Some big, exciting news!

 

I have a book coming out!

Not a novel - but nonetheless, something I have worked very long and very hard on, and of which I am very proud. In the unlikely event that you read these blog entries closely and memorise the content, you may possibly recall that I have mentioned once or twice before a non-fiction Doctor Who project on which I've been working.

Well, this is it! It's called The Long Game, and is due to be released by Ten Acre on November 1st. You can see the wonderful cover above, designed by my publisher Stuart Manning and with the model kit illustration created by Andrew Orton.

It tells the story of Doctor Who between the failure of the first attempt to revive it with the broadcast of the TV Movie in May 1996, to the point at which it was recommissioned as an ongoing series by the BBC in September 2003. Telling the stories of the other proposals and failed attempts along the way; how those responsible for bringing it back came to be in those positions; and perhaps most importantly of all, providing the background and context of the changes that took place in the BBC over those years which eventually provided the environment which allowed for this to happen. The sort of thing that in Doctor Who sources is usually dealt with in a few pages, or which in non-Doctor Who histories doesn't touch on the series at all.

It's a process which has long fascinated me, and did so at the time. I remember not long after the series was commissioned, trying to piece together from the existing interviews and reports and sources the chain of events which had let to it happening. The years went by, more sources became available as it all started to become history, and in 2015 - purely for my own interest - I put together a timeline of the events from 1996 to 2003, using various books, articles, interviews, documentaries and assorted bits and pieces.

I put this online and got some very nice comments from people about it, and it made me wonder if there might be a book in it. It was a book which I very much wanted to read, but which didn't seem to exist - pulling together all the different strands into one narrative. So I decided to have a go at writing it myself.

Over the autumn and winter of 2015-16, I put together a first draft, but although I enjoyed writing it and I felt it was pretty decent, the main problem I had was that I just wasn't able to get hold of most of the interviewees to whom I wanted to speak about that time. It was almost all put together from secondary sources, and it was far too short - only about 55,000 words. I always meant to go back and have another go someday, but for a few years never got around to it.

Then last year, after the first lockdown started, I found myself with more free time than I had done in the recent past - like so many people did, of course. So I decided to give it another go. 

This time, it went far better than I could ever have hoped. Now, I'm not modest to a fault. I know I'm not completely hopeless at this stuff - I can write pretty decently. At this stage I had a track record of not just doing a fair few bits for Doctor Who Magazine, but also making many radio documentaries for the BBC. I'm good at this sort of broadcasting history research, and making it understandable and relatable to a wider audience.

But nonetheless, I was rather bowled over by how so many people who didn't know me at all were willing to speak to me, and to help with arranging interviews. I was able to talk to the likes of Lorraine Heggessey, Alan Yentob, Mal Young, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter... Huge, important names in the history of not just Doctor Who but in the history of British television, and they were all happy to speak in-depth about those years and the process which led to the show's recommissioning.

In all I was able to conduct over thirty interviews, and along with a great deal of research in other sources it's ended up being a book which I think tells that story usually skipped over in a few pages in a new, detailed and cohesive way which I don't believe has ever been done before. We announced the book on Saturday, and it's been wonderful to see such a positive response to it - as I had suspected, there are indeed a great many Doctor Who fans who, like me, are interested in this whole process and how it all happened.

If that's you, then the book can be pre-ordered from the Ten Acre website by clicking here. I very much hope that you enjoy it, and I can't wait for you to read it!