A trip back in time

This blog is designed to cover my costuming work, but today I thought I’d share something a little special with you, dating directly from Tom’s era as The Doctor.
It’s a bit of a selective snapshot between the end of the Jon Pertwee’s Doctor and the start of Tom Baker’s rein as the Time Lord – but for me it encapsulated and defines my memories of the time and transports me back there in a flash.

In the mid 1970s I started keeping a scrapbook in which I stuck any Doctor Who photos (often taken from the Radio Times) or related memorabilia I found that interested me.
These particularly included the two waves of in-packet giveaways from Weetabix in 1975 and 1976, as well as by Typhoo Tea also in 1976.

I eventually spanned three scrapbooks, which where in fact small, square ring binders, in which I made my own insert pages from folded foolscap paper.

You can click on the headings for each book to download a PDF file of each book

The Black book
You can just see where I have sellotaped the letters D.R. WHO across the front, and there was, in the lower left, a cutout of Stye from The Sontaran Experiment.

The book contains a real mix of odds and ends, including a lot of press interest that surrounded the Loch Ness Monster (see above), my interest fired up by Terror Of The Zygons, a personal favourite adventure of the time.
You’ll also spot a number of the wrappers from Dalek Death Ray ice lollies that I used to get from Toni Bell ice cream van that frequented my street, but a little more on that later.

The Green book
Despite its rather dull cover, this was my real pride and joy as this was the one that Tom Baker signed for me during his book signing visit to my home town of Edgware.

He had already signed my copy of the Target novel for Doctor Who And The Loch Ness Monster (see left).

Now, my name is spelt s-t-e-v-e-n, which is the US spelling, having been named after Steve McQueen, who was very popular in 1966. With the UK spelling being StePHen, I used to get very annoyed when it was spelt wrong. So when asked ‘Who was this for?’ I replied ‘To Steven with a V’.

Tom then signed it ‘To Steven with a V from Who with a Tom Baker’!

I still have that book, and would never part with it (see left).

Anyway, after looking over my 12 inch high Daleks made of Lego, he moved on to see my scrapbooks.

Suitably impress (or gently polite, delete as your personal view) he signed the inside page: Congratulations To Steven from a happy Who! Tom Baker. (see right)

The main item of note in this book is my collection of original Walls Dalek Death Ray wrappers! (see left)

The were available on the Toni Bell ice cream van that regularly came round our street when I was little.
I would always have one, and religously saved the wrappers, the reverse of which had a different Dalek fact or story.
I never really knew how many were in a complete set, as there was no indication of collect all . . .. I did however, find 16 (see right - I’ve artworked all 16 to give an impression of how they looked when new).

I think at the time all this inspired me more than ever and it spilled into my third, and most expansive volume.

The Red book
After the endorsement of The Doctor himself, I threw everything I could find into this one.

In here I put a lot of cut-out pictures from a spare copy of the Radio Times 10th Anniversay Special (see right).

Also in here you’ll find a lot of cut-outs from boxes of Typhoo Tea promoting their card giveaway and mail-in for a wallchart/poster and annual-style book (see left).

The book, when it arrived, was an absolute gem (see right), and far, far better than that year’s official Annual (see far right).

It was packed with photos and features, something the published annuals sadly lacked, being made up of (for me) boring comic strips and drawings :(

I still have this annual today, and with the scrapbooks, defines my golden era of Doctor Who!