Two’s Company
FRAZER HINES TELLS WILL SALMON ABOUT PLAYING THE DOCTOR’S LONGEST-SERVING COMPANION...
While the William hartnell era was characterised by its rotating cast of companions, Patrick troughton’s Doctor was accompanied for all but one of his stories by highland warrior Jamie MCCRIMMON. Charmingly played by the then 22-year-old Frazer hines, Jamie was plucky, inquisitive and often very funny. “they were the happiest years of my whole career,” he tells SFX.
“Patrick and i were both new to the job,” he recalls. “i’d worked with him a few years before on a thing called Smuggler’s Bay, which was based on [J meade Falkner’s novel] Moonfleet. he was playing an old smuggler and i was the star of the show. then, when we met again he was the star. he was just a joy – there wasn’t one day where you’d go into work thinking, ‘i hope Pat’s in a good mood today’ – he was always great fun.”
hines says that the good mood of the show’s star extended to the entire Tardis crew. “Somebody described our era as ‘the hugging years’. there’s lots of photos of us all gripping each other! We were a very tactile Tardis crew.” Remarkably, Jamie’s tenure could have been much shorter than the 117 individual episodes he would eventually appear in. “it was initially just for four episodes. i waved goodbye to the Tardis and then, after two episodes had aired, [Doctor Who producer] innes lloyd came up to me and said, ‘how do you fancy joining the old Tardis crew?’ So i went back and filmed my scene waving goodbye to Kirsty and my laird.”
Jamie’s tenure came to an end in Patrick troughton’s regeneration story, epic 10-part thriller “the War Games”. as the Doctor is exiled to earth by the time lords and is forcibly changed to look an awful lot like comic actor Jon Pertwee, Jamie and Zoe [Wendy Padbury] have the memories of their adventures erased and are deposited back in their original times. it’s a melancholy end to three years of adventures. But hines believes that Jamie’s memories live on.
“Watch the end of ‘the War Games’ and the time lord says, ‘they will remember their first adventure’. So Jamie wouldn’t remember the Brigadier and all that, but he’d remember the Doctor. i think the TARDIS should land in Scotland and the Doctor would get out and meet this greying, long-haired highlander and their eyes would meet and his memories would come back.”
Jamie reappeared twice in the years following, in 1983’s anniversary shindig “the Five Doctors” and, with Patrick troughton, in 1985’s “the two Doctors”. the chance to make it a hat trick would be a delight, says hines. “Oh yes. Jamie was such a wonderful character. i’d love to come back.”