DESERT ISLAND DISCS
Three Doctors have so far appeared on BBC Radio 4’s long-running programme. Here are their choices:
Broadcast 23 August 1965
Interviewed by Roy Plomley
Paul Robeson – ‘Trees’
Alexander Borodin – ‘Polovtsian Dances’ (from Prince Igor)
Ludwig van Beethoven – Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 ‘Kreutzer’
Peggy Cochrane and Jack Payne and his Orchestra – El Alamein Concerto
Louis Armstrong – ‘Lawd, You Made The Night Too Long’
Sergey Vasilievich Rachmaninov – Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor
Flanagan and Allen – ‘Underneath The Arches’
Charlie Chaplin – ‘The Spring Song’ from A King in New York
Record: ‘The Spring Song’ by Charlie Chaplin
Book: English Social History by G.M. Trevelyan
Luxury Item: Cigarettes
Broadcast 12 October 1964
Interviewed by Roy Plomley
Ray Charles – ‘Georgia On My Mind’
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – ‘Venite Inginocchiatevi’ from The Marriage of Figaro
Choir of the Russian Church of the Metropolitan of Paris – ‘Multos Annos’ (Russian Orthodox Liturgy)
Lonnie Donegan – ‘Love Is Strange’
Rafael Romero and Montoya Jarrito – ‘Cuatro Saetas’
John Lee Hooker – ‘Dimples’
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – ‘Der Hölle Rache’ from The Magic Flute
Miriam Makeba – ‘Suliram’ (Indonesian Lullaby)
Record: ‘Georgia On My Mind’ by Ray Charles
Book: The Culture of the Abdomen: A Cure of Obesity and Constipation by F.A. Hornibrook
Luxury Item: Guitar
Broadcast 27 December 2009
Interviewed by Kirsty Young
The Proclaimers – ‘Over And Done With’
Elvis Costello – ‘Oliver’s Army’
The Housemartins – ‘Me And The Farmer’
Deacon Blue – ‘Dignity’
Eddie Izzard – ‘The Starship Enterprise’
Kaiser Chiefs – ‘Ruby’
Tim Minchin – ‘White Wine In The Sun’
Billy Bragg – ‘Greetings To The New Brunette’
Record: ‘White Wine In The Sun’ by Tim Minchin
Book: A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust
Luxury item: A solar-powered DVD player loaded with all seven seasons of The West Wing.
DOCTOR WHO, THIS IS YOUR LIFE
This Is Your Life ran on British television from 1955 to 2003, hosted by Eamonn Andrews and, later, Michael Aspel, surprising celebrities and public figures with the famous red book in hand. Over the years, three Doctors were the unsuspecting subjects…
Broadcast 14 April 1971
On 3 March 1971, the TARDIS was erected in a BBC car park, supposedly to allow Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning to reshoot location scenes for Colony in Space. Jon was more than a little surprised when Eamonn Andrews (a close friend of Katy Manning’s parents) arrived in an IMC buggy and presented him with the famous red book.
Broadcast 25 March 1982
18 March 1982 saw Peter Davison in full costume on London’s Trafalgar Square. He was under the impression he was to record publicity material for overseas sales of Doctor Who – until Eamonn Andrews emerged from the TARDIS to declare ‘Peter Davison, this is your life.’
18 March 2000
While promoting his book The Boy Who Kicked Pigs at a shop in Kingston upon Thames, Tom Baker was confronted by his past when a Dalek arrived at the signing. He was even more taken aback when Michael Aspel appeared behind him with the famous book in hand.
BIG SCREEN / SMALL SCREEN
‘Sorry, that’s The Lion King.’
The Doctor, The Christmas Invasion
A selection of the films and television programmes referenced or seen in Doctor Who.
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE WHONIVERSE
Some connections between Doctor Who and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, written by Doctor Who writer and script editor Douglas Adams.
The Doctor owns a copy of The Origins of the Universe by Oolon Coluphid. (Destiny of the Daleks) In Hitchhiker’s, Colluphid (with two ‘l’s) is the celebrated writer of a trilogy of philosophical blockbusters.
The Doctor asks, ‘Who was it said Earthmen never invite their ancestors round for dinner?’ (Ghost Light) It was Douglas Adams in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
The Doctor claims to have met The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s dressing gown-wearing hero Arthur Dent, commenting, ‘Now, there was a nice man.’ (The Christmas Invasion)
Six weeks before his on-screen debut as the Doctor in Logopolis Part Four, Peter Davison had a bovine-themed cameo appearance under heavy make-up as the Dish of the Day in the fifth episode of the Hitchhiker’s TV series.
An early script proposal from Douglas Adams to the Doctor Who production office was ‘The Krikkitmen’, in which the Doctor and Sarah take on androids from the planet Krikkit. The script was never taken forward, although Adams would use elements from the story in the Key to Time season, and adapt the plot for the third Hitchhiker’s book, Life, the Universe and Everything.
Never one to waste a plot, Adams refurbished story elements from the Doctor Who stories City of Death and the unfinished Shada for his novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Both Shada and Dirk Gently feature Professor Chronotis.
THE OTHER DOCTORS
As early as December 1963, other TV programmes were spoofing Doctor Who, a sure sign of its popularity. Over the years, a wide variety of actors have donned scarves and hats in the name of comedy Who.
Daleks featured in the infamous ‘Pakistani Dalek’ sketch from Spike Milligan’s Q series in 1975. Dr Emu and Rod Hull battled the strangely familiar Deadly Dustbins in 1977’s Emu’s Broadcasting Company, and the Daleks themselves also appeared in a sketch featured on a BBC2 Red Dwarf night, discussing the merits or otherwise of the popular sitcom.