Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

On Saturday the 25th of November, I saw the Channel 5 documentary ‘Doctor Who: 60 Years of Secrets and Scandals’ at 8:30pm. I found this a fascinating documentary put together by Channel 5, as it explores what went on in the TV show’s making – both classic and new – and the issues it had. 🙂

There were interviews with certain cast and crew members, especially from the classic TV series like Sophie Aldred, Nicola Bryant, Frazer Hines, Mark Strickson, visual effects designer Mat Irvine and script editor Andrew Cartmel, who I was pleased to see. A shame Sarah Sutton wasn’t interviewed. 😦

I was hoping Sarah would turn up at some point during the documentary, especially as there was a hint that the ‘taking the skirt off’ moment in ‘Terminus’ would be talked about, and Sarah would have a say on it. It never happened, which is a pity, though, it is best not to talk about that moment. 😀

The moments that do get talked about in the documentary include the controversial cliffhanger in ‘Part Three’ of ‘The Deadly Assassin’, which Mary Whitehouse was critical about. A lot of these moments were familiar to me already, as I’ve heard them discussed in DVD and Blu-ray documentaries.

But it was intriguing how Channel 5 put these ‘scandalous’ moments being discussed together in this documentary that went on from 8:30pm to 10pm on Saturday 25th November. I’m glad they had cast and crewmember insights into these moments. Toby Hadoke even got to have a say about certain behind-the-scenes moment.

Waris Hussein, the first ‘Doctor Who’ director who helmed ‘An Unearthly Child’ and ‘Marco Polo’, shared what went on with directing the original pilot episode before being asked to do it again by Sydney Newman. I’m glad clips of the ‘An Unearthly Child’ pilot were included in the documentary. 🙂

Sophie Aldred got to share the nightmarish filming of being in a water tank during the making of ‘Battlefield’ and being saved by Sylvester McCoy when the tank’s glass broke. It’s also good when it was mentioned that Sylvester called for the power to be turned off to avoid mixing water with electricity.

Mark Strickson talks about the accident he had in ‘Enlightenment’, although I wish we had clips from that story to sort-of illustrate what happened. I enjoyed it when it was mentioned about the complaints made by the police to producer Barry Letts about the Autons in ‘Terror of the Autons’. 😀

Stuart Fell, who was a regular stuntman in ‘Doctor Who’, shares his memories of suffocating in a Cyberman outfit when working in ‘The Five Doctors’, I believe. David Banks also shares what happened when a Cyberman actor suffocated in ‘Earthshock’ and didn’t return to work the next day.

Nicola Bryant shares how things turned out when she was made to wear skimpy outfits as Peri and was told by producer John Nathan-Turner not to reveal she was married. This was something I learnt about in Nicola’s ‘In Conversation’ interview with Matthew Sweet in the Season 22 Blu-ray box set. 🙂

It was also intriguing to hear from Nicola how she received a phone call from a journalist who asked her about ‘the death of ‘Doctor Who’, believing that Colin Baker was dead, before being informed by her agent the TV show ‘Doctor Who’ was being suspended for 18 months by Michael Grade in 1985.

Mention is also made about the abuse of power made by producer John Nathan-Turner, especially in his interaction with fans. I’m not sure how exactly true JNT’s interactions with fans were, including inviting some to his room. I don’t know how to interpret it, but it’s intriguing how it’s documented.

The ‘Doctor in Distress’ music single is also mentioned in the documentary and continuity advisor Ian Levine is interviewed about that. I liked it when the junking of 1960s ‘Doctor Who’ episodes is talked about, and it’s interesting to hear that Patrick Troughton had a wife and a girlfriend at the same time.

There’s not much in terms of new series scandals talked about, although the copyright of the Daleks is mentioned and there’s discussion about Jodie Whittaker being cast as a female Doctor. I enjoyed production manager Margot Hayhoe’s remarks and how she liked Jodie being the Thirteenth Doctor.

‘Doctor Who: 60 Years of Secrets and Scandals’ has been an enjoyable documentary to check out on Channel 5. Most of the topics covered are things I’ve heard about before in DVD/Blu-ray documentaries, but I enjoyed how Channel 5 put it together and with interviews with cast and crew.

By the way, ‘The Stranger’ episode ‘More Than A Messiah’ and ‘The Airzone Solution’ by BBV were talked about. Also, who would have thought April Walker, who played Jean in the ‘Fawlty Towers’ episode ‘The Wedding Party’, could have played Sarah Jane Smith instead of Elisabeth Sladen. Very uncanny!

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂