Outliers is a podcast from Historic Royal Palaces in association with Rusty Quill, which casts an eye on events from the perspective of those 'on the edges' of history. Each episode presents a brand new play, written for the podcast, which is professionally performed, scored and produced. I was glad to have contributed a play to their first season in 2017 - The King's Sister, about Henry VIII's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves - and was very pleased to be asked back to write for their second season with Mehmet and the Wild Boy.

I've long been fascinated by the King's Staircase murals at Kensington Palace, which depict the many courtiers of George I's entourage. They're a dynamic and varied lot, including doctors, painters and entertainers. One of them has drawn particular interest: Peter, the so called 'Wild Boy,' a feral child found in the forests of Germany and brought back to England to be kept as a pet. I wanted to write a play about him and chose to tell it from the perspective of another intriguing figure, Georg Ludwig Maximilian von Königstreu - better known to us as Mehmet, a Turkish valet of unusual station and importance.

The fascination and prejudice that both Peter and Mehmet would have encountered in 18th century England struck me as a potential window to tell an entertaining and sensitive story about them both, in which Mehmet finds himself embroiled in the attempts to make Peter sit still for long enough to be painted. The play has been masterfully performed by Atilla Akinci and directed by Alex Newall, and I hope we've done justice to the historical persons involved!

You can download Mehmet and the Wild Boy from your usual podcast apps, or listen to it here. Further info about the history of this play can be found direct from Historic Royal Palaces, and do check out the rest of the series! It's a fine selection of plays with plenty more on the way.

When two Doctors meet, you know there's trouble afoot...

My third adventure for Big Finish Productions has now been released! Doctor Who: Daughter of the Gods revisits a classic 1960s Dalek epic, when the TARDIS ends up colliding... with itself. The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive on the planet Urbinia to find that the First Doctor has already been here for three months. The Daleks are invading and it'll take their combined wits to think of a solution. But there's an extra complication. The First Doctor is accompanied by his friend Katarina, a handmaiden from the ancient city of Troy. And there's no way she can possibly be here - because, as the Second Doctor knows, she died within a day of meeting him...

This one is a love letter to 1960s Doctor Who, combining two Doctors, four companions, and lots of Daleks. To be honest, the plot will probably make no sense to anyone but the most ardent anoraks but it was incredibly satisfying to write. Katarina, originally played on television by the late Adrienne Hill, only appeared in five episodes of the programme before her character was shockingly killed off: she was the first companion to die. Only one of her episodes still exists in the BBC Archives, so she really is a kind of unknown character, more famous for her status within the programme's history than for her actual personality. I placed that tension at the heart of this story, giving Katarina the time and exploration that she sadly never received onscreen, so that  at last she can stand at the centre of her own narrative.

Ajjaz Awad does a tremendous job as Katarina, and she's ably accompanied by three actors from that classic era: Peter Purves as Steven, Frazer Hines as Jamie, and Wendy Padbury as Zoe. Peter and Frazer also play the two Doctors respectively, in tribute to the late William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. It's a story with plenty of twists, daring escapes, and an argument over breakfast about the Doctor's late night parties!

Daughter of the Gods is available on CD and download from Big Finish - and you can also read more about my approach to writing Doctor Who and other audio dramas in this interview for Downtime. It's a great site which has been especially supportive of my Who scripts so far, and I was really chuffed to be allowed the time to discuss science fiction, 'big ideas', comedy and how I approach writing for the series I grew up with!