WEBVTT 01:00.000 --> 01:16.480 Just over 40 years ago I played the part of Lieutenant Algernon Finch, the British 01:16.480 --> 01:22.800 redcoat officer in Doctor Who and the Highlanders, a story set 01:22.800 --> 01:27.540 around the time of the Battle of Culloden. My memories of this, you can 01:27.540 --> 01:32.800 imagine, are somewhat distant now but looking back over those years I 01:32.800 --> 01:37.240 particularly remember how I got the job because I'd been in a BBC series called 01:37.240 --> 01:42.800 The Newcomers the previous year and I'd been directed in that by a Welsh 01:42.800 --> 01:46.680 director called Hugh David and we'd got on well, enjoyed working with each other. 01:46.680 --> 01:51.720 So when the time to cast this came around he very nicely thought that I 01:51.720 --> 01:56.480 could be right for the part of Algernon and so I was offered it just like that. 01:56.480 --> 02:00.320 Nowadays you tend to have to go and meet a director and read but Hugh David just 02:00.320 --> 02:03.360 came straight through and said, with the scripts, and said would you like to play 02:03.360 --> 02:10.360 this part. So that was how I got the part. The very first filming done was my very 02:10.360 --> 02:14.560 first location filming ever on a television job so I certainly remember 02:14.560 --> 02:19.520 it very well. Previously I'd done television in studios at the BBC and a 02:19.520 --> 02:23.640 few ITV jobs. I hadn't done that much, I'd only been an actor at this stage for 02:23.640 --> 02:28.560 for two years and relatively inexperienced in front of a film camera. 02:28.560 --> 02:35.560 So out to French and Ponds in November of 1966 to film the location scenes and 02:35.560 --> 02:41.920 I remember on my first day I had to fall into a pit in the dark. Now nowadays 02:41.920 --> 02:44.600 there'd be a stuntman doing that for you and there'd be health and safety 02:44.600 --> 02:48.560 regulations and there'd be a whole sheet of instructions on the call sheet as to 02:48.560 --> 02:53.520 whether this pit had been checked for dangerous depth to it or too much mud at 02:53.520 --> 02:58.160 the bottom or the incline was being too steep, things like that. But in those 02:58.160 --> 03:02.400 days no, there's a pit Michael, you jump into that. So it was great fun actually 03:02.400 --> 03:09.040 and I remember that vividly and then the next day we filmed the scene where 03:09.040 --> 03:15.600 myself and a troop of British soldiers advance on this Highland cottage and out 03:15.600 --> 03:21.280 from the cottage comes one of the McLarens, Alexander McLaren, played 03:21.280 --> 03:26.080 by William Dysart, waving a claymore and charging towards us. Now I was on a 03:26.080 --> 03:30.880 beautiful white horse which I was assured by the the horse wrangler guy 03:30.880 --> 03:35.600 that this horse had been in Westerns all over Spain, was immaculately behaved and 03:35.600 --> 03:40.920 gunshots would not frighten it at all and I was going to raise my pistol and 03:40.920 --> 03:45.640 fire at the oncoming Highlander and at the moment of course I did that, the 03:45.640 --> 03:52.240 horse set off on the first take charging over French and Pons. So two very vivid 03:52.240 --> 03:58.680 memories of location filming. We then cut to a week or so later where we started the 03:58.680 --> 04:03.840 studio rehearsals which took place somewhere in West London and that's when 04:03.840 --> 04:11.760 I met Hannah Gordon and David Garth and Dallas Cavell and other actors. 04:11.760 --> 04:16.640 Of course I'd met Patrick and Polly, Annika Wills on location so I had already 04:16.640 --> 04:20.120 met them. It's a very happy time, it was lovely to work with Patrick Troughton 04:20.120 --> 04:25.720 who had been a hero of mine because I think I'm right, he played Israel Hands 04:25.720 --> 04:30.520 in Treasure Island, the famous Treasure Island, the Disney one with Robert Newton 04:30.520 --> 04:35.440 along John Silver. So I had this image of this terrifying man which I'd seen as a 04:35.440 --> 04:40.320 boy and I was acting with him, it was very exciting. Then of course I was 04:40.320 --> 04:45.480 filming, most of the rehearsing, sorry I was rehearsing most of the time on the 04:45.480 --> 04:48.240 floor of a rehearsal room with Hannah Gordon on one side of me and Annika 04:48.240 --> 04:52.760 Wills on the other and I spent a lovely time just, if we weren't doing the 04:52.760 --> 04:56.760 scene, chatting to these two and don't think it's much of a secret now that I 04:56.760 --> 05:01.080 then went out with Hannah Gordon for the following year. So these jobs have their 05:01.080 --> 05:06.600 perks. Other memories, Dallas Cavell, bless him, I've just mentioned Robert 05:06.600 --> 05:10.280 Newton in Treasure Island. Well Dallas Cavell played a full-blooded Robert 05:10.280 --> 05:16.360 Newton as Captain Trask, the guy, the captain of the Annabelle and we were 05:16.360 --> 05:19.840 always sending him up about, ah, Jim Ladden, there was all that because he was 05:19.840 --> 05:23.520 doing a full-blooded Robert Newton performance. Peter Welch who played my 05:23.520 --> 05:28.600 sergeant, I worked with him two or three times after that, very fond of him. Fraser, 05:28.600 --> 05:34.480 Fraser Hines, lovely guy, just joining the Doctor Who stories here for 05:34.480 --> 05:38.560 the first time, permanently talking about horses and girls, I remember that. Michael 05:38.560 --> 05:44.720 Krays and Annika, great fun. Patrick, towering over it all, wonderful actor. So 05:44.720 --> 05:50.160 it was a delight to work with him. I look back on it with much nostalgia, I know 05:50.160 --> 05:57.120 that the Doctor Who stories are so, you know, followed so strongly by various 05:57.120 --> 06:02.360 groups, various fans and I can see why. They hold a certain magic and they 06:02.360 --> 06:09.200 did for me, as I say, it was a potent time and I was very happy playing that part. 06:15.560 --> 06:21.760 The year is 1746 and the TARDIS materialises a short distance from the 06:21.760 --> 06:27.680 aftermath of the Battle of Culloden. The recently regenerated Doctor and his 06:27.680 --> 06:32.960 companions Ben and Polly are about to step through the pages of history and 06:32.960 --> 06:59.120 encounter the Highlanders.