Voting is now open for the sixteenth annual TV Choice Awards, with Doctor Who nominated in the same three categories it won last year.

The series itself has been nominated for Best Family Drama, which it won both last year and in 2010. This year again sees it up against spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures, as well as Waterloo Road, Merlin, Casualty, Holby City, Glee, Doc Martin, and Wild at Heart.

Matt Smith is up for his second award for Best Actor, a huge category of names that also includes Sherlock‘s Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, all four Mad Dogs stars John Simm, Marc Warren, Philip Glenister and Max Beesley, and Merlin‘s Colin Morgan.

Karen Gillan is up for her second Best Actress award, and again sees her pitted against former companion Freema Agyeman for Law and Order UK; others nominees include Gillian Anderson for Great Expectations, Emilia Fox for Silent Witness and Miranda Hart for Call the Midwife.

Additionally, Torchwood: Miracle Day has been nominated in the Best Drama Series category, which sees it up against Sherlock amongst many other shows, including Being Human, Dirk Gently and Downton Abbey.

Voting is open online until 15th June, with the Winners’ Ceremony taking place on the 10th September at The Dorchester Hotel in London.

As well as the three awards won last year, previous ceremonies have seen Doctor Who win every year except 2009 (where it was beaten by Waterloo Road), both of the recent former Doctors voted Best Actor – Christopher Eccleston in 2005 and David Tennant in 2006-2008 – and sidekicks Billie Piper in 2006 and Catherine Tate in 2008 for Best Actress.

It’s said that truth is stranger than fiction, and in a case of life imitating art (in more ways than one), two iconic paintings with very close connections to Doctor Who have been hitting the headlines.

Firstly, one of Edvard Munch’s four versions of The Scream – which was a major influence on the design of Series 6 monster The Silence – is to be exhibited in the UK before being auctioned in the USA by Sotheby’s.

It will be on display in London from 13th April and in New York from 27th April, with the auction taking place on 2nd May, when it is estimated it could fetch more than £50m ($80m).

This version – dated 1895 and the only one to still be in private hands – is a pastel and is in the original frame that was hand-painted by the Norwegian artist. It also includes a poem by Munch explaining what inspired his masterpiece.

The Scream is reckoned to be the second-most recognisable image in art and popular culture after the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci – and by a funny coincidence another version of that particular masterpiece has also been causing a huge stir in the art world.

The globally famous portrait – also titled La Gioconda – was a major plot point of the Season 17 story City of Death. Now a copy of the picture – reckoned to have been painted by one of Leonardo’s apprentices at the time of the original – has been restored and displayed at the Prado Museum in Madrid, where it will stay until 13th March, after which it will be moved and hung next to Leonardo’s original at the Louvre in Paris for an exhibition.

As reported previously, photographic portraits of David Tennant and Karen Gillan can still be seen in the Hot Scots exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. This display runs until 1st April.

Tennant is also among the actors featured in backstage theatre photographer Simon Annand’s exhibition The Half at the Idea Generation Gallery in Chance Street, London. The display takes its name from the half-hour before curtain-up, when actors are left by themselves to focus on the performance ahead of them. Also pictured are Michael Gambon and Felicity Kendal. The exhibition runs until 8th April, with the opening times 10am to 6pm Mondays to Fridays and midday to 5pm Sundays.

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan both triumphed at the National television Awards held Wednesday night at London’s O2 Arena.

Matt Smith beat Torchwood star John Barrowman, Doc Martin and Snakedance star Martin Clunes and David Threlfall of Shameless, to win the award for Outstanding Drama Performance (Male) in the awards voted for by the British public. Both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant have previously won the award for their performance of the Doctor.

Speaking after receiving his award Matt Smith gave some clue to the future telling Radio Times that he has one more year of Doctor Who left and then he was going to try his luck in Hollywood. Although he later told the BBC Entertainment News Team he has no plans to leave.

Karen Gillan won her award for Outstanding Drama Performance (Female) over Torchwood’s Eve Myles, Suranne Jones from Scott & Bailey and who also stared in The Doctor’s Wife last year, and Jaye Jacobs from Waterloo Road. She becomes the first Who companion since Billie Piper to win a National Television Award, both Freema Agyeman and Catherine Tate both received nominations.

Doctor Who lost out in the main award for Most Popular Drama which was won by ITV’s Downton Abbey

Doctor Who Showrunner Steven Moffat has announced that the next series of Doctor Who will see the departure of Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill when the story of Amy and Rory comes to an end.

Speaking at the press screening of the Christmas Episode, The Doctor The Widow and The Wardrobe, Moffat confirmed that the duo will rejoin the Doctor in the TARDIS for Series 33 of the show, but that sometime during the series the couple’s story will come to a heartbreaking end.

Moffat teased that he wouldn’t say when, and certainly not how, the couple would leave, but that it would happen during the series and then their story would be over.

Matt Smith was asked if he would be sad to see Gillan leave.

A new companion, who has yet to be cast, will be joining the Doctor.

The press launch was held in Studio One at Television Centre in London, where so many episodes of the Classic Series of Doctor Who were recorded. It was attended by a specially invited audience, including several MP’s including Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls and, reportedly, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

For a full report, including an audio clip of the announcement, see Life of Wylie.

The TARDIS has landed at Westfield Stratford City bringing the Doctor and his companions to the shopping complex to launch the Series 6 Box Set released in the UK today.

Matt Smith, Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill will all be attending the event held at the brand new mega complex adjoining the 2012 Olympic site in east London.

The three stars will be signing copies of the box-set at HMV before attending a question and answer session in the Gallery Area.Fans around the world can view the experience via the BBC Worldwide YouTube channel from 1600GMT (4PM UK, 11am ET) today. The three stars will be answering questions in a panel hosted by DJ Jo Whiley.

They’ll also be updates from the event on the BBC Facebook page and Doctor Who is also taking over the BBC Worldwide Twitter channel. Fans are encouraged to tweet with the hashtag #doctorwho all day.

Tonight saw the 15th annual TV Choice Awards take place at the Savoy Hotel in London, with Doctor Who winning the Best Family Drama award for the second year running; the programme beat spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures and this year’s NTA winner Waterloo Road.

Karen Gillan also won the Best Actress award for a second year as well for her role as Amy in Doctor Who; she was up against fellow “Who” names Alex Kingston (Marchlands), Elisabeth Sladen (The Sarah Jane Adventures) and Freema Agyeman (Law and Order UK).

However, Matt Smith lost out on the Best Actor award, which went to his predecessor as the Doctor, David Tennant (Single Father); other nominees included the other Doctor of this millennium, Christopher Eccleston (The Shadow Line).

Results for all categories may be found on the TV Choice Awards website.