iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I’d love to see where the voice actors’ contracts freely allow this little wheeze.

Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

From The Times obit for Esther Rantzen. Nothing against Ms Rantzen but us dogsbodies trained for 9 months to “do the chores” and would like to see the obit writer survive “Red Light Fever” and operate the panel in a busy studio live on air or create believable sound effects for a convincing drama.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Very very sad news. We have lost Tony De Meur - aka Ronnie Golden, he of The Fabulous Poodles, all round lovely human - and the world is a sadder place. Surely right now he is in a celestial bar swapping parrot jokes with Baz Cryer over a double.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Dave Gibbons making this point about Lichtenstein made me very happy.

A copy of Roy Lichtenstein’s “pop art” comic book panel painting where the text and sound effects make it clear that the work was not original nor created by Lichtenstein.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

“If you have nothing positive to say, say nothing” which is why I’m not posting much at present. Also I’m working, hurrah (this photo was taken a couple of weeks back). More on that to come.

Photo of Dirk holding a pint. Well, it is Sunday after all (though he’s actually working on the Sunday he’s posting this photo).

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Graeme Garden had a bad back on recording day so I recorded him separately a while later.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

We made what we hoped was the first of a series of The Goodies audio comedy shows - “The Big Ben Theory” with guest star Joanna Lumley but COVID interrupted further production and took Tim away. The pilot is however still available on Audible and many people have enjoyed it.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

RIP Bill … you were sparky, funny, talented, capricious, inspiring and occasionally infuriating and I will always be proud to have worked with you.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Have been away for few days so only now have had a chance to pay respects to Sam.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Sparing a thought for all the poor Political Editors this afternoon who have lost their meal ticket.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

The action opened out into Dolby Surround with brave pilots Toyah Willcox and Simon Treves with Toby Longworth and Peter Serafinowicz battling aliens both in the air and on the ground.

Sound engineer Paul Deeley records an exterior scene featuring Toby Longworth and Peter Serafinowicz in the Soundhouse Car Park, West London (doubling for a more epic location elsewhere in the UK)

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

With presenter Nicky Campbell apparently presenting a factual, live-to-air “Radio 1 UFO Watch” from an RAF Sentry aircraft assisted by the astronomer Patrick Moore and (Doctor Who) Colin Baker (as a senior RAF Officer), after twenty minutes the alien mother ship had destroyed Broadcasting House.

A photo of Colin Baker, Toby Longworth, Toyah Willcox and Simon Treves in studio around a microphone.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I went to LA to talk with Dean Devlin. I proposed a homage to Orson Welles’ 1937 War Of The Worlds radio broadcast, but with the RAF fighting the alien hordes over London. “Sounds good but the Americans have to win the war”, he said with a wink. I raced home to record fighter jets at RAF Coningsby.

Dirk sitting in the cockpit of an RAF Typhoon fighter, looking inordinately pleased with himself.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

This year is the 30th anniversary of my production INDEPENDENCE DAY UK on BBC Radio 1. With the success of our DC and Marvel “Audio Movies”, 20th Century Fox asked if I’d make a “British version of the upcoming Roland Emmerich & Dean Devlin movie”, and R1 Controller Matthew Bannister was up for it.

The cover design of the original INDEPENDENCE DAY UK audio cassette release, basically the US movie poster artwork of a huge spaceship filling the sky over New York City. (Yes, it should ahve been London but we were not allowed to change the artwork)

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Ten years ago I was light-heartedly wearing a Holland shirt to vote in vain against hatred, dumb isolationalism, xenophobia and what would inevitably turn into a colossal waste of time and money.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

So I finished #TheBoys at last. Enjoyed the ride, if occasionally it was treading water (inc. scenes without The Deep). Great job by the cast, hats off to pitch-perfect digs at current politics (chefs kiss to putting a billionaire in space) and many thanks for moments of laugh-out-loud pure excess.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Here’s the thing about Tony. He turned up in the NEVERWHERE studio the day before he was booked to be in. He didn’t have to do that but he wanted to get an idea of how the production sounded in studio and how the team worked. A total pro and a lovely human being.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

David and Tony in action as Vandemar and Croup

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

RIP dear Tony Head. Total Gent, top chap and a wonderful villain in our BBC Radio 4 NEVERWHERE, here as Mr Croup with Heather Larmour (our Producer) and David Schofield (Mr Vandemar).

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Few people know of the alcoholic Marx Brother who went into pasta manufacturing.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Happy Towel Day, Hitchhikers, wherever you may be. Sadly I’m not in Stalbridge for the unveiling of Douglas’s Blue Plaque but Marvin is apparently doing an excellent job of being miserable and the weather really couldn’t be better for overheating all the diodes down his left hand side…

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Remembering Jon Pertwee, thirty years gone and someone I wish I’d got to work with a lot more.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

(With thanks to the Stephen Moore Estate)

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

PSA for Hitchhiker friends - our 'Touring Radio Version' Marvin the Paranoid Android will be helping unveil a plaque to Douglas Adams at the Don't Panic Festival in Stalbridge on Towel Day, Monday 25th May, and walking about afterwards to unbrighten everyone's day. Don't Panic - and Don't Miss Him.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Hmm mine is bit too dogeared to be of use as anything but pre-evolved

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Post your favorite film from the year you turned 18.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Struggling with the idea that the best of the USA is farther from Earth than any humans have ever been while the worst is sitting in The White House planning mass murder.

Photo of the Artemis capsule in foreground of picture with the Moon mid-shot and the Earth in far distance

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

RIP brilliant actress and voice artist Sally Grace. A mainstay of Week Ending for years, her Margaret Thatcher was definitive. As 'Elena" in my production of Dirk Gently II, 'The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul" she had crew and cast, including Harry Enfield and Michael Fenton Stevens, in stitches.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

A terrific night out tonight at the Dead Ringers 25th Anniversary Tour - impressionist brilliance by Jon, Lewis, Jan and Duncan. Sweet/sad memories of the late great Bill Dare - topical gags delivered with just the right mixture of savagery and merriment. Catch it if you can - 9 more dates in UK.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

From Talking Pictures TV schedule. Momentarily misread this as Rubbery Underarms.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

There’s a website which will generate a suitably apocalyptic headline in the style of the hysteric Sunday Telegraph editor Allister Heath. You have to work very hard to generate an unlikely one. I’ve done my best … stirring-fox-7e1fab.netlify.app

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

This week's News Huddlines at The Paris. Last night's script in the bin, Peter Hickey bangs out a new monologue, Tony Hare works Andrew into a Crumblies sketch, Dinesy resurrects Irene Handl as the Queen Mum and the SMs wonder if the Cecil Parkinson Memorial Bedsprings effect is in terrible taste.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Spotted in Granada, Spain. Works for me.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Some actorly mentoring going on here with @tomalexander.bsky.social, who plays Magog and Green Lantern in KC.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Great thread about how cutting a character out of a script can change vital dynamics. While I’m here let me assure you Biggs is still with us - the great Garrick Hagon played Wesley Dodds in our audio KINGDOM COME last year (here with RtoL Lorelei King, myself & sound engineer Wilfredo Acosta).

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

10 years ago this week we were recording ALIEN OUT OF THE SHADOWS at Audible Studios in London.

ALIEN OUT OF THE SHADOWS Promo Poster showing an Alien head

Some of the cast and crew - Andrea Deck, Mac MacDonald, Kathryn Drysdale, Matthew Lewis, Laurel Lefkow, Corey Johnson, Dirk Maggs, Tom Alexander (front),Angela Curiello, David Darlington

The ensemble Cast in the tiny Audible studio (since replaced by a bigger and better one) LtoR Mac MacDonald, Matthew Lewis, Andrea Deck, Laurel Lefkow, Abdul Salis, Corey Johnson, Barbara Barnes, Regina Brandolino, Nathan Osgood

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Well that’s the last way I’d hold the headshell to drop onto the relevant point on the disc for a start.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

*An excellent book by Dennis M. Spragg tells the full story (which also debunks the myriad conspiracy theories about Miller's death).

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Fun fact - when his AAF orchestra (complete with strings) came to Britain, wartime bandleader Major Glenn Miller's commanding officer was a certain Lt. Col. David Niven. Photo taken at the Bedford Corn Exchange, July 1944. Miller was lost on a flight to Paris that December*.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

So sad to hear of the brilliant Catherine O’Hara’s death. A superb actress and fine human being with perfect comedy timing. I’m also a bit dazed to discover that she made her film debut in “Nothing Personal”, on which I worked as a part-time gofer while in Toronto in 1979. RIP.

Photo of Catherine O’Hara early in her career

Movie poster for NOTHING PERSONAL starring Donald Sutherland, 1979.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

I’m having a weird “Friends” Déjà vu here

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Unbelievably, it’s 19 years since we made the BBC 50th Anniversary edition of The Sky At Night (I was “script associate”), shot at Sir Patrick Moore’s house in Selsey and on a replica 1957 S@N set in Teddington Studios. Happy days with Patrick, Brian May, Chris Lintott, Jon Culshaw and the team.

Sky at Night 50th Anniversary presenters Chris Lintott, Brian May and Patrick Moore in Patrick’s Study

Sky at Night producer Jane Fletcher, presenter Sir Patrick Moore and script associate Dirk Maggs during the shoot at Teddington Studios

Jon Culshaw played the younger Patrick Moore, here in a photo on the replica 1957 studio set with Sir Patrick in 2007.

A close up of the studio computer screen showing the script for the shoot and Patrick’s autocue reading “fifty years ago we made the first Sky at Night”.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Nauseating on so many levels, but this one pipped all the other answers by a mile.

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Dirk Maggs @dirkmaggs.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

“I *told* you we should have rented a pedallo, Quentin.”

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