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Paul McGann - The Eighth Doctor

Amazing Adams
  Did you ever meet Douglas Adams, and what do you make of his comedy?

No I never met him, is he still alive? He's very dead.

No, I wish I had met him, he sounds fantastic. I think a couple of the guys that are on this have met him, and he was your original polymath, he sounds amazing, he sounds like Mervyn Peake or someone like that. He's funny, his books are good.

Strange reads
  As Shada's about this very mysterious book, could you tell us what the oddest book you've ever read is?

I'm reading this [book by] Sebald, W G Sebald. A fantastic writer, this guy was, he died a year ago in a road accident, but he was a lecturer in the University of East Anglia, a German who'd come to England in the 60s. He's written four or five really strange novels but they're more sort of mind travel. Explorations of memory and his peculiar view of the world.

When he died last year, people are now waking up to the fact that we've lost a great writer. I can only recommend them to you, they're strange but really beautiful, and moving. W G Sebald, remember where you heard it first. They're scribbling furiously here.

Fonz McGann
  What were you wearing when the original Shada was shooting?

What was I doing in '79? It's the year I started drama school, and in the breaks in-between the terms, in the holiday weeks, I used to work in this American retro shop. The American retro clothing boom had just kicked off in London and there was a shop called Flip.

Me and my brother took jobs there in the warehouse and opening a couple of the shops, but they encouraged you to wear the gear. I remember that the kids that I was at drama school with were all into the leg warmers and stuff in '79, but I went in looking like the Fonz. He-ey!

They must have thought I was a... anyway. Yeah, I looked great, I was the best dressed drama student that year.

Companion piece
  Your normal companion is India Fisher - what's the in the way you can play off her as opposed to Lalla Ward?

Well, we've only just started today so I don't know, but I miss India to be honest. Nothing against Lalla, but I miss India, I keep expecting her to walk in through the door. They're different of course, India is more like working with your little sister.

Hacking through Who
  What are your hopes for the Fortieth Anniversary adventure ?

Fortieth Anniversary of what?

Doctor Who.

Are you expecting some tough verbal sparring with your fellow Doctors?

I'll have to get a good night's kip before. They're all red hot, especially McCoy. You can't get a word in edgeways at the best of times with him.

So it's the 40th anniversary of what, of the first show on BBC. That dates us doesn't it. It was the old man with white hair.

What was your memory of the programme?

Watching William Hartnell. What was them sweets we had as kids? Hacks, those cough sweets. There was a jar of them in the house that we lived in, and on the Hacks jar there was some white haired old guy just about to sneeze and blow his head off, and then suddenly the scary Hacks man turns up in a TARDIS. I liked him, I thought he was the best.

Not the woolly scarf!
  Have any preferences about how you'd like the Doctor to look this time around in our animations?

What, clothes-wise? Has the scarf finally been kicked into touch?

Maybe a little bit more Saville Row, maybe a little less flowing. I want to look a little like Who Bond you know, a little sharper. That's what I want to look like, if I had my way.

There was much debate at the time about what you got to wear. Was it a sore point?

Oh yeah, they were completely tight about it. Also I turned up with a shaved head, and they made me wear this awful syrup [of figs - rhyming slang for wig].

I remember there was a scene where, because I was looking at a scarf going, 'I ain't wearing it', there was this stand off, but in the end I think we did some compromise, we shot a scene where you see the scarf and I just leave it on a hook and walk away from it.

Hmm... [considers again how his Doctor should look] Leather, maybe?

Movies to audio
  How do you find doing Doctor Who on audio as opposed to on screen?

To be honest the film now is like a brief mad memory of some crazy holiday. It just seemed to be over so quickly and there wasn't a lot of control. I just did what I was told and stood there and tried to survive. Doing these is a bit more satisfying.

I get the impression that even this version, Douglas Adams's story, is slightly tailored to suit me, whereas the film, obviously that was brand new and they didn't know what was happening anyway or what I was going to do, so that was trickier. In a sense I was trying to fit in with what they were about.

But doing the radio stuff is fun, not least because they can't see you. You can be as big, and as bold, and as angry, or as different as you want. I like radio work, I like voice work a lot.

An unexpected path
  Did you ever think making Doctor Who would be something you'd like to tackle?

Are you crazy, of course not, no, not once, no never. Not till Philip Segal phoned me up. I thought it was a case of mistaken identity.

Are you glad you've done it now?

Um… yeah. I regret nothing.