance Man (2012)
• Chris Overton (Noah) voiced Terrill and Levek for The Brood of Erys (2014)
• Jamie Foreman (Bill Sykes) was Eddie Connolly in The Idiot's Lantern
• Timothy Bateson (Parson) was Binro in The Ribos Operation
• Joseph Tremain (Hungry Boy) was Jim in The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances
• Peter Copley (Master) was Dr Warlock in Pyramids of Mars
• Gerald Horan (Farmer) was Clark in Human Nature and The Family of Blood
• Patrick Godfrey (Bookseller) was Tor in The Savages, and Major Cosworth in The Mind of Evil
• Frank Mills (Officer) was the Radio Telescope Director in Terror of the Autons
• Paul Brooke (Grimwig) voiced Paolo for The Ghosts of N-Space, and Toby the Sapient Pig for Year of the Pig (2006)

Doctor Who Target Book Reprints

An initial package of six classic Target book titles are to be republished this summer, all complete with their original and iconic Chris Achilleos covers. Currently long since deleted and much sought after, these reprinted Doctor Who novelisations will appeal to old and new readers alike.

Released by BBC Books in July and priced at £4.99 each, the titles are as follows: 

• The Daleks by David Whitaker was the first TV serial to be adapted as a novel, and was published in hardback in November 1964, less than a year after the story was shown. Paperback editions were then issued in 1965 (Armada) and 1973 (Target).
• The Crusaders (based on serial P) also by Whitaker was first published in 1966.
• The Cybermen (based on The Moonbase) by Gerry Davis, 1975.
• The Abominable Snowmen (based on serial NN) by Terrance Dicks, 1974.
• The Auton Invasion (based on Spearhead from Space) also by Dicks, 1974.
• The Cave Monsters (based on The Silurians) by Malcolm Hulke, 1974.

The novels include new forewords from writers Neil Gaiman, Charlie Higson, Gareth Roberts, Stephen Baxter, Russell T Davies, and Dicks, respectively.