Donald Pleasance and Disfigured Villains

[Andy Corbie]

Hello there Tom.

Any stories or interesting memories of working with Donald Pleasance on the completely barmy '70s movie "The Mutations"? Or, if you prefer, on being not only knifed to death by dwarves in the film's climax but also devoured by huge dogs. What a way to go!

Early in the film, a tall and rather familiar figure comes out of the fog, long coat and scarf sweeping behind him. The Doctor? It certainly seems so but, beneath the battered fedora there's no toothy grin to be seen but rather a Tom baker buried beneath piles of latex and starring as the film's horribly disfigured villain. What fun!

This is my first post here. Nice to see you online. Always been a big fan.

Bye for now

Andy

[Tom Baker]

Dear Andy,

Anyone can do good parts with good lines and good ideas. We all know that, but to get the chance to do utter nonsense and try to be serious is a rare pleasure. But it is an amazing thing about my so called career that I have mostly done nonsense and audiences have enjoyed my efforts. When I played Macbeth the audiences screamed with delight at my double takes and threw pink marsh mellows at me. And in the pub afterwards they would compete to buy me drinks. So when I got to do The Mutations I was ready to enjoy it and I gave it a version of my Macbeth. But the biggest pile of nonsense that gave me most pleasure was Doctor Who and that was pure thane of Fife and lots of double takes. I did the same performance only last Friday for the local W.I. Out of 205,000 members only 53 turned up. They gave me three pots of jam and a jar of chutney. One said: " You know, sometimes I don't know if you are being serious." I wonder what she means?

Best wishes

Tom