Paul Whitelaw Interviews Former Doctor: Tom Baker!!

As Tom Baker steps back into The Doctor's shoes after a 30-year hiatus, he convinces PAUL WHITELAW it's no time at all – for a Time Lord

IT IS ALWAYS IMMENSELY gratifying to be reminded that Tom Baker is, in real life, precisely as you'd expect him to be. A disarmingly charismatic raconteur, the 75-year-old actor remains one of Britain's most beloved eccentrics.

From his early as a monk (he subsequently renounced his faith), to international stardom as one of the most popular Doctor Whos (1974 to 1981), to his present status as a national institution, Baker has lived a life as rich as his instantly recognisable voice. I can

PW: Aside from a brief cameo in a 1993 Children in Need special, this is the first time you've played the Doctor since leaving the series. What was so special about this project?

TB: They just called me at a good moment. People are always asking me to do things about Doctor Who, and most of the time I can't be bothered. Then I read the scripts – well, I read my bits, I don't read scripts. I really think that reading a whole script is kind of prying and neurotic, don't you?

PW: Doesn't that make them hard to understand?

TB: Well that's life, isn't it? Just imagine if you knew everything about me. We wouldn't discover anything, we wouldn't be surprised. It's none of my business where characters have been – I want to be surprised by what they do. I've never ever read a script. I really must read Macbeth, because I was in it once. I got a lot of laughs in that, I can tell you.

PW: So what's Hornet's Nest about?

TB: It seemed to me to be really very clever writing, because the hornet's nest is obviously a metaphor for the BBC. I think so anyway, although I didn't mention it to anyone there, because you don't want to be talking to directors, otherwise they get the idea that they're important. But it all made sense to me, these abused worker hornets, and queens and kings and ambitious ones who want to take over the world. I thought, yes, that's the BBC! Anyway, they didn't know my thinking, but they seemed to like what I did, and apparently they're very pleased with it. It's been well received in the religious press.

PW: Really? I didn't realise the religious press were interested in Doctor Who audio plays.

TB: Yes, there's a very good plug for it in The Tablet, whatever that is. I thought it was a kind of doctor's weekly, but apparently it's a Roman Catholic paper. It goes on about God. They're always giving God a plug, aren't they?

PW: Well, He needs all the press He can get. I haven't heard from him in years.

TB: Well, it depends what sort of company you keep! I quite often meet people who say they believe in God, and I go along with them. And I think, My God, I am actually having a conversation here with someone who's completely mad! I often say kind of cod-spiritual things about the democracy of growing old and the humiliation of dying being shared by us all, and that it's a great comfort to know that finally when we shed off this mortal coil we'll all be happy together. But the people who swallow that kind of guff are boneheads, aren't they? What I can't understand is why they don't understand the word "incorporeal". It's rather like the Muslims with their 75 virgins. I mean, what are you going to do with 75 virgins if you're incorporeal?

PW: Quite. So, did you find it easy, slipping back into the role of the Doctor?

TB: Well, you can tell by talking to me that I never slipped out of it! I'm really not an actor of any kind. I've always seen myself as an entertainer, someone who makes people laugh. That's all I've ever wanted to do. Doctor Who has always just been me, really. So when I picked up this script and read it, I just started as I would normally. There was no difficulty about it.

PW: You loved playing the Doctor, didn't you?

TB: It sounds so gooey, but it was a stupendous privilege, an amazing gift, like something out of a fairy tale. Everywhere I went I was actually loved and adored by children. And now those children have all got children of their own, and they still come and see me. I was at a sci-fi do at Earl's Court the other day, there were several thousand people there, and scores of them showed me pictures of themselves, these middle-aged men losing their hair, sitting on my knee in 1976 or something. It's all very sweet, that.

PW: You enjoy the attention?

TB: Well, I think if more people had more applause, it would make them feel better. I often give my wife a round of applause. If the meal is very good I give her a standing ovation. It's like when you fire off a sharp remark and get a big round of applause in the pub, which is enough to make you briefly immortal in Ireland. It's true, though, isn't it? People need attention, and when you're playing a children's hero you get lots and lots of attention. Doors are opened and people want to floss your teeth for you, it's incredible.

PW: You were very conscientious during your time in the role, making sure that you were never caught drinking, smoking or swearing in the presence of children.

TB: Yes, I took it very seriously because it was such a privilege. It was an absolutely amazing time, and although people asked how I'd feel when I left it, I never did leave it because I remain entirely myself. And here I am, 30 years after I left it, being invited all over the place. I recently travelled across the world on a luxury liner which had been commissioned by Doctor Who fans. They wanted me to go first class as their guest of honour, so how could I say no? These were obviously devoted fans who had made enormous sacrifices to raise money for a tour like that. You see, sci-fi fans remind me of pilgrims, really. I think all fans are pilgrims, like Liverpool fans who walk all the way to London to watch their team play Arsenal. Sometimes I do signing sessions for the BBC, signing new books or CDVs (sic], and some people haven't eaten for two days in order to be able to buy them. People are on the point of fainting.

PW: Isn't that taking things too far?

TB: When people love something absolutely they will make lots of sacrifices. The test of love is the capacity to make sacrifices for it. When you love something you become a victim of what you love. I'm a complete victim of my little dog, and I take her out in the woods at six o'clock in the morning because I love her. And so it is with the people who love football and rugby and cricket and Doctor Who, they become pilgrims. And pilgrims, of course, always had to make sacrifices. In Ireland they turned up on their hands and knees.

PW: You've said that you are now exclusively employed by people who grew up watching you in Doctor Who.

TB: Yes, that's true. Of course, the latest big one was Matt Lucas and David Walliams in Little Britain (Baker voices the narrator]. I was working with Matt the other day, actually, on something for the radio. I don't know if it has a title yet, but it was a comedy in which they set us six things to discuss, and whoever got the biggest laughs won the quiz.

PW: Did you win?

TB: Yes! (laughs uproariously] But I wouldn't mind if I hadn't, because I was brought up a Christian, so there's always a streak of the martyr in me. So one can, actually, after a while as one gets closer to death, enjoy even rejection! As you get old you have to come to terms, to absolutely gurgle with laughter, at the ridiculousness of your knees beginning to creak, and things like that. Sometimes I have to stop in the woods, there are certain logs I can sit on, and I have a walking stick because it's a bit slippery and uneven. I find that funny.

PW: So is life good for Tom Baker?

TB: I think life is good, yes. Waking up in the morning still excites me. I can still laugh, which is the important thing. When I go down to the local supermarket, where I get a lot of attention still, I feel like one of the privileged old men. Quite a lot of them who are my age, and sometimes younger, often haven't had good fortune. They're limping around or groaning, talking about statins and being dizzy, and sometimes I've seen people, when it's a bit quiet in Waitrose … to pass the time on the vegetable stall, someone will drop a five pound note and see which of the old boys can pick it up without blacking out. They get up to all sort of tricks like that. And you see old men watching the girls go by, with that mistiness in their eyes, as they remember long-gone days. But I have a wonderful wife who's good to me, and we have a lovely house in the country with a lovely garden and woodland. Life is good, yes.

PW: I'm glad to hear it. Well, thank you very much for your time, Tom.

TB: My pleasure, and if you need anything else, just make it up. Goodbye!

• The first episode of Hornet's Nest will be on shelves from 3 September at www.bbcshop.com/page/hornetsnest

TOM BAKER reckons he's never stopped being Doctor Who - 28 years after his last adventure.

"There was no last time," he points out. "I am the Doctor."

The 75-year-old may have become a household name to a different generation as the narrator of Little Britain, but to anyone growing up in the Seventies and Eighties, he is to Doctor Who what Sean Connery is to James Bond.

And although it's been almost 30 years since he battled Daleks, Tom is still the most popular Time Lord. Now, the fourth Doctor is back in a series of new audiobooks which will be released next month.

And while Matt Smith, 26, prepares to take on the UK's best sci-fi role when David Tennant relinquishes the keys to the Tardis at Christmas, Tom isn't about to give him any advice.

"Idon't give advice to the young," he revealed."I have often noticed that the young shudder at the sight of the old, so I keep silent."

Although Tom has enjoyed success on Little Britain and as the wonderful Donald Ulysses MacDonald on Monarch of the Glen, it's still as DoctorWho that most remember him.

He was the Doctor between 1974-1981 and is the longest-living incarnation in the show's on-screen history.

Most recently, however, Paisley boy David Tennant has snapped at his heels. But rather than put him down, the veteran is hugely generous in his praise for the Scottish actor.

"David Tennant is a wonderful actor, a huge star," he admitted. "He is young and handsome. I never saw him in that role, but then, I never saw myself as the Doctor either."

Tom took over from Jon Pertwee in 1974 and was working on a construction site at the time.

He was dubbed "Boiler Suit Tom" by the media at the time, as he had been supplied for a press conference with some old studio set clothes to replace his modest garments.

However, Tom soon found an image - with his iconic long scarf, the hat and of course, his curly hair.

While the curly hair is a little flatter and whiter these days, Tom didn't need the rest of his costume to reprise his popular role.

Tom stars in a series of five audio adventures from BBC Audiobooks titled DoctorWho: Hornet's Nest, which also features Rula Lenska as the Hornet Queen, former Coronation Street actress Susan Jameson, and another old DoctorWho face, Richard Franklin, who reprises his role as Captain MikeYates for the series.

It was written by Paul Magrs and is the first full adventure with Tom since Logopolis - a four-parter which ran from February to March 1981 and saw the first appearance by fifth Doctor, Peter Davison.

Tom has been seen as the Doctor twice since then since. He appeared in the 20th Anniversary special The Five Doctors, but only in the form of footage from the uncompleted DoctorWho series Shada, which was never completed due to a BBC strike. Tom also reprised the role for a brief cameo for Children in Need in 1993.

Paul Magrs said: "It feels fantastic to write for Tom again. He's quite unlike any other Doctor.

"He's witty, dangerous, courageous and erudite. He's also the most facetious, but also the most serious when his dander's up.

"Tom is very passionate about his Doctor and rightfully protective. I was honoured he wanted to do this series of stories.

"He was engaged in the scripts - he made suggestions and changed things here and there to make it as good as possible."

Of course Tom only has to speak and he's the Doctor and admitted it was "very easy" to get back into playing the character for the first time in 28 years.

"I never went away. I have been standing in the shadows waiting," he pointed out, adding "The hat and scarf are in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.

"I didn't really have to do anything to the script to make it more like the fourth Doctor."

The new series, which will be available to buy from September 3, sees the Doctor in fighting form.

The action doesn't start in the Seventies when Tom was the Doctor and instead - in typical Time Lord tradition - flicks back and forward through time.

Tom said: "The story starts now, shifts to 1930 then to 1840. It then moves to an eleventh century convent, where my sonic screwdriver caused a sensation."

While there are now three working Doctors, the older actor refuses to be drawn on rumours that all the surviving Doctors will be brought back for a Children in Need special.

If so, Tom would be joined by Scots David Tennant and Sylvester McCoy, 65, who was the seventh Doctor. And, as new Doctor Matt Smith's companion Karen Gillan is also a Scot, does Tom reckon there's something tartan about the Tardis? "The character has lots of links with many places in many time zones." he said.

"Perhaps he could switch accents from time to time.

"But Scotland is a mysterious and strange place, but that's not the only reason we admire the Scots."

Tom has many links with Scotland. He was born in Scotland Road in Liverpool, toured the country with The National Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company and also performed at the Edinburgh Festival a handful of times.

And of course, he played that wonderful colourful character in Monarch of the Glen, which was perhaps the one show that helped to dispel those sci-fi tags. He may have played over the top characters such as Captain Redbeard Rum in Blackadder or Wyvern in Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) but admits he has never been able to shake his most famous role.

"It was impossible, I am the character," he said.

Tom revealed it's not just viewers who have taken a shine to him.

While filming Monarch near Newtonmore, in the central Highlands of Scotland, the actor - who has been married three times and has two sons - was plagued by the midges.

Tom said: "The midges adored me. They just couldn't get enough of me. They just ate me up.

"It took me back to my youth," he added with a twinkle.

He is, of course, also known as the voice of Little Britain.

Tom started on the comedy when it was on BBC Radio Four in 2001 and carried on when it made the leap to television.

Thus his unmistakable, booming theatrical voice will always be linked to the David Walliams and Matt Lucas comedy.

Of course, witty quotes such as: "In Paris, Anne is paying a visit to the Louvre. At my age I'm up all night visiting the Louvre" took many by surprise.

He also quoted rap lyrics such as Salt n' Pepa's Push It and House of Pain's Jump Around, while Tom even got to read the continuity announcements on BBC One as part of the launch of the third series of Little Britain in 2005 with lines such as: "In half an hour, Jenny Dickens's classic serial Bleak House. But first, let's see what the poor people are up to in the first of two visits this evening to EastEnders."

Tom said: "It was fun. A new generation of young fans found a chauvinistic old fool funny."

"The lines were all created by Matt Lucas and DavidWalliams. I just said them and the youngsters howled."

No Advice for Smith???!!!

Former Doctor Who star Tom Baker has admitted that he would be reluctant to offer advice to the show's new lead actor Matt Smith.

The 75-year-old, who played the Time Lord's fourth incarnation from 1974 to 1981, revealed that he would prefer to leave Smith alone as he discovers his own approach to the role.

Speaking to the Daily Record, he explained: "I don't give advice to the young. I have often noticed that the young shudder at the sight of the old, so I keep silent."

Smith started filming for the iconic sci-fi show in Cardiff last month alongside his new co-star Karen Gillan (Amy Pond).

The 26-year-old will make his debut on the programme when David Tennant bows out as the Tenth Doctor at the end of three specials in early 2010.

Baker added: "David Tennant is a wonderful actor, a huge star. He is young and handsome. I never saw him in that role, but then, I never saw myself as The Doctor either."

The veteran actor recently announced that he is to return as the Fourth Doctor in a new audio series.