THIS YEAR MARKS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF BBC TV’s DOCTOR WHO… A VERY BRITISH SCI-FI PROGRAMME WITH UNIVERSAL APPEAL, ITS LONGEVITY MUST BE ASCRIBED TO AN ABILITY TO REJUVENATE: THE LEAD ROLE HAS BEEN RECAST ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS (TWELVE, IN FACT) DURING ITS FIVE DECADES.

This coming weekend, Oscar winner Peter Capaldi films his first scenes as The Doctor, while Matt Smith films his last. In this new edition of The Mouthcast, stand-up comic Toby Hadoke enthuses about Capaldi (whose debut in the role will be broadcast during a Christmas Day episode) and what his great talent might mean for DOCTOR WHO.
Hadoke also discusses his good-natured obsession with the programme – and how that lifelong love inspired both of the one-man works for which he has become most well known.
Take the self-deprecating confessional spirit of Nick Hornby’s HIGH FIDELITY (pop music and girls) and FEVER PITCH (Arsenal FC and girls) but apply them to DOCTOR WHO and you get Hadoke’s knowing rites-of-passage pieces MOTHS ATE MY DOCTOR WHO SCARF and MY STEPSON STOLE MY SONIC SCREWDRIVER. Both shows have successfully toured the UK several times and, in the case of MOTHS ATE MY DOCTOR WHO SCARF, been produced for BBC radio graced with cameos from original cast members of DOCTOR WHO itself.
Hadoke’s professional association with the programme stretches back several years: he’s the engaging moderator of commentary tracks on the BBC’s ongoing series of DOCTOR WHO DVD releases, using his encyclopaediac knowledge and personable enthusiasm to guide writers, actors, directors and members of the production team through interesting new slants on familiar stories. Additionally, Hadoke has set himself the daunting task of interviewing one person connected to the production of each story (that’s 238, if you’re counting), for a series of podcasts running throughout 2013.

A unique double-bill of MOTHS ATE MY DOCTOR WHO SCARF and MY STEPSON STOLE MY SONIC SCREWDRIVER will take place at the Garrick Theatre, London, on Sunday 17th November (tickets available here). Toby also performs MOTHS ATE MY DOCTOR WHO SCARF at Lincoln Drill Hall on 21st November (tickets here), two days before DOCTOR WHO’s 50th anniversary. His other 2013 tour dates can be found here.

Toby Hadoke’s WHO’S ROUND podcasts are available as free downloads from Big Finish here, and the radio production of MOTHS ATE MY SONIC SCREWDRIVER (which features Colin Baker) is available from Audiogo, home of BBC audiobooks, here.