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'Devious and the John Nathan Turner legacy'...
(sounds like a Harry Potter book title??)
- a personal view from Stephen Cranford
I still remember the extraordinary way in which John Nathan-Turner and Gary Downie came in to my life in the early 1990s. I was a police officer and I met them when I was conducting some house to house enquiries. They were highly amused that their local policeman was a Dr Who fan, we instantly struck up a rapport, and we became very close friends.
Our friendship went far beyond Doctor Who (which we did talk about to some degree) - both John and Gary became a real inspiration to me. They were always there for me, and their friendship, knowledge, wisdom and support became a precious part of my life. They helped me at all levels - from encouraging me to leave the police and pursue my love of broadcasting (I now work for the BBC); John and Gary also helped and supported Devious in many ways - the biggest contribution was arranging for Jon Pertwee to feature in it. It was a great moment for David and Tony (and me, Chris and Ashley) to attend the Panopticon convention with JNT introducing the Pertwee scene on stage!
Tragically, ill health affected John and Gary's final years - the last time I saw JNT was at my 30th birthday party - he died soon after, and Gary fought cancer for 4 years - finally losing the battle in January this year. I was touched when Gary left their large Doctor Who collection to me. It contained a lot of scripts and merchandise, but there were also many VHS, umatic and betacam tapes and paperwork which John had saved from the skips when the production office at Threshold House closed down. Because I'm a long term friend of the Doctor Who 'Restoration Team' I was able to return this precious material to the BBC. Look out for an article in a forthcoming issue of Doctor Who Magazine* for more details!!
Stephen Cranford
[* the Doctor Who Magazine in question was published on 7th December 2006]
