Although I may have been the catalyst it wasn’t all my fault. It was the second Who I had done. A decade before (1972) I had played Galleia, Queen of Atlantis, when Jon Pertwee was still ruling the Universe. The series was called The Time Monster. Even then everything was a bit hairy. It was considered a feather in the cap to be asked to guest on a Who. I’ve never been sure why. It wasn’t for money or comfort. You worked at a high rate of knots with hardly a chance to change your socks and no chance at all of redoing anything you thought you could improve upon.
By the time I arrived on the set of Warriors (1984) things, and Doctors, had changed. Peter Davison was in charge, or not, of the sonic screwdriver and Pennant Roberts was directing. I only got the job because Pennant was sorry for me. He dropped around to see me one day when I was in the throes of extending my house. It was chaos. Pennant decided I needed a break. He had cast everyone but Dr. Solow. A role for a male actor!
After seeing me in my builder mode he decided that I would be ideal for the job. Working with Pennant was a whole new kettle of lobster compared with working for Bernard. Pennant had it all worked out and kept to it. I guess it wasn’t his fault that I was responsible for Mike Grade cutting the Tardis adrift. If you must, have a dekko at the clip down at the bottom there (sorry about the language).
And sex! Come on now. The whole point of the Doctor is that he is far above such earthly pleasures. We aren’t even sure if, under the costume, he has the necessary equipment. After all – he is an alien.
Ingrid Pitt writes every week at Den Of Geek. Her last column is here.
