Whatever gets you through

Moths really did eat Toby Hadoke's Doctor Who scarf. Photo / Supplied

British comedian Toby Hadoke's Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf appears to be aimed at dedicated Doctor Who followers - from the days when it started to decline in the 1980s.

But just as Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch was about so much more than the author's love of Arsenal Football Club, Hadoke's one-man play uses the cult TV programme as a vehicle to explore deeper, more personal issues.

"You could swap that with stamp collecting or a love or music," he says.

"We all have something that gets us through the day and with me it's Doctor Who. It informs my perspective on all the other things that I talk about, but if you like Doctor Who that's an added bonus since you will know that I'm not making up all the references."

According to the 35-year-old actor-comedian, around half of the play's usual audience is composed of people "who might watch Doctor Who now and again" with diehard fans making up around 10-15 per cent.

However, with the phenomenal success of the more recent series starring David Tennant, there are few people who are not familiar with the time and space-spanning adventures of the last Time Lord.

"The show coincided brilliantly with the fact that Doctor Who has come back," says Hadoke, who first conceived it in 2005 just as David Tennant's predecessor Christopher Eccleston made his debut as the Doctor.

"When I first started writing it, I didn't know that Doctor Who would be as dominant as it is today. It had just come back and was looking like it would do okay but we didn't know it would spawn all the things that it has now. But I would still have done the show even if Doctor Who hadn't come back."

The play documents the beleaguered programme's gradual decline during the 1980s, when critics and BBC executives derided it before it was eventually cancelled in 1989.

"There were elements in the early show that were a clarion call for good television and the fact that they weren't making this thing that was clever, funny and witty," says Hadoke. "You had all these soap operas but there wasn't one corner where you could have good quality escapist fun that puts a smile on your face.

"It probably would have been quite an angry show if Doctor Who hadn't returned but the title would have been the same because that's true. Moths really did eat my Doctor Who scarf and I remember thinking that's a bittersweet title that will be good for something one day."

Doctor Who's earlier demise was a blow for Hadoke, who grew up in Shropshire but now lives in Manchester.

"I can't remember a time when it wasn't in my life. The show's about casting your mind back to your childhood.