Naked truth about Dr Who
- Publication: West Lancashire Evening Gazette
- Date: 1991-10-24
- Author:
- Page: 11
- Language: English
DR WHO fans are seeing more of their hero than they bargained for these days.
Sylvester McCoy, television's time travelling Time Lord for three series, is currently baring his all in the nationwide tour of Alan Bleasdale's outrageous comedy Having A Ball.
Just what Preston theatre goers will make of a full frontal Sylvester will be seen at the Charter Theatre on Monday but he's confident he'll escape without too much criticism or ridicule!.
"You can hear the audiences being surprised." he says. "There's a sort of gasped whisper and the rustle of elbows nudging ribs but after a while they get used to it."
Having been on tour since June he's getting used to it too.
"I'm not the sort of chap who hangs around Turkish baths or saunas so it was a bit of a surprise to me too." he confesses. "On stage though it is a character I am playing and I am an actor so I get on with it - or off with it.
He admits though that in television terms it is not what his particular Doctor would have ordered-even though it is a return to his dramatic roots.
"I started out touring with the Ken Campbell Roadshow and there was one particular sketch where my clothes accidentally came off one night and it went down so well we had to keep it in the show! The nearest he'd been to male nudity on stage before that was I was when he worked at the Roundhouse ticket office during a production of O Calcutta
"I kept my clothes on they took theirs off!" he says. But it was while at the Roundhouse the one time insurance agent was spotted by Ken Campbell and mistaken for an actor because of his lively personality.
Guillotine!
The result was a life of touring which saw him sharing lodgings with the likes of Bob Hoskins.
His last visit to Preston was in fact while with the roadshow which played several pubs and clubs in the area but he best remembers the town for its guillotine maker!
"It was an invaluable prop for the show and we had it made in Preston," he says.
It has been a while since the last Dr Who series and Sylvester admits he would be the last person to to know whether another series is likely and whether he would be invited to be in it. "I rely on the man on the sixth floor of the BBC who cleans out the executive loos for all my information," he laughs. "I really do think the series should be brought back but I I would be very surprised if they asked me to o do it.
"It's been a while and the nature of the series is that after a gap like this they bring in a new Doctor every
time because there is a new television audience as well as the diehard fans." Not that he would turn down the chance - although he admits that he is enjoying his break from television. Apart from Having A Ball he has has appeared in the dramatic version of The Marriage of Figaro and and is preparing for another pantomime stint as Baron Hardup in Cinderella at the Richmond Theatre. "I'll enjoy that because I can commute and it will mean I can spend Christmas at home.
He admits that having joined the acting profession later in life than many of his contemporaries he still enjoys everything that is put before him.
The parts all seem to be very different so I never get bored I and I think people can see that in my performance." he says.
On the other hand he's hoping that once pantomime is over "something heavier crops up.
While in the Manchester panto in 1989 he appeared in an Iranian play in the city's Green Room
"It's good to be able to save up a bit of money doing the mainstream stuff and then spend it it being underpaid in fringe material," he says. like all audiences again it's with starting late, I know what it's like in civvy street and I have absolutely no desire to go back to it."
Caption: Sylvester McCoy under cover
Caption: The real McCoy, with Fiona McArthur in Having a Ball
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- APA 6th ed.: (1991-10-24). Naked truth about Dr Who. West Lancashire Evening Gazette p. 11.
- MLA 7th ed.: "Naked truth about Dr Who." West Lancashire Evening Gazette [add city] 1991-10-24, 11. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: "Naked truth about Dr Who." West Lancashire Evening Gazette, edition, sec., 1991-10-24
- Turabian: "Naked truth about Dr Who." West Lancashire Evening Gazette, 1991-10-24, section, 11 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Naked truth about Dr Who | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Naked_truth_about_Dr_Who | work=West Lancashire Evening Gazette | pages=11 | date=1991-10-24 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 March 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Naked truth about Dr Who | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Naked_truth_about_Dr_Who | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 March 2025}}</ref>
