Although I did actually watch the very first episode of Doctor Who, my really
strong memories of watching it when I was young were of Patrick Troughton. I
mean I remember that enormously long one, I think it was called War Games, which
went on, it seemed like, for a couple of years, which was a fantastic story. I
think his son might have been in an episode of that, David Troughton, my old
friend. I knew Patrick well-ish before I came into Doctor Who because I had
shared a flat in London with David Troughton when we were both young
actors and when David got married I was his best man and obviously being his son
Patrick was at the wedding. So that was the first time I met him and found him a
charming and delightful man. The next time I met him of course was once I was
playing Doctor Who myself and we did The Two Doctors together and I was a little
bit nervous because, you know, for me he was the governor. He did the hard job. The
first regeneration, if it hadn't been as classy and successful as it was, there
would never have been a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and all those
other ones. So his wonderful, sly, oblique, louche performance as the second Doctor
kind of changed the mould of Doctor Who. He was quite different but he was spot-on,
he was right and it was a very compelling performance. So I was a
bit in awe of him but within minutes of rehearsing for Two Doctors I realised
that I was working with not only a gentleman and a very fine actor but a
very nice man as well and we had great fun, enormous fun together doing it. So I
have more affection for him. I have a perfectly good relationship with all the
Doctors but for me the daddy of them all is Patrick and I'm delighted to be
associated with a tape that's in, or a CD or whatever they were playing this on,
that is in his honour. Let's hear it for Patrick Troughton.
Well to be honest with you my memories of Grimsdyke Mansion was a, it was a very,
very eerie place to work and nobody ever told you that a murder was committed
there until we were nearly finished shooting that night, well that morning
rather because we started very late at night, went through the complete night
till next morning about four o'clock in the morning. But it was an experience
which I do not want to repeat really because there was a scene there where I
had to climb a rope to get to an upper, what you may call, an upper ledge and
some goose park came along and decided to put oil all over my body so it would
shoot better with a camera on the lights in the night but unfortunately
they greased my hands as well. And when I tried to climb up I reached about halfway
and I came back down halfway, then I went up another halfway, then I came back down
halfway in and somebody wondered well when are you going to get it up? I said
as soon as I can get the grease off my hand. And they had to leave me up there with a rope and a
gantry to get to the top which was extremely funny. But we did it in the end
and it came out alright which was quite good. Yeah. Also there was a funny
scene we did as well, the roof scene, where I was fighting the Daleks because
I changed from the Daleks to help Jamie in the long run. So in other words I
started being a baddie and became a goodie. And this night, this day in
question, I was on a roof trying to get out and I had to skate down this roof
and hang on the guttering. Well this guttering had some hooks on it to hold
the guttering in place and when I came down there to grab hold of the guttering
the hooks got hold of me in my trousers. And it was not a very happy day for me
but it was fun I suppose if you like to call it fun. But we did get a shot in
with a half at the end of the day which was quite good. With what I have to say I
also worked with a fantastic director Derek Martinez. He was good. You make
mistakes, he corrected it. And when he corrected it, it came out well. Which I
deem a good director. And that's all I have to say about the guys, which I
enjoyed every moment of it. Wow, Winslow Davies, good mate, fantastic guy. We got
on like a horse on fire from the first day I met. And also Marius Goring,
unfortunately, he's not here today. But as everybody well know,
Marius Goring was on from the old school of acting. He was a great actor, he'll
always be remembered as a great actor. He was good. Unfortunately he's gone and
that's one of the best actors that has gone to the great theatre in the sky I
suppose. Maybe one day I'll be up there shaking his hand, who knows.
Due to the popularity of the Daleks, their creator Terry Nation turned his
attention to America to try to interest NBC in a spin-off Dalek serial. The BBC
therefore decided to take the Daleks out of Doctor Who and so a final showdown
between the Doctor and his arch enemies from Scarrow was decided on for the
final story of season four. As with the power of the Daleks, Nation was too busy
to write the serial but allowed former script editor David Whittaker to tackle
the job. Whittaker submitted a brief outline of his proposed adventure simply
called The Daleks. Over the next few months this would undergo some major
alterations. Originally the Doctor and Edward Waterfield were to travel back to
earth in the year 20,000 BC and meet a caveman called Og, from whom the Doctor
is to deduce the essence of humanity. The Daleks' plan was to remove this quality
from every generation of man, thereby eliminating earth as a threat.
Meanwhile Jamie and Victoria were held hostage on Scarrow. The venue for most
of the story's location filming was Grimsdyke Mansion House at Harrow
Weald, Middlesex. At the time a rehabilitation centre, Grimsdyke had once
been the home of Sir William Gilbert, one half of the famous opera writing team of
Gilbert and Sullivan. Director Derek Martinez used the building itself to
stand in for Maxtable's mansion and also set some of the 1966 scenes on its
grounds. Unusually, recording at Grimsdyke involved night filming for the fight
scene between Jamie and Kemmel. Other locations used were the hangers on
Kendall Avenue in Ealing for the sequences at Gatwick Airport and
Warehouse Lane in Shepherds Bush for the scene at the railway arches. Production
then moved to the Ealing television film studios for the filming of the Dalek
battle scenes and those of the Doctor and a Dalek watching Jamie's trials,
which enabled Patrick Troughton to take a holiday while episode four was
recorded in studio. After the departure of companions Ben and Polly it was
decided that Samantha Briggs, the character invented by writers David
Ellis and Malcolm Hulk for The Faceless Ones, would become the Doctor's latest
companion. These plans had to be discarded however when the actress cast
as Samantha, Pauline Collins, declined the offer. Fortunately David Whittaker had
also been asked to include a potential new companion in his script and so
Deborah Watling was asked to become the new companion in her role as Victoria.
After the departure of Ben and Polly we watched the Doctor and Jamie still at
Gatwick Airport as someone tries to make off with the TARDIS.