• Date and time: Saturday 31 May 2025, 6.30pm to 7.30pm
  • Location: In-person only
    Tempest Anderson Hall, Museum Gardens (Map)
  • Admission: Free admission, booking required

Book tickets

Event details

On screen, Doctor Who is a story of monsters, imagination and mind-expanding adventure. But the off-screen story is equally extraordinary - a tale of failed monks, war heroes, 1960s polyamory and self-sabotaging broadcasting executives.

From the politics of fandom to the inner struggles of the BBC, thousands of people have given part of themselves - and sometimes, too much of themselves - to bring this unlikeliest of folk heroes to life.

Join John Higgs, author of Exterminate/Regenerate: The Story of Doctor Who, for a story of change, mystery and the importance of imaginary characters in our lives. Able to evolve and adapt more radically than any other fiction, Doctor Who has acted as a mirror to more than six decades of social, technological and cultural change while always remaining a central fixture of the British imagination.

Step inside John’s TARDIS on a journey to discover how ideas emerge and survive despite the odds, why we are so addicted to fiction, and why this wonderful wandering time traveller means so much to so many. Cosplay very welcome!

 

Book sales

You can buy copies of many of our speakers’ books from Fox Lane Books, a local independent bookseller and Festival partner. In some cases, author signed bookplates are available too. 

About the speaker

John Higgs is the author of I have America Surrounded, the KLF, Stranger Than We Can Imagine, Watling Street, The Future Starts Here, William Blake Now, William Blake vs The World, Love and Let Die, and Exterminate/Regenerate: The Story of Doctor Who (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2025). 

Partners

University of York

Venue details

  • Wheelchair accessible