We take a sneaky snoop inside the diary of überproducer Julie Gardner as she joins Russell T Davies on a road trip to San Diego Comic-Con.

Wednesday 24 July

It’s the eve of San Diego Comic-Con 2024. Russell has just landed in LA. We’ll be driving down the coast tomorrow. Car journeys. They are a defining part of our working life. We’re at our best when trapped in a car together. Talking about story, the world, everything Doctor Who. Together, we are often unlucky travellers – missed trains, clamped cars, cancelled flights – it would be easy for us to stumble over the border into Tijuana (this did once happen to me…). So, wish us luck.

Whilst throwing a change of clothes into my bag, I am trying to remember my last Comic-Con. From a Google search, it was 2014 with showrunner Glen Morgan. Before that, it was 2009 for a panel with Russell, Euros Lyn, John Barrowman and David Tennant and then, in 2008, a panel with Steven Moffat when we covered for Russell who was writing Torchwood: Children of Earth.