The Time Lord Saved Me from the Building Site

50th anniversary special
23 November 2013

Radio Times anniversary specials
10th (1973) | 20th (1983) | 30th (1993) | 40th (2003) | 50th (2013) | 60th (2023)

http://cuttingsarchive.org/images/6/60/2013-11-23_Radio_Times_p36.jpg

Publication: Radio Times
Date: 2013-11-23
Author: Mark Braxton, Patrick Mulkern
Page: 36
Language: English

"Tom Baker has always been my favourite," the Prime Minister tells RT. "He was larger than life, a genuine eccentric with his long stripy scarf and floppy hat. I was also pretty obsessed with the Daleks. They were such perfect baddies and 'Exterminate!' was definitely the best catchphrase on the show." DAVID CAMERON

1975 A ZYGON ERA

How the bizarre alien first looked

2013 SUCKER PUNCH

And what you'll see in The Day of the Doctor

Where was Tom Baker's RT cover?

In 1975 RT brought Tom Baker and writer Terry Nation together to promote Genesis of the Daleks. After Jon Pertwee's appearance on five covers, it seemed a good time for Baker to grace RT's front. But the then art editor David Driver told Doctor Who Magazine, "We were subject at Radio Times to programme controllers saying, 'We don't want you to feature Doctor Who and so on.' I'd try to fight that sort of thing, but sometimes people wilted under pressure. An editor might have felt, 'Everybody knows about Doctor Who. People are still going to watch it whether it's on the front or not.' That was not, and is not, my view." Driver added, "I think I'd worn their patience thin with my enthusiasm."

MASTERMINDS Dalek creator Terry Nation with Tom Baker, photographed by Allan Ballard in 1975

Who & Me

Charlie Brooker, writer and broadcaster

One thing lacking from the new incarnation is the use of terrifying cliffhangers - those spine-tingling moments where the Doctor is in mortal peril and the squealing end-credit music comes wailing in. One that sticks in my mind is from a 1980 story, The Leisure Hive. [The Doctor seems to be dismembered by a machine called a Recreation Generator.] The camera crash-zooms into Tom Baker's horrified face as Doctor Who screams - in agony. I repeat: Doctor Who dies in screaming agony! Right there on screen.

As his scream blended with the wailing end music, I turned cold, like I'd just witnessed a beheading. I was nine: it was the first time I'd felt a down-to-the-bone chill. From Behind the Sofa: see p25

Who knew?

16 million viewers

City of Death (1979), written under a pseudonym largely by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams, pulled in 16.1 million viewers - Who's highest-ever ratings figure.

Doctor D'oh

Matt Groening is a fan of Tom Baker's Doctor, featuring him several times in The Simpsons.

Just keep knitting

Tom Baker's iconic, overlong scarf was created by serendipity. The BBC costume designer James Acheson (later a triple Oscar winner) provided plentiful wool to knitter Begonia Pope, who misunderstood his brief and used it all. Baker liked the result. In 2005, the scarf was auctioned by Bonhams, fetching £7,800.

THE HAND OF FEAR (1976)

"Till we meet again, Sarah..." A sad farewell for the Doctor and his best friend, with dialogue partly improvised by Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. In the final freeze frame, Sarah looks skyward as the Tardis vanishes. In 1976, no one dreamt that Sladen would be back - in the 80s, in 2006, and eventually II earn her own hit CBBC series

TARDIS TRIO

Tom Baker and Louise Jameson (Leela) launch robot dog K-9 in 1977. Photographed for RT by Peter Howe

TOM BAKER

Years 1974-81 Episodes 172 (also briefly in The Five Doctors, 1983)

Who is he? Born 1934. Belying his rich, actorly timbre, Tom Baker had a working-class upbringing in Liverpool. After six years as a monk, he joined the National Theatre in the 60s. He was often out of work before Doctor Who came along.

Doctor profile With a look inspired by a portrait by Toulouse-Lautrec, this Doctor was a bohemian alien, who liked to thwart his enemies with wit and jelly babies.

Key companion Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen). After a year with Pertwee, the roving journalist blossomed with Baker's Doctor: "She's my best friend."

Ultimate foe Davros, the Hitler-like creator of the Daleks, played electrifyingly in 1975 by Michael Wisher. A rematch in 1979 (with actor David Gooderson) was less successful.

Age now 79

I felt reborn

I WAS CARRYING A hod on a building site when I got the part," Tom Baker told RT in 1975. Despite support from Laurence Olivier in his National Theatre days and key roles on the BBC (The Millionairess with Maggie Smith), Baker found the acting business precarious. He took work as a labourer to survive (inset right). "I was living on the smell of an oil rag and bread pudding," he revealed in his autobiography. In 1974, he wrote "a desperate letter" to the BBC pleading for work.

Timing is all: Doctor Who producer Barry Letts was searching for a new lead and offered it to Baker. "I felt reborn in the good news," recalls Baker. "Then Barry said, 'There's just one thing, Tom.' My heart skidded and my arse pouted in terror. Did it mean that somehow I wasn't to be Doctor Who?" Letts merely wanted to delay a public announcement.

Baker seized the role with wide-eyed relish, making the Time Lord more eccentric than ever before. He clung to the part for seven years and holds the record for more episodes than any other Doctor. By his own admission he became proprietorial, and was ousted by incoming producer John Nathan-Turner. He gave up the role of a lifetime, telling RT in 1983: "I can't tell you how dreary it was being Tom Baker! During those years I was one of the few men in Britain to whom 'Don't talk to strange men' didn't apply. The sweet, trusting, instant intimacy with children was wonderful?'

The Time Lord Saved Me from the Building Site

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