This book is dedicated to Samantha, Nathan and Fern – keep watching and build your own special dreams.
Anthony Coburn’s first draft of the very first script, ‘An Unearthly Child’.
‘We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and
Our little life
Is rounded with a sleep…’
The Tempest
William Shakespeare
WHEN I WAS writing my biography of crime writer Ian Rankin, I was often reminded of my idea for a Doctor Who biography, as he mentioned the Doctor in his autobiographical writings and the Rebus series several times. The serendipity that has led me from that book to this one is something, I’m sure, that will bring a wry smile to Rankin’s face, so thank you for that!
I would also like to thank the following people who have helped me in a more direct way with this book: Deborah Charlton, Louise Jameson, Christopher Lee, Ray Harryhausen, Brian Aldrich, and those I have spoken to and/or been in correspondence with over the past 30 years: Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, John Nathan-Turner, Lalla Ward, Dick Mills and Tony Burroughs (not necessarily in regard to this book). Indeed, to write anything about the Doctor Whos, your knowledge and contact has to go way back, and I would specially like to thank those who are not alive to see this book into print but were so kind to me in the past – as a much younger man – most notably again, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and John Nathan-Turner.
I would also like to thank Greenwich Time, the manager of Pleasures of Past Times (Cecil Court), John O’Sullivan, John Collins, John Blake, John Wordsworth, Simon Gosden at Fantastic Literature, and Moira Williamson.
Also thanks to Samantha, Nathan and Fern, for the constant requests to watch a certain Time Lord and Anita for being so good about it, especially when I had to as well! Also many thanks to my father for searching through his extensive collection of old movies for some obscure gems (yes, Will Hay was great fun!).
Also thanks to Howard Gibbs, Andy Beglin, Latha Arun, Teresa Earl, Alka Patel, Kim Packham for the DVDs, they really helped. And finally many thanks to Sydney Newman, Verity Lambert, Anthony Coburn, Donald Wilson and Tony Williamson for making and preserving a legend.
Sincerely, many thanks to all.
Craig Cabell
London, June 2010
CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART ONE – THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DOCTOR WHO
Chapter One – Doctor Who
Chapter Two – William Hartnell
Chapter Three – Patrick Troughton
Chapter Four – Jon Pertwee
Chapter Five – Tom Baker
Chapter Six – Peter Davison
Chapter Seven – Colin Baker
Chapter Eight – Sylvester McCoy
Chapter Nine – Paul McGann
Chapter Ten – Peter Cushing
Chapter Eleven – The Ones That Got Away
Chapter Twelve – Christopher Eccleston
Chapter Thirteen – David Tennant
Chapter Fourteen – Matt Smith
Conclusion
PART TWO – FILM, TV AND THEATRE HIGHLIGHTS
Chapter One – Actors’ Credits
Chapter Two – Missing Doctor Who Episodes
Chapter Three – Highlights of a Cult TV Show
Chapter Four – King Doctor
Further Reading
Plates
Also By Craig Cabell
Copyright
‘Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth.’
2001, A Space Odyssey
Arthur C Clarke
THE BIGGEST SHOW on television is BBC TV’s Doctor Who. The title role is that of an alien with two hearts who travels around the universe in a battered police telephone box saving the universe with a string of eclectic companions.
Playing the lead in Doctor Who is a life-changing experience for any actor, because, once you have taken the controls of the Tardis, you are immortalised in TV history.
No other role in television is as iconic, demanding or as anticipated by its legion of fans as Doctor Who. It is an enigma and one that will endure and adapt, as it has done since its humble beginnings on 23 November 1963, the day after the assassination of President John F Kennedy.
The lead actor may change, but the lead character never does, and that is the successful formula of Doctor Who. Of course, one could argue that the Tardis (in the guise of a police telephone box) and the signature tune are the other two indelible ingredients of the show’s success and were fundamental to its successful comeback in the new millennium.
The actors who have played the central role have, for the most part, had distinguished and diverse careers, but they will always be known as Doctor Who, one of an elite group of people who were privileged enough to be invited to take on this most demanding role.
Doctor Who is the longest-running SF television series in the world, and it seems that with every passing decade its popularity grows. Never before has there been a single book that focuses its whole attention on the actors who have played the Doctor and their otherwise largely unappreciated careers.
Throughout this book, I will discuss many of the milestone movies in the Doctors’ careers, some forgotten gems, others both famous and iconic: films such as Brighton Rock, Hell Divers, This Sporting Life, Jason and the Argonauts, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Omen, Carry On Screaming, Nicholas and Alexandra and Withnail and I, and TV series as famous as Worzel Gummidge, All Creatures Great and Small, The Brothers, The Second Coming and Our Friends in the North. Then there are the great theatrical productions from the RSC’s Hamlet and Love’s Labour’s Lost, through to The Pied Piper and even the stage play of Doctor Who itself. And let us not forget all the great actors and actresses who the Doctors have played alongside during their careers, names such as Laurence Olivier, Cedric Hardwicke, Maggie Smith, Robert Newton, Jeremy Brett, Patrick Stewart, Sean Connery, David Niven, Stanley Baker, Will Hay, Richard Harris, Richard E Grant, John Gielgud, Derek Jacobi, Billie Whitelaw, Christopher Lee, Lee Remick, Margaret Rutherford, Joan Hickson, Gregory Peck, Rex Harrison,