Dr Who star Colin Baker is Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of The Baskervilles at New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth

Presented by Crime and Comedy Theatre Company, the classic detective story will be brought to life as a radio-play-on-stage.

The cast includes stars Colin Baker (Doctor Who, The Brothers) and Terry Molloy (Mike Tucker in The Archers for 40 years) who are joining forces to play the famous detectives Sherlock Homes and Doctor Watson alongside Dee Sadler (All Creatures Great & Small, No Place Like Home) as Doctor Mortimer.

Colin tells The Guide: ‘I am not obvious casting for Sherlock Holmes – he's generally cast as someone rather tall and gaunt and ascetic looking. I am tall but none of the other things,’ he laughs. ‘But the joy of this is that it's a radio play done on stage, so the stage is an audio studio – with microphones and tables and chairs and effects people, with the narrator popping in and out. It's like going into a studio at the BBC where they're recording the Hound of The Baskervilles.

‘At first thought you might think, what's so good about that? With a lot of stuff on stage, the looking is as important as the listening but in this one it's the listening that matters, and of course Conan Doyle's a superb writer.

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Hopefully I will sound like a passable Sherlock Holmes, like Terry Molloy will sound like Watson – well, he does look like a Watson!’

Terry has played Mike Tucker in the long-running Radio 4 soap, The Archers, and Colin refers to his co-star as ‘the radio supremo.’ But Colin also has plenty of experience in radio plays – on the BBC earlier in his career, and latterly for Big Finish Productions, the home of Dr Who audio plays, with whom he’s racked up more than 200 dramas.

It’s not the first time Colin and Terry have worked together – but this time they’re on the same side rather than adversaries. During Colin’s time as the sixth Doctor (from 1984-86) Terry played Davros – the evil creator of the Daleks.

‘I first met Terry in 1984,’ recalls Colin, ‘not when he came to play Davros, but a character in Attack of The Cybermen. It was the first time we saw Terry Molloy himself in Dr Who – he'd been Davros in half a dozen or so stories before that. Then later in the series he did come back as Davros in Revelation of The Daleks.’

Although it was a troubled time behind the scenes, Colin looks back fondly on his time as the Time Lord.

‘It was privilege to play. He's the one character perhaps on TV who's been through 13-14 iterations now, and the show still lives an breathes and moves forward. Now Russell T Davis is back and I think that man's a genius, so I think it's going to carry on doing that. To be a part of that – I look at all the others, and they're remarkable and wonderful actors, so I'm hoping that I can be considered on a par with them! An actor has no right to expect that kind of role to be given to them and I consider myself very lucky to have had that for three years.’

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Colin did, sort of, return to the role on screen in 2013, alongside his predecessor as the Doctor, Peter Davison, and his successor Sylvester McCoy, in The Five(ish) Doctors, a spoof to mark the sci-fi show’s 50th anniversary.

‘It was a genius idea of Peter's,’ says Colin. ‘He wrote the script – we added to it, but it was 90 per cent his. It's the only thing I've done Dr Who-related that I've watched more than the once when it's gone out, or when I've been called upon to do commentaries and things like that - but I've watched Fivei(sh) Doctors about six times, and it makes me laugh every time. It was kind of an add-on to the 50th anniversary. We all decided we weren't going to be invited to to participate on screen, and we were quite right, so we did our own as a thank you to the fans. And it was joyous.

‘We've been asked by fans if we're doing one for the 60th, but last time we all did it for nothing – all the crew and the other actors – as a bit of a fun project to thank the fans. It's quite hard to get people to do something for nothing twice! And also it would have to be a script as good, if not better, which would be hard as it such a clever and engaging idea.’

New Theatre Royal is teaming up with The News to offer an exclusive competition to win one of two pairs of tickets to see The Hound of the Baskervilles on Tuesday, November 15. The first name drawn at random will also win a signed photograph of Colin in his famous role as Dr Who.

To be entered into the draw, answer this question: Who took over from Colin Baker as Dr Who?

Email your answer with your contact details to [email protected] by 11.59pm on Wednesday, November 9.

Reader Offer T&Cs

The prize is non-transferable (cannot exchange for tickets already purchased). Winners must not re-sell tickets. Winners must be in attendance (ID may be asked for upon entry). The tickets hold no cash value. Full T&Cs here: nationalworldplc.com/competition-prize-draw-terms-and-conditions.

To buy tickets to the show on November 15, go to newtheatreroyal.com.