Go to Part Two of the Nicola Bryant Interview

WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE THAT YOU WANTED TO GO INTO ACTING?

I really wanted to be a prima ballerina (laughs). I wanted to be Margo Fontaine. I got involved in musicals when I was about 11 or 12. It’s about the age of 11 that you have to decide whether you are going to go to White Lodge and spend the rest of your life on point shoes, which my father didn’t really approve of as he didn’t think that was particularly a very good career. So I decided not to go to the ballet schools, despite having auditioned for them all and got into them, which was rather traumatic. So my mother tried to think of something to do to try to keep this upset child happy, so she suggested that I should join an amateur dramatics group that was doing Fiddler On The Roof. But they’d already cast the youngest child in it and they were looking now to cast a role for a 15 year old. I was thinking: “hang on a minute, I’m not 15 I’m only 11, how am I going to pretend to be 15?” My mother said: “ACT” (laughs). So I went along for the audition and I pretended that I was doing my O levels etc. So I started doing amateur dramatic musicals and I really enjoyed the acting side of it, so by the time I was 17 I decided that I wanted to go to drama school..

WHAT PROFESSION WOULD YOU HAVE GONE INTO HAD YOU NOT PURSUED THAT?

I’d have been a barrister.

WAS THAT SOMETHING YOU WERE INTERESTED IN WHEN YOU WERE AT SCHOOL?

I’m interested in that there’s an argument, and it’s quite a stagy and showy thing. And you’re required to write your own story in a way, well it’s not a story, it’s more your own dialogue and I quite liked the idea of law. Failing that I think I might have become a nun. (laughter). Seriously, because I was interested in going into the church, the choice then though was only to become a nun, to become a female vicar then wasn’t an option. But they were only really thoughts that flashed through my mind, the sort of thoughts that you get when you’re younger and you start thinking what you want to do with your life.

WAS IT A NERVE WRACKING EXPERIENCE GETTING THE PART IN DOCTOR WHO BECAUSE THAT WAS THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL PART YOU WERE OFFERED ALMOST IMMEDIATELY AFTER LEAVING DRAMA SCHOOL?

I don’t really remember being nervous, I was just really excited. Everybody was just so friendly. I think had it been a more temporary sort of job I might have been more nervous. But because it was long term, I knew that I was going to have time to get to know these people. I was nervous when we came to do the first days filming. Those first couple of days where we were just reading through the script were just terribly exciting.

I IMAGINE YOU DON’T GET MUCH ADVICE OR TRAINING AT DRAMA SCHOOL ABOUT WORKING ON TV ?

Yes, it’s all just geared mainly for theatre, they said to me: “don’t worry about television work, you won’t be doing any of that when you first leave drama school” (laughter).

DID YOU THEREFORE TAKE YOUR LEAD FROM PEOPLE LIKE PETER DAVISON ETC?

I remember that everyone got to look at the rushes except me, so I asked John (Nathan - Turner) why I didn’t get to look at the rushes, because I wanted to learn from them. Basically he said: “I really like what you’re doing and I don’t want you to go around and start changing your performance because you’ve seen yourself for the first time on screen.” So I just tried to watch other people and learn. I don’t think that really started happening for me until the final series because that was the first time I was allowed to look at the rushes and see for myself and start to get a feel for things.

WHEN WE SPOKE TO SOPHIE ALDRED I KNOW ONE OF THE THINGS THAT STRUCK HER WHEN SHE WAS FIRST ON THE SET WAS SEEING HERSELF ON ONE OF THE LARGE STUDIO MONITORS

You see I’ve got terrible eye sight, so I wouldn’t have even seen that, I couldn’t have seen that far (laughter)

I KNOW YOU DIDN’T REALISE PETER WAS LEAVING SO HOW DID YOU REACT WHEN YOU FOUND OUT YOU’D BE WORKING WITH COLIN?

I found it to be a massive responsibility, because a few months before I joined there had been two regular companions, and then they left and there was just me, and then Peter left and suddenly I was the only consistent point of continuance. I was the only character that was carrying on and I felt that was an awful lot to have to carry the show on especially as I’d only done two stories at that stage. So I felt an enormous sense of responsibility, but at the same time it was such a thrill to think I was going to be in a regeneration story - how many people get to do that!

AND IT WAS SUCH A FANTASTIC STORY?

Oh, yes Caves was superb!

DID YOU HAVE A SENSE WHEN YOU READ THROUGH THE SCRIPT THAT IT WAS GOING TO BE A TOUR DE FORCE?

Well, I mean working with Graeme Harper (director) was incredible, because he was just a complete maniac. (laughter)

IN WHAT WAY?

In the sense that everything was done on a wing and a prayer, and we weren’t quite sure how things were going to turn out. But you just had this idea that if you went along with what he was suggesting it was going to be OK. There was a lot of winging it, because he spent a lot of time on some scenes and on others we just ran out of time. And of course it was his first telly sci-fi drama and it was his chance to be imaginative and he was really seizing that opportunity. I think you ended up with a great cast, getting in Christopher Gable was just amazing. It was a great classic fairytale storyline, the drama of the regeneration and the whole thing just came together so well. I would just love to go back and make that episode all over again, because it was such a great story.

ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT YOU STILL GET A LOT OF RECOGNITION FROM DOCTOR WHO?

Yes (laughs) I get mail all the time, I think it’s marvellous.

YOU DON’T MIND THEN, I KNOW SOME ACTORS AREN’T ALWAYS KEEN TO BE CLOSELY LINKED TO A PART ONCE THEY’VE FINISHED PLAYING IT

No, I adore it. I think it’s a bit precious to say “well I’ve done that now I don’t want to talk about it anymore etc” You were in a show, you had a job, it was a successful show, people loved you in it - how nice, how lovely! isn’t that what the business is about!!. Isn’t that what the applause is about at the end of the evening. I think it’s great, to have such loyalty. I just feel jolly lucky. It still gives me opportunities.

WAS THERE OR IS THERE, DO YOU THINK, A DOWN SIDE TO BEING IN DOCTOR WHO AS A COMPANION?

Probably, you do get the occasional, “oh, she’s not a serious actress, she was in Doctor Who” But you can never tell, unless you could get back in the TARDIS and go back in time. If I’d been offered the part of Peri and said no, who knows how my career would have turned out. It’s one of those things that I could waste a lot of energy and go grey over but I don’t see any point.

KNOWING NOW HOW THE CHARACTER OF PERI DEVELOPED WOULD YOU HAVE STILL DONE IT, BECAUSE SHE DID START OFF AS A STRONGER CHARACTER AND BY YOUR FIRST FULL SEASON THE WRITERS SEEMED TO HAVE LOST SIGHT OF THAT.

I think the writers did get trapped into that sort of cliche, when I was offered the part obviously I only had that first story which I liked, because she was naive and she was running away from home which when I was watching the programme was my sort of ideal background for a companion. You want somebody to go off and have the big adventure. She also had some spunk about her, I liked that scene with the Master where she says to him: “I can shout just as loud as you”, obviously there’s the end of episode screaming which drives one nuts, but if you’re going to do it you might as well do it well.(laughs). But I was slightly disappointed with my second season because I did get trapped into the old leotard and shorts syndrome and running around in high heels and I was thinking this could have been written 20 years ago.

DID YOU TRY AND PULL THE CHARACTER AWAY FROM THAT?

Yes, but you have no power. I do think however that by my final season they had taken note that Colin and I were fed up with the constant bickering between the two characters, because we think either one of us would have thrown the other out the door, because they were both strong characters and I don’t think The Doctor and Peri would have put up with each other had that relationship continued, so they did have to make a change. I did enjoy stories like Vengeance on Varos and meeting new characters like Sil and I did like Philip Martin’s writing.

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CLOTHING YOU WERE GIVEN TO WEAR IN DOCTOR WHO?

I think everybody kind of knows that I wasn’t friends with my costumes! (Laughter) I remember when I spoke to John Nathan Turner he’d say: “But that's the kind of thing that you wore for the press release; it's your own fault!”. But I was told that when I came to the press release I needed to wear something short and something very feminine. I went through my wardrobe and I couldn’t find anything that fitted that description, so I rang John and I said “I don't have anything like that!” So he said, “Do you work out?”, and I said “yes”. He said, “Well, do you have any leotards?”, and I said “yes”. He said, “Do those fit?”, and I said “yes”. He said, “Well, bring those!” So I did. He then asked me if I had any shorts. I told him I had and he said, “Well, are they short?”. and I said, “Well, they're shorts!” (laughter) And so I brought those. So I ended up wearing shorts and a leotard, not the kind of thing I normally walk around town in. And because he said everybody liked it so much, I got stuck with wearing that for the next few years. The problem as far as I was concerned with the wardrobe was that my character got started in a bikini and never got dressed (laughter). What a good start! I think that’s alright if you’re playing Leela, because you’re from another planet and you’re a primitive. But when you’re supposed to be representing a student of the 1980s...? I just thought, “Where are these high heels and the shorts from?” But I think in the last season it got to be a bit more reasonable and I actually got to wear thermal underwear when we were filming outside which was, for me, the most exciting part of my costume, I have to confess! (laughter) I would have been a lot happier, I think, with a pair of sneakers, sweatshirt and a pair of jeans.

WERE YOU DISAPPOINTED THAT PERIS’S DEATH TURNED OUT TO BE A LIE AND THAT SHE HAD, IN FACT, GONE OFF TO MARRY KING YRCANOS?

It was pathetic (laughs), I was actually in the studio when Janet Fielding recorded her goodbye and however good I felt Janet was I thought it was a weak ending for her. She was a longstanding companion and had her following and she just got to shake hands and say I’ll send you a postcard. I remember thinking, I don’t want to go like that (laughter) I’d made my mind up that even if I only lasted 6 weeks I didn’t want to go like that. I think there was the unfortunate thing that they’d killed off Adric and now they’ve killed off Peri and they thought perhaps this is some sort of sign of unpopularity, but I wanted a big bang of an ending. I just didn’t want anything weak.

WERE YOU AWARE AFTER THE HIATUS THAT THE PROGRAMME WAS UNDER A LOT OF EXTERNAL PRESSURE, AND DID THAT MANIFEST ITSELF ON THE SET OR IN REHEARSALS?

I already knew that I was leaving so I didn’t feel any particular massive pressure, because the pressure was fake and external, it was all slightly ethereal in the sense that the fandom was still there, the fandom hadn’t gone. And any statistics that Mr. Grade had been quoting, and had one had the opportunity to speak to him face to face, preferably with the opportunity of a camera (laughter) one could have disputed. The figures were excellent, in fact after I’d gone and Colin had left, Sylvester and Sophie had much lower viewing figures. I don’t know if you count viewing figures as popularity or not, but the programme wasn’t under threat when they were working on it because of that. I think it was a personal thing more than anything. Michael Grade just didn’t like science fiction.

ANOTHER PROBLEM WAS THE PROGRAMME WAS OFF FOR 18 MONTHS AND THERE WERE NO REPEATS AND IT HAD VERY LITTLE PUBLICITY PARTICULARLY FROM THE BBC WHEN IT RETURNED, SO I THINK THAT - ALONG WITH THE HIATUS - DID A LOT OF DAMAGE.

I agree, the amount of money and publicity that was given to The Tripods at the time was amazing, but it was a disaster and it had a massive budget. And yet Doctor Who had about a 1 % increase a year so it just wasn’t up to date with its equivalent shows. And I don’t think it was because you wanted sets that didn’t wobble, 200 costumes or brilliant monsters, but you could have perhaps afforded to get some more interesting writers in. I hated Timelash which I thought was a very weak story. We were in the 1980’s and the programme could have moved on. I don’t think that necessarily means you have to dress the next person in Doc Martins and a leather jacket and go “hey we’re here!”. But I do think there was an unreality of what people in the 1980’s wanted to see.

DO YOU THINK THEY SHOULD HAVE USED MORE ESTABLISHED WRITERS FROM THE SERIES PAST?

Possibly, I think it is nice to get new blood in because I think that’s part of an evolution of any television programme. That’s why I enjoyed the introduction of new characters like Sil. I liked Vengeance On Varos because it was up to date, it was like snuff movies in Doctor Who (laughter) and video rental was just starting to become really big at that time. I do think that Vengeance On Varos was very representative of its time. I liked stories that had things to say like The Two Doctors. I remember speaking to Robert Holmes about the fact that he himself was a vegetarian, and he brought that whole angle into that story and vegetarianism was just starting to become a more interesting topic. Things like that really interested me, and I loved the idea that in Timelash we bumped into HG Wells and inspired his time machine which was terrific, but the story itself could have been written in 1963 as far as the assistant was concerned. So that was really disappointing. I just think that the relationship as far as the young companion, which is the character that us humanoids watching the programme identify with, needed to have moved on. I felt I had scripts that could have been written for Sarah Jane, not that I didn’t enjoy watching Sarah Jane when I was watching it, but the character of the companion did need to evolve.

I HEARD OR READ SOMEWHERE THAT DURING REHEARSALS ON THE TWIN DILEMMA COLIN BIT YOUR BOTTOM, AND IT BECAME A BIT OF A GAG.

He did. He actually gave me a set of false teeth for Christmas the following year. (Laughter)

WHY DID HE DO THAT?

I don’t know. I think he was very nervous about joining the show and I was very nervous about him joining and how I was going to get on with him, plus Peter Davison had been winding me up saying: “oh, Colin’s a difficult actor” (laughter) and “you’ll have to call me if you have any problems”. Colin and I were just rehearsing this sequence where The Doctor is on his knees being very cowardly as he goes through this metamorphosis and he had his arms around me and he just sank his teeth into my butt!! (laughter) I just turned around to him and said: “why did you do that?” and he just said: “well it was just - there!! I couldn’t not!” (Laughter) I was furious - and he just thought it was very funny and I didn’t think it was funny, because I was about the only woman working on that particular story and it felt like we were rehearsing some sort of boys locker room sketch. I remember thinking: “oh, God am I going to have to deal with another two years of this!” I felt like the company joke. I was just really upset by it. It all worked out fine a couple of weeks later, I sat down with Colin over lunch and said “could we declare peace?” and he said “I didn’t know we were at war!” (laughter) And he laughed about it because he’d done it because he’d been so nervous and I laughed because I said “you were nervous!! - you’re the star of the show!!” (laughter) We both then laughed about it and we’ve been the best of buddies ever since.

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