Saturday 5 December 2020

Tom Baker 1981 Interview

"I'm an enthusisastic drinker..." 

As we Doctor Who fans know very well, Tom Baker can, when the mood strikes him. Here we see him at his delightfully boggle-eyed, eccentric best. It's 1981, he's just finished Doctor Who and is playing Long John Silver on stage. He's still married to Lalla Ward but comes across very much as being in his hard-drinking, hard-reading Coach & Horses stage, very much the man about Soho.

He's on very good form here, gleefuly philosophical on money, adoration and the joys of drink, while casually pausing to deconstruct Treasure Island in a way that makes it clear what a fascinating individual he is, at the peak of his career, a man who hides his fierce and well-read intelligence under an eccentric facade so as not to intimidate people. You can tell the interviewer falling under this man who really should be scary and forbodding but, somehow, just isn't. Who wouldn't want a few pints with this man?

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