The Doctor will see you now

I went to the launch of the new series of Doctor Who last night. It was at the Mayfair Hotel, which is a new one on me, but swanky enough as the name would suggest. But you really had to use a scythe to cut your way through the banks of maniac fans standing outside. I've never seen anything like it.

So, I like Doctor Who. I'm not a huge, huge fan, never was a child, stopped with Tom Baker, etc, but I do quite like this on a Saturday night. It gives me a feeling of well-being, even if sometimes it's a bit off. I think rubber monsters are silly, I much prefer the darker stories set on Earth. I think that's why I'm not such a big sci-fi fan.

Anyway, the new series looks great. We saw the first two episodes, and saw for the first time the new girl Martha Jones, played by Frema Aygeman. The good news is: she's excellent. Billie's shoes were always going to be hard to fill, but now we're saying Billie who? There's a good chemistry between them, and it's much more adventurous.

The second episode about Shakespeare (with Dean Lennox Kelly as a very scouse bard) was really good. Very inventive. Very scary witches. The series looks like it's had loads more money spent on it, but when I was chatting with writer Russell T Davies afterwards, he said it hadn't. Yes I met the cast afterwards, which was nice. But when you've been to as many showbiz dos as I have darling, these things lose their appeal. Still Frema is lovely, sure to be a huge star and David Tenant always makes time for people.

There were some celebs there last night I've never seein the flesh before, like Jonathan Ross and his family of gypsies, Arabella Weir, Charlie Higson, Dawn French (who's tiny and has a very flashy mobile phone) and Tracy-Ann Oberman. In fact there were a lot of past cast there, including Catherine Tate, who must be the palest woman alive.

A good, interesting night out. The new series looks like it's going to be good. There were some very scary looking scarecrows who come to life, amongst other things. The only downside is John Barrowman is back. What isn't he in these days?