‘MYTH MAKERS: MATTHEW WATERHOUSE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

In his ‘Myth Makers’, Matthew Waterhouse is interviewed by Robert Dick. They go to the locations of ‘Black Orchid’, including Buckhurst House and Withyham Cricket Club, which was brilliant to see. 🙂

It’s nice that Matthew Waterhouse and Robert Dick visited the ‘Black Orchid’ locations for this ‘Myth Makers’ in 2017. This is especially since ‘Black Orchid’ is my absolute favourite ‘Doctor Who’ story. 🙂

A year after this ‘Myth Makers’ was made, Matthew joined Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson to revisit the ‘Black Orchid’ filming locations during the summer of 2018.

This was for the ‘Double Trouble’ making-of documentary on the ‘Black Orchid’ disc in the Season 19 Blu-ray box set. I still love watching that making-of documentary every time I revisit ‘Black Orchid’. 🙂

It’s interesting that the weather wasn’t good when Matthew did his ‘Myth Makers’ with Robert Dick, especially as they went inside Buckhurst House to do the interview because it was raining outside. 🙂

This is a contrast to the ‘Double Trouble’ making-of documentary, as that was filmed during the glorious summer of 2018. Despite that, Matthew’s ‘Myth Makers’ is very enjoyable and enlightening.

It’s also amazing to see what the Buckhurst House living room looks like compared to what the Cranleigh Hall living room looks like in ‘Black Orchid’. The living rooms are different to each other. 😀

In his ‘Myth Makers’, Matthew gets to share his memories of playing Adric in ‘Doctor Who’. This is from his turbulent start with Tom Baker’s Doctor to the happier period with Peter Davison’s Doctor.

Like Robert Dick, I read the ‘Blue Box Boy’ book to know what Matthew’s experiences of making ‘Doctor Who’ were like in the 1980s. It was interesting to hear Matthew express those memories in this interview.

From watching this ‘Myth Makers’, I feel I appreciate Matthew more. He comes across as a very aimable person who did his best with playing Adric whilst pressures and tensions arose from the BBC.

I enjoyed Matthew’s impersonations of Terrance Dicks when recollecting him not liking the titles of ‘The Wasting’ and ‘State of Decay’ for his original ‘Vampire Lords’ or ‘Vampire Mutations’ TV scripts.

It was also funny when Matthew recollected writer Andrew Smith trying to correct producer John Nathan-Turner about ‘The Planet That Slept’ (which became ‘Full Circle’) not having ‘of’ in the title. 🙂

As Robert Dick rightly points out, if JNT didn’t want ‘of’ in the story titles of his first season as producer, why did he have ‘State of Decay’ with ‘of’ in the title? It’s baffling when you think about it.

It was fascinating to hear Matthew compare his memories of working with Tom Baker in ‘The E-Space Trilogy’ (or season as it is now) to his memories of working with him in his last two TV stories.

The fact that Lalla Ward who played Romana left ‘Doctor Who’ might account for the difference of Matthew’s two working experiences with Tom Baker, since Tom and Lalla had an on-and-off relationship.

I enjoyed it when Matthew shared his memories of working in the BBC first in an office job, cutting newspapers before he got a part in ‘To Serve Them All My Days’, also accounted in ‘Blue Box Boy’. 🙂

Matthew shares his disappointment of not getting to work with Jacqueline Hill in ‘Meglos’, despite Lalla Ward saying she wasn’t happy when guest starring in the story, which was interesting to hear. 😐

Surprisingly, ‘Warriors’ Gate’ and ‘Four to Doomsday’ don’t seem to get talked about during the interview. Matthew gets to share what it was like to work with Michael Robbins in ‘The Visitation’. 🙂

I also like that Matthew’s version of telling Richard Todd how to act in ‘Kinda’ was that it was meant to be a joke. Peter Davison and Janet Fielding’s versions of that certain story seem over-exaggerated.

Mention is made about Matthew doing the Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’, which is great. Not much is talked about regarding his ‘Dark Shadows’ audios with Big Finish, as he’s done lots of those.

Matthew Waterhouse’s ‘Myth Makers’ has been great to check out. I’m glad it was filmed at the ‘Black Orchid’ locations and Matthew does come across as an aimable and a pretty interesting guy. 🙂

‘Myth Makers: Matthew Waterhouse’ rating – 8/10

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