And another thing…

IN THE run-up to the most hotly-anticipated season of Doctor Who since it was relaunched in 2005 (season 31, if you’re counting), here’s a remarkable video tribute to David Tennant’s portrayal, brought to my attention through Twitterpal @lilianedwards and produced by HogwartsProductions.

Warning – this is for true Who fans only. Eleven minutes long and featuring clips from every single Tennant episode. Bloody marvellous.

A TRIUMPHANT – and yes, emotional – conclusion to the tenth Doctor’s reign.

THE headline says it all, really.

I RECENTLY finished reading The Writer’s Tale by Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook. Essentially it’s a record of Davies’s creative process as he gets to grip with writing the fourth season of Doctor Who, told in email exchanges between him and Cook, who writes for Doctor Who Magazine.

It’s a cracking read, a really fascinating insight into the writing and production process for TV drama. Here’s part of an email sent by Davies in response to a question from Cook asking how he enjoyed a special press preview of that year’s Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, in December 2007:

I hated it. hated it. I still feel sour… After the screening we get speeches praising me. I would rather die, I swear. I just wish they’d stop it… Then it’s the Q&A. I hate the Q&A. I hate any Q&A… Then it’s the party afterwards. But I can’t relax. It’s all work. In three hours I have half an apple juice and half a Coke. I have to speak to everyone. That’s my job. Signing autographs for kids, which is nice…

And then there’s the best bit:

… but then the MPs, the bloody MPs, then a man from the Youth Hostelling Organisation, then BBC bosses (so I have to be nice and ask for some more programme money), then more MPs – they never, ever say which party they represent. For all I know I could be thanking a Tory… And then more MPs, and they’re getting red-wine mouths…

Okay. So, anyway, here’s a picture taken by Tory MP Rob Wilson (Reading East) at that very event:

Tom and Davies. One of them was dying on the inside, apparently

I was slightly miffed on reading his account because it was a brilliant, brilliant evening. After the Q&A (during which I asked if there were any plans to bring back previous Doctors for guest appearances; there aren’t) there was a huge drinks reception in another part of the Science Centre at which some of the stars from the series were just milling around, almost as if they were real people. I spoke to Lis Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), John Sim (the Master) and Tony Head (the headmaster from the season two episode School Reunion and, more importantly, Giles out of Buffy The Vampire Slayer). Oh, and Russell Tovey (those ears are real, it turns out).

Davies is a hero of mine. He’s a wonderful writer. More importantly, he’s the guy who brought Doctor Who back to our screens, and he did it with style. I thought he might have been pleased that so many MPs turned up to support the event and, in effect, give the programme their vote of confidence.

And if you’re reading this from your swanky new pad in LA, Davies, I never introduce myself at such events as the Labour MP for Glasgow South, because party affiliation isn’t relevant and it risks alienating people. I was there as an MP, not as a Labour Party representative. So there.

And let the record show that I never touched a drop of red wine all night.

AFTER the broo-haha last week over alleged anti-Conservative bias in the Tardis, I thought it might be of interest to readers to see how Doctor Who has, occasionally, been ahead of the curve politically.

This is a clip from Terror of the Zygons, originally broadcast in September 1975 – nearly four years before Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister (though months after she beat Heath to become Conservative leader). It’s followed by a clip of Tom Baker reminiscing about making it and having a laugh about how prescient the writers turned out to be regarding the arrival of a female Prime Minister.

Apologies for the apparently shaky camera work: it’s actually because my old VCR has seen better days.

EVERYONE loves a good dose of nostalgia, yes?

So when I happened upon Paul Cornell’s excellent blog this morning, I was delighted to find a link to this blast from the past: the Weetabix Doctor Who promotion in the mid-1970s. The memories came flooding back: my best friend Brem and I, both avid collectors of the Target novelisations, would head home after school via the local supermarket, where we would each spend our saved-up dinner money from that day to buy a packet of Weetabix each, just so we could complete our collections of the cardboard stand-up figures contained inside.

Incidentally, dry Weetabix eaten straight from the packet is a rubbish snack. Just so you know.

I think this particular promotion was Weetabix’s second in the space of about a year, but I can’t find any reference to the earlier one, so maybe I’m misremembering.

WHEN you’re a football fan, nobody thinks it’s at all immature or weird to want to meet one of your footballing heroes. I mean, you should have seen the number of grown men queuing up to have their photos taken with Kenny Dalglish a few weeks ago in the Sports and Social.

But if kickerball isn’t your bag, if your cultural and recreational tastes lie in an altogether different direction – say, Doctor Who, for example – then you’re just a geek, aren’t you?

Well, I’m a geek.

The whole of my life I’ve been a Who fan (or “Whovian” for those of the anorak-appreciating tribe). And for much of that time, I’ve been keen to meet an actor who has played the lead role of everyone’s favourite Time Lord. The first chance I got was in 1979, when Tom Baker was scheduled to appear in John Menzies in Buchanan Street, Glasgow, to sign copies of the new Doctor Who paperback, The Horror of Fang Rock. And I was so desperate to go. Only problem was, I had made one of my rare trips to Glasgow just a week earlier and spent all my spare cash on Trigan Empire books and what-have-you. My mum point blank refused to bail me out and I could tell that no tantrum, however impressive, was going to change her mind (interesting point: in his Desert Island Discs appearance over Christmas, David Tennant revealed that he had, in fact attended that very signing).

The next opportunity to meet a Doctor didn’t arise until many, many years later – 2007, in fact, when I attended the press preview of the Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, at the London Science Museum. I met many other Who actors – John Sim, Elisabeth Sladen, Tony Head, Russell Tovey and Russell “the T” Davies himself – but despite having been tipped off by Steven Moffat that Peter Davison was due to make an appearance, he didn’t show. And David Tennant left pretty shortly after the Q&A which followed the screening, so two of them escaped in the same evening.

A few short months later, I was hosting a table at a Labour Party gala fundraiser dinner, when who should appear on stage to introduce the Prime Minister but the tenth Doctor himself, another son of the manse. After his speech, I decided I would wait until the unseemly gaggle of women fans (honestly! Have they no pride?) around his table  dispersed before casually sauntering over and introducing myself. And then, just as I was about to make my move, he was led from the room and disappeared to his waiting car. Damn. It.

The next near miss was the very worst, most galling of all. In April or May 2008 I was texted by Steven Moffat, who had just been announced as Russell T. Davies’s replacement as showrunner of Doctor Who. Would Carolyn and I like to join him and his friends at his house to watch the broadcast of Silence in the Library, his latest writing contribution to the series? Well, of course we would! Unfortunately, Carolyn and I were in Glasgow and not, as Steven had assumed, in London, so we had to turn down the invitation. A few weeks later Steven told me it was a pity we couldn’t make it because “you would have enjoyed meeting David and Georgia.” That would be David Tennant and Georgia Moffatt, who played the eponymous role in the season four episode, The Doctor’s Daughter, and also happens to be Peter Davison’s real-life daughter. I could have barfed!

And then, last autumn, Steven and his wife, Sue, came for dinner at the Commons. “We’ve just left Matt,” said Steven in passing, “Matt” being Matt Smith, who will play the 11th Doctor. “Would he want to join us for dinner, do you think?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could manage. “I’ll ask him,” said Steven, and I did not object to his using his mobile phone in the Strangers’ restaurant, even though it’s strictly against the rules. “He would have liked to but he’s on his way home now,” said Steven with a shrug. Hmm.

And then last week, finally, at long bloody last, this happened:

He was part of a lobby of parliament by members of the Performers’ Alliance, and of course I took my chance.

Inevitably, he was lovely – very approachable and patient, though I’m sure slightly baffled that so many MPs (note: not just me!) were behaving like fanboys.

It’s taken more than 30 years, but at least that’s another thing crossed off of my “bucket list”.

"And that's one I took of you emptying your bins outside your house..."

JUST had my picture taken with David Tennant at a reception on the House of Commons terrace. I’m not at my computer at the moment so I’ll write a longer post later.

So much for restraining orders!

GENIUS.

See more in the same vein by visiting MyDavidCameron.com