BBCi – those lovely people responsible for the Beeb’s internet output – have announced that they have asked Big Finish to remake the “lost” story Shada. This will form part of what we hope are the fantastic celebrations for the 40^th anniversary and the webcast is set for a spring showing having been recorded back in November.

As most of you out there will know Shada, was the work of the late and great Douglas Adams. The production of was abandoned following strike action. The story had built up a reputation – based on what existed and the script – of being a lost classic. As a result it was eventually released on video, the gaps filled by Tom Baker at his most “Tomish”.

Douglas Adams himself used elements of Shada (alongside bits of the City of Death) in the plot and characters of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. If you haven’t read the book go and do so now – that’s an order.

The new version of Shada replaces Tom with Paul McGann. An interesting change particularly as the plot sees him link up again with both Romana (Lalla Ward) and K-9 (John Leeson) as they search for the " most dangerous book in the universe."

Others in the cast include James Fox as Professor Chronotis (giving a very plumy performance if the clip on the BBC website is anything to go by), Andrew Sachs as Skagra, Sean Biggerstaff as Chris Parsons, Hannah Gordon as the voice of Skagra's ship, Susannah Harker as Clare Keightley, Melvyn Hayes as college porter Wilkin.

We will try and keep you up to date with what’s happening with Shada and other 40^th Anniversary projects as time goes by The BBC’s official Doctor Who site currently has a third teaser card to look at. I’m not entirely sure of the point of these – pretty though they undoubtedly are!

The trailer at www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/shada/ is worth a listen. Let’s us hope that the final product turns out to be a success!