The Worzel Book

A new book about the making of Jon Pertwee's Worzel Gummidge series, has just been released.

The Worzel Book is written by Stuart Manning. It is the story of what Pertwee did after Doctor Who, told through memories from his family and work colleagues, including Bernard Cribbins, Geoffrey Bayldon and Sean Pertwee. The book features more than 40 interviews with cast and crew from the show, over 400 photographs and has a foreword by Mark Gatiss. The Worzel Book can be ordered directly from the publisher, Miwk Publishing at a discount price for a limited time.

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Is There Life Outside the Box?: An Actor Despairs

Peter Davison's autobiography will be published in the UK on 6th October 2016

The book is now titled Is There Life Outside the Box?: An Actor Despairs and looks at the life and career of the fifth Doctor. It will be published by John Blake Publishing Ltd. The working title for the book was The Fifth(ish) Doctor. The book is available for pre-order on Amazon

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A Dozen Summers

A new family comedy featuring Colin Baker gets its release later this month.

A Dozen Summers is narrated by the Sixth Doctor and will have its official DVD release in the UK on August 15th.

The DVD will include a special behind-the-scenes featurette entitled In the Studio with Colin Baker. The DVD is available for pre-order on Amazon

It was twenty years ago today, on Monday 20th May 1996, that we lost the irrepressible, the inspirational, the uniquely talented man that was Jon Pertwee.

John Devon Roland Pertwee was born in July 1919 in London, a few months after the end of World War One. He joined a long established theatrical family, the son of the actor and playwright Roland.

Pertwee had a varied education after being expelled from a number of minor public schools. From the start his firm convictions and refusal to bow to authority, created friction with those in power and forced his premature departure. The same happened when he trained as an actor where, at RADA, despite rave reviews from a visiting Noel Coward, he was eventually dismissed for refusing to play a Greek wind.

In 1939 war broke out and Pertwee joined the Royal Navy. He was a member of the crew of HMS Hood, escorting Russian Convoys, transferring off the ship just three days before it was sunk with the loss of all but 3 hands. Joining Navel Intelligence he was thrust into the world of espionage, working alongside James Bond creator Ian Fleming and reporting directly to the Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The full extent of his top secret work was not revealed until an interview was published long after his death. Post war he began making a career as a jobbing stage actor and Radio Comedian. His talent for accents gained him a role in Waterlogged Spa playing an ancient postman. His success was rapid and by 1948 he was being billed as The Most Versatile Voice in Radio. His longest running role was as Chief Petty Officer Pertwee in The Navy Lark, which he played from 1959-1977.

Small roles in feature films followed, including parts in four Carry On films, as well as a burgeoning stage career. He appeared in the 1963 London production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and on Broadway in There's a Girl in My Soup

In 1967 he was offered the role of Captain Mainwaring in the BBC Comedy Dad's Army, a role he turned down.

The role that would define him came in 1970 when he was offered the role of the Third Doctor. He was second choice for the role, behind Oliver! actor Ron Moody, but it was a role he embraced and made his own. Initially unsure how to play the role he was advised to play it as himself. "Who the hell is that?" he exclaimed.

Pertwee's era redefined the show, with the inclusion of UNIT as a regular part of the narrative. The bond formed between the main players was obvious on screen and for many it would be regarded as the golden age of the drama. The team chemistry between Pertwee, Manning, Courtney, Franklin, Levene and Delgado, led by the production team of Letts and Dicks, created a warm family feeling to the programme and ratings grew after declining towards the end of the second Doctor's era.

The team began to break up towards the end of 1973. Katy Manning decided to move on and was replaced by actress April Walker. Pertwee objected, feeling the chemistry was wrong and Walker was replaced by the more acceptable Elisabeth Sladen who developed a strong bond with Pertwee. By far the biggest loss was the death of Roger Delgado, who was killed in a car crash while filming in Turkey. The loss of his friend affected Pertwee deeply and when producer Barry Letts and Scripts Editor Terrance Dicks announced they were also leaving, he decided to call it a day. He had appeared in 128 episodes of the series, over 52 hours of television.

Post Who Pertwee charmed a new audience, playing the scarecrow Worzel Gummidge in the Southern TV series as well as educating a nations youth in the correct way to cross the road as the voice of the Green Cross Code.

In 1983 he returned to the role of the Doctor in the 20th Anniversary special The Five Doctors. In 1989 he toured the UK in the stage play Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure and three years later performed in two BBC Radio Drama's, The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space.

Jon Pertwee was active on the early convention scene, appearing at events on both sides of the Atlantic. He persuaded his old friend Patrick Troughton to attend and their mock feud entertained fans around the world, although it left Terry Wogan perplexed when he tried in on Children In Need. He was the first Honorary President of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society.

Pertwee died in the USA in 1996 at the age of 76. His death was shocking as he was so full of life, so irrepressible, so irreplaceable. He was survived by his wife Ingeborg Rhoesa, his son Sean Pertwee, and his daughter Dariel Pertwee.

The mark Jon Pertwee made on the series can never be over estimated and his legacy will live on as long as Doctor Who is remembered. Twenty years on we marvel at the wonderful, inspirational, immense talent that was Jon Pertwee and thank him for being part of our lives.

The new digital issue Radio Times, available iOS on Apple’s Newsstand, celebrates the dawn of a new Doctor with exclusive additional Doctor Who content, including a digital reproduction of the Doctor Who 10th Anniversary Radio Times special. The 68 page supplement was first published in 1973 and inspired the then 15 year old future Doctor, Peter Capaldi, to write to Radio Times in praise of the special edition.

The 10th anniversary supplement features the third Doctor Jon Pertwee on the cover and includes episode guides for the first 10 years, a guide to build your own Dalek and a (then) new Dalek story by Terry Nation.

The Radio Times digital special also features a unique animated Doctor Who cover, only available with the digital edition, featuring Peter Capaldi; plus a picture gallery of the new Doctor from an Radio Times exclusive photo-shoot.

Features inside the new issue include an exclusive interview and cover shoot with star Peter Capaldi; showrunner Steven Moffat’s guide to all 12 episodes of the new series; an exclusive interview with José Mourinho by comedian and author David Baddiel; David Walliams; James Corden; plus comprehensive TV and radio listings for 23-29 August.

Radio Times on iPad contains all the features, interviews, reviews and comprehensive TV and radio listings for 146 channels available in the print issue, alongside additional interactive features to enhance the readers’ experience. The additional features in the digital issue include:

• Specially designed contents page for quick and easy direct access to daily choice and listings pages
• Direct links to the week’s recommended programmes on-demand and catch-up TV services, including Netflix, BBC iPlayer and 4OD
• Photo galleries, including exclusive behind the scenes videos from photo-shoots and interviews
• Pinch and zoom TV & radio listings for ease of use
• Comprehensive TV and radio listings, including BBC local radio, with handy links so you can jump to your desired day of the week.

This week’s Radio Times digital issue is available at special summer half-price promotional rate of just 99p. Radio Times is available on the Apple Newsstand every Tuesday, for iPad and iPhone, at £1.99 per issue, £6.99 for a monthly subscription or £79.99 for an annual subscription. The digital issue is initially available on Apple devices and will be rolled out across other mobile and tablet platforms thereafter.

Archival footage relating to Doctor Who is among thousands of films now available to view on the British Pathé YouTube channel, after the organisation decided to upload its entire catalogue in high resolution to the video-sharing website.

British Pathé newsreels were once a staple part of going to the cinema, providing people with visual reports and features in the days before television news and, indeed, before many people had TVs. Now its collection of 85,000 films, spanning the years 1896 to 1976, has been released as part of a bid to enable the archive to be seen globally.

Alastair White, the general manager of British Pathé, said of the unprecedented release: German online TV channel Mediakraft has managed the project and is to create new content with British Pathé material. It said:Of particular interest to Doctor Who fans will be the film clip of the 1967/68 Schoolboys' and Girls' Exhibition at Olympia, which at the start briefly shows a Cyberman and Yeti with onlookers, as well as the 1959 film Park Rangers, in which a police box on Wimbledon Common is put to use (1:51). Also in the archive is the 1955 newsreel Waistcoat Club Aka Waistcoats For Women, which includes footage of Jon Pertwee and Jean Marsh, who were married from 1955 to 1960 (0:49 and with Pertwee's brother Michael and Michael's wife Valerie at 1:24), as well as Peter Cushing (1:36). The film states that the Pertwees were founder members of the club in 1953.

More offbeat Doctor Who-related newsreels show a radio-controlled Dalek named Dodger selling university rag mags in Coventry in 1964, and another home-made Dalek plus robot and rocket in the back garden of the Sherlock family home in Horsham, which was filmed in 1967.

A 1977 programme featuring Jon Pertwee and his son Sean is to be shown as part of an event paying tribute to the ITV channel Thames.

A Salute To Thames will feature a number of programmes made by the company, including an edition of quiz series Whose Baby? The format of the show saw one or more children of celebrities presented to a guest panel, who then asked them various questions about what their parent did, to try to find out who they were, with the parent then being brought on if guessed correctly or not. The edition being shown during A Salute To Thames was originally broadcast on Wednesday 19th January 1977. Hosted by Roy Castle, it featured Jon Pertwee - as well as the actress Sylvia Syms - among the mystery stars. Sean would have been 12 at the time of the broadcast. His elder sister, Dariel, did not take part in the programme.

Sean Pertwee was one of the multitude of actors who appeared in the 50th-anniversary skit The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.

A Salute To Thames has been organised by the TV archive organisation Kaleidoscope and is to be held at The Talbot Hotel in Stourbridge on Saturday 1st March, starting at midday and with "closedown" at 7pm.

Thames Television was formed with the merger of Rediffusion and ABC, broadcasting on weekdays to London and the surrounding areas from 30th July 1968 until 31st December 1992. It also produced programmes for the ITV network, including the celebrity panel mystery show Whodunnit?, which was hosted for a number of series by Jon Pertwee and whose differing guest cast acting out the scenarios included Katy Manning, Mary Tamm, William Russell and Philip Madoc.

Another of Thames's popular shows was The Tomorrow People, which saw the TV debut of Peter Davison and whose theme music was composed by Dudley Simpson - it is now enjoying an American-made, adult revival, currently airing on The CW in the USA and E4 in the UK.

The latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine, released Thursday, looks back ten years to the time when it had just been announced that Doctor Who was to return, and asks was the series nearly stopped before it could begin?

In the first part of a look back at how and why Doctor Who was recommissioned back in 2003, the magazine talks to the people who ensured its successful comeback, including the then BBC Controller of Drama Commissioning Jane Tranter, writer Russell T Davies and BBC Wales' Head of Drama Julie Gardner who tells the magazine: Also in this issue.

• Doctor Who’s showrunner and head writer Steven Moffat presents the three pieces that he wrote for the actors that have auditioned for the role of the Twelfth Doctor.
• Doctor Who author Bob Baker looks back on his career in an interview and speaks of his most famous contribution to the Doctor Who universe: K9, the Doctor’s robotic dog.
• As we await the announcement of the new star of Doctor Who, journalist Claire Budd and novelist Una McCormack go head-to-head to debate the burning question: Is it time for the Doctor to become a woman?
• Arriving in the far future, the Fourth Doctor, Harry and Sarah discover that the last survivors of mankind are about to face the deadly, parasitic Wirrn! The Fact of Fiction looks back to one of Doctor Who's all-time great adventures – The Ark In Space – and reveals some surprising new facts
• It’s 2010, and the dawn of a new era as Matt Smith makes his début as the Eleventh Doctor. The show may have a new leading man and a new style, but it’s still Doctor Who in the latest instalment of the ongoing cruise through Doctor Who history in Countdown to 50.
• The Time Team take a trip to pre-war England as Chris, Emma, Michael and Will settle down to watch the two-part Tenth Doctor story Human Nature/ The Family of Blood and find that the formidable Family of Blood and their sinister Scarecrow servants are following the Doctor’s trail.
• Clara’s lunch date with the legendary pilot Amy Johnson has been rudely interrupted by two identical copies of themselves… made from sand! Meanwhile, the Doctor is having trouble with his own doppelganger, and the real enemy is about to make its entrance. The latest comic strip adventure A Wing and a Prayer – written by Scott Gray with art by Mike Collins – continues.
• Change is an essential part of Doctor Who and has allowed the series to constantly reinvent and reinvigorate itself for 50 years. And, as Jacqueline Rayner tells in this issue’s Relative Dimensions, this means that the series can be a useful tool when teaching children that nothing lasts forever
• Jon Pertwee is the Doctor, as former Doctor Who Script Editor Andrew Cartmel reviews the new Blu-ray release of the Third Doctor's classic 1970 début adventure Spearhead From Space
• The Watcher takes a look at Doctor Who episode titles in A History of Doctor Who in 100 Objects, and discovers that the names of colours have become a recent trend

Plus all the latest official news, TV and merchandise reviews, previews, competitions and a prize-winning crossword.

As previously reported, Splendid Chaps is a year-long performance/podcast project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who hosted by comedian Ben McKenzie (Dungeon Crawl, Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour) and writer John Richards (ABC1 sitcom Outland, Boxcutters podcast).

Described by its creators as part intellectual panel discussion, part nerdy Tonight Show, Splendid Chaps is a combination of analysis, enthusiasm and irreverence. The first episode went to number 1 on the iTunes TV & Film Podcast chart in Australia, and to number 4 in the UK.  The podcasts to the first two episodes are now available at www.splendidchaps.com or at  iTunes.

Tickets are now on sale for their March show, in which the Splendid Chaps TARDIS will be visiting Adelaide. They'll be discussing the frill-fronted velveteen Time Lord Jon Pertwee, and looking at the notion of Family in Doctor Who - why are there so few families in the early years of the show? What’s with all the distant aunts? How did it change the show when companions’ families started to appear after Rose?

Hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott are joined by New York Times best-selling author Sean Williams plus other guests poached from the Adelaide Fringe Festival as Splendid Chaps makes the exciting move into colour and corduroy.

Splendid Chaps: A Year Of Doctor Who: "Three/Family"
Space: The Tuxedo Cat – The Yellow Room, 199-200 North Terrace, Adelaide.
Time: Sunday, March 10; show starts 2 PM (note that as we will be recording, latecomers will not be admitted until interval).
Tickets: All tickets $15 (plus booking fee where applicable).
Bookings: trybooking.com, tickets also sold at the door (subject to availability).
Podcast: not yet available; released 23 March 2013.
Accessibility: This venue is wheelchair accessible.

As mentioned earlier this month, the BFI plan to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who with special screenings each month next year in the lead-up to the Anniversary itself; the organisation has now announced details about the first quarter of 2013.

As previously mentioned, the season kicks off at the very beginning with William Hartnell's An Unearthly Child on 12th January; this will be followed on 9th February with Patrick Troughton tackling the Tomb of the Cybermen; then in March Jon Pertwee is up against The Master as The Mind of Evil is unveiled in newly restored colour! All stories are accompanied by a Q&A panel, though guests have yet to be announced.


Justin Johnson, BFI Programmer, said:

Doctor Who's executive producer Caroline Skinner said:

In November, the climax of the BFI's celebration will include a special preview of An Adventure in Space and Time , the drama written by Mark Gatiss exploring the personalities that brought the longest running sci-fi series to life.


The stories representing the other eight Doctors will be confirmed next year.

The debut story of Jon Pertwee has been given the high-definition treatment for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary.

Spearhead From Space - Doctor Who's first colour story - is the only adventure from the classic era that can be remastered into true HD say experts because, thanks to industrial action at BBC TV Centre, all four episodes were shot on location on 16mm film rather than being recorded on videotape - the only time this was ever done on the show.

The digital media services team of BBC Studios and Post Production was commissioned by BBC Worldwide to remaster the story, which was first broadcast in January 1970 and also introduced Caroline John as assistant Liz Shaw. The "facelift" has given the story a cinematic finish, and the Blu-ray is now scheduled for release on Monday 15th July 2013.

The original 16mm negatives were scanned and digitised using state-of-the-art equipment, and other work has included repairing damage done to one episode's negative caused by a reaction with chemicals during a printing process some years ago. Dirt has also been removed, grain lessened, joins cleaned up, and picture movement stabilised. The soundtrack, which had previously been remastered, was then added to the final master version.

Jonathan Wood, the team's lead colourist, said: Clive Hodge, the digital media services head, said: