Roberts has worked on some of the most popular British soap operas, including
Channel 4's now-defunct
Brookside as a scriptwriter (1999–2003), and as a story associate on
ITV's
Coronation Street in 1997. In 1998 he worked as a
script editor on ITV's other long-running soap,
Emmerdale, moving across to write several episodes himself the following year.
Doctor Who and others During the 1990s, Roberts was associated with the range of
Doctor Who spin-off novels published by
Virgin Books. He contributed several novels to both their
New Adventures and
Missing Adventures ranges of
Doctor Who fiction. He also wrote some
Cracker novelisations for Virgin, and a gay erotic novel named
The Velvet Web under the pseudonym Christopher Summerisle, the title of which also happened to be an episode of the
Doctor Who serial
The Keys of Marinus. He continued his association with
Doctor Who in the 2000s, penning several feature articles and comic strips for
Doctor Who Magazine, co-writing
audio plays and short stories based on the series with
Clayton Hickman for
Big Finish Productions, and in 2005 writing another
Doctor Who novel,
Only Human, based on the characters from the new series launched that year, for
BBC Books'
New Series Adventures range. A further novel,
I am a Dalek, was released in 2006 and featured the
Tenth Doctor.
I am a Dalek is part of a Government "Quick Reads initiative". He also co-wrote
The New Gods with
Rebecca Levene, the first
Tomorrow People audio drama for Big Finish. Roberts appeared as a contributor to the documentary
Serial Thrillers, exploring the popular
Philip Hinchcliffe era of
Doctor Who between 1975 and 1977, which featured as an extra on the 2004 DVD release of the serial
Pyramids of Mars. On 25 December 2005, a special 'interactive' mini-episode of
Doctor Who written by Roberts,
Attack of the Graske, was broadcast, and can now be accessed on the BBC website (only available to UK Broadband Users). Roberts also wrote a series of "
TARDISODEs", short videos available online and via
mobile phones promoting the 2006 series of
Doctor Who. He has written four full episodes of
Doctor Who, "
The Shakespeare Code" in 2007, "
The Unicorn and the Wasp" in 2008, "
The Lodger" in 2010 and "
Closing Time" in 2011. He co-wrote 2014's "
The Caretaker" with showrunner
Steven Moffat. Roberts also co-wrote, with
Russell T Davies, "
Invasion of the Bane", the pilot episode of the
Doctor Who spin-off series
The Sarah Jane Adventures. He wrote two two-part stories for the full series of
The Sarah Jane Adventures, which began broadcasting in the autumn of 2007, and another two two-part stories for the 2008 series. Roberts co-wrote with Davies again for the second of the 2009 specials of
Doctor Who, "
Planet of the Dead". Gareth Roberts has also written a novelisation of
Shada, the uncompleted
Tom Baker (
Fourth Doctor) story written by
Douglas Adams, that was due to be the finale of
season seventeen of
Doctor Who in 1979 before it was abandoned due to industrial action. The book was published by BBC Books on 15 March 2012.
Other work In comedy, Roberts has worked in collaboration with
The Fast Show writer and performer
Charlie Higson on the
sitcom Swiss Toni, a
spin-off from
The Fast Show. He also collaborated with Higson on scripts for the second series of
Randall and Hopkirk for
BBC One in 2001. He would reteam with Higson for the superhero-style series
Jekyll & Hyde, based on the novel. It was not renewed for a second series. Roberts has also contributed sketches to the
Channel Five sketch show
Swinging, and wrote for the fantasy series
The Librarians. Roberts and
Gary Russell wrote Virgin Books' episode guide to
The Simpsons, ''I Can't Believe It's an Unofficial Simpsons Guide'' (1997), under the pseudonyms Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood. Text from the book's expanded edition, ''I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide'' (2000), was subsequently published on the
BBC website's Cult TV section. ==Transgender controversy==