If there was a rule about such things when I was a kid, it was that Doctor Who should not be fanciable. Likeable, eccentric, bold, believably "alien" - yes. Swooningly handsome? No.
All that changed, of course, when young Peter Davison - already a household name as "Tristan Farnon" in All Creatures Great And Small - arrived as The Fifth Doctor, replacing the long-serving Tom Baker in 1981. Today is - gulp - Mr Davison's 70th birthday!
By way of a celebration, I was overjoyed to find that the spoof adventure he wrote (and starred in) for the 50th anniversary of the series - The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot - is still available online via the BBC. So here it is, for your delectation - worth watching, for the hilariously camp vignette from John Barrowman alone...
[If the BBC version doesn't work for you, it is available on DailyMotion]
Facts:
- Mr Davison (The Fifth Doctor) is the father-in-law of David Tennant (The Tenth)!
- His first lead TV role [he'd previously appeared in an episode of the weird kids' sci-fi series The Tomorrow People] was opposite Mel Martin, Christopher Blake, Scherrie Hewson and Jeremy Irons in the 1977 ITV adaptation of H.E. Bates' Love for Lydia.
- He was married for 14 years to Sandra Dickinson, who played "Trillian" in the classic 1981 BBC series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Mr Davison appeared as the cow-like "Dish of the Day" in the penultimate episode.
- Among his numerous TV and stage roles, he played "Herbie" to Imelda Staunton's "Mamma Rose" in the West End revival of Gypsy we went to see in 2015.
Many happy returns Peter Davison (born Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett, 13th April 1951)!
