Toby Whithouse

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Toby Whithouse is an English actor and scriptwriter. His highest-profile work has been the creation of the Channel 4 television drama series No Angels (2004–06), and he has also written for BBC One's Hotel Babylon and Doctor Who. His Doctor Who episode, titled School Reunion, featured the return of the robot dog K-9 and 1970s companion Sarah-Jane Smith.

After initially attending art college in his home town of Southend, Whithouse decided to drop out of the course and turn to acting as a profession. He was a regular in the early 1990s BBC1 drama series The House of Eliott, and also appeared on stage in the West End, co-starring with Gene Wilder in Laughter on the 23rd Floor by Neil Simon in 1997.

Frustrated at what he perceived as a lack of quality in many of the scripts he was sent to read, Whithouse took to writing in his spare time between acting roles, eventually writing a play which was performed as the opening production of the Soho Theatre in Dean Street, London. Following this he gained his first television work, writing an episode for the ITV drama series Where the Heart Is.

He then became associated with the independent production company World Productions, for whom he worked on the BBC Two drama series Attachments. When Channel 4 approached World with a view to a new drama series commission, the company came up with the idea of a series concerning the lives of four nurses in the North of England, and Whithouse was given the task of fleshing out and formatting the show which became No Angels. The series was a success, running for three series on Channel 4 from 2004 to 2006.

Already being a friend of Doctor Who executive producer Julie Gardner, Whithouse was invited to contribute to the series in 2005, eventually writing the third episode of the second season, School Reunion, transmitted on 29 April 2006. He went on to write for the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood, with his episode — Greeks Bearing Gifts — transmitted on November 26, 2006.

As an actor, he appeared in the role of Alistair in the film version of Bridget Jones's Diary in 2001. Since then his appearances have been less frequent, although he appeared in a small role in his own episode of Hotel Babylon in February 2006, and made a cameo appearance in the last ever episode of No Angels, transmitted on Channel 4 in April 2006.