Medics & writing books Tom’s first long-running role in a decade, and the first real break from “odd” characters to the more “realistic” roles of television soaps, came when he played Professor Hoyt in ITV Granada’s hospital drama Medics between 1992 and 1995. Around this time, Tom began to write. Always a lover of talk and story…
Tom as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC production of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Returning to the stage In 1981, Tom left Doctor Who, but was so identified with the Doctor that he was not easy to cast in other roles. Having been very very busy, life became quieter for a time although Tom was…
Doctor Who “Barry (Letts) asked me how I might be playing the part of the Doctor. What a question! I had to tell him that I had no idea. Although I’d seen the programme a bit, I was not knowledgeable about it and I was so tense after my recent troubles that ideas just fled…
Tom joined the National Theatre in 1968 and started with an understudy part in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead followed by small parts in The National Health by Peter Nicholls directed by Michael Blakemore. It was the start of a busy period when he was also finding small parts in television series such as Softly,…
Drama School Scarborough: Hay Fever Tom as Richard Greatham in Hay Fever© Scarborough Theatre Trust/www.sjt.uk.com It was through taking part in the medical corps’ amateur dramatics at Christmas that Tom discovered a tiny talent to make people laugh, and after demob a librarian helped him apply to drama schools. The first one he visited, Rose…
Early years Tom Baker was born in Liverpool on 20 January 1934, the eldest of three children. His father was a steward in the Merchant Navy, and his devoutly Catholic mother worked as a barmaid and cleaner. The family was poor but aunts, uncles and cousins were kind and supportive, so it was not an…