Photographer Chris Ridley took these never-before-seen shots of Doctor Who star Tom Baker
- Publication: Radio Times
- Date: 2025-01-04
- Author: Huw Fullerton
- Page: 8
- Language: English
On 3 August 1975, photographer Chris Ridley took these never-before-seen shots of Doctor Who star Tom Baker and his Tardis on St Martin's Lane, London. The then 41-year-old actor was about to film linking material for a BBC1 children's TV series called Disney Time at a nearby cinema, and was by now well established in the role, in which he'd been starring since the previous December. Though speaking to RT a few months before the picture was taken, he was still in shock about just how much his life had changed.
"I was carrying a hod on a building site when I got the part," Baker recalled, before explaining just how much his day-to-day life was changed for ever: "I was gambolling along to Gerry's [a Soho drinking den favoured by the acting profession] one evening and I was walking between two coppers, and one says, absolutely on cue, 'Good evening, Doctor!' I was delighted! And then they were delighted that I was delighted!"
Baker was speaking to Radio Times in March 1975, three months after his first episode — Robot — aired, on 28 December 1974. This week, we're 50 years on from that auspicious debut that changed Baker's life — and arguably, television itself — for ever.
To mark the occasion, we have collated a 64-page Tom Baker bookazine that's available as a digital download. Featuring rarely seen pictures unearthed from the RT archive and classic Tom Baker Doctor Who interviews, it stretches from the 1970s all the way to last year, as he reflects on the role that made him a household name. "Knowing anything is a bit dangerous when you play Doctor Who," he told us in 2023. "It's better to know nothing. And to be good-natured."
In 1975, though, his take on the Time Lord was simpler. "The thing about Doctor Who is that he must be eternally in the present. Like when you fall in love," he mused. "You know, that wonderful sense of surprise."
The RT Tom Baker bookazine can be downloaded for free at radiotimes.com/tombaker50
Caption: BAKER'S DOZEN Pictured on St Martin's Lane in London, Tom Baker played the fourth and longest-serving incarnation of the Doctor, from 1974 to 1981
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- APA 6th ed.: Fullerton, Huw (2025-01-04). Photographer Chris Ridley took these never-before-seen shots of Doctor Who star Tom Baker. Radio Times p. 8.
- MLA 7th ed.: Fullerton, Huw. "Photographer Chris Ridley took these never-before-seen shots of Doctor Who star Tom Baker." Radio Times [add city] 2025-01-04, 8. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Fullerton, Huw. "Photographer Chris Ridley took these never-before-seen shots of Doctor Who star Tom Baker." Radio Times, edition, sec., 2025-01-04
- Turabian: Fullerton, Huw. "Photographer Chris Ridley took these never-before-seen shots of Doctor Who star Tom Baker." Radio Times, 2025-01-04, section, 8 edition.
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