06x03 - Highlander - The Jamie McCrimmon Story

Episode transcripts for the TV show, "Doctor Who Documentary".*
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06x03 - Highlander - The Jamie McCrimmon Story

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(FAINT BATTLE CRIES, BEATING DRUM) (MELANCHOLY BAGPIPE) I'd been acting since I was nine years old and did a movie with Charlie Chaplin.

I worked with Shaun Sutton quite a lot when he was a producer and director.

The thing that got me noticed was ''The Silver Sword'', where I played a character called Jan.

People still say, ''We've followed your career.

That thing about the sword'' '''Silver Sword'.

'' Years later, my agent rang up and said, ''They want you to be in Doctor Who.

'' Shaun Sutton was then the head of Children's Television.

Innes Lloyd was looking for a Scots boy to play Jamie, and I think Shaun was instrumental, saying, ''Frazer Hines can do Yorkshire, Scottish, whatever.

Get Frazer into it.

'' So Shaun Sutton got me the part of Jamie.

I was only supposed to be in ''The Highlanders''.

It was myself, Hannah Gordon and Donald Bisset.

We filmed my scene saying goodbye to the Doctor, Polly and Ben, and I stayed with my Laird and Hannah Gordon.

We'd filmed all the pre-filming stuff, then we did all the studio.

Rumour has it, by about episode three, people were writing or phoning the BBC saying wouldn't it be good for Jamie to become a member of the Tardis crew.

I hadn't known this, but my agent The BBC had an option on me to stay further.

She didn't tell me because I might have been worried and thought, ''This is my big moment.

''If I mess it up, I'll never be in Doctor Who again,'' so I just played Jamie.

He had a Highland accent, which is very light, like this (SOFTLY) ''Oh, Doctor.

Here's my Laird.

I must be with the battle of Culloden.

'' That was his accent, because I thought I was in for six episodes.

Then Innes came filming one day, with his pipe.

''Frazer, old boy, let me give you a lift home.

''Tell you what, old boy, how do you fancy being a crew member with the old Tardis?

'' I said, ''How do you mean?

'' ''Well, join the old crew and maybe stay a year or two.

'' I said, ''I'd love to.

Marvellous.

'' ''OK.

Welcome aboard.

'' A dear man.

Lovely, lovely man.

So that's how I joined the Tardis crew.

Once I'd got my foot in the door, so to speak, and I signed a contract for a year, I thought, ''Jamie's got this Highland accent.

''If they're going to sell the story abroad, ''the Highland accent is a bit up and down and wishy-washy.

(SOFTLY) ''Oh, Doctor.

Look at the size of that monster.

Why don't we run for it now?

'' You can't get a lot of emotion into that accent, so I watered it down to what I call a ''television Scottish accent'', and then I was able to do what I call ''Jamie-isms''.

He'd never seen electric lights and things like that.

The script would say, ''Jamie puts the light on.

'' ''Hang on.

He doesn't know what the light is for.

'' We'd add little touches like that.

- Where do we go from here?

- Yeah.

Where?

- Aye.

Tell us, Doctor.

- Our course is plain.

We must attack Zaroff.

He has gone mad, and is bent on destroying the whole world.

(HINES) A lot of the stories were written weeks or months ahead, so they had to adapt a lot of the stories.

I think the second story was ''The Underwater Menace''.

I took some of Ben's lines, some of Michael Craze's lines.

I didn't do them Cockney.

I made them Scottish.

Then we did ''The Moonbase''.

The writers hadn't prepared for Jamie at all.

So we landed on the moon I saw a Cyberman and went, ''It's the phantom piperI'' and then fainted.

So for the rest of the episodes, Jamie was just lying down.

Every so often, I'd wake up and see a Cyberman - ''It's the phantom piper!

'' I never got paid so much money for doing so little.

No moves to learn, nothing.

Anneke Wills would come and mop my brow every so often.

- We're nearly out of this interferon stuff.

- Ask Mr Hobson where the rest is.

(HINES) They probably thought, ''Why do we need another person in the Tardis?

'' Michael thinking, ''We don't need another male assistant,'' and Anneke thinking, ''Why is he here?

'' I'm a very tactile person, love cuddles and everything, and Anneke was always not coming towards you.

She cuddled Patrick and Michael, but I was always left out.

I'm great friends with Anneke now.

She's made up for it.

(DOCTOR WHO THEME) Patrick and I had worked together on a thing called ''Moonfleet'', which became ''Smuggler's Bay''.

I played John Trenchard and Patrick was an old smuggler.

The day before filming, I put this hand through a plate glass window.

This was hanging off by a piece of skin and stitched together, and I had these sort of finger stalls.

I got through the show.

Two years later when I joined the Tardis crew, Patrick said, ''Frazer, how's your hand?

'' I thought, ''Crikey!

He's remembered that, two, three years hence.

'' We just got on so well together.

We became firm companions.

Great, great fun, a lovely man to work with.

We would put comedy stuff into the script.

I'd suggest something, and instead of saying, ''No, I'm the star of the show.

I make the suggestions,'' he'd say, ''Frazer's got an idea.

It's very funny.

If we do this '' He always allowed me to put my input in.

There was a story where we were followed by a car up this road.

It said, ''The two of them are followed by a car, and they start to run.

'' We thought, ''Let's try and make it slightly comedy.

'' ''We start to walk, then we notice'' And we just did it instinctively.

We didn't rehearse it.

We just went for a take, and we started to walk, then we started to walk a bit faster.

I looked at Patrick and we walked faster, then he went, ''Run!

'' and we ran, and this car chased us, and the director said, ''Fine.

'' - What do we do now?

- Accept the situation.

There's nothing else we can do.

Jamie came into his own in ''The Faceless Ones''.

That was the last story for Ben and Polly.

We filmed that at Gatwick Airport.

- (ROARING JET ENGINE) - It's a flying beastie!

That's when the writers were starting to write more for Jamie as a character.

That's when we had Pauline Collins.

She came as this little Scouse girl, talking like that.

Jamie took a shine to her and quite fancied her.

If only I didn't have to watch this place.

- Do you always do everything you're told?

- No, but the Doctor trusts me.

That's your trouble!

All right, stay here.

After all, they can only m*rder me.

Ta-ra.

Patrick and I both fancied Pauline as well.

We wanted her to join the Tardis crew.

We suggested it, and they said, ''We've asked her, actually.

She doesn't want to.

''She doesn't want to get typecast into one particular thing.

'' So Pauline Collins didn't join us, and what happened to her career?

(CHIRPING BIRDS) (DOOR CREAKS) We were told Debbie was going to join the crew.

Patrick and I had seen her in a TV show called ''Calf Love'' with Simon Ward, and we thought, ''What a beautiful young girl.

'' We were very fortunate.

She immediately took to our sense of humour.

In fact, my first line to her We were filming at this old hall near Harrow on the Hill.

She was imprisoned by the Daleks, and my first line to her was, ''Quick, Miss Waterfield.

Up your passageway.

'' I said, ''I can't say that!

'' ''You can't say that!

'' And we just fell about laughing.

So straight away, she was one of the g*ng.

The three of us made a great team.

We were very fortunate.

All the girls, we could tease and send up.

I remember walking along the Margate Sands with Deborah in all this foam which took half an hour to set up.

On the take, Patrick and I looked at each other and said, ''Yes!

'' and rolled Debbie in all that She never stopped acting, God bless her.

''You swine!

'' They loved it, and said, ''We'll have to print it.

We've no time to set up the foam again.

'' She was great.

We always used to tease our girls.

They were marvellous.

(RASPING WHISPER) She has told them enough.

Bring her in.

(ZONDAL) Destroy her!

You are wrong, Zondal.

She must answer some questions first.

We were the first to have the Ice Warriors.

We had dear Bernard Bresslaw as an Ice Warrior.

A lovely man.

He invented this (HISSES) .

.

talking.

This reptilian way of talking.

It was quite off-putting if you were doing a scene They were bolted into their costumes.

They couldn't sit down, and didn't have time to unbolt them.

If you had a scene with an Ice Warrior, off camera, Bernard Bresslaw would sit on a sh**ting stick, reading ''The Sporting Life''.

It was quite incongruous.

He'd try to k*ll you in one scene, next he's reading ''The Sporting Life'' with his sh**ting stick.

I was looking forward to working with the Daleks because everybody knows them.

I wanted to have a ride in one, so I jumped in one.

Marius Goring was a wonderful old mad professor as well.

I hope this is going to work.

Are you ready up there?

Catch!

- There is one coming!

- One's enough.

The others don't seem to be moving.

The Yeti were funny.

The first Yeti were quite cuddly.

The actors used to wear pyjamas underneath.

''How are you doing?

'' ''I'm a sweaty Yeti, '' because it was very hot.

The hands kept falling off, and this human hand would be left.

The monsters were great fun.

The Cybermen Everybody says, ''What was the monster that you hated the most as the character?

'' The Cybermen, because they were always taller than us and had these bland faces.

The Ice Warriors, you could always see a human chin speaking, but the Cybermen, just that straight No emotion at all.

Those round dots.

Even though you'd been playing cards with them, they were always the frightening ones, Cybermen.

When Debbie decided to leave, she was very heartbroken, and so were Patrick and I.

We were a great team.

We loved working with her.

She was a great actress, but I think she just got fed up of screaming, and wanted to do other things.

It was very sad to see her leave because we were very fond of Deborah.

I went out with Susan George, and tried to get her in the Tardis.

They actually offered her a part as a companion, but she'd just done a film called ''The Strange Affair'' with Michael York and her agent thought movies were her forte, so we got Wendy Padbury, who had been in a show called ''Search For A Star'', a bit like ''Pop Idol''.

Girls sang and acted each week and got eliminated one by one.

It was left to two, Judy Johnson and Padders.

Judy Johnson won and her career went nowhere, and Padders was second and she kept going, and she joined the Tardis crew and she was a great asset.

It had seven million miles to touchdown, and enough fuel for 20 million.

It couldn't have drifted here.

- It must have been driven and piloted.

- A wee space detective!

Jamie had a great affection for Victoria because she was near his era, she was a lady, the crinoline - very similar to his own time.

He didn't like He accepted Zoe, but she was a little bossy boots, and he liked to kick her up the bum.

She was bossy.

There's only one solution.

That rocket was refuelled in space, provided with another 12 fuel rods.

- It's an interesting theory.

- It isn't a theory.

You can't disprove the facts.

It's pure logic.

He was fond of her - he'd run into a burning building and rescue her - but he just felt she wasn't a lady.

She was this know-all that knows these flashing light things.

''Press that button and that means that'll'' So what?

She was a bossy boots.

(WHOOSHING) (LAUGHING) (JAMIE) What a place!

(ZOE) Where are we?

Earth?

Well, it looks like it, Zoe.

Come on.

(HINES) I'd done about two and a half years and my agent said, ''Darling, your contract's up for renewal.

You ought to pull out now.

'' I said, ''But I'm loving it.

'' She said, ''You've done two and a half years in television.

Your film career beckons.

''I want you to do films.

'' So I went to Patrick and said, ''My agent wants me to leave.

I don't want to.

'' He said, ''Listen, my contract comes up for renewal in six months' time.

''My lady friend wants me to leave.

She says, 'You're far better than a children's serial hero.

'''You should be doing Shakespeare and stuff like that.

' ''So why don't you wait another six months, and I'll leave and you leave with me?

'' So we said to the BBC, ''Frazer's not going to leave.

'' It was in all the papers - ''Jamie quits the Tardis.

'' So we agreed I would stay on for another six months and then leave with Patrick.

Then Wendy said, ''If you're leaving '' - There must be something we can do!

- No, Zoe.

Not this time.

(SIGHS) Well, goodbye, Jamie.

- But, Doctor, surely we can?

- Goodbye, Jamie.

I won't forget you.

I won't forget you!

Don't go blundering into too much trouble.

So we all decided to leave together.

Having said I was leaving, the Beeb did come up to me and say, ''Look, Frazer, why don't you stay on with Jon and see how you get on?

'' But my agent said, ''No.

It's all very well having fun, ''but you're thinking of careers here.

We've said you're leaving and you have to leave.

'' It would have been fun to work with Jon Pertwee.

He was a nice funny guy.

The letter J has been lucky for me.

Jan - ''Silver Sword'', Jamie, and then I played Joe in ''Emmerdale''.

If I get a racehorse, I should call it JanJamJoe.

They're very lucky names.

''Emmerdale'' was fun in the early days.

Hard work - we had to really milk the cows.

I learnt to drive tractors, we had to drive combines.

Great fun days.

But Doctor Who was more fun because every four or six weeks you got a new cast, a new location, a new monster, heroine, hero, evil villain.

''Emmerdale'', you knew those were the people you were going to meet.

You might get one guest act to come in, but you're going to see Annie, Matt, Jack - you're going to see the same people week in, week out.

Lovely people to work with, but there was not that excitement of ''Where are we next week or next story?

'' (DOCTOR WHO THEME) I met JNTat a convention.

He said, ''Have you ever thought of coming back to the show?

'' I said, ''I'd love to!

'' He said, ''All right.

Leave it with me.

'' Then he rang me and said, ''Scripts are written.

Next February, 'The Five Doctors'.

'' I was doing pantomime at the time.

I rang Yorkshire TV, because I was in ''Emmerdale'', and said I needed six weeks off for ''The Five Doctors''.

They said, ''No.

''We've given you time off.

We want you back.

'' I said, ''I can do another Doctor Who.

'' ''You're our artist.

Come back to 'Emmerdale'.

'' So I rang JNT and said, ''They won't release me.

They won't stretch my leave.

'' He said, ''All right.

If you get any days off, ring me up.

I want you in it.

'' So I looked at my schedule and said, ''I've got next Wednesday and Thursday off.

'' ''Right.

Wednesday, come down to us.

Rehearse.

Thursday, studio.

'' Patrick was there.

We went, ''Yeah!

'' and ran into each other's arms.

Wendy - ''Yeah!

'' We rolled around, kissing, hugging, laughing.

- You must go back!

- What are we going to do?

- Get them out of it.

- Don't, Doctor!

Go back.

Save yourselves.

But Sorry.

I dried.

(HINES) I have to pause and make it look like I've dried now!

I had those two lines, ''Doctor'' and ''Aagh''.

That was all I had to do.

We did that, and JNT said, ''It was amazing when I saw you three.

''It was like you'd been in a prop cupboard for 16 years.

Would you do some more?

'' I said, ''You bet.

'' Then, in '84, ''The Two Doctors''.

I think I'd left ''Emmerdale'' by then, anyway, and JNT said, ''You're in 'The Two Doctors'.

'' I still think, if I'd said to JNT, ''I've got two days off.

I've got two lines.

'''Doctor' and 'Aagh'.

I can't be bothered to come all the way to London for that,'' I would never have done ''The Two Doctors''.

If I'd thought, ''I'm Jamie.

I should have a whole scene,'' JNT would never have seen how Patrick and I got on so well together after 16 years.

We did ''The Two Doctors'' and we had wonderful fun.

We had great fun.

No.

No luck?

No.

Just a load of tourists eating paella and chips.

When I went back to do ''The Two Doctors'' in '84, they were talking about going to a convention in Chicago in November.

Patrick said, ''Ring Norman Rubenstein.

We've got to have you.

'' Colin said, ''Frazer can do it.

'' ''What is it?

'' ''We do conventions.

We talk about the show.

It's very big in America.

'' So Colin and Patrick were instrumental in getting me to that first convention.

It was wonderful seeing 3,500 Americans going, ''What's your favourite monster?

'' And ''We love the kilt.

'' Jon Pertwee wore his frock coat, so I wore the kilt.

It's amazing how it's taken off and been this I'm still going to conventions.

Two years ago I went to Australia - three days in Melbourne, three days in Sydney, three days in Brisbane.

I'm going on a Doctor Who cruise soon.

It's amazing how this Doctor Who is still People still want the old days as well as the new days.

(HINES) He did call the Doctor a Sassenach.

''It's all right for you, you old Sassenach.

'' But although he's from Culloden, the Redcoats were gone and people were people, and I think Patrick's Doctor told him to live and let live.

Creag an tuire!

(YELLS) He was loyal.

A bit hot-headed.

He'll hit you first, whereas me, I'll try and laugh myself out of a situation.

He's a bit more hot-headed about it.

He loves the ladies, so there's no acting required there for me.

- Bye, Peri.

- Bye.

I still say to this day, if we hadn't had people saying, ''You've got to leave,'' we'd still be there.

They'd have had to sh**t us - we were having so much fun.

Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, you'd have never seen.

We'd still be in that Tardis.

They'd have had to k*ll us to get us out.

We were having so much fun.

(PEOPLE SINGING THE TUNE TO ''WHO'S DOCTOR WHO?'')

# So you wonder who is Doctor Who So I ask you
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