Who on Earth is Tom Baker? - Tom Baker

Along with many of my generation, Tom Baker was “my” Doctor Who. By this, I mean that he was the first Doctor I knew about and will always be the person I first think of as playing the role, despite Christopher Ecclestone’s best efforts recently. Whilst those slightly older than I may recall William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee, they were before my time and I didn’t enjoy anyone’s roles as the Doctor as much after Tom Baker as I did his. I may not be alone in this remembrance of Tom Baker’s Doctor Who, either. After all, he played the Doctor for a lot longer than anyone else did, thereby giving him access to a wider audience than those before or since. Plus, ...  Read the complete review

Back in the seventies and early eighties, he was the idol of millions of children. He was the Doctor. Most people will remember Tom Baker as Doctor Who. But Who on Earth is Tom Baker? Well why not let the man himself tell you the story of his life in this intriguing autobiography. Born in a God fearing Irish community in Liverpool, Tom Baker grew up during the war. His teachers thought he was thick, and he loved the smell of his church. Tom had few ambitions then: to be an orphan, a sinner and to have a wooden leg, not necessarily in that order. He volunteered to do most things and that eventually earned him a place in a Trappist monastery where he spent six ...  Read the complete review

Tom Baker if you do not know is the longest lived of the incarnations of Dr Who and in my opinion the best. He was born in Liverpool before the Second World War and when still at school decided he wanted to join the priesthood. On leaving school he became a monk, but decided that he would like to break 9 out of the 10 commandments and so he thought that it would be prudent to leave. So from monk he ended up as a medic in the Royal Medical Corps. Then from there he became a struggling actor until he went on to the National Theatre and was then finally “discovered” by television and became Dr Who for the next seven years. This book will give you an insight ...  Read the complete review

Reading this wild, psychotic autobiography, you get the sense that Tom Baker has never really achieved his full potential, but then again, given his extreme eccentricity, perhaps he will always be doomed to be a 'character'. Still, most celeb autobiographies are nowhere near as honest or devastating or downright hilarious. Baker is superb on the whole Dr Who phenomenon, though he doesn't really dwell on it, and is painfully aware of his own faiings in marriage, life, career and everything else. Oddly, for a biog of an actor, it shows him to be remarkably skilled with words, and perhaps this is where he'll go from here (his kid's book ...  Read the complete review