With profuse apologies to Messrs Lennon and McCartney it really was twenty years ago (this month) that the BBC’s Doctor Who sketch “Curse of Fatal Death” aired on BBC1 during the 1999 Red Nose Day festivities. Featuring a host of guest actors such as Jonathon Pryce, Rowan Atkinson, Joanna Lumley, Jim Broadbent, Julia Sawalha and the unforgettable Grant brothers Hugh and Richard E., the spoof of Doctor Who has gone down in Who-lore as …. (well the jury’s still out on that one actually….(is it canon? does it count? is this the first female Doctor? is this Steven Moffat’s finest work?)).

Whatever your opinion you can box it all up and vent it on the many outlets fandom and the internet provide. All we can do here on these pages is tell it from our perspective.

How it all started

Out of nowhere we got a phone call asking if we still had our Tardis console and set as used in the Devious Jon Pertwee scene which had by then been seen at a convention. That convention was marking the sad passing of Jon and the scene was introduced to the audience by JNT and a number of the team went along and introduced the piece, and so the seed was sown we guess. There had also (we think) been an article by then about Doctor Who fan films and maybe some images of our sets had been featured – although we must stress we are hazy on the dates here so that may not be accurate. Anyway, notwithstanding and be that as it may, we got a call and we were happy to confirm we did indeed have a Tardis interior set. During subsequent calls it transpired that they wanted more walls than we had at the time and so we said we’d build some more to the same pattern. We also agreed that these walls would be hollow – i.e. we would not put solid backs to the roundels and we removed the backs on our existing four walls. 

Also during conversation it was realised we had plenty of daleks on hand (we had three or four at the time) and so it was decided we would supply some as well. Looking back we should have agreed to have the balls repainted black (from blue) so they could have been used in the episode one climax effects shot but at the time we were stupidly precious over that sort of thing. These days the Devious dalek balls are stored in bags away from the dalek props and changing colours is not a major issue but at the time those early props were more primitive. 

Getting things ready

The Tardis console’s transformer had been giving us issues leading to difficulties with the column rising and falling and so we changed the windings to ensure it would move. In the event it did move too well and a tad too fast (as has been commented). We did have plans in case the mechanism failed…

Come the filming days and the day before (or maybe before that?) a massive lorry arrived at Ashley’s house and blocked the roads for the whole of Sussex whilst the sets and props were loaded. Nine walls (seven roundelled ones plus the scanner screen wall and the internal door) and four columns were loaded, along with three daleks. A new image which has come to light shows that internal door wall strapped to the inside of the lorry but ultimately it wasn’t used in the set construction.

and so to Pinewood Studios

Wow – not something we had ever expected to take part in. It had been decided that two or three of us were to be on hand each day of filming plus the construction day beforehand. Stephen and Ashley went up each of the four days, David on Day 2 of filming and Chris on day 3. Or something like that – it’s all too hazy now! We do remember it was our commute to Pinewood and became a “normal thing” for a while if greatly surreal. Next to filming was the 007 James Bond set although we didn’t take a peek (although Chris may have popped over).

Once there we were in the hands of the props people. We were charged with getting our set constructed in the right place as shown on the plan and Stephen and Ashley proceeded to get the set build, very ably assisted by the professionals on site. The Tardis walls had a very good plastic / pvc semi-transparent trace added so they would take back lighting. At one point Ashley was even asked to take a quick look over the BBC daleks and see if they needed anything doing. Great to have been asked and luckily all seemed in order as we’re not sure he would have wanted to interfere. We also saw the official BBC Police Box on set, and we were given a little tour of what was happening.

Below is a set of images which chart the progress of the set construction. They then lead up to the actual filming days. We were given full permission to take photographs and our own video footage (for our own use). We had a couple of tapes of footage and it was retained by the BBC until a few weeks after broadcast as agreed. We have a few pics of us posed with some of the cast but they are not included here – rather we are including some shots of the production as seen by us.

During the filming days we enjoyed queueing for food from the catering truck – and eating meals on the catering bus (Ashley recalls being seated behind Jim Broadbent at one meal) and we were generally keeping out of anyone’s way until we were needed for anything. One time in which we were needed was for the opening shot in the Tardis console room when it was used for Rowan Atkinson and Jonathon Pryce – Stephen had to lie on the floor curled around the unseen side on the console and heep a wary hand against the flywheel of the rotor motor in case it failed. Naturally it did give us an issue and so the windings were changed causing it to go slightly faster than we had wanted. As it turned out Ashley and Chris also got to play daleks in the main control room scene (Ashley was in the silver/blue dalek which is dismissed by Richard E. Doctor whilst Chris was in the Llangollen-loaned black dalek during the Hugh Doctor scene) whilst David Ashley and Stephen played daleks earlier in the story – great fun and an opportunity to show how (not) to drive a dalek as David recalls…

I was up there for the second day filming which was most of Rowan Atkinson’s scenes and Richard E. Grant.   This included a shot which should have looked spectacular – the first appearance of the Daleks. The Master comes through a door followed by all the Daleks they had, which fan out behind him, as the camera pull out and upwards.  Our three Daleks were included  As I direct Devious and play a major character I had never actually driven a Dalek, where as Ashley and Steve had played many.  They also decided to give me the one with the crappiest wheels.  The net result is that when all these Daleks are supposed to be filing out at great speed I could not even get mine moving and had to be given a push from stage hands behind the door!  In fact in the final video I am sure I can see me struggling to get through the door in one of the shots actually used.  Luckily I was not the only slow Dalek but the fact is we were all so slow that they could not use this time consuming crane shot in the final episode!

Also during the three days we found ourselves being well used by Lion Films who were making a documentary of the sketch and so we were interviewed about the sets and props (Ashley still cringes at the thought of his interview)…

After waiting seemingly ages for my particular interview slot I then ran out of sensible things to say – as far as I recall I was trying to say that these dalek props were something normally in storage as we don’t exactly use them a lot and I am chided to this very day by my friends as I said something like “we don’t take them to parties”. Eh? I suppose I was thinking of the conventions we’ve been to – or the time I first unveiled the first two daleks I had built to my friends – which was at an “unveiling party” at my house. That in itself was a mad evening. Anyway – but “parties”? – what the hell was that all about? I’ll never live it down.

The Documentary Crew used one of our daleks for some extra comic sketches filmed around the production and one of our four played the dalek on those occasions. They were fun to do and kept us busy. Meanwhile here’s David with some other recollections…

My other abiding memory is that, as I was only there on the second day, I was not given the full talk about what was supposed to be secret and what was not.  Ashley and Steve knew all the actors turning up the following day to play the different Doctors, but were not to tell anyone outside the set.  I did not know I was not supposed to mention it so when we went to the catering truck for breakfast remember phoning home loudly telling my wife all the people who were going to be in it.

Oh yes, and the sets – what I remember about the sets is that they were soo simple.  Vacuum shaped plastic which was stapled to the wall and covered in dirt.

Mind you, when lit it all looked rather good. And then of course David remembers…

After this comes the thing which I now tell people is my main claim to fame.  They were filming the part where the Master pulls off his sleeve to reveal that his hand has been replaced with a plunger. This shot consists of the Master and a Dalek in the background, which twists dramatically on cue to see the plunger.  I was that Dalek!

Here is that image… (followed by a selection from our experience with Comic Relief…