From the magazine

Doctor, Doctor: the genesis of a national folk hero

A foray into the BBC television series Doctor Who in which the author reaches heavily into the biographies of its lead actors with illuminating results

Travis Elborough
William Hartnell, the first Doctor, in 1965. Sunday Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 05 April 2025
issue 05 April 2025

John Higgs begins his foray into the long-standing BBC television science fiction series Doctor Who with a personal anecdote about going to the pub with Tom Baker, the notoriously bibulous actor who played the part of the Doctor from 1975 to 1981 – still longer than anyone else. For me, as for Higgs, Baker was ‘my doctor’.

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