FrightFest & Doctor Who Magazine Are Here

FrightFest, the annual London horror-and-fantasy-and-stuff festival, kicks off tonight in Leicester Square and continues over the whole Bank Holiday weekend. It's always a fine event, run with character and a sense of humour. As with last year, I can't seem to face an entire weekend of films any more (these days, there's always the nagging feeling that I should be at home, writing my own), but will be dipping in and out, catching the likes of P2, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, Wrong Turn 2 (yes, I liked the original) and Disturbia.

Perhaps the finest testament to FrightFest's appeal is this: James Moran likes it so much, he's ensured that he's finished all his work by today. No mean feat, given Moran's usual resemblance to an octopus with a medical condition which makes each of its tentacles divide into eight more tentacles.

The new Doctor Who Magazine is out today, and features no less than two features of mine. There's a nice chat with the show's production designer Edward Thomas (who says, "The day Doctor Who goes High Def, that'll be the day you see me running off along the road, screaming") and a bit of fly-on-the-wall action about the day Barry Newbery visited Who's Upper Boat Studios. Barry was the show's designer across no less than three decades, serving on its very first story, An Unearthly Child, in 1963. That was a remarkable day, watching the great man - now a nimble 80 years old - being led around the TARDIS and Torchwood sets by a gleefully hooting Russell T Davies.

You know, I like to think that in 40-odd years' time, I'll be invited back to Who Studios to see how they're making it in 2050, in recognition of my vast contributions to the show. I'll nod and gasp as I'm shown the updated neuro-digital designs for my vintage 2014 creations, the Blargg, which will now be able to appear directly in front of viewers' retinas, frightening the merry Christ out of them.