Friday 22 November 2013

Doctor Who Celebration - Louise Page

The Doctor Who Celebration certainly had an extensive guest list. Over the course of the weekend a good fifty plus cast and crew were on hand to meet, chat and sign autographs.

Someone I was keen to catch up with was Louise Page, who was at ExCeL on the first day of the convention.

I found her at the Wardrobe Workshop display, where along with two of her wardrobe assistants, they discussed and showed the techniques used in ageing costumes for filming.


On display was a full Tenth Doctor outfit, complete with suit and coat.

The tie was a screen-used St George by Duffer from the anniversary special, The Day Of The Doctor.

Louise is rightly proud of her work on the costume.

There was also another suit on show, which had been trashed for use in The End Of Time Part Two.

From talking to Louise’s assistants, it was damaged and distressed, but the brief was misinterpreted so it never got used on screen!

Given how rare the fabric was and how difficult making the jacket had been, it was a tragedy this happened.

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get my photo with Louise before she had to go on stage to take part in one of the discussion panels taking place over the weekend.

She was with producer Phil Collinson and director James Hawes.
I recorded two brief sections where Louise was talking about going for the post of costume designer, and Phil talking about working with her once she was on board.



Thursday 21 November 2013

Bonhams auction - 18th December 2013

With December looming, it is time for another Bonhams Entertainment Memorabilia sale!

The past few auctions have been Doctor Who lite when it comes to items, so there is no surprise that the first post-Anniversary is brimming with costumes and nick backs, dating back to 1968.

A large part of the sale is for Torchwood costumes. Since I don’t have a dedicate blog, I thought I’d post them here as they were at least concurrent with the Tenth Doctor era.

Like the 2010 auction, the catalogue is brand label rich with information. Shame these weren’t known back in 2006!


As usual I have separated the items by Doctor era, and you can see the rest of the items here:

Here are just the lots relating to Torchwood
Lot 127
TORCHWOOD, SERIES 3: JOHN BARROWMAN AS CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS, A COLLECTION OF PART COSTUMES, comprising; Episode 1 - a navy double-cuff cotton shirt, a white t-shirt with label removed and a pair of navy wool pleat front trousers, accompanied by Episode 3 - a blue Gap t-shirt, grey jersey jogging bottoms, and brown Caterpillar walking shoes.


Estimate £350 - 550
Sold for £437

Lot 128
TORCHWOOD SERIES 1-3: A MODEL FLAYED CORPSE,of foam latex, metal and mixed materials, within plastic bag.

Estimate £250 - 350
Sold for £275

Lot 129
TORCHWOOD SERIES 1-3: A PAIR OF PROSTHETIC 'WEEVIL' MASKS, of foam latex, with BBC number attached to interior, 16 inches (41cm) high.

Estimate £300 - 500
Sold for £600

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Radio Times -
50th anniversary issue covers

The 50th Anniversary week is almost here, and as expected the cover of the latest Radio Times features The Doctor - not just once, but TWLEVE times!

The sources of the images used are quite interesting, the majority of which are from the Radio Times own extensive archive of Doctor Who images. All are out-takes, so are being published for the first time.

The First and Second Doctors come from the 10th Anniversary Special published by the Radio Times in 1973. The Third Doctor comes from a photoshoot in 1970 for the launch of Jon Pertwee in the role.


The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors are pictured from the shoot for the 30th Anniversary special, which featured in the 1993 Children In Need.

This shows that they were all taken separately before being composited into the group on the cover.

The rest of the Doctors come from bespoke cover shoots done for the Radio Times in more recent years. For example the Ninth Doctor is from the gatefold cover which launched the new series in 2005; and the Tenth from The Next Doctor in 2008. The Eleventh and War Doctors are obviously newly taken.


Here’s the full size version of the Tenth Doctor’s cover.
The combination of the Massimo Dutti tie and dark blue shirt correspond to The Next Doctor Christmas Special.


Finally, have you noticed that all 12 covers join together to form a long single image?