The Doctors Who's Who (10 page)

Pertwee’s first starring role in a film was alongside William Hartnell in
Will Any Gentleman
…? (1953). But this wasn’t the only
Doctor Who
connection in the movie. During filming, Pertwee met the actress Jean Marsh, whom he later married on 2 April 1955. Marsh would become William Hartnell’s companion in the longest-ever
Doctor Who
story, ‘The Dalek Master Plan’ (12 episodes). Unfortunately, she was killed towards the end of the
Doctor Who
story and, sadly, her marriage to Pertwee didn’t last long either. They separated in 1958, before divorcing in 1960. Pertwee remarried shortly afterwards – to Ingeborg Rhoesa, a German woman he had met on a skiing holiday. The pair married on 13 August 1960 and had two children, Sean and Dariel.

Pertwee’s career as a character actor continued on radio (most notably in
The Navy Lark
), television and films throughout the 1950s and 60s. Indeed, there are some forgotten gems, such as
The Ugly Duckling
(1959), starring Bernard Bresslaw as Henry Jekyll and Teddy Hyde, with character actor David Lodge putting in an appearance too.

The Ugly Duckling
was made by Hammer Films directly after their iconic
The Mummy,
starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. The movie was a comedy spoof of Robert Louis Stevenson’s
Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde
and was a vehicle for the immensely popular actor Bernard Bresslaw, who was enjoying great success on TV opposite William Hartnell in
The Army Game
.

Although stills from the movie still exist, sadly a print of the movie doesn’t – immensely frustrating for Pertwee and Bresslaw fans.

In Wayne Kinsey’s excellent book
Hammer Films
,
The Bray Studios Years
, Continuity girl Marjorie Lavelly said of
The Ugly Duckling
:

I thought the script was very good – interesting. It was a happy film to work on with a lovely cast… I seem to remember a lot of gags and laughter. The artists used to have their ‘green room’ near my desk and some of the anecdotes they told were superb. I know it was not a commercial success, which was a shame as a lot of hard work went into it, but that’s life.

Clearly a lot of the laughs would be generated by the two great character actors involved (Pertwee and Breslaw), but David Lodge, a fine supporting actor who worked with The Goons and Norman Wisdom (to name but two), was a quick-witted, seasoned actor, with plenty of anecdotes of his own.

On Sunday, 1 November 1964, Pertwee appeared in the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) 21st anniversary gala night, at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London. Although he appeared alongside people such as Ken Dodd, Jimmy Edwards, Charlie Chester, Larry Adler, Ted Ray and Tommy Trinder, among many others, the ultimate stars of the show were The Goons (Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe), who performed a whole episode of their madcap but ground-breaking show. Though a friend of both Sellers and Milligan, Pertwee would fall out with Spike later in life over who was the bigger fan of the pantomime
Aladdin
.

Pertwee was in his element at occasions like the BFBS gala night, surrounded by talented like-minded people who, despite some dreadful experiences during the war, took a comedic influence from those troubled times and shaped the face of British comedy for the next 50 years.
The Goon Show
started as barrack-room humour and
The Navy Lark
was not dissimilar. Character actors such as Peter Butterworth (who played fellow Time Lord the Meddling Monk, alongside William Hartnell), was actually a prisoner of war in the real-life escape that inspired the 1950 film
The Wooden Horse
– although he didn’t get a part in the movie because he ‘didn’t look convincingly heroic and athletic’.

Butterworth, who was in many of the
Carry On
films with the likes of Bernard Bresslaw, served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and was captured in the Netherlands in 1940. He escaped through a tunnel from the prisoner-of-war camp Dulag Luft, near Frankfurt, in June 1941 and then covered 27 miles in just three days before a member of the Hitler Youth captured him. Afterwards, he joked that he could never work with children. Two other escape attempts never got beyond the camp grounds.

Several years after the BFBS gala night, while playing on Broadway in
There’s a Girl in My Soup
, Pertwee was offered the lead in a brand-new BBC comedy series. The role was written with his comic talents in mind: it was Captain Mainwaring and the show was
Dad’s Army
. But Pertwee turned it down, and the part went to Arthur Lowe, whose interpretation would become legendary. Pertwee later said that he didn’t really know what he was being offered back home at the time, that he was too wrapped up in the part he was playing. Suffice to say, if he had taken the part, he almost certainly wouldn’t have gone on to star in
Doctor Who
.

Pertwee wasn’t sore about losing out on
Dad’s Army
, although one of the writers, Jimmy Perry, was annoyed that he didn’t take the role. He told Pertwee that an agreement had been made that he would play the part. Where that came from is still a little unclear, but naturally Pertwee didn’t want to give up a Broadway show in order to play a part in a pilot comedy.

In retrospect he could see that he had turned down a great part but he also knew that Doctor Who wouldn’t have been his next major role had he taken Mainwaring. What’s more, he found Arthur Lowe’s interpretation of the aloof bank manager absolutely hysterical, praising the little extra expressions the actor added to his character.

In 1970, while filming horror spoof
The House That Dripped Blood
(1971), fellow actor Christopher Lee wanted to know who Pertwee was sending up in his on-screen characterisation. The horror actor told Pertwee that some of the characteristics seemed familiar but he couldn’t put a name to who it was. Pertwee told Lee that he was actually sending
him
up! Lee found this hilarious; however the director of the movie cut out much of the fun and the film received indifferent notices as a consequence.

While recording
The Navy Lark
in 1969, Pertwee had a conversation about
Doctor Who
with Tenniel Evans (who would later play Major Daly in Jon’s
Doctor Who
adventure ‘Carnival of Monsters’). Evans told him that there was a rumour that Patrick Troughton was leaving the show and that he was ideal for the part. Pertwee was interested enough to call his agent, who, although unconvinced that he was the right man, contacted the BBC to see what the situation was. He found that Pertwee was on the shortlist of actors to take over from Troughton and had been for some time.

Pertwee was offered the job. He accepted, and only then were there problems concerning his interpretation of the lead role.

The BBC wanted Pertwee’s Doctor to be a bit of a joke-telling minstrel to begin with, building further upon the Pied Piper-like antics of Patrick Troughton. Pertwee explained that although his children enjoyed watching Troughton, he thought his friend had gone a little over the top with his interpretation of the Doctor. He was keen to play the part straight and bring in some real science; he also wanted to incorporate fast cars, power boats, motor bikes and (Venusian) Aikido. After long conversations with producer Peter Bryant, Pertwee got his way and not only did he make the transition from black and white to colour but also attracted a more adult audience into the bargain.

In truth, it wasn’t as easy as all that. It was director Barry Letts who suggested to Pertwee that he should play the Doctor as himself. This presented problems for the actor because he didn’t quite know who he really was. When his wife started to get him to do various things around the house, he discovered a love for anything mechanical, and for risk taking (as his stuntman Terry Walsh would come to
appreciate), which in turn brought him a deeper understanding of the type of thing he most enjoyed doing and, consequently, a greater understanding of himself.

It is true that Pertwee brought in some humorous moments for the younger viewers, but there was always a serious side to his personality too. Just as in life, Pertwee’s Doctor didn’t suffer fools gladly. He despised ignorance and wanton destruction, displaying a heart-on-sleeve attitude that always showed that he was dedicated to good, not evil. He was constantly at odds with the Brigadier, who always wanted to blow things up but still couldn’t help liking him. With a complex group of regular relationships in the new colour
Doctor Who
, Pertwee’s interpretation of the Doctor showed greater maturity than that displayed by his predecessors.

So at the turn of the 1970s,
Doctor Who
took a major jump away from its roots, not just from the black and white children’s classic to colour family entertainment, but in the Doctor’s relationships and interactions with other characters (mainly Earthlings, as many of the stories were set on Earth). Also, by explaining where the Doctor came from, his planet and his people, the show had really opened up. Although Pertwee’s Doctor would be Earth-bound, the mystery of where he came from was explained, albeit having its roots in the last ever Patrick Troughton story. He was a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who had his appearance changed (from his second incarnation) and was exiled to Earth because he stole the TARDIS and roamed through time and space as a maverick.

Soon a fellow Time Lord called The Master would became a regular cast member, to be Professor Moriarty to the Doctor’s Sherlock Holmes. Roger Delgado took on the role of The Master and the quietly spoken actor became great friends with Pertwee. With his devil’s beard, Mediterranean good looks and
stern eyes, Delgado was the perfect balance to Pertwee’s flamboyance and became an important part of the new
Doctor Who
family, which would include Katy Manning (companion Jo Grant – from Pertwee’s second series), Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates), Producer Barry Letts and writer Terrance Dicks.

All of this was a brave move by the BBC. They were destroying the romantic unknown past of the Doctor, which must have been a great gamble on their part; they were explaining the ‘Who?’ in
Doctor Who
. So would they get away with such a thing? Surely that was an important ingredient in making the show successful, to keep the audience guessing?

There were many changes imposed by Pertwee’s Doctor, which back then seemed radical, but are largely taken for granted today. Nowadays, we are used to the Doctor running everywhere and using many gadgets, but it was Pertwee who really started all that off with his dashing interpretation of the title role. His was the ‘James Bond’ Doctor, but as Pertwee himself said, James Bond only saved the world; he was saving the universe.

Pertwee’s love of character acting is sprinkled throughout his
Doctor Who
years. One memorable scene from the story ‘The Green Death’ has him in disguise as a Welsh milkman in order to get into a high-security establishment. This is a wonderful moment from an actor who had established himself with brilliant comic voices on radio. That said, in a scene from an earlier
Doctor Who
episode Pertwee provided a voice for a radio broadcast, but it was later re-recorded by another actor because his voice was deemed too recognisable.

‘The Green Death’ was significant for another reason too. It provided the first fragrance of romance between the Doctor
and one of his companions, Jo Grant. Jo falls in love with a hip young Welsh scientist and decides to leave the Doctor, go up the Amazon and get married. The Doctor attends the happy couple’s leaving celebrations, but is clearly upset at losing Jo, for whom he always had a soft spot. The final scene sees the Doctor sneaking out of the party and, in silhouette, driving his beloved car ‘Bessie’ away, in what is the greatest unrequited love scene in the show’s history.

‘I found my way to the bar where Jon [Pertwee] was waiting. He gave me a great big hug, which was his seal of approval to the rest of the cast, I think, like a Roman emperor giving the thumbsup sign. Relaxed, he said, ‘Now, what would you like to drink, Katy?’
Katy
? I didn’t say anything – I didn’t need to. A second later Jon realised his error. And burst into tears.’

Elisabeth Sladen – the Autobiography

In her autobiography, Elisabeth Sladen (companion Sarah Jane Smith) talks about onscreen chemistry. She mentions that Pertwee shared this with Katy Manning, and he would indeed enjoy working with Sladen too. But before Sladen was offered the part of Sarah Jane, she mentioned that an actress had already accepted the part, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. Sladen knew that Pertwee adored Katy Manning, and indeed Manning had fond memories of working with Pertwee too.

Pertwee had really taken Manning under his wing while filming the show, so much so that the affection between them really comes across in every scene they played together on screen. Rumour has it that Pertwee was a little in love with the bubbly young woman, but the relationship was platonic. Perhaps it’s this knowledge that adds a little more melancholy to the scene in which Bessie drives away and Sladen’s tale of
meeting Pertwee in the bar the night before her first day of location filming.

Pertwee enjoyed the more serious storylines, which complemented his interpretation of the Doctor perfectly. He loved the odd pretentious moment too, such as passing comment on a manor house wine cellar while waiting for a ‘ghost’ to turn up (‘Day of the Daleks’). But where Pertwee really succeeded was when he was allowed to get cross at interplanetary narrow-mindedness; then he was in his element. His most serious scenes balanced his more comic ones, so much so that when Tom Baker first took over the role, some young fans found the lack of gravitas an issue.