Doctor Who Gets the Stamp of Approval

All eleven actors to have portrayed the Doctor on television since 1963 are featured on First Class stamps next year. The Royal Mail today unveiled their Doctor Who 50th Anniversary collections, which presents every incarnation of the Time Lord, whilst the Second Class set showcases the programme's greatest monsters and the iconic TARDIS (pictured below).

Andrew Hammond of the Royal Mail said that the commemorative stamps paid "tribute to the brilliant actors that have played the Doctor over the years, as well as the adversaries that helped make the show so popular".

Meanwhile, current Doctor Who show-runner Steven Moffat has promised "tremendous surprises" for the golden anniversary year.

Both William Hartnell (pictured above) and David Tennant have already appeared on a postage stamp - when celebrating the Carry On films (Carry On Sergeant, 2008), and the RSC (Hamlet, 2011) respectively. The Daleks were first honoured with a celebratory Millennium stamp in 1999.
The new stamp sets are available in March.

Ripper Street Preview

I first wrote about this forthcoming BBC thriller way back in January (read here), which is now scheduled to begin transmission on Sunday, December 30th.

BBC One commissioned the new, eight-part period drama, Ripper Street in September 2011. Created by Richard Warlow, the series "is set in the East End of London in 1889, during the aftermath of the" Whitechapel Murders.

The original press release states that "the action centres around the notorious H Division - the police precinct from hell - which is charged with keeping order in the chaotic streets."

Produced by Tiger Aspect, the series "explores the lives of characters trying to recover from the Ripper's legacy, from crimes that have not only irretrievably altered their lives, but the very fabric of their city. At the drama's heart our detectives try to bring a little light into the dark world they inhabit." The programme's cast is led by Matthew Macfadyen (pictured) as real-life Inspector Edmund Reid, Jerome Flynn as Sergeant Bennett Drake, and Adam Rothenberg as Captain Homer Jackson. 

From it's inception in 1829, the Metropolitan Police was divided into seventeen districts for administrative purposes, and each was identified by a letter. 

 In 1888, H Division covered Whitechapel, and it's jurisdiction included three Ripper murder sites: Hanbury Street (Annie Chapman), Berner Street (Elizabeth Stride), and Miller's Court (Mary Kelly). The four police stations within the district where at Leman Street (the divisional HQ), Commercial Street (the area CID office), Arbour Square, and King David Lane. At the time, the Division was responsible for policing just 1 and a quarter square miles, but which housed some 67,000 poverty-stricken souls.

The officer in charge of detectives on the ground during the Whitechapel Murders, was Inspector Frederick Abberline (1843-1929) - he had worked in H Division from 1873-1887. 

Ripper Street features the actual Head of CID, Inspector Reid (1846-1917), who had led enquiries into the (non-canonical) murders of Emma Smith (in April 1888) and Martha Tabram (the following August). He retired in 1896, and later claimed that Frances Coles (killed in February 1891) had been Jack the Ripper's ninth, and final victim. 

Since 1965, H Division has covered Tower Hamlets.

Great Doctor Who Quotes #41

"This was exactly you. All this, all of it. You make them so afraid. When you began all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name, Doctor. The word for 'healer' and 'wise man', throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean?

To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word 'doctor' means 'mighty warrior'. How far you've come. And now they've taken a child, the child of your best friends - and they're going to turn her into a weapon, just to bring you down.

And all this, my love, in fear of you."

- River Song, A Good Man Goes to War (June 4th 2011)

Written by Steven Moffat

Great Doctor Who Quotes #40

"This is Emergency Programme One. Rose, now listen, this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing - we must in danger, and I mean fatal. I'm dead, or about to die any second with no chance of escape... And that's okay. I hope it's a good death. But I promised to look after you, and that's what I'm doing. The TARDIS is taking you home... And I bet you're fussing and moaning now, typical. But hold on, and just listen a bit more. The TARDIS can never return for me. Emergency Programme One means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do - let the TARDIS die. Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it, no one will even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world will move on, and the box will be buried. And if you wanna remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all, one thing. Have a good life. Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life."

- The Doctor, The Parting of the Ways (June 18th 2005)

Written by Russell T Davies 

Date With History: 1997

Diana, Princess of Wales died, aged 36, at 4 am on Sunday August 31st, as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris. Her partner, Dodi Fayed, and the driver, Henri Paul, also perished. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the only survivor.

The Genesis of Doctor Who: An Adventure In Space And Time

Back in February, rumours began that writer and actor, Mark Gatiss, was to pen a TV biopic that examined the genesis of Doctor Who (see here). Well, today a press release announced that a BBC Two drama has been commissioned to mark the programme's fiftieth anniversary. 

Indeed scripted by Gatiss, An Adventure in Space and Time will chronicle the origins of the show, akin to The Road to Coronation Street which aired on BBC Four for the soap opera's own 50th birthday in 2010.  The writer said "This is the story of how an unlikely set of brilliant people created a true television original. And how an actor - William Hartnell - stereotyped in hard-man roles became a hero to millions of children. I've wanted to tell this story for more years than I can remember! To make it happen.. is quite simple a dream come true."
The single 90-minute drama is co-produced by Caroline Skinner and current showrunner Steven Moffat, who said: "The story of Doctor Who is the story of television - so it's fitting in the anniversary year that we make our most important journey back in time to see how the TARDIS was launched."
The production and transmission schedule will be confirmed next year, and much speculation already surrounds the casting process.

Pet Shop Boys: 'Elysium'

The Pet Shop Boys website this week officially confirmed the release of the band's new studio album, Elysium. Both CD and vinyl formats are issued by Parlophone/EMI on September 7th in the UK, and the iTunes version contains extra features. Produced in Los Angeles by Andrew Dawson, Elysium features cover artwork from Farrow, and the tracks are listed thus:

1. Leaving

2. Invisible
3. Winner
4. Your early stuff
5. A face like that
6. Breathing space
7. Ego music
8. Hold on
9. Give it a go
10. Memory of the future
11. Everything means something
12. Requiem in denim and leopardskin

Brian Bress' video for the song, Invisible was released online in June (view here via Vevo). The new single, Winner is issued on August 6th, and includes a cover version of the Bee Gees' I Started a Joke.