HAMILTON: A key element to Doctor Who has always been the special relationship between the Doctor and his companions.
One of the most fondly remembered of these has been the pairing of Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning.
By the time ofThe Curse of Peladon, the character of Jo Grant had firmly established herself in the series.
MANNING: The fabulous thing about Jo was that the writers began to get confidence in her.
Jo was beginning to grow from the guidelines, that I think all, probably all the assistants are given.
And you then take it and you go way beyond whether you've, sort of, given you the guidelines and you start to create your own character that works well with all the other characters.
And that's how you, kind of, get a really nice ensemble show.
HAMILTON: Jo Grant played a pivotal role in Curse forming a strong bond with King Peladon.
And so, you know, it was lovely that they gave Jo that little moment of possible, a love scenario and things like that.
Do you believe me?
And the kiss, which was, you know, quite daring back then, you know.
I think I just got so carried away being Princess Jo, having my hair in lots of curls and things I think I, kind of, went off with the fairies on this one.
-Jo, snap out of it! -(GASPING) What?
What happened?
Well, you just ruined a very promising experiment, that's what happened.
I'm sorry.
I thought you were going to be k*lled.
I only wanted to help you.
I didn't take any of me into Jo, as I don't take much of me into anybody I play, because I don't think I warrant it.
I had created a character.
You know, the voice I used was not Katy Manning's voice.
It's a time sensor.
-I see.
-Do you?
Well, what's it do, then?
-Well, it -Umm-hmm.
It, erm, detects disturbances in a time field.
Well done, Jo.
I actually took Jo up a little bit.
And Jon Pertwee used to get hysterical when occasionally we were left on our own, you know, with the camera, strapped on to Bessie and driving down the road.
And I'd suddenly slip back into, you know, like ''Do me older '' to my deeper voice.
Jo, bless her little heart, was so in love with the Doctor.
And she was prepared to lay down her life for him.
No, he's a good man! k*ll me, not him! She wasn't that smart.
She, you know, she didn't really do the UNIT thing that she was supposed to do.
You never saw her going off and doing UNIT classes.
-What's a cephalopod?
-An octopus.
I though you took an 'A' level in science.
I didn't say I passed.
But it was Jon's very first job as an actor and so it was so important to him to show that he wasn't just a light entertainer.
He was actually a very fine actor.
To be funny, you have to have a great deal of pathos as well.
And Jon was able to bring all of these things to play.
There sat under a tree an old man, a hermit.
A monk.
He lived under this tree for half his lifetime, so they said, and learned the secret of life.
So, when my black day came, I went and asked him to help me.
He told you the secret?
-Well, what was it?
-Well, I'm coming to that, Jo, in my own time.
DICKS: I think it's quite a comfortable sort of relationship.
Jon and Katy had worked together long enough to be comfortable with each other.
The relationship between the Doctor and Jo Grant, the assistant, reflected onscreen what their relationships were off-screen.
The affection that is quite clear in The Curse of Peladon between them was real.
And Jon and I We kind of hit it off straight away.
There was a Immediately a rapport, we recognised in each other two people, first of all, who spent their lives doing voices, and becoming strange and weird and wacky characters.
I mean, we had so many little characters and alter egos that we instinctively and instantly played with each other.
And he really took it very, very seriously.
For all the enormous fun that one talks about that we had, and, you know, I think everybody talks about, oh, the closeness of our group.
It was my second job in the business, you know, as an actress, so everybody was very protective of me, and Jon, especially.
The reaction of any male to Katy, is to put his arms around her, pat her on the back and say, ''There, there.
I will look after you.
'' You know, she has that kind of cuddly kitten.
And I think Jon had that very much.
Jon was very protective towards her, you know.
And she admired Jon and liked working with him and they really got on very well.
And Jon also realised that I was one of these people he could actually tease and send up.
And I wasn't deeply sensitive.
I found everything shriekingly funny on that level.
And he too was, in his real life.
I always sort of saw him as a swashbuckling, sort of, piratesque, because he used to go deep sea diving.
Anything that was going, Jon would have a little try.
You know, he love to do his own stunts.
So, Jon, I think, also appealed very much to children and also to the adults.
I think he crossed that beautifully.
It wasn't a grown-up sexual relationship like you get in Doctor Who nowadays.
On the contrary, we always steered well clear of that.
It was far more an avuncular or a paternal affection.
-Your wedding present.
-It's beautiful.
Thank you, Doctor.
I know this sounds terrible.
But he looked like he could be 2,000 years old, have two hearts and have been travelling around in space and time.
He had that extraordinary face.
I remember asking him once, I said, ''Were you alive when cars were invented?
'' I think I received an ice cream in the face at the time.
I think Jon was born with those wonderful, you know, the wonderful craggy face that he had.
And you know, that divine hair.
There was a moment where he produces a big bunch of magician's, you know, flower feathers.
The moment that scene was sh*t, Jon did one of his, you know, wonderful sort of gentleman bows, and presented me with the feather flowers.
And I've kept them to this day.
MAN 1 : All right, quiet, everyone.
Quiet, quiet.
Now, well Here's to you, both.
MAN 2: Hear-hear.
Here's to both of you.
WOMAN: Congratulations.
ALL: # For he's a jolly good fellow # MANNING: He was such a beautiful, beautiful man.
And you now, you could see the height and the strength in this man.
''I am the Doctor.
'' You know, it was all there.
He was born to play it.