Girl on a Bicycle

Deborah Watling

RIP Deborah Watling

The great Deborah Watling has died of cancer at the age of 69. She was most famous for playing Victoria Waterfield, the Victorian companion to Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor in Doctor Who from 1967 to 1968.

Born in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire in 1948, Deborah was the daughter of actors Jack Watling and Patricia Hicks and soon followed in their footsteps into the profession (her siblings, Dilys and Giles - now the Conservative MP for Clacton, also entered the profession) as a child actress with a regular role in 1958's HG Wells' Invisible Man. Her first major role was as the titular Alice in Dennis Potter's 1965 Wednesday Play which explored the relationship between Lewis Carroll and his child muse, Alice Liddell. The production later formed the inspiration for a big screen adaptation, 1985's Dreamchild.

It was her lead in Alice that led to her being cast in Doctor Who as companion Victoria, alongside Patrick Troughton as the Doctor and Frazer Hines as Jamie. It is arguably her most endearing and enduring role, despite the BBC (in their infinite 'wisdom') wiping the vast majority of her work on the series; The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Enemy of the World remain the only two serials that exist in their entirety, with The Web of Fear - in which she her father Jack amxe a guest appearance - still missing one episode. Loved by fans, Deborah was a regular on the convention circuit and reprised the role of Victoria in the Children in Need 1993 special Dimensions in Time and the fan-made 1995 release Downtime, as well as appearing in the Big Finish audio adventure Three's a Crowd, and the 50th anniversary comedy The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.

Away from Doctor Who, Deborah appeared alongside pop stars David Essex and Ringo Starr in 1973's That'll Be The Day and Cliff Richard in his film Take Me High the following year, as well as a regular role in soap opera The Newcomers in 1969 and guest appearances in shows such as Rising Damp, Doctor in Charge and The Jim Davidson Show. 

With Beth Morris, catching the eye of David Essex and Ringo Starr in That'll Be The Day

With Cliff in the 1974 film Take Me High

Perhaps her other most memorable TV role was as naughty Norma Baker, 'the twin engine type' who got the boys in uniform all a flutter in the 1979 WWII drama series Danger UXB.

A great and beautiful actress and a lovely woman, Deborah Watling will be much missed by Who fans everywhere.

RIP

The (Other) Day Of The Doctor

It's a very exciting time for Doctor Who. It's the 50th anniversary of course, which will be marked by a host of programmes including the feature length episode The Day Of The Doctor, but this week fans (and by that I mean proper ones, not just squeeing fangirls on both sides of the Atlantic who miss Tennant) have only had one thing in mind and that's the following press release from the BBC yesterday after speculation which sprung up on Sunday;

A number of early episodes of Doctor Who, which were believed to have been permanently lost, have been returned to the BBC.

The wait is almost over!

And so, fans are gearing up for tomorrow's big reveal regarding what episodes have actually been unearthed. It is to be believed the episodes are Troughton stories and I've heard some very tantalising gossip/theories that it may well be Web Of Fear and Enemy of the World

The speculation seems to be confirmed by the fact that Troughton's co-stars Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling will be on hand at the launch tomorrow.

It's expected to be revealed that the stories will be available on sale at itunes. This notion of a swift sale seems to imply that the BBC may have had to pay for these missing episodes; highly irregular as in previous cases of returned programmes, they've been handed back gratis. Potentially the BBC is in a tight spot paying for something they've produced themselves, so I guess they have to recoup it somehow.

Either way, and whatever episodes do actually turn up, it's a very exciting time for us fans!

Deborah Watling : "The Two Engine Type"

I'm currently enjoying a box set of the classic 1979 WWII drama Danger UXB, a gripping serial about the real life work of the Royal Engineer Corps Bomb Disposal Unit during the Blitz.

It's an excellent drama that has crucially never really dated. Some 70s TV inevitably dates no matter how good it is, but I think where Danger UXB is lucky is that it was made in the 70s but already set in the past, that of the 1940s.

Away from the lead Anthony Andrews and his excellent ensemble team of Sappers - Maurice Roeves, Kenneth Cranham, George Innes, Ken Kitson and Robert Pugh to name but a few - there's also the delightful former Doctor Who companion Deborah Watling in a completely different role (and with blonde hair) that of the promiscuous daughter of Andrews landlady, little Norma Baker. The girl who gets her kicks having it off with anyone in a uniform during the bombing raids!

She gets some terrific and deeply flirtatious lines which help to inject some comic relief into proceedings. My favourites occur in episode two 'Unsung Heroes' in which she ensnares Gordon, Anthony Andrews batman. She delights in casually undressing down to her bra before him and aware of his gawping tells him that an RAF boy took her dancing once and declared that she "was the two engine type!" 

Later, during an air raid she disrobes to have her wicked way with him. Unfortunately the poor boy is stunned, to which she replies "Come on Gordon, I'm getting cold. They won't bite you!"

Here's some suitably military-esque publicity pictures of Deborah from the time

She's certainly standing to attention in that last shot!

Jenna-Louise Coleman Joins Doctor Who

The former Emmerdale and Waterloo Road actress (as well as appearing in Captain America) Jenna-Louise Coleman has been announced as the new companion in Doctor Who when the Ponds leave.

Excellent news I think. She's a great actress and easy on the eye.

However, you can't please everyone can you? And it has come to my attention that some 'charmer' posted this on a forum today;

'She looks chubby. I hope she's not prone to sweating in the running up and down corridor scenes'

?!?!?!

The little sad act, when challenged, went on to post

'I'm sorry but overweight people are prone to sweating'

We've had this discussion before I know (http://randomramblingsthoughtsandfiction.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/what-im-up-to-and-whats-currently.html) but seriously what is wrong with society these days?! For this little tit's information; Jenna-Louise is not overweight, she's.... wait for it....a real woman! Not one of those stick thin computer enhanced wank fetishes you salivate over whose only body fat is disproportionately placed around the chest and rear that cannot be physically possible! I do genuinely worry about these saddoes and how they'll react to real women when they step out of their seedy smelling bedrooms and come blinking into the light of the real world and see what real women actually look like. But worse, I do worry if there are girls out there who actually hear this kind of guff and start worrying about their own bodies.

One can only wonder and worry at what this delightful little trollish tosspiece would think of Who former companions like....

Victoria (Deborah Watling)

Romana (Mary Tamm)

Tegan (Janet Fielding)

Peri (Nicola Bryant)

.... he'd probably call them obese!!