I was in Doctor Who Magazine last month...
The one with old Adolf on the cover. That issue just to the left.
It was on the letters page in the "Ten Year On" section. (For the uninitated this is where DWM explore what was happening in an issue 10/15/20/Fnarg years ago.) This month they referred to a feature written by a young chap called Benjamin Cook (whatever happened to him, I wonder?)
Ten years ago, in another life it seems, I directed an audio drama for a company called BBV Productions called "The Barnacled Baby." It was one of those dramas that inhabited the nebulous spin-off world of Doctor Who-related dramas without the Doctor that sprang up in the interregnum between Paul McGann and Christopher Eccleston. It's the story of a lone alien shape-shifter (A Zygon first seen opposite Tom Baker in Terror of the Zygons) trapped in Victorian London. A veritable melding of Doctor Who and The Elephant Man.
Here's is a bigger version of the picture from the DWM feature and there I am, top middle, young and overly beardy, with my cast. Top left is author and actor Anthony Keetch. I blame myself for dragging him into writing the thing in the first place as I'd suggested he pitch something when we met a previous BBV recording. On the right, my chum and actor, Nigel Peever. Nigel introduced me to the world of audio drama through the old fan-made precursors to BBV and Big Finish and determined that I would cast him if i were ever given the chance. Job done! Nigel can be glimpsed very, very briefly as a supporting artist in the Doctor Who episode Boomtown. Bottom left is the lovely Deborah Watling. Best known as Victoria, companion to Patrick Troughton back in the black and white days of Doctor Who. She lived relatively local to me at the time so she did the driving for us and gave me much knowledge that I was able to reuse when I interviewed her on-stage at a Liverpool convention in 2004. In the middle is, what I considered, my casting coup. Mr. Clive Merrison. BBC Radio 4's Sherlock Holmes. Given the victorian setting he was the first person I thought of that I wanted. Luckily I located an email address for him and with the aid of the script and a pitch that went something like "...the money's rubbish but it'll be fun..." he came on board. On the end is Kerry Skinner. Kerry was one of the BBV rep company. I'd met her the previous year on the set of Cyberon, a film we did together.
I was very proud of my cast and the play as a whole. Apart from a couple of moments where I had to ask Clive to stop banging a cupboard door while acting I don't think anyone put a foot wrong and it proved very popular. It's a deep regret of mine that although it was intended that I do a few more it never came to be. Some fond memories and the opportunities to do a few things I would never have done otherwise (including guesting at a signing which someone wrote about here!
The Barnacled Baby by Anthony Keetch
Directed by Paul Griggs
Produced by Bill Baggs
Cast: Sir Frederick Matravers (Clive Merrison), Doris (Kerry Skinner), Jethro (Nigel Peever), Toby (Anthony Keetch) and special guest Deborah Watling.
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| Cover Art by Steve Johnson |
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