If, like me, you grew up with ‘Doctor Who’ in the 1980s and have loved the classic show ever since, then this collection of interviews will hit you hard in all the nostalgic feels. If you’ve ever wondered what it was like working on the show during the tenure of the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker), then this is a chance to hear from the people who were there. They may not be the stars on the screen, but they are the creative talents who toiled behind the scenes to bring to life the legendary science-fiction series and broadcast it into your living room. They are the reason the 1980s episodes would be cherished forever more in your memory banks! The six interviews comprising this collection are all around an hour in length, give or take a few minutes. Unusually for titles in this range, most of the interviews are brand new.
First up is director Chris Clough, who was filmed at the ‘Myth Makers Live 2’ event in front of a live audience in 2023. The sound quality is excellent, overcoming the traditional limitations of recording from a distance in a large room. Clough comes across as somewhat nervous, perhaps owing to the pressures of a live audience and a camera. But once his confidence increases, he has plenty of great tales to divulge about working under time constraints on a low-budget but technically-demanding series. He talks about how he managed to attract top names to the show (on low fees!) and the similarities between the two Doctors he directed – Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy. It’s good to hear a director talk so fulsomely about both. Interviewer Ian Kubiak also gathers Clough’s views on casting Sophie Aldred, and he clearly relishes recalling everything she brought to the role of Ace. Clough went on to be enormously successful as a producer and director after leaving ‘Doctor Who’, and if anything, it would have been great to have heard more about his later career. Yet it is testament to Clough’s professional integrity that he remains willing to talk affectionately about his time on ‘Doctor Who’ all these decades later.
Matthew Robinson certainly doesn’t have any of the reticence of Chris Clough. The director of ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ and ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ is a delight to listen to. He spoke to Ian Kubiak in front of a live audience at Whooverville in Derby last year. Over a highly engaging and amusing hour he recounts his new life and achievements in Cambodia, but also talks about his time on ‘EastEnders’, and of course, ‘Doctor Who’. One of the best directors of the 1980s, Robinson recalls gathering his splendid casts that included Maurice Colbourne, Brian Glover and legendary Cyber Leader actor David Banks. For those fans who have long wondered who really wrote ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, Robinson supplies the answer! This instalment was my favourite of the interviews simply because Robinson is such an entertaining and witty speaker.
Rounding out the first disc is Dominic Glynn who composed incidental music for the series during the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy years. The voice of the Daleks and long-time fan of the show Nicholas Briggs catches up with Glynn in his dressing room backstage at the ‘Myth Makers Live’ event. This section will be of interest to those keen to understand the process of musical composition. Glynn divulges how he came to be interested in writing electronic music, learned his craft on the short-lived science-fiction series ‘Tripods’, and how he approached producer John Nathan-Turner to work on ‘Doctor Who’. The gig resulted in Glynn composing a variation of the ‘Doctor Who’ theme tune that was used throughout Colin Baker’s second season, and is inarguably the most sinister iteration of the famous melody.
The second disc opens with Grant Foxon interviewing perhaps the most obscure writer in ‘Doctor Who’s history, Wally K Daly. His scripts for ‘The Ultimate Evil’ had been commissioned for Colin Baker’s second season, but the show was then put on hiatus and the stories were later scrapped. Middlesborough-born Daly, who sadly died in 2020, talks at his home in Earl’s Court in 2018. Just outside is a replica police box!
The next instalment is my favourite on the second disc – writer Philip Martin, recorded in 2016. The acclaimed playwright also created and wrote the pioneering 1970s show ‘Gangsters’. Like Wally K Daly, his final script for ‘Doctor Who’ was for Colin Baker’s ill-fated abandoned season, but Martin was able to see two of his Sixth Doctor scripts make it to the screen. There’s a strong case to make that Martin’s first ‘Doctor Who’ story, ‘Vengeance of Varos’, is the best of the entire Colin Baker era. It is interesting to learn that Martin Jarvis, who was the lead guest actor in the story, was Philip Martin’s best friend at RADA. Martin also reveals how producer John Nathan-Turner was worried about taking him on because his writing was known to be political. He was warned not to bring any of it into ‘Doctor Who’. He laughs, recalling that ‘Vengeance on Varos’ was the most political script he ever wrote! Sadly, Philip Martin died in 2020, but his reminiscences captured here, which include the broad sweep of his career, are a joy to listen to. He was a writer of considerable stature and talent, and as a trained actor, he also knew how to enthral an audience.
The final interview is with another writer, Glen McCoy, whose sole ‘Doctor Who’ contribution is ‘Timelash’. Although the story is not regarded as a classic, McCoy points out that he was very young and inexperienced when he wrote it. His subsequent career has encompassed popular soap operas such as ‘Emmerdale’ and ‘EastEnders’, and he cut his teeth on the medical drama ‘Angels’. Interviewed on stage in 2023 by Ian Kubiak, McCoy recalls his meeting with Paul Darrow, who played Tekker, and where his ideas of incorporating the mythology of HG Wells into his script came from. He also divulges his unhappiness at Eric Saward’s additional material that was inserted into the under-running second episode. McCoy’s story is an intriguing one, as he is quite right that the BBC wouldn’t accept a submission from an untried and unrepresented writer in the current era.
Overall, this collection of interviews is mostly front-loaded, with the talents featured on disc one working across more than one era of ‘Doctor Who’. Their contributions to the show’s legacy are therefore somewhat more significant. The second disc dips into obscurity, but for fans who love the minutiae of the show, revelations about the often unsung heroes may well prove an attractive draw to this title rather than a deterrent. One of the commendable strengths of the ‘Myth Makers’ range of interviews is that they give the spotlight to everyone who made ‘Doctor Who’, ensuring that the voices of all of the surviving talents are recorded for posterity. If you love stories about the making of classic ‘Doctor Who’, you’ll be in heaven with this title.
Cast: Chris Clough, Matthew Robinson, Dominic Glynn, Wally K Daly, Philip Martin, Glen McCoy, Nicholas Briggs Director: Keith Barnfather Certificate: E Released by: Reeltime Pictures Running time: 342 mins Release date: August 2023 Buy ‘The Doctors The Colin Baker Years Behind the Scenes’
