Doctor Who - Documentary s08e14 Episode Script

NARRATOR: Preparation for Doctor Who's eighth season saw the production team, led by producer Barry Letts, on the hunt to cast the Doctor's new assistant.
When we were casting for a new companion for the Doctor, one of whom, and obviously the one who was finally chosen, was Katy Manning, Barry wrote a little scene of supernatural happenings in a church and a book that bursts into flame or disintegrates or something.
And he got the actresses, Katy among them, to perform it.
MANNING: And he said, ''There's a hat stand over there.
''And there is a big fur hat on it and ''you see the fur hat and suddenly ''the fur hat starts to turn into the Devil itself.
'' I saw this Devil, he grew, he took over, he started to come towards me, I ran, I screamed, you know, I did all of that, improvised it.
The next day, I got the job.
(STAMPING FEET) Barry had always been rather proud of his little audition piece, you see.
And we talked about that.
And I think I said, ''Why don't you ''do a supernatural story?'' You know.
We're dealing with the supernatural, the occult, magic.
-Science.
-Magic! Science, Miss Hawthorne.
And he said, ''Well, we can't do magic.
''We can't do supernatural Doctor Who.
''But we can make it look like supernatural and look like magic.
'' And I said, ''As long as we come up with a reasonably ''plausible scientific explanation'' I'm not sure we did, actually, but we did our best.
''we can get away with it, you see.
'' It's a trick.
A horrible conjuring trick.
NARRATOR: Having previously submitted script ideas during Patrick Troughton's tenure, Letts was still keen to write for the series.
But one particular barrier stood in his way.
LETTS: So many producers, script editors, directors had been writing for their own shows that The Writers' Guild were starting to kick up.
And so the BBC had said, ''We're not going to say no but you must always ask permission.
'' Now, I couldn't ask permission in case they said no.
But equally well, I wasn't going to do anything which was a real deception by putting it in somebody else's name.
And I thought, ''Well, what am I going to do?'' And I thought, ''Oh, I know.
I'll collaborate.
'' And then my wife said, ''Why don't you ask Bob Sloman, Robert Sloman?'' And he said he'd love to.
And so we wrote ''The Daemons''.
We put ''The Daemons'' out under a nom de plume, Guy Leopold.
Because my second name is Leopold.
I'm Barry Leopold Letts.
And his son's name is Guy.
NARRATOR: The scripts went out to a very happy cast.
MANNING: When we got these scripts, you know, and I was reading mine and Jon and I were off to work.
''This is weird.
'' I said, ''I swear, this is the audition piece ''that, you know, is based on or at least'' There was certainly Devil in it and all the rest of it.
And I can tell you, I didn't realise that Guy Leopold was Barry for a very long time indeed.
I certainly didn't realise it when I first read it.
All I thought was, ''Whoever has written this knows us.
''He must be part of the ensemble.
'' -Oh, no! -That'll learn him.
I think probably they felt they got a bit more to get their teeth into in acting terms.
-Thirteen-nil.
-They're lucky it wasn't 1 1 3-nil.
What a useless lot.
You can see Barry's opinion and attitude and appreciation of us as people.
He's handling it like an expert! Like a man possessed, you mean.
Look out, he's coming back! I'll try and draw him off.
No, you keep away.
It's me he's after, not you.
MANNING: To give Richard Franklin his moment of riding that motorbike.
To give John Levene his favourite moment, which is, you know, punch-ups.
(LAUGHING) And the fact that Katy had the map upside-down was absolutely typical.
If you look at the map the right way up we might eventually get there.
It was beautifully, beautifully observed.
Which way is it? -Umthat way.
-Thank you very much.
NARRATOR: The director for ''The Daemons'' was to be Doctor Who stalwart Christopher Barry.
I hadn't, er, been on Doctor Who and directed a story for four or five years.
Although I had enjoyed very much the earlier ones that I'd done but I wanted to stretch myself a bit and not become, which I thought I was in danger of becoming, a Doctor Who director.
And at this time, I was not getting as far as I wanted to outside Doctor Who.
I was getting pitched into Z Cars whenever there was a vacancy and that sort of thing.
But when this came along, with such a nice script and with Barry producing and everything, I felt I would like to have another go at a Doctor Who.
I liked the archaeological feature of it because I'm very interested in archaeology.
And, um, the black magic element in it also was attractive, although it's not a subject that I'd indulge in at all.
There's a Satanist cult in this village and last night -they held a sabbat.
-A sabbat? Yes, an occult ceremony to call up the Devil.
-And it worked! The Devil came! -Nonsense, Jo.
BARRY: The original script was called ''The Demons'', without the A.
And I don't know why, it suddenly occurred to me that it would give it a slight more air of mystery if it was spelt the sort of old-fashioned way, which was slightly more associated, I thought, with black magic anyway.
And it was more intriguing.
I suggested it and Barry said, ''Fine.
'' NARRATOR: Rehearsals saw the arrival of a certain white witch.
I've come here to protest, -and protest I shall.
-Now, this is Miss Hawthorne, a prominent local resident who's very much opposed to Professor Horner's dig.
I found in Miss Hawthorne quite a lot of what there is in me anyway.
Um, I mean, I don't rush around saying I'm a witch, white or otherwise, because I'm not.
But I do certainly believe in the supernatural.
-I'm a witch.
-You see? I told you she was daft.
Ronnie Marsh, who was at that time head of BBC Serials, came to a late rehearsal.
I knew him anyway because I'd been in a touring play with him, playing his wife, actually.
And he knew that I knew a certain amount about the supernatural and suggested that I should be used as a sort of reference guide if need be.
Death and disaster await you.
Believe me, I know.
But that's just it.
Why should we believe you and how do you know? When we were in any discussion about black magic or white magic or any other kind of sorcery, Damaris was your woman.
It's written in the stars.
''When Beltane is come, ''tread softly, for lo, the Prince himself is nigh.
'' And tonight is Beltane.
I think what I suggested to them was certain actions.
Be still and return to thy resting.
Be at peace in thy sleeping.
There were one or two things that I would have suggested they didn't do.
I wasn't sure about ''so mote it be'', which instantly evokes the Masons.
As my will, so mote it be.
However, Roger seemed to like it, so what matter? Look, what is going on here? All hell seems to be breaking loose.
Do you know, Sergeant, you're exactly right.
Come on.
BARRY: At the outside rehearsal, Damaris Hayman was very unhappy because she was being asked by me to play her as a bit of a fuddy-duddy.
You're a fool, sir.
If you won't help me, I must find someone who will.
HAYMAN: Chris had a theory that she was a dithery old lady.
I knew she couldn't conceivably be because if she had the strength to still winds and break free from the Master and that kind of thing And indeed blip people over the head with a crystal ball in a reticule, she wasn't that old and she certainly wasn't dithery.
And by the grace of God, Barry Letts and Ronnie Marsh came in and said, ''Let her alone, she knows what she's doing.
'' After which I was allowed to do what I knew was right.
On these occasions, the outcome's a certainty.
When I saw her recently she, um, told me again about this in no uncertain terms.
'Cause she is an outspoken lady.
(LAUGHS) Knows her own mind.
And indeed, I think she was very right about that.
It's a great pity they didn't listen to you in the first place.
If only they had.
Oh, what a tale I'll have to tell them now! NARRATOR: Traditionally, a Doctor Who story might feature one week of location filming.
But ''The Daemons''had other ideas.
HEDDEN: When we were all in the office for ''The Daemons'' in the planning stages, it was quite obvious that the story that was outside, if you like, as opposed to the interiors of the church, for instance, couldn't possibly be done in a week.
Um, and so the money had to be found, as they say, to do two weeks.
The fact that there was so much film really did excite me, because there was only going to be three days in the studio and the studio is the most hair-raising time.
Filming is hair-raising enough, but at least one feels one's in control there.
And we're not going to have the plugs pulled out at 1 0:00 at night if you haven't finished.
HEDDEN: Barry was a naughty boy.
He thought, ''Well if we're going to do a story like this, ''let's go for it.
Let's do it.
''And if it overspends and we all get into trouble, ''well, we'll sort it out after the event.
'' (LAUGHS) So, as simple as, that's what we did.
NARRATOR: Key to the success of ''The Daemons'' would be the casting of its village, Devil's End.
BARRY: To find the village that we needed for ''The Daemons'', I went round, I got out some archaeological books and looked up practically every long barrow in the south of England, and went round visiting them.
Although the barrows at the top of the hill above Aldbourne were not as good as some of the long barrows I'd seen, the fact that they were so close to such an ideal village, which was really a quintessential village with the village green and the church and the pub, those all are important to the scenes.
All these things were within easy reach of one another and one wasn't going to waste time driving from A to B.
I think we were all absolutely elated to think that this is where we were going to spend the next two weeks.
And I remember Jon and I actually arrived in a helicopter.
I know that it actually happens in the story with Mike and Benton.
And we remembered just seeing this sea of faces looking so excited.
And all cheering, you know, as we arrived in this amazing little village.
HAYMAN: The people of Aldbourne were very friendly and very welcoming.
And there was a fraught moment in the middle of every afternoon when the children who were bused in to the comprehensive in Swindon were bused back and dumped on the green.
And that was autograph time in a big way.
Jon was marvellous with the children and very often told them stories.
And occasionally gave them rides in Bessie.
BARRY: I found it very friendly and, um, when we occasionally asked one or two of them to appear, if they'd like to appear in a scene just as extras, they would readily agree.
I mean, there was I remember one shot somewhere where a woman grabs a child and pulls it indoors.
And others where windows are slammed down, that sort of thing.
NARRATOR: But the scale of the location filming prompted an unusual shooting style.
BARRY: One of the compromises we had to make, because there was a lot of filming, was the idea of having three cameras crystal-locked, three film cameras crystal-locked, so that I could shoot television-style.
Lots of lovely hush.
Quiet! There was so much stuff to shoot.
And although we'd got the two weeks filming, Christopher didn't suddenly have two months' editing time, you know, he'd just got the usual amount of editing time.
So therefore, this would bring his editing down.
Welcome back, viewers.
And here at the Devil's Hump, the excitement is intense.
Very great problem for me was anticipating where I was going to shoot.
Because I was perhaps overconscious of not shooting too much footage, instead of letting all cameras run the whole time, which one would have done had they been video cameras, one, I was trying to cut, if I wasn't going to use a camera for another couple of minutes or something, to cut and come back in in time for the shot.
And I found this rather hair-raising, I'm afraid.
First couple of days there were a few hiccups but, um No, it worked very well.
Very well.
NARRATOR: Aldbourne hosted a night shoot for the story's opening scene.
BARRY: I enjoyed very much shooting the storm scene 'cause it was very dramatic and also there was plenty of sort of opportunity for gothic images.
HEDDEN: I was sent up the tower with the prop man to pour water down the gargoyle.
And other people were, um, rustling trees, because it was an absolutely still night.
It was absolutely as still as the grave.
It really was.
We got the local fire brigade to come in and supply the rain and we had an enormous wind machine providing the wind.
HEDDEN: It went wrong.
And the wind machine blew all the water back into the firemen's faces.
So we had to get that right and then do that again.
BARRY: Then we had a man with a dog.
I think possibly we may have had some trouble there and had to use the dog handler to play the scene to get the dog to do Behave properly and do what was wanted in the scene.
HEDDEN: The black beast, that wasn't an animal at all.
Because that was never in the script.
And Christopher said that he He suddenly said, ''Oh, I want something black and creepy ''to go through the gravestones.
'' And he said, ''Your hat!'' And I said, ''What about my hat?'' He said, ''Oh, put some nylon on it.
'' It was one of It was fashionable at that time.
It was one of those big black furry bonnets that you tied with stringy things with bobbles on the end.
And um And he said, ''Put some nylon line on it and wiggle it through.
'' The problem arose that the dog saw this bonnet and was very attracted to it.
And, um, we had to take the dog and put it away because it kept chasing my bonnet.
And really, animals are very Animals are much easier than actors, you know.
Much easier.
Except cats.
I think one thing that brought us together, this was later on in the filming, was the fact that we had this ghastly snowstorm.
And this morning I woke up, opened my eyes, it was very bright, but also it was silent.
You know how it is with snowstorms.
And I rushed to the window and looked out and thought, ''Oh, my goodness, there goes today's shooting.
'' And I later went down to breakfast and looked out of the window in the restaurant, just happened to go to the window at that time.
And there was the man who looked after Bessie driving the car along the High Street.
And he was standing up sort of wiping the window because the windscreen wasn't wiping the snow away fast enough.
Anyway, it was something that brought us all together with the difficulty.
But Barry merely sort of said, ''Oh, well, we'll take an early lunch ''and hope it thaws.
''The forecast is that it's going to thaw.
'' And indeed it did.
NARRATOR: As filming marched on, the cast was joined by an unusual monster.
FRANKLIN: I think that Bok worked particularly well.
That was a lovely little alien.
BARRY: Stanley Mason was the man chosen to play Bok.
Could have been a woman but it was a man.
He was chosen because of his agility as an acrobat, I think, and his small stature.
Because we wanted Bok not to be an enormous, threatening thing, but this rather nasty little daemon with an A in the middle.
His suit was a sort of all rubber.
And it was all one pull-in thing.
And then his mask and head was done on top.
The make-up people and everything had to get his head off so he could Otherwise he couldn't have lunch.
But then if he wanted to go to the loo, just to get his rubber suit off and back up again would take nearly the whole lunch hour.
So he didn't get any lunch.
I'd always thought it must have been hideously hot in there.
But in fact, he said he was cold.
He was wonderful.
Not once, either studio or location, did he ever, ever complain.
I think he did splendidly for us.
NARRATOR: But Jon Pertwee was not quite so patient.
Jon, on the whole, was very good to work with.
But there was one occasion on location when he got rather tetchy about some hold-up that was involving him having to sort of stand around.
We may have very little time left.
Patience could sometimes Wasn't his greatest virtue, when it was cold and wet and damp and everything.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
All right, I'll explain once again.
Only this time, please listen.
I could see that a hissy fit was on its way.
I didn't know what was going to happen.
BARRY: And he got a bit annoyed and drove off on his motorbike and went AWOL for a while.
Never give Jon Pertwee a motorbike when he's having a hissy fit, 'cause he's not going to be around very long.
This sort of Bok came out in him.
And, you know, he just sort of went And he was And he got on that motorbike and disappeared for some time.
HEDDEN: Then Christopher had his hissy fit.
I said, ''Don't worry, he'll be back.
Don't worry.
'' And he was only gone about five or 1 0 minutes.
And it was all right.
But everybody was cold and wet.
You know, it's one of those things.
A part of the job, isn't it, getting cold and wet? Do you know, Sergeant, I sometimes wish I worked in a bank.
NARRATOR: Location filming shifted to the action set around the maypole.
BARRY: One thing that the village of Aldbourne lent itself well to was the sort of carnival atmosphere of the maypole dance.
And we managed to engage a very famous team of Morris dancers, the Headington Quarry Morris Men from Headington, Oxford.
HEDDEN: We shot the whole thing and they did the whole dance all the way through.
And then Christopher said, ''Right, we're going to do something else now.
'' So we did something else.
So they all went to the hostelry.
We did something else.
And then we came back and he said, ''We want to do the Start from the very beginning ''and we'll tell you when to stop.
''Because we're going to put something else in there.
'' So they did that.
''Stop!'' Right, we did something else, back to the pub.
So, consequently, the maypole dancing got more boisterous and less precise as the day went through.
And, um, sort of by 3.
00, it was quite different from what it was at whatever it was, half past nine.
Yes, yes, most amusing.
Nick Courtney and I were placed on the edge of the area, watching what was going on.
And as an actor I thought, ''Well, hey, hang on.
''We've all been involved in a great story.
''And we seem to not have much to do here.
'' And I said to Nick, ''Look, would you mind if I go and speak to Barry ''and ask him if we can have a line ''and a close-up to leave the story with?'' And Nick said, ''No, do it.
'' So I went off to Barry, who was somewhere by the maypole, and I said, ''Barry, is there any chance that Nick and I could, um, ''you know, have an exit line, as it were?'' And he said, ''What do you suggest?'' And I said, ''Well, um, I could ask the Brig if he fancies a dance.
'' Fancy a dance, Brigadier? That's kind of you, Captain Yates.
I think I'd rather have a pint.
(LAUGHS) After which Nick Courtney said, ''Well, I think that just says it all.
''The Brig is an alcoholic and Mike Yates is gay!'' NARRATOR: But Jon Pertwee had one more nasty surprise for Christopher Barry.
BARRY: I think it's common knowledge that I had a little altercation with Jon about the fact that he wanted to shoot on the Saturday, whereas the Sunday was scheduled.
Because he had a cabaret appearance down in Portsmouth, I think, and wanted to have the Sunday to rest.
It happened that my sister Brenda had invited me to come to her wedding and I couldn't go because I had to work.
And so I sent a telegram, which in those days used to be read out by the best man, saying, ''Sorry I can't be at your wedding.
Doctor Who has detained me.
'' It got a laugh, I gather.
NARRATOR: With location filming at an end, the cast and crew returned to Television Centre.
Most of the filming in the studio, when we got there after the location stuff, was in the so-called cavern.
The cavern.
I must get to the cavern! BARRY: Which was so named, rather hypocritically, because it was thought that we mustn't offend Christian susceptibilities by pretending it was in a hallowed ground, like a crypt.
But it so obviously was a crypt, I mean, it didn't look even remotely like a cavern.
MASTER: I've been expecting you.
BARRY: I chose Stephen Thorne for Azal chiefly on his height because I wanted to emphasise that, and it was easier to start with a tall actor.
We made him taller, of course.
But also because as a radio actor principally, I knew he had a very good voice.
Who is this? And although this was enhanced with echo and one thing and another, it was very menacing and sounded very good.
He must be eliminated.
DICKS: I was never totally happy with the ending of ''The Daemons'', simply because I'm very keen on logic, you know, and it seemed to me that, um the Daemons, if they'd been observing Earth, would have seen many more instances of unselfishness and self-sacrifice.
So when Jo's offer throws him into a total tizzy, you know, I mean, I never quite bought that.
I never quite believed it.
No, he's a good man! Kill me, not him! MANNING: Jo was going to give up her or was offering to give up her life for the Doctor's.
And I think it was probably very timely that she did because I don't know whether anybody else noticed, I certainly did, but Azal's tights were beginning to get rather baggy round the ankles.
So I think it was time for him to go and find some tights that actually fitted.
NARRATOR: So a wrap was called on what many viewers would see as a Doctor Who classic.
I remember that by the end, I probably felt exhausted, I don't remember that, but I certainly was pleased with the result.
I liked what I'd done and I thought it was the best Doctor Who I'd done.
Chap with the wings there.
Five rounds rapid.
I think the atmosphere of everyone liking everyone came over.
We had a cast that everyone thought that most people were doing a really good job.
And we had a very friendly local population in a very beautiful situation.
HEDDEN: What I enjoyed about ''The Daemons''? There was less of this peering round corridors and ''This way, Doctor!'' and all that sort of thing.
I think also it was a damn good script.
And it looked good on the screen.
And it worked.
And it was interesting and unusual.
Aldbourne is still a charming village.
My wife and I went there some time ago and I think we went and had a drink in the pub and saw that they had The Cloven Hoof sign up there.
And we went over to the church and looked around.
It brought back memories.
In the 40 years since we made it, it always seems to be foremost among the questions I get asked about.
And because of that, I suppose, I feel that I had done something that people liked and remembered and so it entered my heart as part of my persona, my life story.