Listen to Toby Hadoke’s “Absent Friends” for 2024

Yesterday I was musing about how much I still miss people like Paul Spragg, Dan Martin and Paul Condon from Doctor Who fandom, and so it seems an appropriate time to recommend you have a listen to the 2024 edition of Absent Friends on BBC Sounds before it disappears.

Put together with great love and care by the lovely Toby Hadoke, it is just 15 minutes long, and features tributes to some of the lesser-known support artists and backroom people we have lost from the worlds of science fiction, fantasy and horror on film, television and radio this year. As he rather poignantly puts it, the show is about …

“Some of those responsible for bringing our nightmares to life, helping us to negotiate our childhood fears by harnessing our imaginations, and hypnotising us through our TV and cinema screens or radio speakers.”

Alongside some of the better known names like William Russell, Michael Jayston and David Graham, Toby pays tributes to actors, directors, writers, production assistants, floor managers, make-up and visual effect artists, camara people and more. It is only 16 minutes long but perfectly formed. You can give it a whirl here.

Listen to: Absent Friends 2024 – The 7th Dimension