Joseph Lidster

Joseph Lidster is an English television writer best known for his work on the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Biography

His debut work was the audio play The Rapture for Big Finish Productions in 2002. Numerous further audio plays and prose short stories followed for Big Finish, for their Doctor Who line, spin-offs and other series (Sapphire & Steel and The Tomorrow People).

In 2005, he started working for the BBC, writing tie-in material for the new Doctor Who television series. He made his television writing debut in 2008 on the second series of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood and subsequently wrote three two-part stories for The Sarah Jane Adventures and two two-part stories for Wizards vs Aliens.

Lidster writes the content for the tie-in websites relating to the fictional world of the television series, Sherlock.^[1] Alongside co-producer James Goss, he has produced Big Finish Productions' dramatic reading range of Dark Shadows audio dramas since 2011. In 2011, he script-edited the short film Cleaning Up written by Simon Guerrier and starring Mark Gatiss and Louise Jameson.^[2]

In 2012, he won the 'Audience Favourite Writer' award for his first play Nice Sally in the Off Cut Theatre Festival.^[3]

Lidster wrote 2014 CBBC sitcom Millie Inbetween.

Selected bibliography

Television

• Torchwood
  • "A Day in the Death" (2008)
• The Sarah Jane Adventures
  • "The Mark of the Berserker" (2 parts, 2008)
  • "The Mad Woman in the Attic" (2 parts, 2009)
  • "The Nightmare Man" (2 parts, 2010)
• Wizards vs Aliens
  • "Rebel Magic" (2 parts, 2012)
  • "The Cave of Menla-Gto" (2 parts, 2013)
• Millie Inbetween
  • "Mobile Wars" (2014)

Radio

• The Afternoon Play
  • "Torchwood: Lost Souls" (2008)

Audio dramas

• Doctor Who
  • The Rapture (2002)
  • Master (2003)
  • Terror Firma (2005)
  • The Reaping (2006)
  • The Gathering (2006)
  • 100 (2007)
  • Short Trips: A Full Life (2016)
• Sapphire & Steel
  • Daisy Chain (2005)
  • The Mystery of the Missing Hour (2007)
• UNIT
  • The Longest Night (2005)
• Bernice Summerfield
  • The Crystal of Cantus (2006)
  • The Final Amendment (2007)
• The Tomorrow People
  • Aftermath (2006)
• Dark Shadows
  • London's Burning (2010)
  • The Crimson Pearl (2011 – with James Goss)
  • The Fall of the House of Trask (2012)
  • Snowflake (2014)
  • Bloodlust (2015)
• The Confessions of Dorian Gray
  • The Fallen King of Britain (2012)
• Torchwood
  • One Rule (2015)
  • Broken (2016)

Theatre

• Nice Sally (short play at the Off Cut Festival, Riverside Studios, 2012)^[4]
• Ghosts (short play at the Fright Night Festival, 2013)^[5]
• Congregation (short play produced as part of The Collective Project 2013 for The Pensive Federation)^[6]
• Withheld (short play produced as part of Shorts New Writing, Landor Theatre)^[7]

Short stories

• Doctor Who
  • "I Was A Monster!!!" in Short Trips: Zodiac (2002)
  • "That Time I Nearly Destroyed The World Whilst Looking For a Dress" in Short Trips: Past Tense (2004)
  • "The Tramp's Story" in Short Trips: Repercussions (2004)
  • "Trapped!" in Short Trips: Monsters (2004)
  • "The Terror of the Darkness" in Short Trips: A Day in the Life (2005)
  • "She Won't Be Home" in Short Trips: The History of Christmas (2005)
  • "Curtain Call" in Short Trips: Farewells (2006)
  • "Prologue" and "Forgotten" in Short Trips: The Centenarian (2006)
  • "Natalie's Diary" in Short Trips: Dalek Empire (2006)
  • "Salva Mea" in Short Trips: Snapshots (2007)
  • "Keeping It Real" in Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas (2007)
  • "42: Prologue" for the BBC's Doctor Who website (2007)^[8]
  • "Houdini and The Space Cuckoos" for the BBC's Doctor Who website (2012)^[9]
• Bernice Summerfield
  • "A Summer Affair" in A Life Worth Living (2005)
  • "Dead Mice" in Something Changed (2006)
• Torchwood
  • "Monster" in the Torchwood Yearbook (2008)
  • "Consequences" (2009)
• Other
  • "Success" in Voices from the Past (2011)^[10]
  • "Soul Man" in "Shenanigans" (2013)^[11]

Novellas

• Bernice Summerfield
  • "On Trial" in A Life in Pieces (2004)

Audiobooks

• Torchwood
  • In the Shadows (2009)
  • Red Skies (2012)

Other 

From 2005 onwards, he wrote the fictional content for the Doctor Who tie-in websites including the MySpace blog for Martha Jones. In 2007, he edited the Doctor Who short story collection Short Trips: Snapshots. The following year, he wrote "Mad Martha"^[12] for the Doctor Who website. In 2007 and 2008 he abridged a number of Doctor Who and Torchwood novels for BBC Audiobooks, including Sting of the Zygons, Wooden Heart, Another Life, Border Princes and Slow Decay. He also wrote the fictional blogs of Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Molly Hooper and Connie Prince, as part of the BBC Sherlock series.^[13]

External links

• Joseph Lidster at the Internet Movie Database
• Joseph Lidster at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

References

1. "Sherlock:Other Sherlock related websites". BBC Online. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
2. "Cleaning Up". Retrieved 6 August 2013.
3. "Off Cut Festival". Off Cut Festival. 13 October 2012.
4. "the plays – Off Cut". Retrieved 14 September 2012.
5. "Skylight Theatre". Retrieved 30 October 2013.
6. "The Collective Project 2013". Retrieved 25 November 2013.
7. "Shorts New Writing". Retrieved 3 June 2014.
8. "42: Prologue". BBC. 2007.
9. "Doctor Who Adventure Calendar". BBC. 2012.
10. "Voices from the Past". H&H Books. 2011.
11. "Shenanigans". Obverse Books. 2013.
12. "Mad Martha". Joseph Lidster. 2008.
13. Disclaimer on the BBC1 Official website http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018ttws/features/disclaimer