Press and Publicity Articles for Love & Monsters

What's the scariest monster that you can imagine? Do you dare to let your imagination run wild? Put your scariest ideas onto paper and the winner of the best design sees their monster come alive on 'Doctor Who'!

The winning monster design will be used in the second series of 'Doctor Who'. It has to be a prosthetic monster, that means that an actor has to be able to wear a mask or costume, no computer special effects required.

• The competition will be divided into our usual three age groups: seven and under, eight, nine & tens and eleven to fifteens.
• The winner of the first prize in each age group will win the first series of 'Doctor Who' on DVD, a remote controlled Dalek and a TV/DVD combi.
• The winner of the second prize in each age group will win the first series of 'Doctor Who' on DVD and a remote controlled Dalek.
• The winner of the third prize in each age group will win the first series of 'Doctor Who' on DVD.
• The 500 runners up will each win the new 'Doctor Who Monsters and Villains' book and a Blue Peter competition winners' badge.

The overall winner will not only have their design brought to life by the 'Doctor Who' team and see their monster appear in one of the episodes of the new series, but they will also be taken to visit the 'Doctor Who' film set in Wales!

Nine-year-old William Grantham, from Colchester, Essex will see his monstrous creation - the Abzorbaloff - feature in the next series of Doctor Who.

The big green beastie kills his victims by absorbing them into his enormous body.

New Doctor David Tennant, who judged the competition alongside Executive Producer Russell T Davies, Blue Peter Editor Richard Marson and presenter Gethin Jones, called William live on Blue Peter to tell him he'd won.

William will get to visit the set of Doctor Who in Wales to see the Abzorbaloff in action - just as soon as monster maker Neil Gorton has built the costume.

The competition broke records with an amazing 43,920 entries - the biggest response to a Blue Peter competition since 1993.

Blue Peter editor Richard Marson said: "We were staggered by the popularity of the competition.

"We knew Doctor Who had been a huge hit with our audience but this was something else.

"Every day brought more sacks and, as well as getting all hands on deck in the Blue Peter office, we also had to draft in extra help to get through the mountain of highly inventive designs."

Russell T Davies entered a Blue Peter Design a Monster competition back in the Sixties but wasn't as lucky as William. Still, he can create as many fabulous new monsters as he likes now!

Highly acclaimed actors Marc Warren and Shirley Henderson have joined the cast of episode 10 of the new series of Doctor Who, working alongside the previously-announced Peter Kay.

Marc Warren is currently back on our screens every Friday night on BBC One as conman Danny Blue in the hit series Hustle. Marc's long and varied career includes TV series Clocking Off, Band of Brothers and State of Play (for which he won a Royal Television Society award for Best Actor).

Also appearing in this superb episode is Shirley Henderson, a renowned Scottish actress who's appeared in TV shows as diverse as Hamish Macbeth and the recent adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

Shirley's also appeared in some of the biggest movie hits of recent years, including the Bridget Jones films (as Bridget's emotional friend Jude) and as the toilet-bound ghost Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter series.