Well there is plenty going on. Here is my latest news,. I hope you are all well:

I have joined Coronation Street as a new character, Fergus Dunford, who has managed to escape the confines of Hadoke Towers, where I filmed his first scenes, and walk the cobbles (which Fergus patrols as traffic warden). You can see one of the Zoom scenes we filmed here, but keep an eye out on TV at the beginning of October (both episodes on Monday 4th and Wednesday 6th) for some fabulous scenes, and that won’t be the last you’ll see of him either.

Fergus is making an impact on the Street (and indeed Inside Soap)…

I am back on BBC Radio 4 Extra from Saturday 3rd October for 3 weekends, presenting the science-fiction hour The Seventh Dimension and sprinkling it with arcane facts and due reverence. We have, among other things, a trip to the Village with The Prisoner, a play about witchcraft from Liz Lochhead and a tribute to the recently departed John Challis, a fabulous fellow who plays a cynical policeman in a spooky play from 1998. I also wrote John’s obituary for The Guardian, which you can read here.

Recording the commentary for The Evil of the Daleks with producer John Kelly and Frazer Hines (Jamie).

I feature on the commentary for the recently released Blu-ray of The Evil of the Daleks which might just be the best Doctor Who missing episode animation yet. I am also on the commentary and the documentary for the forthcoming release of Galaxy Four – we only filmed the documentary at the beginning of September and the disc is out very soon : probably our quickest turnaround.

My first TV script was aired at the end of last month. My episode of Biff and Chip – episode 11, Buried Treasure – is still available on iPlayer and I think that they have done a lovely job with it. I’m quite proud to have had a script that has finally made it to screen: and I owe brilliant producer and Guardian Angel Charlotte Riches a great debt of gratitude for getting me on the team, and script editor Luke Frost deserves bucketloads of thanks for bearing with me as we went through draft after draft I order to get it right. The episode can still be seen here.

A TV Credit!!

XS Malarkey – my award winning, 24 year old comedy club – has opened its doors again after over a year of lockdown shows (we ran weekly throughout the pandemic). We have some great acts and shows coming up – including John-Luke Roberts, Harriet Kemsley, Thanyia Moore, Sophie Duker, Bethany Black and Ed Knight – and they kick off at 8pm at our usual venue of The Bread Shed in Manchester. Our online shows went so well we are going to continue with them, bringing you fantastic acts from around the world on the first Sunday of every month at 8pm on our Twitch channel. The next one features the brilliant Tom Ward (a Malarkey debut!) and fabulous US act Naomi Ekperigin.

Back on stage where I belong at XS Malarkey…

My podcasts are all up and away. They just clocked up over 100, 000 downloads across 100 episodes which I am told is very good (we only launched 10 months ago)! They are all about Doctor Who : there’s Too Much Information (a fact-filled, episode-by-episode breakdown), Indefinable Magic (whimsical vocal essays inspired by some random aspect of the the show), and Happy Times and Places (commentaries with the aim of positivity). They are released under the blanket title of Toby Hadoke’s Time Travels. My Podbean podcast page is here. My Patreon Page is here.

I have directed, and am in, a new comedy pilot by Jonathan Morris – it’s a Dan Dare/Buck Rogers type spoof called Dick Dixon in the 21st Century and is very funny. It has a great soundscape and a terrific cast including Kieran Hodgson, Dan Starkey, Terry Molloy and Sooz Kempner. Jonny has packed it with jokes and characters who will definitely strike a chord with anyone who likes what I like. The pilot episode here.  and I am very pleased to say that we have just recorded more episodes which will be out soon.

 

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