Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
THE DOCTOR AND DAVROS REUNITE TO FIGHT CRIME
COLIN BAKER AND TERRY MOLLOY TELL MARION McMULLEN THEY’VE GONE FROM BEING MORTAL ENEMIES ON TV TO A DREAM DETECTING DUO
You used to be enemies on Doctor Who but now you are starring in a new tour of The Hound Of The Baskervilles marking 120 years of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous tale. How did it all come about?
TERRY: I’ve not toured for so long. Blimey, it must have been Godspell back in 1977 when I was a lot younger and fitter. I’m a great friend of Colin’s.
We worked together many, many times from Doctor Who, when I played Dalek creator Davros, and on audio a lot. We’ve known each other since 1984 and we’ve worked on stage together and we did a panto in Norwich some years ago where he played the villain and I played the goody. (Chuckles) A bit of role reversal there.
Colin suggested me to be his Dr Watson to his Sherlock Holmes for this tour and it came out of the blue, really. That’s how it happens really at our age. It tends to be recommendations rather than fullscale auditions.
COLIN: (Laughs) Holmes and Watson are almost like Davros and Doctor Who.
We only do iconic characters together, but you must not get the impression that I only work with Terry, I do work with other people, although I must say I think he looks more like his character than I think most people imagine I do as Sherlock Holmes.
TERRY: Doctor Who and The Attack Of The Cybermen was when we first met filming in the back of a garage in south London in the 1980s and I think we hit it off from the beginning.
Terry you played the infamous Mike Tucker in The Archers for more than 40 years and the new tour sees the crime story being told as a radio play. How does the production work?
When you keel over on stage or fall down a flight of steps, that’s when you retire Terry Molloy
TERRY: Basically the play is being staged in a radio studio with microphones and sound effects and prop table to one side and someone doing all the sound effects as we go along.
COLIN: I don’t know if there are any horses in the play, but I am hoping to see coconut shells.
TERRY: I think we have a Hackney cab at one point so we should have some coconuts there.
COLIN: (Laughs) For a hackneyed performance. I flatter myself that my voice sounds like it could be Sherlock Holmes and Terry sounds like Dr Watson.
TERRY: (in strong Cockney accent) That’s right, Guv.
What is the secret of your friendship?
COLIN: (Laughs) We’ve never come to fisticuffs yet.
TERRY: Well, Tamworth on tour could be.
COLIN: Yes, could be. I owe Terry an awful lot because he is a bit of a trendsetter and first got me into technology with iPhones and iPads and things like that and then he wore Crocs and I copied his Crocs and I’ve now worn nothing but Crocs for 18 years.
It’s all I ever wear now and I owe it all to Terry Molloy.
TERRY: I should have realised immediately when he took out shares in Crocs.
COLIN: You and I, oh, and Sylvester (McCoy) as well, are keeping the Croc industry going.
I have a rack in my utility room and I must have about 20 pairs. (Laughs) Terry and I are a couple of old Crocs really.
TERRY: I also wear these trousers that are made in Zimbabwe and they are ridiculously loud so I don’t suppose I’ll be allowed to wear them on tour.
COLIN: And my posing pouch and tutu won’t go down well either.
You are both in your 70s now. What keeps you passionate about acting?
COLIN: If you’re an actor, you’re an actor, I think is the answer.
We both had the opportunity to do other things when we were younger and we knew the profession we were entering and the reason we entered it is because it was what we HAD to do, not what we wanted to do or quite liked to do.
Neither of us wanted to be famous. I think that’s the kiss of death for an actor. I just knew I had to do it. (Laughs) It was the only thing I could do well.
TERRY: You don’t find many actors retiring. When you keel over on stage or fall down a flight of steps, that’s when you retire.
It’s something you have to do and it is the one job you look forward to doing.
There might be trials and elements to it, but the actuality of putting on a character to an audience is the driving force for most actors. It is in you.
COLIN: My retirement has been dotted throughout my career. When my children were growing up I spent time with them, which was lovely.
If I had been a solicitor, which is what I started out as, I probably wouldn’t even recognise my children. TERRY: I couldn’t do a nine to five job. Spiritually and emotionally it would just kill me dead. I remember someone asking Bill Nighy why he wanted to be an actor and he said ‘Well, there are more days off ’.