{"id":8190,"date":"2021-12-03T13:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1528542"},"modified":"2021-12-03T13:44:25","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T12:44:25","slug":"doctor-whos-peter-davison-reunites-with-old-friends-in-fifth-doctor-special-from-big-finish","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/doctor-whos-peter-davison-reunites-with-old-friends-in-fifth-doctor-special-from-big-finish\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who\u2019s Peter Davison reunites with old friends in Fifth Doctor special from Big Finish"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Morgan Jeffery\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 03 December 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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January 2022 will mark 40 years since the Fifth Doctor\u2019s era began on Doctor Who and, to mark the occasion, Big Finish are reuniting actor Peter Davison with two former colleagues \u2013 though not<\/em> from his days on the BBC sci-fi series.<\/p>\n

Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor Adventures \u2013 Forty will celebrate four decades of Davison\u2019s Doctor and will feature Christopher Timothy and Barbara Flynn among its guest cast, RadioTimes.com<\/a> can exclusively reveal.<\/p>\n

Davison and Timothy both appeared in BBC One\u2019s All Creatures Great and Small \u2013 playing Tristan Farnon and James Herriot respectively \u2013 between 1978 and 1990, while Flynn appeared opposite Davison in BBC Two\u2019s A Very Peculiar Practice between 1986 and 1992 and in ITV sitcom Pat & Cabbage in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cForty years of the Fifth Doctor is a big deal \u2013 Peter is the actor who changed the direction of the show forever, showing viewers for the first time that the Doctor could be portrayed as the wisdom of centuries within the body of a young man,\u201d said producer David Richardson. \u201cI love the whole Fifth Doctor era, so this was a party I was very keen to throw \u2013 and it seemed very fitting that the guest stars should be memorable figures from Peter\u2019s career outside of Doctor Who, from other major TV series in which he has starred.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Peter\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Peter Davison, Christopher Timothy, Carol Drinkwater and Robert Hardy, photographed for Radio Times in connection with the television series \u2018All Creatures Great and Small\u2019, circa 1985<\/span><\/figcaption> Roger Savage\/Radio Times\/Getty Images<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Davison himself added: \u201cI did ask if we could get some good names in the stories, and I was looking at some of the other Doctors doing their stories and they had very impressive cast lists. I wanted to get up there! Had I known Chris wanted to be in it, of course I would have suggested his name!<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Creatures Great and Small was my big break. We had a meeting at Television Centre in London, and I knew of everyone else in the programme apart from Carol Drinkwater. We all met and I was terribly, terribly nervous, and I was introduced by the producer to Chris, who immediately said, \u2018Too tall, recast!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think he was serious, and it was obviously a joke, but then I thought, what if the producer thinks he\u2019s serious and goes, \u2018Oh, he is too tall? We\u2019d better recast!\u2019?\u201d I really thought [producer] Bill Sellars, being terribly serious, with this was the first meeting of all the cast, would take it seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Doctor\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Big Finish<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt was my big break too! It was meant to create a unity between myself and this young actor I\u2019d just met!\u201d said Timothy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll through Doctor Who\u2019s life, when it was on, particularly when Peter was playing the Doctor, I was asking myself, why haven\u2019t they asked me to be in it, and to this day, I still don\u2019t understand!\u201d<\/p>\n

Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor Adventures \u2013 Forty will finally right that wrong, with Timothy appearing in The Secrets of Telos as Professor Parry \u2013 a role originally played by the late Aubrey Richards in 1967 television story The Tomb of the Cybermen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\""Barbara\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Barbara Flynn, David Troughton, Graham Crowden and Peter Davison \u2013 cast of A Very Peculiar Practice<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Flynn \u2013 who also recently appeared in Doctor Who: Flux on television as Tecteun \u2013 will play Professor Vansom in the new audio drama. \u201cI spent my entire time being intimidated by Barbara on In A Very Peculiar Practice!\u201d revealed Davison. \u201cBut I always loved it when people came up to me and said they enjoyed A Very Peculiar Practice \u2013 it was always slightly left-field.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople would usually say I watched you in Doctor Who or All Creatures, so Peculiar Practice was a particular taste. Anyone who went to university at that time thinks it was based on their university. It was one of those things where you get a script and you don\u2019t want to change a line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn A Very Peculiar Practice, I was the more assured personality, and in Pat and Cabbage, the situations were reversed \u2013 Peter was the more assured personality and I was the dithering idiot!\u201d said Flynn. \u201cIt\u2019s always great to work with Peter. It\u2019s been a delight working on Doctor Who, it\u2019s such a phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside Davison\u2019s former cast-mates, ex-EastEnders star Tamzin Outhwaite will also appear in the special celebratory adventure as a character named Morton.<\/p>

Read more about Doctor Who:<\/strong><\/p>\n