The Devil Made Me Do It
Tom Baker’s Scratchman has been resurrected in a new novel which pits the Fourth Doctor against an extraordinary opponent…
Interview by EMILY COOK
“I spend a surprisingly large amount of time waiting for things – sometimes the end of the world, sometimes a bus. The feeling is always pretty much the same. Anticipation, a nervous glance at the horizon, a hope that something will turn up.”
The Doctor (Scratchman, Chapter Thirteen)
Something has turned up. Over 40 years after Tom Baker and his Doctor Who co-star Ian Marter (who played Harry Sullivan) fi rst had the idea for their very own Fourth Doctor thriller – and after failed attempts at getting it onto the big screen – the story of Scratchman has finally been realised.
“I always had a niggling ambition to get something written,” Tom reveals. “The BBC literary department helped me out – they’re very powerful – and now the book is here.” He proudly shows us his creation.
Scratchman is Tom’s twist on an age-old narrative. “In literature, the Devil competes with God for the soul. That’s the old story – there are thousands of versions of that.” Tom wanted to give the Devil, aka Scratchman, a new adversary in the Doctor. The Lord of Anarchy versus the Lord of Time.
But back in the mid-1970s, this ambitious adventure had “very desultory and casual” beginnings, according to Tom. “At the time there was a film with Roger Daltrey [1975’s Lisztomania] which was about monsters, and that set us thinking about my idea of these scarecrows that found this powder which animated them – they were horrible and cruel, these scarecrows.
“Ian and I were working on Doctor Who together, and we were friends, so of course we’d take the afternoon off and get a cab down to London to mess around in amusement arcades, playing pinball tables. That inspired another idea we had for a big scene on a pinball table. But it was as casual as that. Just two pals and we messed around.”
Nevertheless, their ideas gathered momentum as they sought to get their script for Doctor Who Meets Scratchman onto the screen. “We found a potential director, James Hill,” Tom recalls. “He went on to direct Worzel Gummidge – a marvellous programme, which was Jon Pertwee’s biggest success, I think. James used to come and have a look at our scenes. I don’t think really we thought that we’d seriously pull it off . It was just a bit of fun.”
In jest, Tom even appealed to the British public to help fund the film. He laughs when we remind him of this. “It was a misunderstanding. I may have said I thought of doing that, but people don’t always get the joke. Some children misunderstood it and thought that I needed the money and collected a few shillings.” A mischievous grin spreads across Tom’s face. “Oh, it was a delicious little snippet of news.” The film was never made and the children’s pocket money was returned.
During the long pre-production of Doctor Who Meets Scratchman, horror icon Vincent Price was suggested casting for the titular villain. Tom now says he’d have had a very different actor in mind. “I’d have thought Leonard Rossiter. He was a wonderful, diabolical comic actor. He would have been a very good Devil. On the other hand, with a bit of make-up, I could have played both parts. Because the Devil, as I would have played it, would be someone who actually flattered me, telling me how marvellous I was. And I’d have been terribly tempted to believe him.
“The Devil featured very much in my life,” Tom continues. “It was because of my religious upbringing. In my district in Liverpool we were all Roman Catholics and we were full of the idea of sin and the virtues of being obedient; always telling the truth, always getting to bed on time… it was all insufferable. But I was brought up knowing the difference between being a good boy and being a bad boy. You know, to be called a little devil was a very serious accusation. Or sometimes it was a compliment, I suppose – depending on the tone of voice.”
The 2019 novel retains much of Tom and Ian’s original concept – “but,” says Tom, “it’s gone on and on and become very extravagant. There are scenes in the book where some of the other Doctors appear. They keep coming and sometimes baiting me. I like that bit.”
Sadly, Ian Marter isn’t around to see the publication of Scratchman. He passed away on 28 October 1986 – his 42nd birthday – following a heart attack. Tom’s thoughts turn to his late co-star, co-writer and friend. “Oh Ian,” he says with a pensive sigh. “He was very young when he died. He was diabetic and sometimes he was a bit careless about it; suddenly in the middle of a scene he’d go woozy and someone would produce a Mars Bar and he was back to life again. Ian was a perfect human being really. Or nearly.”
In the absence of Ian, Scratchman became a personal project for Tom, so much so that the resulting novel is written in the first person, from Tom’s perspective as the Fourth Doctor. “It means it’s my own story, doesn’t it? When it came to recording the audiobook it meant I could be quite extravagant and improvise noises and shouting and laughing at my own jokes. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to laugh absolutely uproariously at one’s jokes.
“I’m telling this story,” Tom concludes, “and I’m very pleased with it. We’ll see how the fans like it.”
Scratchman by Tom Baker is available in hardback (published by BBC Books, RRP £16.99) and as an audiobook (from BBC Audio, RRP £26.50).
