The Interview

   
DWO caught up with Tom Baker (The 4th Doctor) to discuss Big Finish, Christmas and Tom's plans for 2012.

A brand new range of 4th Doctor adventures are imminent from Big Finish Productions and fans are beside themselves with excitement for the series. How was it getting back in the studio with your former companion, Louise Jameson and how different is the experience to your BBC AudioGO adventure series?

Well, since I have always personified Doctor Who the 4th, it was very easy. Louise said, "Tom, it's as if you have never been away". And of course I never have been away. But we have a wonderful time in the Wadhurst studios. And it is so wonderful to work with such great actors. We laugh a lot, you know, and as I enter the deep twilight of my life, laughter becomes more and more important; I expect to die laughing.

In our podcast interview with you back in 2009, we discussed the possibility of re-discovering your 'Doctor Who Meets Scratchman' adventure. Do you think the adventure could lend itself to the audio adventure genre?

The boys at Big Finish think it can be adapted, and I'm willing to have a go. Of course I can't remember the plot after all this time but we shall see; or rather, hear.

Christmas is just days away, what will you be doing on Christmas Day this year and what is your ideal Christmas Lunch? Turkey or Goose?

Christmas is no longer a novelty for me after 77 turkeys and many readings of Dickens' Carol. But we are having friends on the eve and going to other friends nearby over the Christmas period and we have a dozen new films to watch (as I'm a voting member of BAFTA).

We've just been sent through some of your fantastic new portraits! Lots of fans have already been in touch asking where they can get hold of them. Are you selling them, and if so, where can they get them?

I’m glad people like the new portraits. I enjoyed working on them with the photographer, Oliver McNeil, who has a studio in Hastings. He shot some of the portraits in his studio and others in the picturesque town of Rye nearby. There we found an unusual antique shop selling reconditioned theatre lights – a good setting for me! I can’t comment on the subject, but I can say the art prints from these pictures are superb – the colour more subtle and the definition more amazing than with ordinary prints. That explains their price. They’re expensive, but of the very highest quality. They can be purchased through Oliver’s website. If you Click Here you can sit back and enjoy the movie Oliver made of the portraits and click on through to the right shop (depending where you are in the world) to purchase the prints.

What does 2012 hold for Tom Baker?

Well first I have accepted to play a robot in an animation film. I'm also booked for a very long day at the DVD launch in Ilford, Barking in Feb. Those two are for sure. But I am offered things quite often, you know. I mostly turn them down as they're not my sort of thing or I lose the offer after I have outlined my ideas of how I would like to do the part if I accepted it.

A happy Christmas to you all from old Tom Baker!


© Copyright Doctor Who Online, 2011.
Page Updated: 22/12/2011

Interview Details

Interview with:
Tom Baker
Actor
The 4th Doctor
 
Added:
22/12/2011
 
Conducted by:
Doctor Who Online

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