So, dear blog reader, what do we actually know about the forthcoming seven episodes of Doctor Who? We're now, of course, well into the build-up to the popular family SF drama's sixth series which launches on Saturday and Doctor Who news stories seem to be coming out of the woodwork at a rate of three or four a day. There's casting announcements, episode titles and tantalising teasers everywhere. If you're feeling a little overwhelmed, have yer actual self no fret or discombobulation; From The North is here with a handy guide to everything that's been revealed about the first seven episodes of your favourite show about time-travel:
* 0601 - The Impossible Astronaut
* 0602 - Day of the Moon
Written by Steven Moffat, the new series kicks off in bold, explosive fashion with a trip Stateside. This opening two-parter will see The Doctor, Amy and Rory head back to the 1960s to meet President Nixon (guest star Jonathan Creek's Stuart Milligan) at The White House. There's no faking it either; no filming in a sand-quarry in Swansea - the production team did decamp to Utah last year and filmed a number of exciting scenes on location. There's also a pretty fantastic guest star on board for these two episodes, Mark Sheppard (veteran of Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and countless other cult US shows) who plays FBI agent Canton Everett Delaware III.
As if that weren't enough, Alex Kingston is also back for another turn as River Song. As for the villains of the piece? It's time for the mysterious Silence which have plagued our favourite Time Lord for the last year - albeit, in name only - to finally show up in person. Quietly. Remember the shocking sight of an imprisoned, bearded Doctor which featured in those recent preview clips and trailers? Keep an eye out for that scene in this two-parter in particular. 'The Doctor, Amy, Rory and River in the Valley of the Gods, Nixon's White House, Area Fifty One and a strangely familiar spaceship. Oh, and there's Alex Kingston diving backwards off a scyscraper,' notes Steven Moffat. 'Look, what else do you want from your television? Well, monsters, I expect. We've got monsters. The Silence, revealed at last. And I'd like to tell you about them. I really would. But I can't.'
* 0603 - The Curse of the Black Spot
Shiver me timbers, y'scurvy dogs, this 1696-set pirate epic, scripted by Sherlock's Steve Thompson, was a relatively late addition to the series, aye that it be. (It replaced a Mark Gatiss script which will now appear later in the year. Largely, on suspects, because of stylistic similarities between it and episode four). For episode three, however, the Who-crew headed off on another (less sunny) location shoot, Charlestown in Cornwall on board a pirate ship. Me hearties. The big guest star in this episode who a yo-yo-ho and a copy Rum, Sodomy and the Lash is an impressively bearded Hugh Bonneville, taking a break from Downton Abbey to buckle his swash. And, to battle a ghostly creature, The Siren, played by model-turned-actress Lily Cole. Lee Ross, late of EastEnders and Life On Mars, will also appear and Emmerdale's Oscar Lloyd will play a character named Toby. 'Pirates in Doctor Who! Hugh Bonneville in a beard! Matt Smith in a stupid hat! This one's got it all. Brilliant Steve Thompson (he wrote a Sherlock last year - good show, I hear) hinted to me he'd rather like to write a Doctor Who. And he hinted it every single day for the next six months. When I finally agreed (and he was kind enough to release my family from his garage), it was one of the smartest decisions I've made on this show,' notes showrunner Moffat. 'This is Doctor Who in the grand tradition: spooky and clever and very funny. And new director Jeremy Webb did such a stellar job (on a real ship, by the way) that we locked the cutting-room door and told him he was staying to do another one straightaway. He's still crying. Tears of joy, I expect.' Keep your eyes open for Amy sword fighting. And almost having Rory's eye out.
* 0604 - The Doctor's Wife
So just who is Idris? That's the question posed by the great Neil Gaiman's long-awaited first contribution to Doctor Who, which bears the potentially jaw-dropping title The Doctor's Wife. Former Coronation Street actress Suranne Jones plays Idris, described by Gaiman as 'an old friend of the Doctor's with a new face.' Fan speculation has her identity has seen guesses for everyone from The Rani (again!), to Romana (again!), to Susan (again!), or even a human manifestation of the TARDIS. But are any of the rumours on the ball? Michael Sheen takes a break from Twilight films, Tron sequels and playing Tony Blair every time anyone needs him, to take on a sinister voice role in this episode, whilst Being Human actor Adrian Schiller and Psychoville's Elizabeth Berrington also pop up as Uncle and Auntie, 'residents of a junkyard planet in a bubble universe on the edge of reality.' There's an Ood on hand as well. That great line from the trailers: 'Fear me. I've killed hundreds of TimeLords,' spoken by Sheen's character to which the Doctor replies 'Fear me. I've killed them all' comes form this episode. And what about Matt Smith's claim that this episode is 'a real one for the ardent Who fans?' Well, look out for a little tribute Patrick Troughton's 1969 swansong The War Games.
* 0605 - The Rebel Flesh
* 0606 - The Almost People
Ashes to Ashes co-creator Matthew Graham returns to script another Doctor Who adventure, bringing with him his former Life On Mars cohort Marshall Lancaster. The actor best known as Chris Skelton is playing Buzzer in this two-part adventure, featuring alongside the likes of Wallander actress Sarah Smart, Lead Balloon's Raquel Cassidy and Casualty veteran Mark Bonnar.
According to an article in Total Film, 'The Rebel Flesh centres on an acid-mining operation in a Twenty Second Century monastery where the dangerous work is done by doppelgangers cloned in a "flesh bowl." Matt Smith's Doctor and newlywed co-flyers Amy and Rory gatecrash the party when a TARDIS trip to Whitby gets mysteriously slammed off-course. Then a storm hits and the whole shebang screeches off-piste.' As we reach the latter half of the series, spoiler sensitivity is reaching dangerous levels, so further plot details on this one are somewhat scarce. The Lord Thy God Steven Moffat states: 'We haven't done really good shape-changers on Doctor Who, at least for a while, so I pitched the idea to Matthew Graham, who went with it. It's remaking The Thing. What if the people The Thing duplicates actually think, "we've got rights too. I always wondered why they didn't.'" So this may be an interesting moral dilemma which may show up in this episode: should the duplicated creatures actually be considered people? Or are they "almost-people"? Do they have a soul? Are they innately evil? Do they deserve to keep living? This sounds like it could be a very interesting story.' And for those of you who are anticipating a big cliffhanger to round off this initial run of seven episodes, you may be surprised to learn that the potential real shocker may instead be coming at the end of The Almost People.
* 0607 - A Good Man Goes To War
This may be the Doctor's darkest hour finally arriving, as The Battle of Demon's Run begins in Steven Moffat's mid-series finale. It stars Misfits actor Danny Sapani as Colonel Manton, while Charlie Baker and Dan Johnston will feature as Fat Man and Thin Man respectively. Annabel Cleare and her son Henry also apparently have 'small parts' in the episode. Plus, remember River's blue-skinned contact Dorium from The Pandorica Opens? Simon Fisher-Becker is back to breathe life into the character once more. A shocking secret will finally be revealed, a familiar race of monsters (or maybe two) will make an appearance, and silence will definitely fall. At least until September, anyway, when we've got another six episodes to look forward to. 'Want to find the most dangerous place in the universe? Easy. Harm a hair on Amy's head any just wait. But as the last of the Time Lords and the Lone Centurion blaze across galaxies to save the woman in both their lives, history is unfolding. In her cell, in Stormcage, River Song knows the time has come at last. She has a secret, and this is the day she tells it,' says Mr Moffat. But, relax dear bog reader. For the second half of the series, we've got Nazis, a haunted Towerblock, the Green Anchor and the Red Waterfall, David Walliams as an alien slug, the Cybermen. And James Corden. Still, you can't have everything.
Karen Gillan has hinted that her character Amy's marriage to Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) will be 'tested' during the upcoming sixth series. Karen told MTV News that several startling secrets will affect the couple's bond as well as their relationship with The Doctor. 'At the end of the last series of Doctor Who, we saw Amy get married, which was a long-running story arc. It seems kind of fairly settled that now's there going to be this trio of people in the TARDIS,' Gillan said. 'So that's where we pick up in the first.'
She added: 'It's interesting to see the affect that marriage has had on all three of the main characters and also it helps define Amy's relationship with The Doctor. Something's going to happen to do with this marriage that's going to change the course of everything in this series. It's going to get quite dark. Everyone's got a little secret from one another, which I think is quite interesting. Amy's got a big one!' Gillan went on to dismiss the suggestion that any rift in the marriage will be due to Amy taking a romantic interest in The Doctor, adding that the two characters work best as friends. 'Rory's the one for her,' the actress remarked. 'Also, Amy with The Doctor - what would that even be like? She's as mad as he is and they wind each other up so much. So I think they're best off as best buds.'
Matt Smith has admitted that he wants the show to become a hit in the US. Smith told the New York Post: 'We want to get it to as many Americans as possible, because we're so proud of it.' Asked about the show's enduring appeal, he added:
'You'll never get bored with a baffled genius turning up and saving the day with a toaster and a ball of string being chased by a giant robot that breathes fire and talks with the voice of a calculator, on a show that's not bound by space, logic, time or genre.' The actor also described his interpretation of The Doctor as 'really clever, but socially quite inept. He's everything James Bond isn't,' suggested Smith. 'I mean, he's been on his own for nine hundred years, apart from picking up really hot chicks and saving the world.' It's not a bad way to spend nine hundred years, is it?
Interestingly, both the Daily Scum Mail and the Daily Lies have run stories on Monday which stress the fact that Britain's Got Talent's season debut had a smaller audience than last year's - when actually what they've really done is to compare this year's overnights with last year's final figures, complete with timeshifting. It's almost as if someone, somewhere is briefing against BGT. Is this the start of a press backlash? Is it pro-Cowell spin? Is it just a couple of papers looking for a story because there was no immediate breakout act this year? Time will tell.
Speaking of ratings, here's the Top Twenty shows week ending 10 April:
1 Coronation Street - ITV - 10.15 million
2 EastEnders - BBC1 - 9.89 million
3 Champions League: Moscow Chelski FC vs The Scum - ITV - 7.98m
4 Emmerdale - ITV- 7.64 million
5 Waking The Dead - BBC1 - 7.03 million
6 Benidorm - ITV - 6.53 million
7 Candy Cabs - BBC1 - 6.17 million
8 Lewis - ITV - 6.05 million
9 Holby City - BBC1 - 5.75 million
10 Casualty - BBC1 - 5.67 million
11 Antiques Roadshow - BBC1 - 5.60 million
12 Countryfile - BBC1 - 5.51 million
13 Film: Mamma Mia! - ITV - 5.47 million
14 Have I Got News For You - BBC1 - 5.15 million
15 MasterChef - BBC1 - 5.04 million
16 Waterloo Road - BBC1 - 5.02 million
17 Ten O'Clock News - BBC1 - 4.91 million
18 Monroe - ITV - 4.73 million
19 Law & Order: UK - ITV - 4.69 million
20 The ONE Show - BBC1 - 4.60 million
ITV's football pundit Andy Townsend is reportedly being lined up by BBC bosses to join BBC Breakfast as a replacement for Chris Hollins. Oh Christ almighty, are they that desperate? The man's a effing joke. Earlier in the month, it was confirmed that sports anchor Hollins and presenter Sian Williams would leave the show when it moves to the new BBC North base in Salford Quays in 2012. Only forty six per cent of staff working on Breakfast will make the move to BBC North, although that does include lead presenters Bill Turnbull and Susanna Reid. A replacement is now being sought for Hollins, and former Republic Of Ireland footballer Townsend is viewed as 'a strong candidate,' according to the Daily Mirra.
An unnamed - and probably entirely fictitious - BBC 'source' was allegedly quoted as saying: 'Andy is the man they want if Chris doesn't move. He is regarded as very composed, extremely knowledgeable and easy to understand. He's really liked.' Not by anybody that actually watches football on the TV, he isn't. Townsend, who appeared for Chelsea, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough in his playing career, has featured on ITV Sport for several years, including international and domestic football coverage. He has also previously appeared on BBC Radio 5Live and TalkSport, where he replaced Jon Gaunt after the latter was sacked for controversially calling a guest a Nazi live on air. This summer, the BBC will start relocating five departments to MediaCityUK in Salford Quays, including sport, children's and learning, along with a range of high profile shows. However, Hollins last year described the relocation of Breakfast as 'a political decision' and said that it will be 'practically impossible to get the Prime Minister' on the programme after the move. Because, of course, they have the Prime Minister on Breakfast loads as it is, don't they?
Will Mellor and Warren Clarke will star in new BBC1 comedy series In With The Flynns. The six-part series will centre on Mellor and Niky Wardley's characters Ian and Caroline Flynn, who live in Manchester and are raising three children, holding down jobs and putting up with a cantankerous dad (played by Clarke) and an irresponsible brother (Craig Parkinson). 'I had a great time working on In With The Flynns with a fantastic cast. I can't wait to see what the public thinks of it,' said Mellor. Producer Caryn Mandabach said: 'This experience has been a delight. I'm thrilled to find that families here in the UK are just as extraordinary and funny as they are back in the US.' Dominic Brigstocke directed the show, while Daniel Peak (Not Going Out) wrote the script.
There's a very good thinkpiece by the Independent's Ben Walsh on the subject of female characters in crime drama that's probably worth a few moments of your time, dear blog reader.
The BBC have released a new trailer for BBC2's Original British Drama season this Spring, featuring clips from United, The Shadow Line, The Crimson Petal And The White, The Hour and The Night Watch.
David Tennant stars in United, based on the story of Manchester United's 1958 Munich Air Disaster. The one-off drama will be broadcast at 9pm on Easter Sunday. Tennant's predecessor in the TARDIS, Christopher Eccleston plays Joseph Bede in The Shadow Line, Hugo Blick's sophisticated and gripping conspiracy thriller which delves into the heart of human morality, coming to BBC2 next month. The Crimson Petal And The White, of course, is currently airing at 9pm on Wednesdays on BBC2.
Plans for a Stargate Universe movie have reportedly been cancelled ending hopes for a possible continuation for the spin-off and the franchise in general. Last year Syfy announced it was cancelling Stargate Universe at the end of its second season because of poor ratings. While the spin-off had launched strongly with its initial premier ratings across its first season steadily declined and didn't recover when it returned for a second year. Syfy took the step to cancel Stargate Universe along with the underperforming Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica.
However, despite the cancellation there was hope among fans that the spin-off might continue in the form of television movies or possibly moving to another broadcaster. The possibility of moving was quickly dismissed and so attention was focused on television movies but now it seems those proposed movies won't happen and the future of the franchise is in doubt. 'We just recently found out that the SGU movie is not going to happen,' producer Brad Wright said at Creation Entertainment's Official Stargate Convention. 'It took too long. We just couldn't get it together in time, and the window has closed. It's actually sad for me, because after seventeen years, I'm cleaning out my desk tomorrow morning.'
Martin Amis has apparently got himself into some hot water with the tabloids for telling a French magazine that the Royal family are philistines, and that the Queen didn't listen to him when he met her over lunch, because 'she is not supposed to understand the remarks that one makes to her.' Amis says, 'Still, I allowed myself to say impetuously when she greeted me: "You knighted my father." Her only reaction was to look far away, vaguely staring at a painting on the wall. That's all. Another time, I had a lunch with the Duke of Edinburgh. He was surprised by my profession: "Oh, you’re a writer."'
Sheridan Smith was reportedly mugged in London's West End this month just minutes after she finished a performance of her latest play with Sienna Miller. The former Jonathan Creek actress is currently appearing alongside Miller in a production of Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. She was targeted by thieves after she left the venue following a recent performance and attacked at a bus stop in Piccadilly Circus, according to the Scum Mail on Sunday.
The muggers are believed to have snatched her cell phone from her hand. An eye witness told the publication, 'I noticed three lads in their twenties standing on some steps a little back from the main group of people at the bus stop. I suddenly heard a thump. I looked around and the bloke in the tracksuit ran through a number of people and grabbed a phone from a woman waiting at the bus stop. It was over in a second - she never had time to react. She walked past me towards where the man had run off and I could see it was Sheridan Smith. She was obviously shocked and pale. I could see that she was crying. Some people at the bus stop tried to console her. A man put his arm around her - she was terribly upset.' It is not known if the alleged incident was reported to the police.
Elizabeth Hurley's first foray into reality TV has been postponed. Hopefully indefinitely. The model and actress has documented life on her farm in Gloucestershire in a new documentary, which was due to be broadcast later this month. But a spokesperson for the Sky Living channel has now confirmed the show, titled Living With Elizabeth Hurley, has been removed from the broadcast schedule and currently does not have a schedule date. The news comes amid rumours that the series will be re-edited to remove scenes featuring Hurley's estranged husband Arun Nayar, whom she split up with late last year. A Sky Living spokesman told the News of the World, 'Liz thinks it's airing in September but we don't know when it's coming out. However, we're still one hundred per cent committed to it.'
The world's oldest man has died in a hospital in Great Falls, Montana. Walter Breuning was one hundred and fourteen years old when he died of natural causes last Thursday. He was born in Minnesota in September 1896. He was a railway worker for more than fifty years and survived a bout of colon cancer in his sixties. His wife, Agnes, died in 1957. Before his death, Breuning told the Associated Press that he stuck with two meals a day, saying: 'Get on a diet and stay on it. You'll find that you're in much better shape [and] feel good.'
He also advised people to always help others, stating: 'The more you do for others, the better shape you're in.' He was a lifelong cigar smoker, but quit in 1999, when aged one hundred and three. Walter by all accounts maintained a sharp mind and accurate memory. For example, he could remember his grandfather talking about his experiences in the American Civil War when he was but three years old, and remembered the day President William McKinley was shot, when he was seven, as 'the day I got my first haircut.' Breuning had been living at his retirement home since 1980. He added: 'We're going to die. Some people are scared of dying. Never be afraid to die, because you're born to die.' According to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, the oldest person in the world is Besse Cooper, who is also one hundred and fourteen and was born twenty six days before Breuning in 1896.
The piano on which Sir Paul McCartney completed writing 'Yesterday' has sold for one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The singer sat at the 1926 Art Deco green miniature piano to finish composing the melody to 'Yesterday' at the singer Alma Cogan's house in either late 1964 or spring 1965 (sources vary). McCartney has famously told how he heard the tune in a dream and hurried to a piano in the house where he was living - with Jane Asher's family in Wimpole Street - when he awoke so as not to forget it. Initially using the first words that came into his head and giving the song the title 'Scrambled Eggs', later the same morning McCartney visited his friend Cogan's apartment in Kensington. McCartney told Barry Miles in his biography Many Years From Now: 'I asked "what is this song?" because Alam was a bit of a song buff; [she] knew a lot of Jermone Kern and Cole Porter and that kind of thing and she said "I don't know what it is, but it's beautiful."
I later realised she thought I was trying to give it to her because, if you're a composer you do that, by implication you're offering her the song because she's a singer.' A number of showbiz legends, including Sammy Davis, Jr, Sir Michael Caine, Mick Jagger and alcoholic Scouse wife-beating junkie John Lennon, also played the instrument whilst at Cogan's London home. The Eavestaff piano was sold by Cogan's sister at an auction in London on Friday. It is believed the anonymous winning bidder is an overseas private collector. Most of the press reportage of the sale rather confused the story by assuming that McCartney was actually staying at Alma's gaff on the night in question and it was the piano he played when he woke up. One of the Beatles' more surprising – but certainly sincere – friendships was with the singer. They had first met Alma - whom they all called 'Auntie' - when they both appeared on Sunday Night at the London Palladium in January 1964 and discovered that they had a shared sense of humour. (There are rumours that Lennon had a brief relationship with Cogan but that's never been confirmed and is, anyway, the stuff of tawdry tabloid spectulation of the kind that we seldom indulge in around here.) Alma lived with her mother and sister in an apartment off Kensington High Street and this became something of a regular hang-out for the Beatles prior to Alma's untimely death from ovarian cancer in 1966. Alma's famous dinner parties introduced the band to the more establishment end of showbusiness (Princess Margaret, Lionel Blair, Bruce Forsyth, Roger Moore, Michael Caine, Tommy Steele and Frankie Vaughan were among those they met. The band's friendship with songwriter Lionel Bart can also be traced back to Stafford Court.) Cynthia Lennon described Cogan's home as 'decorated like a swish nightclub with dark, richly coloured silken fabrics and brocades everywhere. Every surface was covered with ethnic sculptures, ornaments and dozens of photographs in elaborate silver, gold and jewelled frames.' Rumours that McCartney and Lennon contributed musically to Cogan's mid-60s recording sessions proved longstanding but only McCartney's playing tambourine on 'I Knew Right Away' – the B-side of Cogan's October 1964 release 'It's You' – is verifiable. McCartney has said of Cogan: 'We'd known Alma as the big singing star. We never interacted musically, she was a little too old for our generation, not much probably, but it seemed like an eternity, so I never took her seriously musically. She was old-school showbiz.'
Boxing promoter Oscar De La Hoya has criticised Sky for refusing to support Amir Khan's latest title fight on Sky Box Office. Khan decided to switch allegiances to Primetime TV, a new subscription-based broadcaster available on satellite and cable TV, after falling out with Sky. The move came after Sky, the UK's biggest boxing broadcaster, opted against offering his WBA light-welterweight title defence against Paul McCloskey this Saturday on Sky Box Office. Despite the fact that the fight ended with a relatively unexciting points win after McCloskey suffered an accidental cut in the sixth round, Khan's promoter De La Hoya believes that Sky made 'a big mistake' in not supporting the British fighter.
According to the Press Association, he said: 'Amir is still the WBA champion of the world. When you have seventeen thousand people in this arena and it is televised on Primetime, and with the bright future of Amir Khan and the fights he's going to have in the future, I believe Sky made a big mistake.' De La Hoya said that his Golden Boy Promotions vehicle would be talking directly with Primetime about supporting the new entrant into the boxing market in future. 'We have an extensive library of fights, more than one hundred fighters in our stable and most of them are world champions. We're going to talk [with Primetime]. And we're going to talk soon,' he said. 'I'm going to have my people here in a few weeks to sit down and work something out because they've stuck behind Amir Khan and we appreciate that. We know [Primetime] want to be a player in the boxing world. Well, you have the biggest promoter in the world today right now telling you we're going to work together and that's the bottom line.'
Discovery Communications has accused Virgin Media of being inflexible in its stance on the sale of its fifty per cent stake in channel operator UKTV. Virgin Media has been seeking a sale of its UKTV stake since last year as part of a strategy of disposing of non-core assets to concentrate on its cable business. The company expects to raise around three hundred and fifty million pounds from the sale, which will be used to reduce its corporate debt. However, a long-rumoured deal with US broadcaster Scripps Networks has stalled amid a reported disagreement over an advertising sales contract. Discovery was also tipped to acquire the stake due to its strong relationship with BBC Worldwide, which owns the remaining fifty per cent of UKTV. But Mark Hollinger, the chief executive of Discovery's international business, said that Virgin Media put too many obstacles in the way of a deal.
Speaking to the Gruniad Morning Star, Hollinger said: 'As we looked at UKTV, the question was if we were going to do it could we bring Discovery UK and UKTV together. There were an enormous number of complications to that. Ultimately it was too complicated to pull it off. Virgin Media wanted a nice clean buyer. They didn't want anyone wanting to change the deal or the structure.' Hollinger feels that Scripps is 'better suited' to acquiring the stake, because the company has a relatively limited presence in the UK and Europe beyond a few digital channels, such as The Food Network. He said: 'We were ultimately too complicated - it better suits a buyer like Scripps, with not much presence in the UK and perfectly happy to be a junior partner to the BBC.' Hollinger said that Discovery has not been involved in the UKTV talks for some time, and expressed his uncertainty over whether a deal is on the horizon. 'It is over in the sense that that we have not talked about Virgin Media and the BBC for months and months,' he said. 'There is nothing going on at the moment. If it doesn't happen [with Scripps], who knows.'
A police community support officer has been jailed for twelve months for leaking confidential information to the press. Emma Smiter's illegal tipoffs, one of which related to an allegation of attempted murder, were reported in national newspapers including the Sun and Daily Mirra. The material, gleaned from Hertfordshire police computers, was passed to a news agency journalist and then on to the wider media. The twenty six-year-old, of Welwyn Garden City, was sentenced at Basildon crown court. In March, a jury at the court found Smiter guilty of misconduct in a public office and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Smiter, a former local newspaper reporter with the Welwyn and Hatfield Times, had denied the charges. During the trial, prosecutor Richard Scott said that Smiter breached police and public trust with her various disclosures. On one occasion, this involved revealing the name of a woman alleged to have been the victim of an attempted murder, the court was told. At the time, detectives had deliberately withheld the woman's personal details from the public for legal reasons. Information about a charity box at a police station in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, being 'twelve pounds short' also appeared in a newspaper, to the embarrassment of the force. Smiter joined the Hertfordshire force as a police community support officer in 2008. Once in this position, she passed some of what she knew to Neil Hyde, a director of the INS news agency, jurors heard. On arrest, she claimed certain details had come from blogs rather than police files. But the court heard she fabricated the Internet material to support her defence and deliberately misled a jury. When interviewed, she admitted she 'knew the rules' about police holding personal data and denied being responsible for passing information to Hyde between 2008 and 2009. She claimed she had only ever used police computers and e-mails for legitimate reasons and had been 'just friends' with Hyde.
And so to yer actual Keith Telly Topping's 45 of the Day. Bring the noise, he's the Jesus and Mary Chain.
* 0601 - The Impossible Astronaut
* 0602 - Day of the Moon
Written by Steven Moffat, the new series kicks off in bold, explosive fashion with a trip Stateside. This opening two-parter will see The Doctor, Amy and Rory head back to the 1960s to meet President Nixon (guest star Jonathan Creek's Stuart Milligan) at The White House. There's no faking it either; no filming in a sand-quarry in Swansea - the production team did decamp to Utah last year and filmed a number of exciting scenes on location. There's also a pretty fantastic guest star on board for these two episodes, Mark Sheppard (veteran of Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and countless other cult US shows) who plays FBI agent Canton Everett Delaware III.
As if that weren't enough, Alex Kingston is also back for another turn as River Song. As for the villains of the piece? It's time for the mysterious Silence which have plagued our favourite Time Lord for the last year - albeit, in name only - to finally show up in person. Quietly. Remember the shocking sight of an imprisoned, bearded Doctor which featured in those recent preview clips and trailers? Keep an eye out for that scene in this two-parter in particular. 'The Doctor, Amy, Rory and River in the Valley of the Gods, Nixon's White House, Area Fifty One and a strangely familiar spaceship. Oh, and there's Alex Kingston diving backwards off a scyscraper,' notes Steven Moffat. 'Look, what else do you want from your television? Well, monsters, I expect. We've got monsters. The Silence, revealed at last. And I'd like to tell you about them. I really would. But I can't.'* 0603 - The Curse of the Black Spot
Shiver me timbers, y'scurvy dogs, this 1696-set pirate epic, scripted by Sherlock's Steve Thompson, was a relatively late addition to the series, aye that it be. (It replaced a Mark Gatiss script which will now appear later in the year. Largely, on suspects, because of stylistic similarities between it and episode four). For episode three, however, the Who-crew headed off on another (less sunny) location shoot, Charlestown in Cornwall on board a pirate ship. Me hearties. The big guest star in this episode who a yo-yo-ho and a copy Rum, Sodomy and the Lash is an impressively bearded Hugh Bonneville, taking a break from Downton Abbey to buckle his swash. And, to battle a ghostly creature, The Siren, played by model-turned-actress Lily Cole. Lee Ross, late of EastEnders and Life On Mars, will also appear and Emmerdale's Oscar Lloyd will play a character named Toby. 'Pirates in Doctor Who! Hugh Bonneville in a beard! Matt Smith in a stupid hat! This one's got it all. Brilliant Steve Thompson (he wrote a Sherlock last year - good show, I hear) hinted to me he'd rather like to write a Doctor Who. And he hinted it every single day for the next six months. When I finally agreed (and he was kind enough to release my family from his garage), it was one of the smartest decisions I've made on this show,' notes showrunner Moffat. 'This is Doctor Who in the grand tradition: spooky and clever and very funny. And new director Jeremy Webb did such a stellar job (on a real ship, by the way) that we locked the cutting-room door and told him he was staying to do another one straightaway. He's still crying. Tears of joy, I expect.' Keep your eyes open for Amy sword fighting. And almost having Rory's eye out.
* 0604 - The Doctor's Wife
So just who is Idris? That's the question posed by the great Neil Gaiman's long-awaited first contribution to Doctor Who, which bears the potentially jaw-dropping title The Doctor's Wife. Former Coronation Street actress Suranne Jones plays Idris, described by Gaiman as 'an old friend of the Doctor's with a new face.' Fan speculation has her identity has seen guesses for everyone from The Rani (again!), to Romana (again!), to Susan (again!), or even a human manifestation of the TARDIS. But are any of the rumours on the ball? Michael Sheen takes a break from Twilight films, Tron sequels and playing Tony Blair every time anyone needs him, to take on a sinister voice role in this episode, whilst Being Human actor Adrian Schiller and Psychoville's Elizabeth Berrington also pop up as Uncle and Auntie, 'residents of a junkyard planet in a bubble universe on the edge of reality.' There's an Ood on hand as well. That great line from the trailers: 'Fear me. I've killed hundreds of TimeLords,' spoken by Sheen's character to which the Doctor replies 'Fear me. I've killed them all' comes form this episode. And what about Matt Smith's claim that this episode is 'a real one for the ardent Who fans?' Well, look out for a little tribute Patrick Troughton's 1969 swansong The War Games.
* 0605 - The Rebel Flesh
* 0606 - The Almost People
Ashes to Ashes co-creator Matthew Graham returns to script another Doctor Who adventure, bringing with him his former Life On Mars cohort Marshall Lancaster. The actor best known as Chris Skelton is playing Buzzer in this two-part adventure, featuring alongside the likes of Wallander actress Sarah Smart, Lead Balloon's Raquel Cassidy and Casualty veteran Mark Bonnar.
According to an article in Total Film, 'The Rebel Flesh centres on an acid-mining operation in a Twenty Second Century monastery where the dangerous work is done by doppelgangers cloned in a "flesh bowl." Matt Smith's Doctor and newlywed co-flyers Amy and Rory gatecrash the party when a TARDIS trip to Whitby gets mysteriously slammed off-course. Then a storm hits and the whole shebang screeches off-piste.' As we reach the latter half of the series, spoiler sensitivity is reaching dangerous levels, so further plot details on this one are somewhat scarce. The Lord Thy God Steven Moffat states: 'We haven't done really good shape-changers on Doctor Who, at least for a while, so I pitched the idea to Matthew Graham, who went with it. It's remaking The Thing. What if the people The Thing duplicates actually think, "we've got rights too. I always wondered why they didn't.'" So this may be an interesting moral dilemma which may show up in this episode: should the duplicated creatures actually be considered people? Or are they "almost-people"? Do they have a soul? Are they innately evil? Do they deserve to keep living? This sounds like it could be a very interesting story.' And for those of you who are anticipating a big cliffhanger to round off this initial run of seven episodes, you may be surprised to learn that the potential real shocker may instead be coming at the end of The Almost People. * 0607 - A Good Man Goes To War
This may be the Doctor's darkest hour finally arriving, as The Battle of Demon's Run begins in Steven Moffat's mid-series finale. It stars Misfits actor Danny Sapani as Colonel Manton, while Charlie Baker and Dan Johnston will feature as Fat Man and Thin Man respectively. Annabel Cleare and her son Henry also apparently have 'small parts' in the episode. Plus, remember River's blue-skinned contact Dorium from The Pandorica Opens? Simon Fisher-Becker is back to breathe life into the character once more. A shocking secret will finally be revealed, a familiar race of monsters (or maybe two) will make an appearance, and silence will definitely fall. At least until September, anyway, when we've got another six episodes to look forward to. 'Want to find the most dangerous place in the universe? Easy. Harm a hair on Amy's head any just wait. But as the last of the Time Lords and the Lone Centurion blaze across galaxies to save the woman in both their lives, history is unfolding. In her cell, in Stormcage, River Song knows the time has come at last. She has a secret, and this is the day she tells it,' says Mr Moffat. But, relax dear bog reader. For the second half of the series, we've got Nazis, a haunted Towerblock, the Green Anchor and the Red Waterfall, David Walliams as an alien slug, the Cybermen. And James Corden. Still, you can't have everything.
Karen Gillan has hinted that her character Amy's marriage to Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) will be 'tested' during the upcoming sixth series. Karen told MTV News that several startling secrets will affect the couple's bond as well as their relationship with The Doctor. 'At the end of the last series of Doctor Who, we saw Amy get married, which was a long-running story arc. It seems kind of fairly settled that now's there going to be this trio of people in the TARDIS,' Gillan said. 'So that's where we pick up in the first.'
She added: 'It's interesting to see the affect that marriage has had on all three of the main characters and also it helps define Amy's relationship with The Doctor. Something's going to happen to do with this marriage that's going to change the course of everything in this series. It's going to get quite dark. Everyone's got a little secret from one another, which I think is quite interesting. Amy's got a big one!' Gillan went on to dismiss the suggestion that any rift in the marriage will be due to Amy taking a romantic interest in The Doctor, adding that the two characters work best as friends. 'Rory's the one for her,' the actress remarked. 'Also, Amy with The Doctor - what would that even be like? She's as mad as he is and they wind each other up so much. So I think they're best off as best buds.'Matt Smith has admitted that he wants the show to become a hit in the US. Smith told the New York Post: 'We want to get it to as many Americans as possible, because we're so proud of it.' Asked about the show's enduring appeal, he added:
'You'll never get bored with a baffled genius turning up and saving the day with a toaster and a ball of string being chased by a giant robot that breathes fire and talks with the voice of a calculator, on a show that's not bound by space, logic, time or genre.' The actor also described his interpretation of The Doctor as 'really clever, but socially quite inept. He's everything James Bond isn't,' suggested Smith. 'I mean, he's been on his own for nine hundred years, apart from picking up really hot chicks and saving the world.' It's not a bad way to spend nine hundred years, is it?Interestingly, both the Daily Scum Mail and the Daily Lies have run stories on Monday which stress the fact that Britain's Got Talent's season debut had a smaller audience than last year's - when actually what they've really done is to compare this year's overnights with last year's final figures, complete with timeshifting. It's almost as if someone, somewhere is briefing against BGT. Is this the start of a press backlash? Is it pro-Cowell spin? Is it just a couple of papers looking for a story because there was no immediate breakout act this year? Time will tell.
Speaking of ratings, here's the Top Twenty shows week ending 10 April:
1 Coronation Street - ITV - 10.15 million
2 EastEnders - BBC1 - 9.89 million
3 Champions League: Moscow Chelski FC vs The Scum - ITV - 7.98m
4 Emmerdale - ITV- 7.64 million
5 Waking The Dead - BBC1 - 7.03 million
6 Benidorm - ITV - 6.53 million
7 Candy Cabs - BBC1 - 6.17 million
8 Lewis - ITV - 6.05 million
9 Holby City - BBC1 - 5.75 million
10 Casualty - BBC1 - 5.67 million
11 Antiques Roadshow - BBC1 - 5.60 million
12 Countryfile - BBC1 - 5.51 million
13 Film: Mamma Mia! - ITV - 5.47 million
14 Have I Got News For You - BBC1 - 5.15 million
15 MasterChef - BBC1 - 5.04 million
16 Waterloo Road - BBC1 - 5.02 million
17 Ten O'Clock News - BBC1 - 4.91 million
18 Monroe - ITV - 4.73 million
19 Law & Order: UK - ITV - 4.69 million
20 The ONE Show - BBC1 - 4.60 million
ITV's football pundit Andy Townsend is reportedly being lined up by BBC bosses to join BBC Breakfast as a replacement for Chris Hollins. Oh Christ almighty, are they that desperate? The man's a effing joke. Earlier in the month, it was confirmed that sports anchor Hollins and presenter Sian Williams would leave the show when it moves to the new BBC North base in Salford Quays in 2012. Only forty six per cent of staff working on Breakfast will make the move to BBC North, although that does include lead presenters Bill Turnbull and Susanna Reid. A replacement is now being sought for Hollins, and former Republic Of Ireland footballer Townsend is viewed as 'a strong candidate,' according to the Daily Mirra.
An unnamed - and probably entirely fictitious - BBC 'source' was allegedly quoted as saying: 'Andy is the man they want if Chris doesn't move. He is regarded as very composed, extremely knowledgeable and easy to understand. He's really liked.' Not by anybody that actually watches football on the TV, he isn't. Townsend, who appeared for Chelsea, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough in his playing career, has featured on ITV Sport for several years, including international and domestic football coverage. He has also previously appeared on BBC Radio 5Live and TalkSport, where he replaced Jon Gaunt after the latter was sacked for controversially calling a guest a Nazi live on air. This summer, the BBC will start relocating five departments to MediaCityUK in Salford Quays, including sport, children's and learning, along with a range of high profile shows. However, Hollins last year described the relocation of Breakfast as 'a political decision' and said that it will be 'practically impossible to get the Prime Minister' on the programme after the move. Because, of course, they have the Prime Minister on Breakfast loads as it is, don't they?Will Mellor and Warren Clarke will star in new BBC1 comedy series In With The Flynns. The six-part series will centre on Mellor and Niky Wardley's characters Ian and Caroline Flynn, who live in Manchester and are raising three children, holding down jobs and putting up with a cantankerous dad (played by Clarke) and an irresponsible brother (Craig Parkinson). 'I had a great time working on In With The Flynns with a fantastic cast. I can't wait to see what the public thinks of it,' said Mellor. Producer Caryn Mandabach said: 'This experience has been a delight. I'm thrilled to find that families here in the UK are just as extraordinary and funny as they are back in the US.' Dominic Brigstocke directed the show, while Daniel Peak (Not Going Out) wrote the script.
There's a very good thinkpiece by the Independent's Ben Walsh on the subject of female characters in crime drama that's probably worth a few moments of your time, dear blog reader.
The BBC have released a new trailer for BBC2's Original British Drama season this Spring, featuring clips from United, The Shadow Line, The Crimson Petal And The White, The Hour and The Night Watch.
David Tennant stars in United, based on the story of Manchester United's 1958 Munich Air Disaster. The one-off drama will be broadcast at 9pm on Easter Sunday. Tennant's predecessor in the TARDIS, Christopher Eccleston plays Joseph Bede in The Shadow Line, Hugo Blick's sophisticated and gripping conspiracy thriller which delves into the heart of human morality, coming to BBC2 next month. The Crimson Petal And The White, of course, is currently airing at 9pm on Wednesdays on BBC2.Plans for a Stargate Universe movie have reportedly been cancelled ending hopes for a possible continuation for the spin-off and the franchise in general. Last year Syfy announced it was cancelling Stargate Universe at the end of its second season because of poor ratings. While the spin-off had launched strongly with its initial premier ratings across its first season steadily declined and didn't recover when it returned for a second year. Syfy took the step to cancel Stargate Universe along with the underperforming Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica.
However, despite the cancellation there was hope among fans that the spin-off might continue in the form of television movies or possibly moving to another broadcaster. The possibility of moving was quickly dismissed and so attention was focused on television movies but now it seems those proposed movies won't happen and the future of the franchise is in doubt. 'We just recently found out that the SGU movie is not going to happen,' producer Brad Wright said at Creation Entertainment's Official Stargate Convention. 'It took too long. We just couldn't get it together in time, and the window has closed. It's actually sad for me, because after seventeen years, I'm cleaning out my desk tomorrow morning.' Martin Amis has apparently got himself into some hot water with the tabloids for telling a French magazine that the Royal family are philistines, and that the Queen didn't listen to him when he met her over lunch, because 'she is not supposed to understand the remarks that one makes to her.' Amis says, 'Still, I allowed myself to say impetuously when she greeted me: "You knighted my father." Her only reaction was to look far away, vaguely staring at a painting on the wall. That's all. Another time, I had a lunch with the Duke of Edinburgh. He was surprised by my profession: "Oh, you’re a writer."'
Sheridan Smith was reportedly mugged in London's West End this month just minutes after she finished a performance of her latest play with Sienna Miller. The former Jonathan Creek actress is currently appearing alongside Miller in a production of Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. She was targeted by thieves after she left the venue following a recent performance and attacked at a bus stop in Piccadilly Circus, according to the Scum Mail on Sunday.
The muggers are believed to have snatched her cell phone from her hand. An eye witness told the publication, 'I noticed three lads in their twenties standing on some steps a little back from the main group of people at the bus stop. I suddenly heard a thump. I looked around and the bloke in the tracksuit ran through a number of people and grabbed a phone from a woman waiting at the bus stop. It was over in a second - she never had time to react. She walked past me towards where the man had run off and I could see it was Sheridan Smith. She was obviously shocked and pale. I could see that she was crying. Some people at the bus stop tried to console her. A man put his arm around her - she was terribly upset.' It is not known if the alleged incident was reported to the police.Elizabeth Hurley's first foray into reality TV has been postponed. Hopefully indefinitely. The model and actress has documented life on her farm in Gloucestershire in a new documentary, which was due to be broadcast later this month. But a spokesperson for the Sky Living channel has now confirmed the show, titled Living With Elizabeth Hurley, has been removed from the broadcast schedule and currently does not have a schedule date. The news comes amid rumours that the series will be re-edited to remove scenes featuring Hurley's estranged husband Arun Nayar, whom she split up with late last year. A Sky Living spokesman told the News of the World, 'Liz thinks it's airing in September but we don't know when it's coming out. However, we're still one hundred per cent committed to it.'
The world's oldest man has died in a hospital in Great Falls, Montana. Walter Breuning was one hundred and fourteen years old when he died of natural causes last Thursday. He was born in Minnesota in September 1896. He was a railway worker for more than fifty years and survived a bout of colon cancer in his sixties. His wife, Agnes, died in 1957. Before his death, Breuning told the Associated Press that he stuck with two meals a day, saying: 'Get on a diet and stay on it. You'll find that you're in much better shape [and] feel good.'
He also advised people to always help others, stating: 'The more you do for others, the better shape you're in.' He was a lifelong cigar smoker, but quit in 1999, when aged one hundred and three. Walter by all accounts maintained a sharp mind and accurate memory. For example, he could remember his grandfather talking about his experiences in the American Civil War when he was but three years old, and remembered the day President William McKinley was shot, when he was seven, as 'the day I got my first haircut.' Breuning had been living at his retirement home since 1980. He added: 'We're going to die. Some people are scared of dying. Never be afraid to die, because you're born to die.' According to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, the oldest person in the world is Besse Cooper, who is also one hundred and fourteen and was born twenty six days before Breuning in 1896.The piano on which Sir Paul McCartney completed writing 'Yesterday' has sold for one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The singer sat at the 1926 Art Deco green miniature piano to finish composing the melody to 'Yesterday' at the singer Alma Cogan's house in either late 1964 or spring 1965 (sources vary). McCartney has famously told how he heard the tune in a dream and hurried to a piano in the house where he was living - with Jane Asher's family in Wimpole Street - when he awoke so as not to forget it. Initially using the first words that came into his head and giving the song the title 'Scrambled Eggs', later the same morning McCartney visited his friend Cogan's apartment in Kensington. McCartney told Barry Miles in his biography Many Years From Now: 'I asked "what is this song?" because Alam was a bit of a song buff; [she] knew a lot of Jermone Kern and Cole Porter and that kind of thing and she said "I don't know what it is, but it's beautiful."
I later realised she thought I was trying to give it to her because, if you're a composer you do that, by implication you're offering her the song because she's a singer.' A number of showbiz legends, including Sammy Davis, Jr, Sir Michael Caine, Mick Jagger and alcoholic Scouse wife-beating junkie John Lennon, also played the instrument whilst at Cogan's London home. The Eavestaff piano was sold by Cogan's sister at an auction in London on Friday. It is believed the anonymous winning bidder is an overseas private collector. Most of the press reportage of the sale rather confused the story by assuming that McCartney was actually staying at Alma's gaff on the night in question and it was the piano he played when he woke up. One of the Beatles' more surprising – but certainly sincere – friendships was with the singer. They had first met Alma - whom they all called 'Auntie' - when they both appeared on Sunday Night at the London Palladium in January 1964 and discovered that they had a shared sense of humour. (There are rumours that Lennon had a brief relationship with Cogan but that's never been confirmed and is, anyway, the stuff of tawdry tabloid spectulation of the kind that we seldom indulge in around here.) Alma lived with her mother and sister in an apartment off Kensington High Street and this became something of a regular hang-out for the Beatles prior to Alma's untimely death from ovarian cancer in 1966. Alma's famous dinner parties introduced the band to the more establishment end of showbusiness (Princess Margaret, Lionel Blair, Bruce Forsyth, Roger Moore, Michael Caine, Tommy Steele and Frankie Vaughan were among those they met. The band's friendship with songwriter Lionel Bart can also be traced back to Stafford Court.) Cynthia Lennon described Cogan's home as 'decorated like a swish nightclub with dark, richly coloured silken fabrics and brocades everywhere. Every surface was covered with ethnic sculptures, ornaments and dozens of photographs in elaborate silver, gold and jewelled frames.' Rumours that McCartney and Lennon contributed musically to Cogan's mid-60s recording sessions proved longstanding but only McCartney's playing tambourine on 'I Knew Right Away' – the B-side of Cogan's October 1964 release 'It's You' – is verifiable. McCartney has said of Cogan: 'We'd known Alma as the big singing star. We never interacted musically, she was a little too old for our generation, not much probably, but it seemed like an eternity, so I never took her seriously musically. She was old-school showbiz.'Boxing promoter Oscar De La Hoya has criticised Sky for refusing to support Amir Khan's latest title fight on Sky Box Office. Khan decided to switch allegiances to Primetime TV, a new subscription-based broadcaster available on satellite and cable TV, after falling out with Sky. The move came after Sky, the UK's biggest boxing broadcaster, opted against offering his WBA light-welterweight title defence against Paul McCloskey this Saturday on Sky Box Office. Despite the fact that the fight ended with a relatively unexciting points win after McCloskey suffered an accidental cut in the sixth round, Khan's promoter De La Hoya believes that Sky made 'a big mistake' in not supporting the British fighter.
According to the Press Association, he said: 'Amir is still the WBA champion of the world. When you have seventeen thousand people in this arena and it is televised on Primetime, and with the bright future of Amir Khan and the fights he's going to have in the future, I believe Sky made a big mistake.' De La Hoya said that his Golden Boy Promotions vehicle would be talking directly with Primetime about supporting the new entrant into the boxing market in future. 'We have an extensive library of fights, more than one hundred fighters in our stable and most of them are world champions. We're going to talk [with Primetime]. And we're going to talk soon,' he said. 'I'm going to have my people here in a few weeks to sit down and work something out because they've stuck behind Amir Khan and we appreciate that. We know [Primetime] want to be a player in the boxing world. Well, you have the biggest promoter in the world today right now telling you we're going to work together and that's the bottom line.'Discovery Communications has accused Virgin Media of being inflexible in its stance on the sale of its fifty per cent stake in channel operator UKTV. Virgin Media has been seeking a sale of its UKTV stake since last year as part of a strategy of disposing of non-core assets to concentrate on its cable business. The company expects to raise around three hundred and fifty million pounds from the sale, which will be used to reduce its corporate debt. However, a long-rumoured deal with US broadcaster Scripps Networks has stalled amid a reported disagreement over an advertising sales contract. Discovery was also tipped to acquire the stake due to its strong relationship with BBC Worldwide, which owns the remaining fifty per cent of UKTV. But Mark Hollinger, the chief executive of Discovery's international business, said that Virgin Media put too many obstacles in the way of a deal.
Speaking to the Gruniad Morning Star, Hollinger said: 'As we looked at UKTV, the question was if we were going to do it could we bring Discovery UK and UKTV together. There were an enormous number of complications to that. Ultimately it was too complicated to pull it off. Virgin Media wanted a nice clean buyer. They didn't want anyone wanting to change the deal or the structure.' Hollinger feels that Scripps is 'better suited' to acquiring the stake, because the company has a relatively limited presence in the UK and Europe beyond a few digital channels, such as The Food Network. He said: 'We were ultimately too complicated - it better suits a buyer like Scripps, with not much presence in the UK and perfectly happy to be a junior partner to the BBC.' Hollinger said that Discovery has not been involved in the UKTV talks for some time, and expressed his uncertainty over whether a deal is on the horizon. 'It is over in the sense that that we have not talked about Virgin Media and the BBC for months and months,' he said. 'There is nothing going on at the moment. If it doesn't happen [with Scripps], who knows.'A police community support officer has been jailed for twelve months for leaking confidential information to the press. Emma Smiter's illegal tipoffs, one of which related to an allegation of attempted murder, were reported in national newspapers including the Sun and Daily Mirra. The material, gleaned from Hertfordshire police computers, was passed to a news agency journalist and then on to the wider media. The twenty six-year-old, of Welwyn Garden City, was sentenced at Basildon crown court. In March, a jury at the court found Smiter guilty of misconduct in a public office and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Smiter, a former local newspaper reporter with the Welwyn and Hatfield Times, had denied the charges. During the trial, prosecutor Richard Scott said that Smiter breached police and public trust with her various disclosures. On one occasion, this involved revealing the name of a woman alleged to have been the victim of an attempted murder, the court was told. At the time, detectives had deliberately withheld the woman's personal details from the public for legal reasons. Information about a charity box at a police station in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, being 'twelve pounds short' also appeared in a newspaper, to the embarrassment of the force. Smiter joined the Hertfordshire force as a police community support officer in 2008. Once in this position, she passed some of what she knew to Neil Hyde, a director of the INS news agency, jurors heard. On arrest, she claimed certain details had come from blogs rather than police files. But the court heard she fabricated the Internet material to support her defence and deliberately misled a jury. When interviewed, she admitted she 'knew the rules' about police holding personal data and denied being responsible for passing information to Hyde between 2008 and 2009. She claimed she had only ever used police computers and e-mails for legitimate reasons and had been 'just friends' with Hyde.
And so to yer actual Keith Telly Topping's 45 of the Day. Bring the noise, he's the Jesus and Mary Chain.
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