How true are rumours, usually spread by Matthew Waterhouse( Adric), that Baker was frequently drunk, difficult to work with and couldn't work with the new producer, John Nathan Turner, which led to Baker to announce his departure from the show in 1981? I know he was a heavy drinker and seemingly his frigid on screen relationship with the first Romana was the same off screen and I have heard him say he could have treated his co stars better. Yet I can forgive him this for an excellent portrayal of the Doctor and some fantastic stories like The Pyramids of Mars that I can watch over and over.

He was difficult to work with under Williams and JNT. Under Hinchcliffe, he wasn't so awkward.

I think JNT wanted to move the show forwards for the eighties and when Baker expressed an interest in leaving, encouraged him to go in favour of a younger Doctor and companions. Also Baker was becoming worn out by the role and was spending plenty of time in his favourite pub in Soho and in the BBC bar and his marriage to Romana 2( Lalla Ward) was collapsing by his last series, so you can't blame him for being awkward.

It's probably more to do with how stardom and showbiz grabbed him, and his way of dealing with his fame. He wasn't so awkward under Hinchcliffe because - apart from Barry Letts on his first story - Hinchcliffe was his first producer, so may have been before his fame really made him an arrogant arse to work with. He had thought himself bigger than the show.

And I think the quality of the scripts under Williams may have been a factor - he was frequently describing the scripts at that time as "whippet shit".

Like most other leading stars in successful TV programmes, he had become too big for his boots. He wasn't a major star before the show, unlike Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee and most of his successors, who were pretty established stars by the time they took on the role, so fame must have grabbed Baker by the throat.

Towards the latter end of his era when he was getting jaded by it all, and his marriage was breaking down he was apparently a bit of a nightmare.

He's admitted this himself in recent times on commentaries and in interviews and the like, and has apologized for it, bless him. Old age mellows people I think.

They didn't get married until December 1980 and his last episode was aired in March 1981.

Most of the conflict between them happened early in Season 18.
According to http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/5n.html

"The two had decided to end their romantic liaison at the conclusion of shooting on Season Seventeen in December. Now, however, Baker yearned to rekindle their affair, while Ward was content to leave things as they were. As a result, both stars were soon refusing to speak to one another"

He could have been destroyed by certain women fans in his pre marriage days if they decided to give the News of the World a call. Reading in his autobiog, Tom reveals he had plenty of female groupies, one of whom liked to wear a scarf and hat, and a few liked to whip him. Luckily this one came out 16 years after he finished in the role, and Tom revealed this himself, but imagine if this came out in 1977, it would have destroyed him and possibly made him a bit paranoid.

Tom was both proud and insecure. He had a low patience for people he didn't respect on top of that.

Hmm.. I can empathize with him.

But it's all water under the bridge now. He's built bridges with most of the people he had issues with. He's even working with Lalla Ward again for Big Finish.

[He didn't have to meet her again to do them]

McCoy did Big Finish from New Zealand filming the Hobbit while the rest of it was made in the UK, if I recall correctly.

Fair point. I don't know how they've worked and if they were in the room together but from an interview I heard with Lalla Ward (sorry, I don't have a link) she definitely talked about it as if she was going to be working directly with Tom.

I see no reason why not in all honesty. I don't think either of them remain bitter. It was a long time ago. They both married and had their own lives. People move on, from marriages and from grudges. They're always very nice about each other nowadays and tend to have an air of gentle bafflement about the whole affair rather than anger or resentment.

I adore Tom Baker. I've been lucky enough to meet him a couple of times and know a few people that have had long conversations with him. He is a brilliant, witty and kind man and the best doctor in my opinion.

But i don't think there is any doubt that he could be exceptionally difficult to work with. It has come from a lot more people than just people in his last season. It basically started from about 2 years in when he had got settled in the role, knew he was good and had very definate ideas about what should be happening and would give short shrift to anybody that disagreed with him. He was also petty enough to punish innocents for being in the wrong place at the wrong time - for instance, not giving Louise Jameson a chance simply because she was the new companion when he hadn't wanted a companion.

He had threatened to resign a few times in arguments and was used to people backing off and giving in to him. What happened in 1980 was that JNT just said "Ok, then, it's been great but if that is how you feel, you should go" and Baker wasn't expecting to have his bluff called. When it was, of course he was unhappy (pus not physicly well) so Waterhouse really wasn't meeting him at his best. And of course he and Lalla argued as they were dating and breaking up through that season.

The drinking is also true but then the world was a different place back then. People did drink at lunch time and he got the job done so.....

He wasn't married to Lalla whilst they were still filming. They had been dating off and on pretty much since they met but it Was a turbulent relationship and that wasn't anything to do with JNT.

Baker actually proposed after Ward had left and they married a couple of months later. And then split about 18 months after that.

He was 'difficult' way before that. Chris Boucher, author of Face of Evil, Robots of Death and Image of the Fendahl has talked about how horribly rude Baker was in rehearsals about his scripts, to the point where Boucher wanted to either cry or hit him. I've met Boucher, he is not a man to easily lose his temper and if Baker could have that effect on him, quite early on then god knows how other, less experienced, strong or clever people coped with him later on.

That doesn't make him bad or anything, he's just a stron, clever, unique man who maybe doesn"t (didn't) realise how his behaviour affected and disrupted others.

I don't know if it was really as simple as that. For sure, he maybe didn't show as much consideration and kindness to most people as he should have, no argument, but I don't think it was just because he didn't want a companion. He liked Liz Sladen and resented working with someone else. On top of that he found Louise Jameson boring and precious. Again, I'm not saying he shouldn't have tried harder to be civil to her, but there was a personality clash there - it wasn't just arbitrary. Louise Jameson expected respect as his colleague and Tom is the kind of person you have the earn the respect of. And Louise did as time went on.

Not everyone likes everyone. I think Tom just didn't like her, plain and simple, and it was probably mutual. Of course, they need to deal with that professionally and I'm sure Tom didn't.

As I said above though, it's all water under the bridge now. By both accounts they get on great now when they work together with Big Finish.

I also want to add that as unpleasant, even upsetting it could be to someone personally involved, as someone on the outside, I can't help but admire the devil in Tom of that period sometimes. I bet there were a lot of people in the cast and crew who wanted to talk to snotty little Matthew Waterhouse the way Tom did. It does amuse me on DVD commentaries when he refers to Matthew Waterhouse the actor (not the character) as 'Adric' or calls him 'that little boy' (again, Waterhouse, not Adric) Let's not forget it's these socially untypical or untactful personality traits that contributes to his charisma, and consequently his work. If Tom was a diplomatic, considerate person he wouldn't be Tom Baker the personality that we all enjoy so much.

I don't think it would have actually. The World was a very different place in the 1970s or even 1980s and groupies were kind of an expected part of fame. And, in all honesty, he was not the only Doctor or Companion to indulge in affairs with fans, especially once conventions started. At least he wasn't married at the time unlike some of the others.

Frankly I'm amazed (but thankful) that there haven't been any allegations against a Who star (or Producer) of historic rape over the past couple of years as I know of so many encounters, some of which were with teenage girls (and boys) which were consensual but could be so easily misconstrued or misrepresented and would certainly be judged as wrong today.

Well of course nothing is ever as simple as being boiled down to one or two sentences.

But, whether it was due to him not wanting another companion at all, missing Lis Sladen, not liking Louise Jamieson as a person, he did not treat her with the professional or personal respect that any coLleague or indeed human being should be entitled to expect. Until that point when she'd had enough and answered him back at which point he started treating her better professionally - the personal respect, even friendship, seems to have developed later as they both matured.

The point to the OP though, is to ask whether he was difficult to work with, and the evidence re Louise Jamieson would be yes for whatever his reason was. Only he knew why he didn't like her or want her there, but his dislike was apparent to her which made for a difficult working environment for her and probably for the people around them such as guest artistes and crew as there would be an atmosphere.

Sure, I acknowledged that.

Let's also acknowledge though that we only ever heard Louise Jameson's side of all this back in the day. Tom didn't show her respect and so on. Maybe Tom felt she didn't show him respect. It's easy for us on the outside to paint Louise Jameson as totally innocent and wronged but we weren't there. As I said, I think maybe Louise Jameson expected respect rather than immediately set out to earn it. Maybe she expected they would be friends and was hurt by Tom's coldness. It happens. Different people; different personalities. Some people expect to be friends with everyone unless there's a reason not to be. Some people are much more emotionally guarded or private.

It was a personality clash. Tom wasn't a good boy. We know that. He's apologized. But the person who cries loudest isn't always totally innocent you know. I don't think Louise ever set out to antagonize Tom or anything like that but that doesn't mean she didn't. And there's responsibility for that relationship mismanagement on her too. Diplomacy works both ways. Tom always says he liked Liz Sladen 'because she laughed at my jokes'. ie. she made him feel liked, stroked his ego a little. Maybe Louise could have done more. Who knows? You can't put a personality clash down to just one person. That's the one little point I'm trying to get across: its not all Tom just being a thoughless, rotten person back in the day. He was obviously a highly strung person who needed a delicate handling he didn't necessarily get from Louise.

Re your other points. Yes, without a doubt this prickliness is a big part of what makes Tom, Tom and such a perfect person to play the Doctor. He is also far from being the only difficult, sometimes arrogant and scathing man to have played the Doctor - i think that is true of most of them, along with intelligence and kindness.

I'm also sure that on a good day, and there will have been many, working with Tom Baker was probably a riot and maybe a highlight or your career for just fun!

There was a lovely interview with Louise Jamieson in DWM a while ago where she talks about how she genuinely loves Tom now and they've chatted about how he was and he's apologised so it's all had a happy ending.

In terms of when he started getting difficult, Nicholas Courtney did a convention in Paisley years ago where he talked about doing Robot and going out with Tom and Tom sleeping in Nick's bath... His daughter got a surprise to see a named Dr Who in the bath the next morning! Anyway, next time Nick sees him is filming for Terror of the Zygons and there's some argument going on and Tom turns to Nick as if he didn't know him and says "and what do you think mister?"

JNT has some allegations regarding bedding underage boys at that time.

Surely, in a Totp comparision, any potential withdrawal of episodes would affect on screen talent not off screen talent?

Louise Jameson has said many times since her years working with Tom, that he has apologised to her and admitted he was a bit if a shit towards her, but has always stated it was her character Leela that he hated and not realy her, she just got the backlash. In his autobiography he also admitted that once when he was in Australia he was approached by a woman and didn't immediately recognise her as one of his ex wives. He didn't say which one.

Yes, he was very difficult apparently, yet a lot of his former co-stars are now very good friends with him. As are, I think, some of the production stars. I've heard people say that he's apologized for his behaviour to one or more of them. Maybe he regrets how he was.

In the case of Matthew Waterhouse, though, I've read somewhere that he tried to give Tom Baker acting tips. I expect it was done with good intentions, but I can see why it wouldn't have gone down very well.

Fascinating thread - A credit to the forum.

Waterhouse apparently took Richard Todd to one side during filming of Kinda to give him some acting tips.

Had Richard Todd done any tv acting by that point?