SHORTLY before Christmas I was invited by consultants Bell Pottinger to their annual Christmas reception in Covent Garden. But MPs get a lot of such invites at this time of year, and it’s a bit of a pain having to trek somewhere that’s more than a short walk from the palace.
However…
Do you remember Tim Collins? He was a Tory MP from 1997 to 2005 and was Shadow Transport Secretary when he lost his seat. He was also, like me, a complete Doctor Who geek (unlike me, he appeared as a talking head on the BBC DVD release of the Peter Davison DW adventure Earthshock). Tim was recently appointed MD of Bell Pottinger’s public affairs practice. And it was his idea to invite Katy Manning and Nicholas Courtney to the company’s Christmas reception.
Nicholas Courtney appeared in DW with every one of the first seven actors to play the Doctor, most notably in the role of Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge Stewart, becoming a regular character at the start of Jon Pertwee’s reign in the title role.
Katy Manning… ah, Katy Manning… I didn’t even know she was going to be there until I turned up. She was the companion during my formative years. She was the definitive companion – she wrote the template for all her successors. This is Courtney and Manning with Pertwee’s Doctor in a scene from 1973′s The Three Doctors (the figure on the right is John Levene, who played Unit’s Sergeant Benton):
And this is me with Courtney and Ms Manning last month…
Er… I’m the one on the right, in case you needed to ask…
The event coincided with Courtney’s 80th birthday celebrations, so it was a real privilege to be there and to chat with two iconic figures from my youth. They’re both used to dealing with fans, of course, and they were lovely and friendly. Katy told me she’s just finished recording the commentary for the DVD release of her debut DW adventure, The Terror of the Autons.
Two other “celebs” of yesteryear who were present were the actors who played Mrs Fox and the Vicar in Dad’s Army. I put my foot in it with the latter, but I’ll keep that for another post.
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Saturday 9 January 2010 at 3:12 pm
A bit of a coup I must say. Also, it’s odd, but after I read your post I went to BBC News and saw this article…it’s as if they knew!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8449895.stm
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 3:16 pm
You lucky sod! Courtney only appeared with C. Baker in ‘Dimensions in Time’, which is ambiguous in canon terms. But that’s a minor inconsistency from a sad fan :p
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 3:40 pm
There is nothing remotely ambiguous about whether Dimensions in Time was canon or not. It wasn’t. Absolutely not. Far better to expunge the memory of it from all our minds…
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 3:43 pm
Dear Tom. are you sure you didn’t reverse the negative? katy is like a fine red wine. I trust you weren’t TOO tongue-tied.
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 4:03 pm
I regret the fact that neither the ninth nor tenth Doctors met the Brigadier. It does not seem right somehow.
Tim Collins bragged on the ‘Earthshock’ D.V.D. that Cybermen were better under a Tory government. I was chuffed when he lost his seat.
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 4:28 pm
One of the ‘fringe benefits’ of your work I guess.
Congrats, must have been fun for a proper fan.
If I ever become an MP I will demand invites to all the A-Team reunions.
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 4:52 pm
Did you know that Jon Pertwee played Dr. Who in the late ’80s?
You will all say I have my dates wrong – but I can prove it!
Any ideas?
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 5:12 pm
Katy Manning – you lucky so-n-so
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 5:13 pm
Did he do a theatre Doctor Who thing, that Colin Baker then did after him?
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 6:42 pm
Such a small, Dr Who world. A friend of ours, late of Glasgow clap clinic, is currently lodging with Fernanda Marlowe, who played Corporal Bell, of UNIT.
Even I got a bit excited when I heard that.
(Fernanda is hardly living in penury – her address is a very very short walk from Harrods.
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 7:06 pm
You’ll appreciate this then?
Doctor Who star David Tennant ‘backs Gordon Brown’
Doctor Who actor David Tennant, who made his final appearance as the Time Lord earlier this month, has backed Gordon Brown as Prime Minister.
“I would still rather have Gordon Brown than David Cameron,” Tennant told the latest edition of Doctor Who magazine.
“I would rather have a prime minister who is the cleverest person in the room, than a prime minister who looks good in a suit.”
“I think David Cameron is a terrifying prospect,” added the 38-year-old star.
The Scottish actor, a long-term Labour supporter who appeared in a party political broadcast in 2005, likened the Conservative leader to “a regional newsreader who will jump on whatever bandwagon flies past”.
“I get quite panicked at the notion that people are buying his rhetoric, because it seems very manipulative to me.”
“Clearly, the Labour Party is not without some issues right now and I do get frustrated. They need to sort some stuff out, but they are still a better bet than the Tories.”
The Conservatives declined to comment.
Tennant’s exit from the long-running BBC sci-fi show was watched by more than 10 million people on New Year’s Day
He is being replaced on the show by actor Matt Smith, 27, who made his debut as the 11th Doctor in Tennant’s final show, ahead of a new series in the spring.
I do recall Tim Collins, but only with a shudder, and the thing is, I can’t remember why now, just a long lasting dislike for something or other he did whilst in office that I haven’t thrown off even now. Anyway, about Dr. Who, a programme I hadn’t watched as I thought it was for children, but your continual posts about it must have stayed my hand as I was channel hopping a while back, and I watched the last half hour or so of the one with the water pouring out of those unfortunate folk and I thought it quite scary. There was a lot of (unnecessary) running about too, wasn’t there – at the end?
Also the last episode where that chap’s face kept changing into a blue skull (was it?) and roaring, and he appeared to be quite sad and lost.
I quite liked it and I may even watch a future programme – or two. ;0)
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 7:41 pm
I remember Katy Manning! She was so cute and chic – well, she still is judging by the pic.
There’s an interesting feature about one of the best ever Who stories (the Daemons), which featured Katy, Nicholas and of course Jon Pertwee.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/entertainment/films_and_tv/drwho.shtml
Nicholas said: “My character ordered one of his soldiers to fire at a monster with the line, ‘Jenkins! Chap with wings there, five rounds rapid!’.”
Classic!
Saturday 9 January 2010 at 8:28 pm
And don’t forget Ann Widdecombe has actually been in Doctor Who supporting ‘Harold Saxon’. You’ll have to beat that Tom.
Monday 11 January 2010 at 1:51 am
I think any opinion David Tennant holds must be the right one. After all, he has played the part of Doctor Who, is a Scot and comes from fine Presbyterean stock.
Oh, and he thinks Gordon Brown is the cleverest man in the room. Good enough for me.
Monday 11 January 2010 at 8:17 am
JM: didn’t Pertwee reopen the Blackpool Tower as the Doc some time in the late eighties..?
Monday 11 January 2010 at 1:57 pm
…. and we all noticed where Katy Manning put her hand.
Monday 11 January 2010 at 2:13 pm
[...] the weekend Tom Harris recorded what thirty-five years ago would have been every male adolescent’s wet dream: a meeting with [...]
Tuesday 12 January 2010 at 7:21 pm
My wife has just read this thread and said I would have had the same grin!
Wednesday 13 January 2010 at 1:36 pm
Ah, Katy Manning. A far more likeable character as Jo Grant than Lis Sladen as Sarah Jane, in my book. And that’s an exclusive on the Terror of the Autons commentary – not heard that anywhere else.
Dimensions In Time isn’t canon – definitely not.
My daughter’s named Katy, after a certain actress, just as an aside!
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