As I believe I may have mentioned here before, I am not a huge fan of New Year's Eve. I am not opposed to the idea of celebrating it, of course, and have had some pleasant ones spent with friends in the past, mostly in my late teens and early twenties.
But it's a time when, obviously not uniquely, I become a bit introspective about the progress of my life, or lack of it. How another year has passed and I have not yet achieved what I want to achieve. The feeling of time slipping away from you, and leaving you still standing there wondering where the hell it's all disappeared off to so quickly.
No, stop, wait - I need more time!
So, more as a reassurance to myself than for anything else, I have decided to make this year's New Year's Eve blog entry a catalogue of the year; a reminder that I did manage to do some things in 2025, and even some things of which I was very proud, too.
January
A year ago, I set myself three targets for 2025. To find a publisher for my new non-fiction book, When Saturday Came. To make a series I had come up with for BBC Sounds called The Man Who Made Wembley. And to actually get a first draft written of a new attempt at a novel.
Well, two out of three isn't bad, as the saying goes. I did manage to find a publisher for When Saturday Came. I did make The Man Who Made Wembley.
But I did not write a novel, nor even come close to it. I have storylined one - well, most of one. And written a draft of the first chapter. But the actual writing of an entire draft is a target which is going to have to be shifted over to 2026, after what can only be called a miserable failure this year.
February
Nothing published, but two trips to the BBC Written Archives Centre in quick succession, which is something I always enjoy. One was to do some final research and fact-checking for When Saturday Came, to fill in a few gaps and bits and pieces concerning details about a few different programmes here and there. The other was on in-house business, looking at the BBC's Wembley Stadium files of the relevant period for The Man Who Made Wembley. This did help in several ways, most pleasingly enabling me to quote from a letter referencing a particular broadcast in the 1930s, asking if covering this particular event would be possible, and then actually being able to include a clip from a surviving excerpt of that very broadcast in the series itself.
March
Mostly continuing to work on Wembley, having conducted the interviews through January and February, I did most of the editing-together of it this month. Early in the month I also made a research trip to the British Library in London to look at some 1930s newspapers, and as is often the case with these things found myself distracted by some of the weird and wonderful adverts on display. For example, how did this work out for you, 1930s...?
April
My first professionally-released piece of writing of the year. In February I'd been asked if I had any ideas for a Doctor Who Magazine special celebrating 20 years of the Ninth Doctor. I came up with an idea of telling the story of some of the online reaction to Christopher Eccleston's casting in the part, as I knew I had some saved material from the old Outpost Gallifrey forum, the main place for online discussion of Doctor Who in those days, which didn't exist anywhere else. I think I made a pretty good job of it, and the special with the article in came out this month. I also finished off the editing of Wembley, recording the final voiceover with Thordis and pitching various tie-in online pieces and radio features.
May
Wembley month! We released it in early May to tie-in with the impending FA Cup finals at the stadium. I was very pleased with how the series turned out, and it was flattering to see that it did generate a fair amount of positive response. I wrote a BBC Sport Online piece, and The Sunday Times, The Observer and the Radio Times all gave it nice write-ups.
I also went out and did a spot of reporting this month, something I'd not done for some time - and for radio, online and TV, to boot.
More unexpectedly, I made a one-off return to radio presenting this month, covering the Saturday afternoon sports show. It was good fun, and reminded me how much I miss working on programmes.
June
Not a huge amount to say about this month, although it was when I finally came up with what I thought was a decent idea for a new novel, the one I mentioned above having mostly plotted-out and written the opening of. I do still think it's a good idea, but the question really is whether I am a good enough writer to do it justice. Only time will tell.
July
John Higgs' big mainstream you-can-buy-it-in-bookshops Doctor Who non-fiction book Exterminate! Regenerate! had come out earlier in the year, but this was when I read it. This was notable for me as, much to my surprise, not only were my books The Long Game and Pull to Open quite heavily cited, I even got a nice mention in the text. And I'm even in the index!
August
One of the things I'm most proud of from this year is making a nice chunky radio feature telling the story of 'Anglia for Africa', the local version of Live Aid which had been put on in Norwich in August 1985. It seems to be a pretty much forgotten event, but having happened to see a reference to it online earlier in the year I decided the 40th anniversary would be a good excuse to do something about it. So I did a long radio package and a tie-in piece for BBC News Online, both of which I was pretty pleased with.
September
The great excitement - the revelation of a secret I'd been sitting on for a long time, that I had written a Doctor Who audiobook for BBC Audiobooks! After all this time, my first actual, professional fiction commission!
October
Another nice radio and BBC News Online piece which pretty much came out of nothing, really. I'd seen a post on Facebook about a photographer who was trying to identify who took a photo on some old film he'd bought which showed a view of the University of East Anglia in Norwich in the 1960s, and again I was able to turn it into a radio package and a tie-in article. I was also able to make another research trip to the BBC Written Archives Centre this month, for something which should be my first published piece of next year.
Oh, and this was the month when, excitingly, I did finally find a publisher for When Saturday Came!
November
Various things of interest this month. The cover was revealed for Star Flight, my BBC Audiobook due out next year. I'd seen the draft a few weeks before and couldn't stop looking at it, and nor could I when the final version was released with all the gubbins on the front. Including the diamond logo!
I also did another radio package-News Online combo with which I was pleased, telling a story I'd been meaning to tell for years, since another Written Archives trip for an old documentary project back in the pre-covid days. This one was football-related, telling the tale of how Great Yarmouth Town had come to be the first Norfolk football club ever to appear in a live televised game, long before Norwich City.
Then towards the end of the month, three things in one day. On the 25th, the 75th anniversary of the first episode of Whirligig, I had a piece published by BBC History about that show. On the same day, I also put up a video I'd made on YouTube, my first crack at a proper TV history video, The Story of Whirligig, telling the tale in a bit more detail. And just to cap it off, this was the day I was able to announce to the world that my new book When Saturday Came would be coming out from Telos Publishing in 2026.
My last professional piece of the year ended up being for the same publication as the first, another Doctor Who Magazine special, this time on the UNIT team.
There have been other bits and pieces across 2025, too. A full 52 weeks' worth of archive packages for the Saturday daytime show (well, 50 weeks' worth of packages and a couple of weeks where I went over and linked it all together live in the studio). A piece for the Norwich Society. And getting to produce again, covering one of the Saturday shows in November. So it's not a year I could complain about not doing things in, things that I enjoy and believe I am good at.
I do remain frustrated with myself that I didn't knuckle down and do more work on the novel. I do hate the fact that I can never seem to unlock the secret combination within my mind which makes it the most exciting, most natural thing to want to write at any given time. But then again, it appears the number of writers who can do that with novels seem to be a tiny proportion of them anyway. The lucky bastards.
But it's still no excuse. I can't just end up sitting here moping about it every 31st of December. Otherwise when it really is my last ever one I'll still be wondering why I didn't at least try harder. I may not have the talent, but having the application at least is entirely in my own hands.
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