Dr Who goes in to bat for a change
- Publication: Shropshire Star
- Date: 1993-03-11
- Author: David Parker
- Page: 6
- Language: English
Actor Tom Baker is still trying to live down his role as the eccentric time traveller. DAVID PARKER reports
TOM Baker was a smash hit on television as Dr Who but since then his career has been in tatters.
The big question is, can he salvage it by starring in the hospital drama series Medics?
"Hopefully yes, but I'm not sure," he says. "People still tend to think of me as that eccentric time traveller - even though I left the series 12 years ago.
"And it's just ruined my career. I'm still so associated with the part, it keeps on clouding the opportunity to get more work.
To most producers and directors, I'm just Tom who did Dr Who - few can see me as anyone else.
"So until Medics, I'd done very little work, apart from odd theatre jobs and voice-overs for commercials to keep me going."
Even former glories - be it on stage as Macbeth or as Rasputin in the movie Nicholas and Alexandra were erased when he handed in the keys to the Tardis.
All of which is frustrating for the ex-monk, who found the vow of celibacy torture and was relieved to find a new calling with his Equity card.
"I don't really want much out of life-just to be a famous sex symbol and superstar," muses the thrice-married Baker, "Although, I suppose there's little chance of achieving either, now I'm approaching 60."
Nevertheless, he is delighted to be returning to mainstream television again in Medics, which begins on Monday on ITV.
He plays Professor Geoffrey Hoyt, a brilliant pioneering surgeon held in high esteem by fellow medics.
Flamboyant and eccentric, he is in his element wielding a scalpel to the sound of loud classical music.
Students and housemen find him overbearing and his sense of humour a trifle odd.
Hoyt himself goes through anguish having to tackle the politics required to protect his patch in the hospital, let alone expounding the virtues of a free medical health service for all.
"I think he's a kind of romantic St Francis of Assisi," says Baker, "He tries to mask his political ineptitude of placating those in charge of budgets, policy, PR and all
In sporting mode the former time-traveller as Professor Geoffrey Hoyt in Medics. that kind of stuff.
"In real life, anything like that requires a positive and correct approach. Hoyt would just prompt some American expression like, 'We had to let him go because we weren't comfortable with him."
"Still, he's a good-hearted man who wants to cure and heal - and loves the idea of cutting people open".
Baker admits he had to curb his natural instinct to send up Hoyt.
"Well, I think there's an awful lot of flash surrounding surgeons of his calibre in everyday life.
"They exude this godly image and accept accolades for everything - and tend to forget they are dealing with people in a state of absolute terror.
"When I first saw the script, I had this mental image of some poor bloke who had one spherical object too many quaking in a waiting room.
"I could just see a top surgeon waltzing in with his entourage, producing a scalpel and lunging forward like Tommy Cooper - saying "abracadabra, you're cured just like that', and then leaving amid a standing ovation as this poor guy's writhing in agony on the floor.
"Still, I've given Hoyt my best shot and played him more or less as the part's written - because medicine is often a very serious subject."
Despite the setback in his career caused by Dr Who, Baker has a fondness for the series.
"It was great fun to do and I'm genuinely touched that so many people should remember me for it."
In fact, it has now made him more acutely concerned about the plight of the young homeless and unemployed.
"When we were filming Medics in Manchester, I was approached by some youngsters living rough and having to beg for a living.
"Immediately they said: 'It's Dr Who. I instinctively reached into my pocket to give them some money but they said 'Forget the cash - just get us off this planet."
Existence
"I think that's a terribly sad reflection of our times. Because when they were kids sitting on the sofa and enjoying Dr Who, they were optimistic about a rosy future.
"Now they're out in the cold and having to beg to survive. Young people want to look sexy and appealing. But how can they, when they're reduced to being shivering beggars?"
The son of devout working class Catholics, Baker was born in Liverpool and "press-ganged" into the church when he was barely 15. He subsequently joined a monastery in Jersey for six years.
"I gave God a chance. I was devoted to him and all I wanted was acknowledgement of my existence a migraine would have sufficed.
"But all he ever did was to torment me with a carnal desire for women.
"In any serious love affair, there's always a victim. And I'm not being blasphemous, but in the end decided I loved God more than he loved me."
Home is now a converted Victorian schoolhouse near Maidstone in Kent, where he lives with his third wife, a television producer.
But Baker finds it hard to escape his religious roots even now - "I still mow the lawn in the local churchyard!"
Caption: Tom Baker handed in the keys to the Tardis 12 years ago but still has a great fondness for Dr Who: "It was great fun to do and I'm genuinely touched that so many people should remember me for it."
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- APA 6th ed.: Parker, David (1993-03-11). Dr Who goes in to bat for a change. Shropshire Star p. 6.
- MLA 7th ed.: Parker, David. "Dr Who goes in to bat for a change." Shropshire Star [add city] 1993-03-11, 6. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Parker, David. "Dr Who goes in to bat for a change." Shropshire Star, edition, sec., 1993-03-11
- Turabian: Parker, David. "Dr Who goes in to bat for a change." Shropshire Star, 1993-03-11, section, 6 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Dr Who goes in to bat for a change | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Dr_Who_goes_in_to_bat_for_a_change | work=Shropshire Star | pages=6 | date=1993-03-11 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=27 September 2024 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Dr Who goes in to bat for a change | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Dr_Who_goes_in_to_bat_for_a_change | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=27 September 2024}}</ref>
