1985<\/strong><\/p>\n Just our luck! My pal Richard Marson and I were suddenly gaining a privileged window into the world of Doctor Who<\/a> and working professionally for publications that covered the series, just as it was facing the axe. This unsettled period with Colin Baker in the lead has its fans, and why not? There are many aspects I\u2019m fond of too. But I soon gathered that Who wasn\u2019t highly regarded within the BBC. Radio Times<\/strong> relegated its coverage to the juvenile Back Pages and had little truck with the show after the 20th anniversary splash. I was at RT<\/strong> from 1984 to 1988; I observed the disdain, many colleagues believing my appreciation of Who misguided and quaint. All this forms the backdrop to my lack of surprise when the cancellation was announced. But this would come a little later in 1985.<\/p>\n The programme was often criticised for developing a pantomime air with gaudy sets and stunt comedy casting. This was producer John Nathan-Turner\u2019s milieu and forte. He insisted on dressing Colin\u2019s Doctor like a \u201ctotally tasteless\u201d clown, with a big perm, while lead writer Eric Saward gave him a tart mercurial persona. Like showrunners past and future, JN-T had fashioned a Doctor not unlike himself.<\/p>\n A camp showman, JN-T had a zeal for producing pantos for real and obliged his cast to participate. So it was that 1985 saw a Doctor Who version of Cinderella in Southampton. On 12th January, I drove DWAS co-ordinator David Saunders down there, where we hooked up with Richard and his sister Deb, Gary Russell and Bill Baggs (a nice creative guy who lived in that area). It was actually tremendous fun, with hilarious slapstick and spirited performances from Colin as Buttons, Nicola Bryant as Cinders, Anthony Ainley as Baron Hardup, Mary Tamm as the Prince and Jacqueline Pearce as the Fairy Godmother. I usually loathe pantos but almost felt like joining in. Cinders did go to the ball for JN-T. A triumphant start to the year.<\/p>\n That January, Revelation of the Daleks<\/a>, a jet-black comedy by Eric Saward, was in production at TV Centre. I trotted along to watch the camera rehearsals\/recordings and it was clearly more impressive than a lot of Colin\u2019s episodes we\u2019d seen being made until then. Most were yet to air on BBC1. It\u2019s the only time I remember getting a souvenir from the set. Just after Alexei Sayle as the DJ had blown up some Daleks (in safely controlled explosions \u2013 pffffft! pffffft!), the shattered detritus of their tops lay on the floor. One of the FX guys handed me a Dalek eye stalk, but my delight turned to dismay. It was so flimsy (a balsa wood rod with a polystyrene ball for the eye and a sticky label for the iris). No one would believe this was a real prop and not some pathetic fan-made effort. A few months later I chucked it out. I wish I\u2019d kept it now. An amusing memento.<\/p>\n On 1st February, I met Richard, Deb and Gordon Blows at the Centre. I made a note in my diary that the viewing gallery was \u201cvery hot, busy and stuffy\u201d as we watched many scenes in Davros\u2019s laboratory and the catacombs of Tranquil Repose. It was the final recording day of Season 22 and, subsequently, I wondered if perhaps that would be the last ever day of Doctor Who in production.<\/p>\n I was at my desk at Radio Times<\/strong> on Tuesday 26th February 1985 when David Saunders phoned me in a shrill panic. He\u2019d just heard that Doctor Who had been cancelled by BBC1 controller Michael Grade. I took the news calmly and without shock. In TV terms, on BBC1 we were halfway between episodes two and three of The Two Doctors<\/a>, a ropy endeavour, and I knew from what I\u2019d seen in production that a nadir was hurtling towards us with the transmission of Timelash. I spoke to my friend Jan Vincent-Rudzki, who had founded DWAS in 1976, and he was as blas\u00e9 and unsurprised as I was. And the following day it was all over the press with uberfan Ian Levine expressing outrage and smashing a TV set for the tabloids.<\/p>\n A DWAS crisis meeting was called for Sunday 3rd March at Jan\u2019s house in south London. I picked up David from Harlesden and Ian from Acton and a couple of others and drove them across town, with Ian yelling all the way and hectoring me about my choice of route. He distracted me so much I went through a red light, which gave Ian a conniption \u2013 and finally silenced him.<\/p>\n I made a record of all who attended (DWAS executives current and former, and admin assistants): Jan, Ian, David, Steve Payne, Jeremy Bentham, John McElroy, Gordon Roxburgh, David and Rosemary Howe, Dominic May, Paul Zeus, Paul Tams, John Connors, Richard (representing Doctor Who Magazine) and Gary Levy (editor of the fanzine Doctor Who Bulletin) \u2013 the \u201celite\u201d of British fandom. I didn\u2019t count myself among them (still in my teens, I was just tagging along with chums and acting as Saunders and Levine\u2019s chauffeur), but how I wish now I\u2019d taped the hours of vituperation and bonkers plans of retaliation. It was a hugely enjoyable spectacle with Ian on volcanic form. I wrote in my diary: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have missed a gathering of these great egos for anything. We didn\u2019t really achieve anything credibly sensible, although letters were drafted to DWAS members and Bill Cotton (the BBC\u2019s managing director of television).\u201d<\/p>\n The press furore and backlash from viewers were staggering and Grade\u2019s cancellation was rapidly commuted to \u201cpostponement\u201d. It was desperately wounding for JN-T, who sank from glory as provider of the 20th anniversary to about as welcome as a turkey salesman on Boxing Day. He insisted that the BBC edict had always been a \u201cdelay in production\u201d and that the series would be back after 18 months \u2013 bigger and better.<\/p>\n In the aftermath, David Saunders negotiated for DWAS the first full interview with JN-T, so on 13th March 1985 he and I were granted an audience in his production office on Shepherd\u2019s Bush Green. John looked guarded and chastened but glad to have a sympathetic audience. He filled a huge bowl with cigarette ends during our discourse. He looked down his nose at me and feigned doubt that we\u2019d ever met before. We had several times and he knew it, so his stance was undermined when his partner Gary Downie burst in and embraced me like an old friend, squawking \u201cOh, it\u2019s the Watford Gap boy!\u201d<\/p>\n It was lunchtime. Booze o\u2019clock. And they couldn\u2019t wait to get to the pub across the road. They invited David and me to join them and we had a riotous time. The wine flowed and so did juicy anecdotes. Gary was spectacularly indiscreet and JN-T\u2019s mood soon lifted. That\u2019s my happiest memory of these two colourful characters. So showbiz 1980s.<\/p>\n Another vivid encounter with Gary Downie was at a small-scale convention in Ealing. He rocked up in torn denim shorts and a saggy sports vest and had beaded, bleached hair; as an ex-dancer in his mid 40s, he just about carried off this younger man\u2019s look. Collaring me in a hallway, he covered his mouth conspiratorially like someone from Dangerous Liaisons, and whispered, \u201cAny talent?\u201d Then, eying someone afar, \u201cOoh, he\u2019s quite doable.\u201d Gary and John called fans \u201cbarkers\u201d, hence the term \u201cdoable barker\u201d crystallised in my mind.<\/p>\n Mid-March brought a snowy whirlwind weekend in Durham, where Richard was in his first year at uni and already putting on a show: directing Raffles. Deb Marson, Dominic, Gary Russell and I all traipsed up there on a National Express coach. Then on 30th March some of our group entered \u201cShadow World\u201d. This was one of the earliest Doctor Who audio plays, which one day would lead to the alternative universe of Big Finish. Nicholas Briggs (later of Dalek fame) played the Doctor, Richard (also directing) and Deb were his companions and I was cast in a small part. Bill Baggs produced and John Ainsworth played the villain. We recorded it in John and Gary\u2019s flat in Balham. All done in one afternoon, but I found the process excruciating. Relieved it was in the can, we all settled down at teatime to watch part two of Revelation of the Daleks<\/a> on BBC1. Quite possibly the last ever episode of Doctor Who.<\/p>\n It was an eventful period. The next weekend saw the latest huge convention, DWASocial 5 at the Novotel in Hammersmith. I was drafted in to set up the foyer and stage, and attend a stultifying executive-level meeting. My reward was a seat at dinner on the Friday night in a private dining room at the Novotel with David and Keith Barnfather, Ian Levine presiding and broadcasting, but also some real Doctor Who talent.<\/p>\n Sitting opposite was Carole Ann Ford, the original Unearthly Child, who was polite and tolerant of the zealous outbursts; and Adrienne Hill, who\u2019d played the short-lived 1960s companion Katarina and only just been dug out from obscurity for the Who parade, much to her bemusement and Ian\u2019s ecstasy. To my right sat Michael Craze and his wife. He had been such a gifted actor, so handsome two decades earlier as companion Ben; in 1985, he looked somewhat pickled, but was gracious, charming and a giggler. What an honour it was to sit next to him for a couple of hours.<\/p>\n They were all good value at the event the next day, joined by radiant and glamorous Jacqueline Hill (1960s companion Barbara) in her one and only convention. She looked far too sophisticated for this sort of do. 1960s producer John Wiles was there, along with writers William Emms and Donald Cotton, who found catharsis in venting vinegary spleen about William Hartnell\u2019s behaviour and attitudes 20 years earlier. This was the first, very public evisceration of a Who legend.<\/p>\n I produced the final edition of my fanzine Experiential Grid, this time with a cover shot of Jason Connery, topless in Vengeance on Varos<\/a>, which I guessed would sell well among a sector of fandom. I wasn\u2019t mistaken.<\/p>\n But more importantly for me, Richard was kindly encouraging me to start writing for the official, BBC-licensed Doctor Who Magazine. Success seemed unlikely but he had put in a word for me. He covered many of the main features and star interviews while Gary Russell was writing a lot too, so I was uncertain what I could contribute. I submitted some sketchy list-y efforts about villains, which to my amazement were accepted (starting in DWM issue 104). Then I became a little bolder.<\/p>\n I\u2019d amassed so many bootleg audios and videos by then from all eras of Who (few were commercially available), and one aspect that always impressed me was the diversity and brilliance of Dudley Simpson\u2019s incidental music. I wanted to meet him. I wanted to talk to him. He accepted my invitation to come to Marvel Comics HQ, a funky set of offices in an alley behind Whiteley\u2019s department store in Bayswater. The great man turned up on 19th April 1985, dapper in a tweedy blazer, a petite slim figure, neat moustache, charm personified. Here was a proper musician who had played for Margot Fonteyn, enjoyed success in Australia and the UK, and created the sound of Doctor Who from 1964 till 1980 when JN-T dispensed with his services. He was still sore about that.<\/p>\n Richard joined us in the Marvel boardroom as I played dozens of cassette and video clips. Dudley sat there \u2013 leaning forward, ears pricked, fingers waving and tapping \u2013 thrilled as he heard his striking compositions for the first time in years. Commenting as we went along. That was a truly wonderful afternoon, and I still see it as my proper DWM debut. I had a sweet follow-up letter from Dudley and the interview\/article was published in DWM\u2019s 1985 Winter Special.<\/p>\n With Who on hiatus, the rest of the year was a merry-go-round of social events with another trip to Blackpool, birthdays (my 20th, Richard\u2019s 19th), and I rarely missed the monthly Fitzroy gathering. It was usually a pleasure but partly an obligation because I\u2019d instigated the move from the Tun. Richard was long-distance at Durham but we spent hours on the phone, him hogging the one telephone in his halls of residence. He conducted much of his DWM business from there.<\/p>\n I was fully occupied with my day job as a billings clerk at Radio Times<\/strong>, a relentless weekly slog but with funny and supportive workmates, while I was steadily becoming more involved at DWM. I loved the three people who brought it together every month: new editor Sheila Cranna (a flame-haired Scot), her deputy Penny Holme who was quite refined, and art editor Steve Cook, cool on a stick. They were the last team on DWM who were not fans of Who and didn\u2019t really get what all the fuss was about. A healthy mix.<\/p>\n On 6th December, Sheila invited me to a brainstorm lunch at Pizza Express in Bayswater. The first of several. Drinks and a couple of pizzas came to \u00a36.20! Yes, it was that long ago. Vivacious, talented, quick-to-laughter, Sheila will always be my favourite DWM editor, even though I\u2019ve worked for many fine successors. She liked my ideas for interview subjects and a new strand called Nostalgia. As it suggests, this was a look back on the true classics, inviting readers to provide their own fond recollections.<\/p>\n 1985 was a tumultuous year and shuddered to a close with a New Year party at Deb Marson\u2019s flat in Bromley. Jan and Richard were there, as were John Ainsworth, Gary Russell, David Richardson and Craig Hinton (who died young in 2006). All would make names for themselves in various Doctor Who spheres in the decades to come.<\/p>\n 1986<\/strong><\/p>\n Alan Sugar came into my life in 1986. Or rather, I was flush enough to splash out on my first Amstrad word processor. After years of commandeering my mum\u2019s Olympus typewriter and correcting with Tipp-Ex, it was a godsend for a fledgling writer with its copying, editing and saving facilities, even though the green text on a black background became eye-straining after a couple of hours.<\/p>\n I set to work on my new commissions agreed with DWM. With Richard concentrating on the stars of Who, I decided to mine a more obscure vein and so tracked down the director Hugh David. He lived in a fancy white manse just outside Windsor, and on 3rd February greeted me in his driveway, quite unfazed by the sight of a 20-year-old turning up in a rusty Fiat, brandishing a ghetto-blaster to record the interview. Hugh\u2019s career covered Z Cars and The Pallisers, and back in the 60s two Patrick Troughton stories, The Highlanders<\/a> and Fury from the Deep<\/a> (one of my earliest Who memories). All ten episodes completely missing from the BBC archive. He was great value, recounting both productions in such vivid detail he was almost re-enacting sequences in his front room for me.<\/p>\n Hugh had been an actor (starring in his own ITV show, Knight Errant, in the early 1960s), and the Doctor Who history books had to be rewritten when he told me he\u2019d been one of the first choices to play the original Doctor in 1963. He\u2019d attended a meeting where producer Rex Tucker and drama boss Sydney Newman floated the title \u201cDoctor Who?\u201d and scrawled it on a scrap of paper. My eyes nearly popped out when Hugh crossed to a drawer and produced envelopes of telesnaps for all four episodes of The Highlanders<\/a>. Something like 260 images taken off air from this long-lost story. I had a task convincing Sheila that a selection must be printed in DWM. She wasn\u2019t sure of their appeal. Hugh came into Marvel to have his portrait taken by Steve Cook and phoned to say he\u2019d enjoyed the experience. (I was shocked to hear of his sudden death the following year aged only 62.)<\/p>\n That same month I was also interviewing Jason Connery for Starburst (published by my friend Steve Payne). He was about to start in Robin of Sherwood, a high-quality ITV series I admit I far preferred to mid-80s Doctor Who. Jason was no Larry Olivier but dripping with good looks, and turned up that day in motorcycle gear. As he pulled off his helmet and his golden locks flowed, he received a lot of attention in the Knightsbridge hotel lobby where we were having tea. I asked him about his Doctor Who experience and he said he\u2019d loved running around TV Centre firing a ray gun. \u201cIt was like being five again. I ended up going \u2018Pow! Pow\u2019\u201d I\u2019d printed off one of Don Smith\u2019s Radio Times<\/strong> photos and Jason autographed it \u2013 asking for copies.<\/p>\n That spring I launched the Nostalgia strand for DWM. To freshen up the illustration in the magazine, I suggested bringing in some of my bootleg VHS tapes and for Steve to take off-screen stills as I played them. This turned into a full-on afternoon as Sheila and Penny joined Steve and me to watch some ancient episodes, eg the first Dalek story<\/a>, the surviving first episode of The Web of Fear<\/a> and The Daemons<\/a>. It was largely new to the DWM crew. Making allowances for creakier production values, they were all impressed by the storytelling and dramatic conviction.<\/p>\n I\u2019d long been intrigued by the short-lived 1965 companion Katarina, ever since DWAS historian Jeremy Bentham told me about her in 1977. I\u2019d met the actress Adrienne Hill briefly at the Novotel convention in 1985, so she was the next person I invited to Marvel HQ. On 11th April, I greeted her in reception and took her to a meeting room where Steve Cook had set up a photo session. She flinched, said she had a hangover from the night before, but agreed to her portrait being taken. She gave interesting copy and revealed she\u2019d filmed her death scene first, bouncing on a trampoline to simulate floating lifelessly in space. I made a note that she was \u201cquite nice, very theatrical\u201d.<\/p>\n No Doctor Who had been in production for a while, so Richard and I contented ourselves going to BBC Elstree to wander round the Albert Square backlot and studio sets of EastEnders: nosing around Den and Angie\u2019s Queen Vic, Pauline Fowler\u2019s front room and the caff.<\/p>\n Then, on 24th April 1986, the Time Lord was back in studio at Television Centre and I went to look at the subway and tunnel sets for the first section of The Trial of a Time Lord. As we watched the recording, it was immediately apparent that JN-T\u2019s \u201cbigger and better\u201d promise had not come to pass. Pretty much the same garish codswallop was coming down the line.<\/p>\n Outside of Who, I was enjoying my job at Radio Times<\/strong> and promoted to \u201cprogramme assistant\u201d, a halfway house between billings clerk and sub-editor. On 3rd May, I finally left home. I\u2019d been commuting to London for two years, socialising there even longer and was itching for full independence. I bid a tearful farewell to my family and my Nan and Pampa and moved into a flatshare with a complete stranger in Southfields, SW19. Steve Payne drove over and helped me settle in. Not long after, I held my 21st birthday party in my new pad with an awkward mix of Who pals and friends from RT. By some margin, the worst party I\u2019ve ever been to.<\/p>\n![\"Colin](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/09\/RT-Doctor-Who-1985-Revelation-Daleks-e2efc5f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C418\" "\\"RT")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Producer](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/RT-1983-JNT-633b594.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C415\" "\\"RT")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Jason](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/Experiential-Grid-2-08521ee.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C465\" "\\"Experiential")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"A](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/1980s-Dudley-e7ea91d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412\" "\\"1985")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Blackpool](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/1980s-Blackpool-6ed37c7.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C386\" "\\"1980s")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/1986-Amstrad-2d15d4f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C427\" "\\"1986")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Director](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/RT-1970-Z-Cars-ff0449b.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C628\" "\\"RT")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Jason](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/1986-RT-Jason-Connery-1986-8706510.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C769\" "\\"1986")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/DWM-1986-82021be.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C350\" "\\"DWM")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/1986-EastEnders-debc39e.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C424\" "\\"Upstairs")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/1985-Trial-set-9334778.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C425\" "\\"1985")
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