Maxine Alderton, the writer of The Haunting of Villa Diodati (2020).
Maxine Alderton has taken an unlikely path from Emmerdale to Doctor Who. She began as a script editor on the Yorkshire soap before becoming one of the show’s writers in 2013. Along the way she won a Best Writer award from the Royal Television Society and gained an unexpected online following - being lovingly dubbed ‘Queen Maxine’ by fans.
“It seemed so unreachable,” she says of her career. “I knew I could do it - but in terms of actually getting the opportunity? It was an incredible dream come true.”