Tommy was an absolutely fascinating character, and one of the great attractions of the role because of the journey that he goes through, and a gem for any actor, the fact that he starts off with learning difficulties and then turns into almost a genius, able to appreciate William Blake, etcetera, etcetera.
I'd been doing theatre, mostly, I'd done seven years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and I was fairly new to television, so consequently, the first day when we went to the recording, it was It was quite nerve-wracking for me.
I made a fatal mistake in that we had used in the RSC a lot of improvisation, and when I got into the taxi to take me to Television Centre, where we were doing the recordings on that first day, just off the top of my head, just a whim, I decided to do a little improv, so when I got into the taxi I said, (IMITATING TOMMY) "I wanna go to the place "where they make them television programmes," and the driver said, "You mean the Television Centre?
BBC" "That's, that's right.
Television Centre.
I wanna go Television Centre.
" "All right, mate," he said, and off we set.
And I thought that was great.
Obviously he found me convincing, but unfortunately he was a very chatty taxi driver and wouldn't let it rest at that point, which was not what I intended.
So he says, "What are you going to Television Centre for, son?
" I said, "I'm going to meet my friend, "Doctor Who.
" "Oh, yeah," he says.
"You know Doctor Who, do you?
" "Yes, I know Doctor Who.
He's my friend.
" And I'm beginning to sweat now, and the conversation goes on about how I happen to be Doctor Who's friend, you know, how I'd met him.
"Been to space with him?
" "No, never been in space with Doctor Who.
" So we get to the Television Centre.
He says, "Just a minute, son.
You just wait there.
"I just want to have a word with this security guard.
" And I saw him get out of the taxi and go to the security guard and chat and say (MURMURING) So he said, "Come over here, son.
What was your name, again?
" "Tommy.
I'm Tommy.
" He said, "Well, the security guard has got some sad news for you, Tommy.
" Now, obviously the taxi driver thought that I was some loon who had got into this taxi thinking that I was going to see Doctor Who and wanted to let me down gently, so the security guard says, "Uh, yes, Tommy.
"I'm sorry, but Doctor Who's had to go off in the TARDIS, "and he's not here at the Television Centre.
"He says he's very sorry but (STAMMERING) "He says, "'Keep watching the television and he'll wave to you from time to time.
"' "Oh," said the taxi driver.
"I'm sorry but isn't that bad news?
"Never mind.
I'll drive you back in the" And I said, "No, I have to stay here.
I have to see Doctor Who.
" "Now, son, get in the taxi.
He's not going to see" "No, I have to stay.
" And the taxi driver says, "Well, you know, I'll take you back" "No, I'll stay.
" So the taxi driver gets off and drives away, and I sidle up to the security guard when the taxi's well out of sight.
(IMITATES TOMMY) "Actually, I'm not really Tommy, "I'm an actor who's playing the role of Tommy in Doctor Who, (NORMALLY) "and if you'd like to check "your sheet, list of people, you'll see John Kane.
" He looks.
Says, "Oh, yeah.
"Oh, yeah, I see.
'John Kane.
' In you go.
" He gave me a very funny look, and every time I turned up for the next couple of days, he gave me that same funny look, and I probably deserved it.
So many people have said that it was a family, the Doctor Who group, and it was.
It was a very tight-knit family, but it was a very inclusive family.
I remember the rehearsals coming up to, you know, entering the rehearsal room for the first time, and made to feel tremendously welcome by every single person in that cast and in the production team.
Jon was a particularly lovely man.
He was really like an actor-manager.
He was the head of the company.
He made sure that everyone was feeling good.
Also, of course, Barry was the producer and in charge of rehearsals.
There was a sense that Jon really was the focus point for the productions.
And he had certain rituals, and one of them, one the strangest was the first day in the studio, we all got together.
We all held hands.
I was called from my dressing room.
I thought, "What's going on?
" And Jon explained that before the start of every one of the recordings, he always had this chant.
And I don't quite I remember It went, "Who's our fellow?
Who's our boy?
"Something, something.
" I can't remember what that bit is.
"Harry Roy!" (EXCLAIMS) And off we went and started the recording.
I do know that Harry Roy is a band leader, but where it came from, I really have no idea.
Probably something that Jon brought with him, because, of course, Jon had appeared on the variety stage.
It always seemed to me that Jon Pertwee was the Roger Moore of the Doctor Whos, as it were, this flamboyance, this emphasis on gadgets, and on zooming cars, and this, that, and the other.
That's the other reason that I think he worked so well with Elisabeth, because she, kind of, grounded him.
I mean, he could be as flamboyant as he liked because she carried the reality of the situation.
And very often, if you see the series, she's always, kind of, pulling him down, sort of cooling him down, bringing him back to focus.
She was a superb actress.
A very attractive girl.
Beautiful girl.
She was one of those actresses who has a tremendous intensity.
She was great fun at rehearsals but when it came to the beginning of the scene, she was immediately in there.
I had the same experience working with Helen Mirren.
It had that same You look into their eyes and the reality for them is so strong that it enhances your sense of reality.
I enjoyed working with her enormously, and when she left Doctor Who, as I say, I was enormously surprised that her career didn't take off.
And I One of the loveliest things in the new Doctor Who series was when she was brought in.
I found that one of the most touching and lovely and And I was delighted that from that came a whole new series.
And she's as good in it now as she was back in the days of the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who.
We were all invited in for that final transformation.
I met Tom Baker very briefly.
We were all introduced to him.
And then he lay down and they did the swap-over.
And I do remember that being tremendously emotional from Jon, and Liz, too, because they'd got very fond of one another.
I mean, they worked together, and And that was quite moving.
Jon especially was tremendously upset.
He pulled himself together for the drinks and the cheese and the crisps afterwards, but We were made aware that it was quite an occasion, especially for Jon.
Barry Letts was a very good director and also a very good man.
When I first met Jon, he did warn me to be careful in front of Barry because he was very religious, but also there was a slight streak of the puritan in Barry as well, according to Jon.
Not to use bad language.
Not to tell off-colour jokes.
Now, whether I'd been using bad language and telling off-colour jokes, (LAUGHING) I don't know which prompted this advice from Jon, but anyway He was a very gentle man.
There was a kind of spirituality about Barry, and I know he was immensely generous in the way he hired people.
There was one actor in the company that was known to have a drink problem.
If that becomes common knowledge, it's almost death for an actor, because you can't trust them on a tight schedule on television.
Are they going to let you down?
But Barry was of such a nature that he would take that risk when many directors would not.
He had very strong ideas about how certain things should be played, and also on the development of Tommy, of where he reaches in each episode, how intelligent he is, etcetera.
If I was too dumb or too clever he would pull me back.
But he was obviously a man in complete control of every aspect of the show.
I knew George, George Cormack, who played the head lama.
George was a wonderful actor, and a very wicked actor.
He'd have to watch his language (LAUGHS) and the salty stories as well.
We were together in the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1968 in Trevor Nunn's production of The Taming of the Shrew, which went to Los Angeles and there I learnt that George, although he had a limp and must have been in his 50s, 60s, I don't know, I was a young man then, so everybody looked ancient to me, (LAUGHING) but George may only have been in his 50s.
He had a limp, but he was a dynamic tennis player.
Where we were staying in Los Angeles was a hotel that had its own tennis court, and he started off by challenging the younger members of the company to a game of tennis, and just to make it interesting he'd say, "Why don't we have a wee $5 side bet?
" And of course the actors thought, (SCOFFS) "This is the man with the limp.
He's ancient.
"We'll b*at the pants off him.
" And George won every single game.
I mean, people would still play with him, but after the first couple of weeks there was no question of them betting $5 on the outcome.
The other actor I knew in the company very well was Kevin, who played the younger lama, because we had the same agent.
Kevin was a very witty guy, very funny, and he was a terrific actor, incredibly versatile.
Well, the fact that he played a potato-head character and also the lama.
He was wonderful in a performance on stage in Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady, with Elaine Stritch.
He d*ed very shortly afterwards, which was a huge shock to all his friends, and a sad loss.
A few years after doing the Doctor Who Planet of the Spiders, with George Cormack, I, in fact, got him a job in a series that I'd written called Feathered Serpent for Thames Television.
'Cause I had always been a writer as well as an actor.
I'd started off as a In the Royal Academy of Speech and Drama Music and Drama at Glasgow, and then had gone into the Royal Shakespeare Company.
I was very lucky being selected, of 10 actors to form a young actors studio.
in the Royal Shakespeare Company.
And I stayed with the company for seven years, finally playing Puck in Peter Brook's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which then went to America and then toured the world.
But all the while I had been writing.
And indeed I sold my first play when I was 19 to the Royal Lyceum Theatre, a children's play, which, in fact, George played Merlin the magician in.
And, eventually, I wrote a television series, a sitcom, which was going to be for Roy Kinnear.
Roy and I had been in The Taming of the Shrew and had been to America together.
I thought he was a wonderfully funny man, a lovely man.
Um, but the BBC didn't think he was commercial.
It couldn't build a series around him.
And eventually the script wound up with Terry Scott who was looking for a writer.
He liked my sitcom, he wanted to do that, and that eventually led, some years later, to Terry and June.
And so, all the while I was acting and playing Shakespeare, I was writing things like Terry and June, All in Good Faith for Richard Briers.
I mean, I was averaging 14, 12 to 14 sitcoms a year and playing in Shakespeare.
Now, there are a lot of people who have played Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream, there are a few people who've played Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream and Caliban in Tempest.
Bu there are no actors at all that I know of who have played Puck, Caliban and written Terry and June.
(CHUCKLES) So, I mean, that's a first.
So, all my life I've written for television and children's shows.
I did win a prize in America for a film that I wrote Probably the last thing I wrote for television which was a film called Daisies in December with Joss Ackland and Jean Simmons, of which I'm immensely proud and Joss still says it's one of the best things he ever did.
So, I mean I've done stage, I did 15 seasons overall, with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
I've done films, I've done television, I've done radio, and I've written for the stage, the theatre, film.
And at the end of it all, the only thing I ever get any fan mail for is Tommy in Planet of the Spiders.
So I'm grateful for that if nothing else.