Whooverville 15

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Sorry if you missed out but Whooverville 15 is now SOLD OUT!

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Full official guest line up below!

Wendy Padbury

Let's have our first Whooverville 15 guest announcement. In fact this won't come as a surprise to anyone who was at Whooverville 14 last September, as we announced her appearance, on-stage, at the end of the day.

WENDY PADBURY first came to public prominence in 1966, when she joined the cast of popular soap Crossroads, having come second in a TV talent contest, Search For A Star. In 1968 Wendy joined Doctor Who as Zoe Herriot, companion to the Second Doctor, completing one of the best remembered teams in the show's history alongside Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines. After leaving the show, she appeared in the 1974 stage show, Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday, playing companion Jenny. She returned to the role of Zoe (briefly) for The Five Doctors and on many occasions since for Big Finish.

Wendy's other TV appearances have included three years in the well-remembered children's series, Freewheelers, Emmerdale Farm, and as co-presenter on pop show, Score with The Scaffold. Largely retiring from acting, Wendy worked for some years as a theatrical agent, during which time her clients included Nicholas Courtney, Colin Baker and Mark Strickson; and she discovered the young Matt Smith at the National Youth Theatre.

Wendy returned to the role of Zoe last year, appearing alongside Frazer in Tales of the TARDIS. We are delighted to be welcoming Wendy back to Whooverville for the first time as an Official Whoovers guest, her previous appearance at Whooverville 9 in 2018 being as a sponsored guest.

Maureen O'brien

Our second guest announcement of the evening is one that we are particularly excited to be able to make. MAUREEN O'BRIEN will be making her Whooverville début at Whooverville 15 at QUAD - Derby on 31st August.

Maureen's stint on Doctor Who, playing Vicki opposite William Hartnell's First Doctor came close to the beginning of a long career on TV, film and stage.

She was a founder member of Liverpool's Everyman Theatre and has had roles in series such as Casualty, The Duchess of Duke Street, Taggart, Cracker, A Touch of Frost, Heartbeat and Jonathan Creek, as well as in the 1985 film She'll Be Wearing Pink Pyjamas. Maureen is also the author of seven successful detective novels.

Maureen has reprised the role of Vicki for Big Finish and most recently, alongside Peter Purves in Tales of the TARDIS.

We cannot wait to meet Maureen in September and send her our thanks for accepting our invitation.

Chris Chapman

The third Official Whooverville 15 Guest that we can announce is CHRIS CHAPMAN.

Chris is a television producer-director and writer, best known to Who fans for producing and directing Doctor Who documentaries, and features, mostly for the Blu-ray box sets. He is also the writer of several Doctor Who audio dramas for Big Finish.

We are delighted that Chris has agreed to make a return visit to Whooverville at QUAD

Tommy Knight

Our thanks go to TOMMY KNIGHT for agreeing to join us at QUAD this year!

Tommy is, of course, best known for playing Luke Smith in The Sarah Jane Adventures and Doctor Who. He has also played Kevin Chalk in the original run of Waterloo Road, Cal Bray in Glue and Archibald Brodie in Victoria.

We are delighted to be welcoming Tommy to Derby, as he makes his Whooverville début at this year's event.

Dominic Glynn

We are delighted to announce that Dominic Glynn is coming back to our convention for the first time since Whooverville 6 in 2014. In a long and prolific career as a composer and musician, Dominic has provided the music for many TV shows and films, including arranging the Doctor Who series' theme for Season 23. He also wrote the incidental music for the stories The Mysterious Planet, The Ultimate Foe, … See more

Jason Quinn

Jason is the award-winning author of Gandhi: My Life is My Message, Steve Jobs: Genius by Design, and many other graphic novels. He has worked in the comic book industry for the last thirty years and has written for Batman, Spider-Man, Ben 10, Doctor Who Adventures and many other popular magazines. In August 2023 he succeeded Marcus Hearn as editor of Doctor Who Magazine in time to lead the magazine's response to the relaunch of Doctor Who under Russell T. Davies. We look forward very much to meeting Jason and to welcoming him to Derby QUAD - Derby on 31st August.

Jeff Rawle

We are delighted to be able to announce that JEFF RAWLE will be joining us for WHOOVERVILLE 15 . Jeff is among the UK's busiest stage, film and television actors. He first came to prominence in the ITV comedy Billy Liar, in 1973. Further television credits include appearances in Van der Valk, Crown Court, Hammer House of Horror, Juliet Bravo, Bergerac, Angels, Boon, The Bill, the sitcom Faith in the Future, with Lynda Bellingham and Hollyoaks. Perhaps Jeff's most memorable role to date has been as George Dent in the brilliant comedy Drop the Dead Donkey (1990-98), recently revived to great acclaim for a nationwide theatre tour. Jeff has made several notable appearances in the universe of, Doctor Who, as Plantagenet in the 1984 story Frontios, as Mr Harding in the Sarah Jane Adventures story, Mona Lisa's revenge, and in three Big Finish stories, opposite the 8th and 3rd Doctors and Jago and Litefoot. We thank Jeff for accepting our invitation to Whooverville and look forward to welcoming him to QUAD - Derby on 31st August. Our thanks go to Matthew Campbell-Dell for helping us withthis arrangement.

Simon Fischer-Becker

We are very pleased that our friend SIMON FISHER-BECKER is once again returning to Whooverville as a sponsored guest, after he had to miss last year's event due to illness. Simon played Dorium Maldovar in the Doctor Who stories The Pandorica Opens, A Good Man Goes to War, The Wedding of River Song, and for Big Finish in the Eleventh Doctor Chronicles story The Light Keepers. Also for Big Finish he played the Time Lord Science Minister Kavil in series 5 of Gallifrey; and voiced Lift in the Iris Wildthyme story A Lift in Time. Beyond Doctor Who, he is known for appearing in the popular Harry Potter film franchise as The Fat Friar, and for playing the Fat Controller from Thomas the Tank Engine for ten years. We look forward to welcoming Simon to Whooverville 15 at QUAD - Derby on Saturday 31st August. Simon will be at his table in our dealers' and traders' room selling copies of his books. Please remember that as a sponsored guest, Simon Fisher-Becker will charge for all autograhs and photos.

Daisy Ashford

DAISY ASHFORD will be with once more, after being a star at both of the most recent Big Finish days that we hosted. Daisy is of course the daughter of Caroline John and Geoffrey Beevers and since 2019, has brilliantly played her mother’s role of Liz Shaw in The Third Doctor Adventures. Prior to this, she has played a number of other roles in several Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories and spin-offs.

Sadie Miller

SADIE MILLER is of course also the daughter of one of the Doctor’s most popular TV companions, Elisabeth Sladen, her father being Brian Miller. Sadie has followed Daisy in recreating her mother’s role, Sarah Jane Smith, for Big Finish Productions, having earlier played the role of Natalie Redfern, alongside her mother in the Big Finish Sarah Jane Smith series, from 2002-2006. She too was a popular visitor to Big Finish Day in 2022. Sadie is also an accomplished writer, her debut novel Moon Blink, part of Candy Jar’s Lethbridge-Stewart series, being published in 2016.

Katy Manning

KATY MANNING's long career in theatre television & film has spanned three continents as an actor writer & director. Her Doctor Who years began in 1970 -73 as Jo Grant companion to Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor. 40 years on she returned for The Death of The Doctor in The Sarah Jane Adventures, and in 2023 in for The Power of The Doctor. Katy has worked with five Doctors on TV and many more for Big Finish as Jo Grant (Jones), Iris Wildethyme and many other characters, as well as writing and performing twenty-six characters in Not a Well Woman! Most recently, Katy was seen as Jo in The Tales of The Tardis, with Daniel Anthony. We are absolutely delighted to be welcoming Katy Manning back to Whooverville, and look forward to seeing her once more at QUAD

Carole Ann Ford

We are delighted to be able to say that CAROLE ANN FORD has accepted our invitation to join us at QUAD - Derby on August 31st making her first return visit since Whooverville 9 in 2017. Of course, Carole Ann was one of the original cast of Doctor Who back in 1963, playing the Doctor’s Granddaughter Susan and as such is very much Doctor Who royalty. After leaving Doctor Who in 1964, Carole Ann went on to other projects in a long and diverse career. Her film appearances have including The Day of the Triffids (1962), Mix Me a Person (1962), The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), and The Hiding Place (1975). In addition to Doctor Who, her television appearances have included Suspense, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Public Eye, Emergency Ward 10, Attorney General, Moonstrike, Compact, Probation Officer, and Dial M for Murder. She reprised the character of Susan for both the series' 20th anniversary TV special, The Five Doctors (1983), and 30th anniversary charity special, Dimensions in Time (1993) and in recent years, she has made many appearances as Susan for Big Finish. We feel deeply honoured that Carole Ann has accepted our invitation and look forward very much to seeing her again.

Roger Murray-Leach

We recently told you that our friends at Roundel Publishing will be launching their new book, The Philip Hinchcliffe Years: The DNA of Doctor Who at our event and that Philip himself will be joining us for the day. See here - Kick Starter - The Philip Hincliffe Years Well, we can now bring you the great news that Philip's friend and former colleague, production designer ROGER MURRAY-LEACH will also be joining us to help with the launch and to sign copies of the book. Both Philip and Roger will be with us as official Whooverville guests. Roger worked on seven Doctor Who stories, between 1975's The Ark in Space and 1977's The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Following his time on Doctor Who, he went on to be lead designer on Blake's 7, and to work on a wide range of film and TV projects, including Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (for which he was nominated for a BAFTA), Local Hero, A Christmas Carol, Defence of the Realm, Clockwise, A Fish Called Wanda, Goldeneye, Mrs Harris Goes To Paris, The Mighty Quinn, Twenty-One, Fierce Creatures and The Killing Fields. As you can imagine, we are delighted to be welcoming Roger to Whooverville for his first appearance at our event, and look forward to meeting him at QUAD - Derby on 31st August. Please note, following this weekend's announcements, tickets for Whooverville 15 are close to selling out. Act now to secure yours.

Philip Hinchcliffe

Our friends at Roundel Publishing have told us that they will be launching their new book, The Philip Hinchcliffe Years: The DNA of Doctor Who at our event. See here - Kick Starter - The Philip Hincliffe Years We are delighted to announce that PHILIP HINCHCLIFFE himself has agreed to join us at QUAD - Derby on 31st August, to help with the launch and to sign copies of the book. Philip will be with us as an official Whooverville guest and we are very excited to be welcoming him back to Derby for his second Whooverville appearance.

Nick Walters & Will Hadcroft

Two more WHOOVERVILLE 15 bonus guests. Our friends, novelist Nick Walters and BBC Audio writer Will Hadcroft have both told us that they will be coming to Whooverville as paying customers. They have both kindly agreed to make themselves available to sign their books and CDs. Nick hopes to have his new novel from Candy Jar books available to sign; and Will should have copies of his second BBC Audio release for sale, Dark Contact, read by Matthew Waterhouse, which is released in July. Our thanks go to both Will and Nick for their support of our event.

Fio Trethewey & Georgia Cook

More WHOOVERVILLE 15 bonus guests to tell you about. Our friends Big Finish writers Fio Trethewey and Georgia Cook will be with us at QUAD - Derby on 31st August. Fio and Georgia will be selling their terrific artwork, from their stall during the day, but will be available to sign copies of their various Big Finish releases. We look forward to welcoming them both back to Whooverville.

Neil Cole, Keith Barnfather & the Skarasen!

Hello everyone! Neil cole here! I'm absolutely humbled to have been included as a 'bonus guest' as part of the fabulous Whooverville 15 convention at the end of August! Honestly....amazing. I'll be alongside my dear friends Keith Barnfather and Bedwyr Gullidge and I will be bringing along someone very special....the one and only original Skarasen puppet from The Terror of the Zygons!!! I'll be starting restorative work on it next week, but even if I'm not quite finished this wonderful old monster, I'll take him along for all to see first hand. I will also be officially launching my first proper book - 'It Belongs in a Museum: Searching for Treasures from Classic Doctor Who' Vol 1 - The Second Doctor!!! I've spent over a year illustrating and writing this bad boy...and will have copies on sale on the day. Keith and I will also have copies of Reeltime Pictures 'The Monster Man' for sale to! I'll sign them if you are nice. The Skarasen sadly will not be signing as he has no hands.

Gary Russell

With tickets for Whooverville now SOLD OUT, we announce our final official guest. Completing our line-up for the launch of Roundel Publishing's new book The Philip Hinchcliffe Years: The DNA of Doctor Who, is the book's editor and old friend of Whooverville and the Whoovers GARY RUSSELL Gary was the editor of Doctor Who Magazine between 1992 and 1995 and the original executive producer for Big Finish Productions from 1998 to 2006, when he stepped down to begin script editing for BBC Wales on Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. He has written many Doctor Who comics and novels, including The Scales of Injustice, Business Unusual, The Glamour Chase, Big Bang Generation and the novel of the TV Movie. Gary's Target Book novelisation of The Star Beast came out last year. In recent years Gary was executive producer of one of the groups working on animations of missing Doctor Who stories, leading the team that produced several releases including Fury From the Deep, and The Abominable Snowmen. It's always a pleasure to spend time with Gary and we look forward to welcoming him back to QUAD - Derby on 31st August.