Debbie did a Stiff Pilchard

I’m not a Cliff Richard fan! You wouldn’t think there was any need for me to say that. OK, I admit to buying his second Eurovision Song Contest entry, “Power To All Our Friends”, back in the early Seventies in a rare error of judgement but, no, I am not a fan of Sir Cliff. His version of the Lord’s Prayer, with Myleene Klass on backing vocals, is a strong contender for the title of Worst-Ever Single. The English language is notoriously difficult to set to music but this effort is abysmal. Lord only knows how it ever got to Number One but that’s the British record-buying public for you. No taste! Embarrassingly, I now have another confession to make. As of last Saturday, I am now the proud owner of Cliff Richard’s final film, “Take Me High”, which he made in 1973. I can hear you all collectively crying, “We don’t care when it was made! What on earth possessed you?”

Well, please bear with me as I attempt to explain. You may or may not remember but when I started this Journal’s “Telly Visions” strand, my first choice was “Doctor Who” actress Debbie Watling. In the post, I mentioned “she played the female companion throughout what is my favourite year of the science fiction series”. What I neglected to say is this season is also the most heavily depleted in the BBC archives. Most episodes featuring Deborah, as Victoria Waterfield, were junked simply due to lack of storage space, little realising their future value… and I certainly don’t mean financially to the BBC, but culturally. In the intervening years, we fans of Ms Watling have had to get our fixes of her gorgeousness from wherever we can. And one of those sources was repeat screenings, which now seem to have sadly dried up, of “Take Me High”. Long since deleted on VHS and unavailable commercially on DVD… until the Daily Mail came to the rescue on 25th September and for only 80p!

“Take Me High”, as you probably already suspect, isn’t exactly what you would call essential viewing! It has a pretty good cast that includes Arthur Daley, “Minder” star George Cole, and “Brideshead Revisited” actor Anthony Andrews. Deborah would work with the latter again on television wartime drama “Danger UXB”. “Take Me High”, however, is essentially a vehicle for Cliff, surprisingly written by “Space: 1999” author Christopher Penfold. The plot, such as it is, concerns Tim (no, not me but Mr Richard himself!), a successfully-ambitious young financier working for a London Merchant bank. But, even his happy-go-lucky attitude is severely jolted when he is sent to Birmingham instead of the promised New York for his posting! Comedy, romance and songs follow when the enterprising bank manager helps an unsuccessful restaurant compete with its rivals by introducing a new fast food - the Brumburger! Don’t ask… just be thankful that at least these 87 minutes of Debbie have survived the snip!!

Telly Visions: Deborah Watling

I’ve decided to start up a brand new strand, on this blog, profiling some of my favourite actresses who have appeared on both the small and large screens over the decades. I’ll attempt to give it a personal slant in that each post will concentrate on the productions in which I’ve most enjoyed their performances. I make no apologies for the fact that this, hopefully, regular series of pieces is picture-inspired. I’m the one who has to look at this blog most often, therefore I will try and accompany each small article with a rarely seen image of each vision of loveliness! I suppose I could’ve called the series “Favourite Actresses” but thought it a dull and uninspired title. After a little more thought, I came up with “Telly Visions” instead! So, turn on, tune in and open up your eyes as first off the starting block is the gorgeous Deborah Watling!! But, then, they’re all beautiful…

Deborah is the daughter of actor Jack Watling. She first came to my attention, naturally enough, in “Doctor Who” during the late-Sixties. I’m beginning with her because she played the female companion throughout what is my favourite year of the science fiction series. Deborah joined the show, playing Victoria Waterfield, at the end of the Fourth Season, in the second episode of “The Evil of the Daleks”. Her father in the story is exterminated by the Daleks and so the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, takes her under his wing, essentially adopting her by inviting her to join him and Jamie aboard the TARDIS. There is a rather touching scene in “The Tomb of the Cybermen”, the opening story of the following season, in which the Doctor tries to comfort and reassure her after her tragic loss. It isn’t dwelt on interminably and is the perfect example of how to deal with such issues in an essentially escapist series such as this. Her real dad joined the cast as Professor Travers, during her run, for the two Yeti stories and, in her final tale, it is her amplified scream that defeats the seaweed creature in my all-time favourite “Doctor Who” story, “Fury from the Deep”. It wasn’t only Jamie who was sorry to see her leave the programme at the end of this adventure!

Debbie had already appeared in a long running series at the tender age of eleven. She played Sally Brady in nine episodes of “H. G. Wells’ Invisible Man”, broadcast during 1959. Six years later, she appeared on the cover of the Radio Times to promote her starring role in Dennis Potter’s “Wednesday Play”, entitled “Alice”, which also featured future “Wexford” actor George Baker. Since moving on from “Doctor Who”, after a magnificent forty episodes over exactly eleven months, I suppose it’s fair to say television appearances have been thin on the ground. We saw a lot more of her as Sandra, alongside David Essex, in rock ‘n’ roll flick “That’ll Be the Day”. Whilst Ringo (Starr) is off doing his business elsewhere, our man from Essex attempts to get inside Miss Watling’s undergarments, lucky geezer, in one of the holiday camp chalets where he’s clearly gainfully employed! Back on the small screen, Deborah played Lorna in “Hello Young Lovers”, an episode of “Rising Damp”, in which her ample bosom is certainly thrust to the fore!! And, coming full circle, she appeared in the recurring role of “Naughty” Norma Baker, opposite Anthony Andrews, in seven episodes of “Danger UXB”, a series co-created by non other than Verity Lambert, the original Producer of Watling’s best-remembered gig, “Doctor Who”!