When Colin Baker took over TV's Dr Who back in 1984, he appeared in a complete story at the end of the 21st season.
In their haste to produce some up-to-date new merchandise, the BBC Enterprise licenced a jigsaw company to produce a set of five jigsaws - such had been the success of some that were produced featuring a cardboard cut-out of Peter Davison being menaced by his enemies a few years earlier...
Sadly, their lack of available visual material was quite apparent when the samples turned up on producer John Nathan Turner's.
The jigsaws remained boxed and unmade...
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Regular visitors to this blog will know my fascination with "Official Doctor Who Collectors' Items". You know the stuff - plates, teddy bears, chess sets, table lamps etc...
Richard Bignell [@NothingLane] - who should be familiar to Doctor Who fans from his 'Now & Then' features on the BBC Doctor Who DVDs and from being one of DWm's original 'Time Team' tweeted a scan of a 1965 BBC memo from Sydney Newman. In it, Newman thanked the "Asst. to H.B.Tel.E" (?) for a list of merchandise based on his beloved Doctor Who. He was, however, disappointed to discover that a licenced cuckoo clock was not on the list... "Where are they?" he asked.
Well, Mr. Newman... Over fifty years late but here they are.
Or rather an artist's impression...
The current issue of the UK TV listings magazine "What's On TV" has an ad on page 36 for a Star Wars table lamp.
The stem is made up of three light sabres and there's some delightfully old-fashioned artwork from the first film on the shade. You couldn't make it up...
So I did.
Presenting the Official Doctor Who Collectors Table Lamp Collection...
Chocolate is always good.
It's even better when its courtesy of your TV favourites from the 1970s...
1.) There's an awful lot of Ben Shephard on ITV these days.
2.) There's a lot of awful Ben Shephard on ITV these days.*
(* Pick whichever opening sentence you prefer.)
Maybe ITV should consider a trendy re-branding of its dreadful ITVBe. The addition of an 'n' to the channel's logo would be quite painless...
Welcome to ITVBen!!!
I make no apologies for my love of EastEnders... Here's a selection of recent efforts featuring unseen escapades that do not feature Sapphire & Steel this time.
Doctor Who makes an issue of explaining why its lead character gets re-cast every so often. Something it calls a"regeneration". EastEnders on the other hand just gets on with it. A new Johnny Carter will debut shortly with little or no mention of his new face. Well, here's the untold story of why he'll look different the next time we see him... and also - more importantly - why no one notices the doppelganger in their midst...
Dame Barbara Windsor will also be bowing out again.
This time for good.
Or is she...??
Shortly after the announcement that the creator/writer/producer of TV's Broadchurch, Chris Chibnall would be taking over the running of Doctor Who in the space year 2018, this fell through my letter box...
One of my earliest discoveries was the sad tale of Kellogg's Porky Pops - an attempt by the US food giant to create a savoury breakfast cereal back in the 1960s. As much I know about it is located in an old blog post here.
During the past few days, I've uncovered further breakfast wanderings into the worlds of Doctor Who - one of which appears to be a further failed attempt to re-launch the savoury brand.
They are presented here without further comment...
And finally on to Sylvester McCoy...
I created a new logo - obviously based on the one used at the time. I commented on Twitter that it's an ASDA Smart Price version of it - for companies who can't afford the licencing fee... Some folk were even kind enough to say it was better than the original! They have no taste...
I also make no apologies for the Silver Nemesis design... You can safely assume I am not a fan of that story...
And here's the 1996 TV movie.
Technically a Sylvester McCoy story - he IS in it... and it saves having a single page for the eighth Doctor's solo outing...
Onto Colin Baker's tenure as the Doctor... I had a bit of fun with these - not that I didn't with the previous five incarnations. Not least with the logo. Yes, it's the same as the ones for the fifth Doctor adventures but, like the production team at the time, I couldn't resist fiddling with it a bit. So much so, that you wouldn't even notice if I hadn't told you...
When Colin Baker took over TV's Dr Who back in 1984, he appeared in a complete story at the end of the 21st season. 
