I still have great affection for Sunday 3rd April 1983 when my father took two of my brothers and myself to Longleat, Warminster, for what was day one of a two day 20th anniversary celebration of Doctor Who.

Our father took us and it took 2 and a half hours to get there: we then spent most of the day queuing up to get autographs or to get into the merchandise tent, into the studio sets or the other displays. Real soldiers dressed as UNIT soldiers, all protectively making sure people couldn't sneak into the tents by avoiding the real queue, and sometimes failing. Wonderful memories.

At the time I'd wanted to see 'The Dalek Invasion Of Earth' which was being shown in another tent but that proved impossible. Three hours of queuing to get three autographs was the replacement and it was all good fun. It was hot and sunny and it was easy to like the grounds of Longleat, I've been back a few times since.

Monday 4th April was day two of 'A Celebration' but I didn't go to that. Instead we stayed and listened to Ed Stewart's 2-hour radio programme which broadcast from the event. I must find the tape out that I recorded at the time, I haven't listened to it for many years.

The Longleat Doctor Who Exhibition lasted for years afterwards at Longleat and happily friend James Spence and I got photos from those days. James had been to that Longleat celebration in 1983 as had another chap Andrew O'Day, and we all met in the years following.

It is thanks to Andrew that there are photos from 1983 to stir up memories of Doctor Who cast and crew who happily wandered around, beseiged by a very large and pleased crowd.

On the next two pages are Andrew's 1983 photos, followed by the exhibition photos taken on James' camera. Thanks go to both of them for their inclusion on these pages.

     @OLGDoctorWho

Tim Harris (Sunday 10th June 2012)

“To be honest, I don’t remember too many ‘individual’ details from Longleat 1983 (’20 Years of a Time Lord’), as I was too young then. I remember seeing the trailers for the event on BBC1, including a clip from “Carnival of Monsters” and staying in a farm-house nearby with my Mum and step-dad. What I do carry with me of the actual event is an ‘overall impression’: an impression of a busy event, of mass autograph queues, and of being in tents. While people who were older and can ‘remember better’ often criticise the event for poor organisation and very rude security soldiers keeping attendees away from guests, I must have mostly enjoyed the experience since soon afterwards I joined the DWAS (Doctor Who Appreciation Society), waited anxiously each month in my house in Milton Keynes for the latest issue of CT (Celestial Toyroom) to fall onto the mat, and became a regular convention goer of DWAS, and other, events (DWASocials in London, Panopticon’s, including one I recall in Brighton, and Leisure Hive conventions in Swindon). The photographs are interesting, however, in what they do not show, and even with a hazy memory of Longleat 1983 it can be contrasted with later events. There are a few close-ups among these photographs (e.g. of Nicholas Courtney), and a medium shot of John Nathan-Turner and of Sarah Sutton sitting at her autograph table, but notably there are no photographs of myself posing with the stars for the camera. The black-and-white photographs from later 1980s events also do not depict this but it must be noted that there are only a few of these as many have been lost over the years (they may or may not depict me with the stars, however I was actually able to interview stars for my fanzine). Compare all this with the multitude of photographs of me with guests from the programme from the late 1990s and early 2000s and what you get is a picture of a more ‘intimate’ fandom that developed with far fewer attendees, which had its disadvantages too (not covered here). Many of these later pictures were ‘poses’ in a specially designated photo room (with pictures costing roughly £10 or so). But the queues for these studio sessions were relatively short, with sometimes only a couple of minutes wait. Note also interestingly that there are shots taken with my camera of myself with guests in comfortable surroundings, sometimes with the guests involved in other activity (such as Frazer Hines signing an autograph book), sometimes with guests behind an autograph table (e.g. myself, Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John, and myself, Carole Ann Ford, and Jessica Carney, William Hartnell’s granddaughter), but in others just looking at the camera (e.g. Sophie Aldred, or myself with my arms around Debbie Watling, or myself and Nick Courtney), or enjoying a drink (e.g. Mark Strickson and Nicola Bryant). Also note, for instance, the ‘empty space’ around a photograph of myself and Nicola Bryant (holding a drink) and the shots of guests at Longleat surrounded by crowds with cameras flashing. There are also photos of myself and other fans sitting round a table with Nick Courtney and Michael Craze drinking, and a shot of myself and other fans at breakfast with Michael Sheard. So, a marked difference. Of course, the more intimate conventions I describe were when the series was off the air, and I do not have experience of those conventions since its 2005 revival.  I also remember that at Longleat 1983, the event was so busy that I did not sit in the video tent, watching old episodes, something that I did a lot at the Leisure Hive conventions in Swindon, and that interested me at Oxford Local Group meetings. And even though other members of the Oxford Local Group were there, we did not meet until at least a year and a half later and longer in some instances. So what I take away from Longleat 1983 is an experience.  A positive experience since I felt a sense of loss the last time I was there with fans in the early 2000s. But not really individual memories. But I do remember being told off by my parents for being rude to ‘the Black Guardian’. I told him I didn’t want his autograph. Only because I already had it. And for Longleat 1983 that must be a miracle.”

“It’s hard to believe but at the time of Longleat 1983, Doctor Who was at the height of its popularity and was in the mainstream attention. This was a time in history before Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, and before Nicola Bryant, Bonnie Langford, and Sophie Aldred in the programme, and a time when Pat Troughton and Jon Pertwee were still with us, and therefore serves as a historical record of their association with the programme (videotape exists of this as seen on Myth Makers). Only two years after Longleat came Michael Grade’s infamous postponement of the series. I remember being deeply affected by the news which continually made the newspapers and I got all the clippings to put in a scrapbook. There was also the fan produced magazine Bring me the head of Michael Grade! Therefore, it was a big ‘event’ when I, with so many other fans, watched the first episode of “The Trial of a Time Lord” (Saturday September 6 1986) on the big screen in darkness at a Panopticon convention in London. Imagine how impressive that opening special effect looked on the big screen! And then it was repeated the next afternoon and rewound after a minute or two because JN-T had arrived and wanted to see it. I was not so affected when Doctor Who vanished from our screens in 1989, however. I think I had the sense that Doctor Who had had its day and that I was moving ahead with my life. I had found my interest waning during Season 26. A lot of this was to do with the complex narrative structures. I enjoyed “Ghost Light” part one’s atmosphere but found the rest confusing. Gone were the days when I rushed out to buy the Radio Times to see the captions for the forthcoming episodes, gone were the days when I rushed back from a brief spell at cubs to see “Four to Doomsday” part one (1982), gone were the days when I took delight in telling everyone in the school playground that Adric had not really died at the end of “Earthshock” (1982) as he was in the Radio Times cast-list for “Time Flight”, and gone were the days when I cried over Doctor Who, cried because I had been taken to France after part two of “Time Flight” (1982) and returned to find that the video recorder had failed to tape parts three and four (it was many years before I would see the conclusion). Now during “The Curse of Fenric” I was looking away from the television set and waiting for the episode to end. I was no longer producing a fanzine and the Doctor and I had, it seemed, had our day, but interestingly when I returned to fandom in the late 1990s, I watched the Sylvester McCoy era with renewed appreciation: the title sequence seemed just right for that era and among my favourite stories now are “Ghost Light” (1989) and “The Curse of Fenric” (1989).”

Below: A link to another website dedicated to this subject. Please take a look, it is interesting, nostalgic and very nicely presented.

DR WHO EXHIBITION

LONGLEAT

To visit this excellent site please click here.