Karen Gillan was interviewed on Fearne Cotton’s show on Radio 1 earlier today and discussed the Doctor Who tour, working with Matt Smith, and her character Amy Pond.

“Amy is a very sassy lady. She meets the Doctor in a really, incredibly interesting way, which may determine their relationship for the first part of the series. She’s not completely in awe of the Doctor all the time, there’s none of that. She doesn’t take his word as gospel or anything. She’s kind of like ‘OK if you’re gonna go off and doing that, then I’m going to go off and do my own thing’. She’s very much independent in that way. She’s really funny. Funny, sassy and strong.” Gillan said.

Want to see the first episode of Series 5 before anyone else? The BBC have announced a special UK Doctor Who tour where you’ll not only be able meet Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, but also watch the premiere episode, The Eleventh Hour. Details follow.

Doctor Who will begin an exciting national tour across the UK in March, introducing the new Doctor to fans of the series in five different locations spanning the length and breadth of the British Isles.

The tour will introduce the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith, and his Companion, Karen Gillan, to fans of the BBC One show and offer them a unique chance to meet the stars.

Each location will also host a regional premiere of episode one, The Eleventh Hour, for local children, working alongside BBC Outreach to enable kids to get a first look at the new Doctor in action.

Matt and Karen will travel around the UK on a specially themed Doctor Who tour bus, featuring the new TARDIS logo and iconic imagery.

BBC Outreach proactively takes the BBC into specific communities and sections of society, and has been integral in organising and supporting the tour.

The focus of the tour is to reach relatively under-served communities by the BBC.

The Doctor’s maiden voyage will commence on 29 March in Belfast, and then travel to Karen Gillan’s home town, Inverness, for a screening on 30 March.

The bus will then move on to Sunderland that afternoon and Salford on Wednesday 31 March before finishing later that day in Northampton – Matt Smith’s hometown.

Following the tour, from 1 to 3 April, the BBC will also hold events for three days at selected BBC Big Screens across the UK giving Doctor Who fans in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Swansea the chance to interact directly with the show in their home towns.

The events will feature exclusive footage – including the chance to see the Doctor Who trailer in 3D – and giveaways, and fans can also get their photo taken tumbling through the giant vortex.

Visitors will be able to meet some of the scariest monsters that have had viewers watching from behind their sofa for generations as well.

Piers Wenger, Executive Producer, and Head of Drama, BBC Wales, said: “This is a great opportunity for the new Doctor and his Companion to interface directly with the people who matter most to Doctor Who: the fans.

“The chance to visit them in their hometowns will ensure that the 11th Doctor’s maiden voyage is an utterly magical one.”

Alec McGivan, Head of BBC Outreach, added: “Outreach is all about getting face to face with people so they can get involved and experience the BBC in a different and exciting way – we’re delighted to be able to take one of the BBC’s best loved brands out to its audience.”

Matt Smith is interviewed in The Guardian this weekend and had a few interesting things to say about the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor.

Asked how he is going to make the Doctor his own, Smith told the paper, “He’s a little reckless. He’ll walk into a room and have a million things to do. And, as opposed to knowing exactly how to get out, he’ll take it up to the precipice: don’t know, don’t know, don’t know, and boom, there’s the idea. And it’s a bit mad and reckless. It’s very doof, doof, doof. And he’s got a companion who I think is the hardest to handle. And she’s quite mad. But the Doctor’s quite mad as well. So together…”

Smith also commented on the more somber side of the Doctor’s personality, “I think it’s impossible to escape that with the Doctor. He’s lost so many people and devastated so much… bad or good, he’s brought whole empires down. He’s seen a lot, and that’s part of his personality. But that’s also what gives him such joy and effervescence.”

You can read the full interview on the Guardian’s website.

In an interview with Esquire magazine this month Matt Smith discussed how he dreamed of becoming a professional football player but an injury preventing him from carrying on, and he subsequently moved into acting.

In these latest filming pictures it seems he hasn’t completely retired his shorts and boots. Smith was snapped having a kick around with actor James Corden, who was rumoured last month to be guest starring in an episode. It is believed they are filming these scenes for episode 11 of Series 5.

Photos: alun_vega

Great news for Sarah Jane fans. The BBC have officially announced not one, but two further series of The Sarah Jane Adventures have been commissioned. The press release follows.

CBBC Controller Damian Kavanagh has commissioned two new series (24 x 30-minutes) of hugely successful Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, which will see the intrepid investigative journalist and her gang of young sidekicks continue to enthral children for the foreseeable future.

Created by Russell T Davies, and featuring one of Doctor Who’s most famous companions, Sarah Jane Smith, The Sarah Jane Adventures is made by BBC Cymru Wales and has been a huge hit on CBBC since its debut in 2007, with viewing figures continuing to grow year on year.

The fourth series, set to air this autumn, will again star Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane. Young actors Tommy Knight, Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra return as popular regulars Luke, Clyde and Rani.

The new adventures will feature the usual mixture of thrills, scares and fun with enemies old and new, including the terrors of the Nightmare Man, the sinister Shansheeth, the series’ first visit to an alien world, and even a dangerous journey back into history.

The series will go into production in Cardiff later this month with series three producer Nikki Wilson stepping up alongside Russell T Davies as executive producer and new producer Brian Minchin joining the team.

Damian Kavanagh says: “We are thrilled to be making many more episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

“It is been a huge ratings and critical success on CBBC and we hope our viewers are going to be hooked on Sarah Jane’s action-packed adventures for some time to come.”

BBC Wales Head of English Language Programmes, Clare Hudson, says: “The idea for The Sarah Jane Adventures sprang from the success of Doctor Who and it has since rocketed in popularity in its own right, thanks to the vision, talent and hard work of the show’s brilliant cast and crew.”

The fifth series will go into production in 2011 for transmission later that year.

Writers on the fourth series include Phil Ford (also co-producer), Joseph Lidster, Rupert Laight, Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman.

The Sarah Jane Adventures is a BBC Cymru Wales/Children’s BBC Production.

Series 5 is still a month away but online retailers have already opened pre-orders for the DVD and Blu-ray release.

Play.com are listing Series 5: Volume 1 for release in June. It will contain the first three episodes; The Eleventh Hour; The Beast Below; and Victory of the Daleks.

Extras include; The Monster Diaries – “Produced by the team behind BBC3’s hugely popular Doctor Who Confidential series, the Monster Files will get under the skin and inside the minds of the latest Doctor’s most challenging opponents. With previously unseen footage and exclusive comments from cast and crew, the Monster Files take fans old and new even further behind enemy lines.”

The DVD and Blu-ray are dated for June 7th, 2010.

The rumourmongers at The Sun are reporting that the Doctor’s companion Amy (Karen Gillan) will get pregnant in the new series.

The paper claims that Amy will find herself expecting in episode seven of Series Five, though the Doctor won’t be the father.

An insider told the paper “Amy is pregnant but it’s all part of a strange dream she’s having. She can’t work out what is real and what’s not.”

Photo © CC 2010

Some credence can be given to this story with this latest filming picture (above) snapped by “CC” (thanks Scooty), which shows Amy with a visible bump just obscured behind the Doctor.

SFX Magazine has unveiled some great new cover art for their latest issue. As you can see in the image to the right, it’s a special Doctor Who cover featuring the Doctor, Amy and Weeping Angels in 3D (click to watch animation). More details from SFX below.

SFX194, on sale 10 March, is going to have a very special cover indeed – a specially commissioned, eye-popping 3D image of Matt Smith as Doctor Who, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and a couple of Weeping Angels lurking about the place too. The animated gif here gives you an idea what to expect (just click on it to see what we mean), but you really need to see the real thing in all its glory when it hits the shelves in a couple of weeks’ time.

The cover was created with the full association of the Doctor Who production team. SFX’s art team popped down to Cardiff last month to conduct the exclusive photoshoot, to create an exciting image you’ll see nowhere else. The issue also includes a massive nine-page feature on the new series of Doctor Who, including all-new interviews with Matt, Karen and Steve Moffat.

Actor James Corden of Gavin & Stacey fame will guest star in the fifth series of Doctor Who according to a rumour in The Sun.

The paper reports that Corden was ’spotted learning lines while on a train to the Who set in Cardiff.’

“We normally keep our guest stars under wraps but you can’t hide a bloke like James”, said an apparent ’show insider’.

“We’re just delighted to have James on board. He is a great actor and he’ll be a perfect fit for the new Doctor Who.”

No further details or what episode he might appear in are revealed.

Corden actually appeared with the eighth Doctor Paul McGann in the classy film, Lesbian Vampire Killers.

Here are a whopping 56 shots from the new Series 5 trailer for you to enjoy in better detail.