Telly legend Sandi Toskvig looks forward to new discoveries in live show touring to Sheffield

“I collect books where I think, ‘Why would anybody publish that?’” said Sandi. “So, you should never challenge me as chances are I will have a book about it.”

A dozen or so such titles will crop up in her new stage show, Next Slide Please, which tours to Sheffield City Hall on June 17, 2022.

Sandi will devote part of the show to the city she is in and wants the audience to tell her what’s amazing about it. Her nocturnal walks have taught her every inch of a place comes with a story attached. She wants people to see she’s made the best effort that she can and that she’s been doing her homework.

“Next Slide Please will be full of new discoveries, new adventures, new ideas. Otherwise you become a dinosaur,” said Sandi.

Curiosity is key is Sandi’s top recommendation to her fellow humans. She said: “Don’t be certain of too much. I am challenging people to have their answers questioned,”

When she’s not reading, Sandi devotes her off-duty hours to making things – weaving, craft projects, embroidery, woodwork and knitting. And she knits with wool, not dog hair.

She prefers creating things to bingeing on box sets and admits that she doesn’t watch a lot of television. However, she has occasionally knitted with the 10pm news on and has just made a doll for her granddaughter that way.

With Sandi’s schedule of programme-making, writing, and performing, does she ever think about slowing down or giving up? She admits she has a “fantasy” of becoming a teacher in a New England liberal arts college, “wearing a slightly shabby sweater and looking a little bit vague and sitting around discussing Catcher in the Rye or some other great piece of writing”.

But Sandi still finds the world too interesting to ease up on her workload. “Every turn of every page I learn something…”

Tickets for Sandi’s show in Sheffield cost £31.75. Go to www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk