Another quality day with you know WHO!

One of the great pleasures of writing Doctor Who for Big Finish, who specialise in producing original, full-cast audio dramas for download or release on CD, is getting invited down to the studio at Ladbroke Grove to sit in, and sometimes lend the odd word of advice, while the final touches are being made to the finished production.

I’ve had this joy a couple of times now, meeting such luminaries of the greatest show in the galaxy as Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. Last month saw another memorable occasion when I was allowed access to the high-tech inner sanctum for the recording of my Fifth Doctor adventure, HEXAGORA.


Fifth Doctor Peter Davison has long been a fixture in my family’s professional life as my late-father wrote many scripts for him in the 1980s for All Creatures Great And Small. I personally had never met him until now, though I still remembered my Dad’s fond reminiscences of Peter as one of the nicest guys in show-business. Happily, I can confirm that this is true, but after having a good chat with Peter, and watching him in action at close-hand, I was even more bowled over by his professionalism and also by the affection and commitment to Doctor Who that he still has, even though he is surely one of the most in-demand actors around.

I was equally chuffed to meet Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton, who as Tegan and Nyssa respectively provided the other members of that hugely popular and personable Tardis trio (all three of these personal heroes of mine are pictured above with yours truly, during a break in the recording). I felt as if I knew both ladies already, having seen so much of them on TV, but also given that their real life characters were a close match for their on-screen personas; Janet fiery and determined, Sarah gentle and laid-back.

I also had the unexpected pleasure of meeting Jacqueline Pearce, who has a star role in HEXAGORA, but who will be well remembered by fans of cult sci-fi as Servelan, the evil administrator who terrorised the space-trekking freedom fighters of Blake’s Seven back in the 1970s. She too was instantly recognisable to me, and nice as pie, and must have been a great coup for producer David Richardson when he was looking to cast.

HEXAGORA is another of Big Finish’s ‘Lost Stories’ series, and I developed and wrote it from a brief outline by Peter Ling and Hazel Adair. I can't say anything about it yet, except that it will be released in November. Watch this space for more news as I get it.