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Blue Box Boy
As a boy Matthew Waterhouse loved Doctor he watched all the episodes and read all the novels and comic strips.
What starts as a heart-warming story, of a boy growing up with Doctor Who as his trusted friend, engaging the reader memories and nostalgia that will be familiar to any Doctor Who fan, takes a sudden twist when he is thrust into an alien and adult world - cast as Doctor Who’s youngest ever travelling companion - for two of the series’ most inventive seasons.
Matthew’s sense of wonder with his dream job and his love for the show are palpable; as is his shock at genuine hostilities between cast and crew members and considerable tensions on set, which are counterpointed with poignant reminders that he is just a boy, and still a fan, who finds himself in the absurd, comic world of minor celebrity.
What follows is a story-by-story memoir of his time on the show, peppered with glimpses into Matthew's personal life, tales of conventions, DVD commentaries, and some revealing anecdotes about everyone from fellow actors to Doctor Who’s more high-profile fans.
This memoir holds nothing written with honesty, warmth, a rapier wit and a good dose self-depreciation, the book is essential reading for any Doctor Who fan. Finally, we get to hear Matthew's side of a story which has been told and embellished and imagined by fans and fellow actors for years.
This affectionate and darkly humourous memoir is a record of what it was like to make Doctor Who, and to work for the BBC in early '80s, and is proof that you can take the actor out of Doctor Who, but you can never quite take Doctor Who out of the actor...
What starts as a heart-warming story, of a boy growing up with Doctor Who as his trusted friend, engaging the reader memories and nostalgia that will be familiar to any Doctor Who fan, takes a sudden twist when he is thrust into an alien and adult world - cast as Doctor Who’s youngest ever travelling companion - for two of the series’ most inventive seasons.
Matthew’s sense of wonder with his dream job and his love for the show are palpable; as is his shock at genuine hostilities between cast and crew members and considerable tensions on set, which are counterpointed with poignant reminders that he is just a boy, and still a fan, who finds himself in the absurd, comic world of minor celebrity.
What follows is a story-by-story memoir of his time on the show, peppered with glimpses into Matthew's personal life, tales of conventions, DVD commentaries, and some revealing anecdotes about everyone from fellow actors to Doctor Who’s more high-profile fans.
This memoir holds nothing written with honesty, warmth, a rapier wit and a good dose self-depreciation, the book is essential reading for any Doctor Who fan. Finally, we get to hear Matthew's side of a story which has been told and embellished and imagined by fans and fellow actors for years.
This affectionate and darkly humourous memoir is a record of what it was like to make Doctor Who, and to work for the BBC in early '80s, and is proof that you can take the actor out of Doctor Who, but you can never quite take Doctor Who out of the actor...
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First published June 24, 2010
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About the author
Matthew Waterhouse
48 books6 followersMatthew Waterhouse played companion Adric, a companion of Tom Baker and Peter Davison's Doctors from 1980 to 1982, in Doctor Who from Full Circle to Earthshock, with cameo appearances in Time-Flight and The Caves of Androzani. After leaving the series, he began a stage career.
Waterhouse began his career as a clerk in the BBC news department before securing a role in the television drama To Serve Them All My Days in 1980. Shortly afterward he auditioned for and won the role of Adric. He was a confirmed Doctor Who fan and had had at least one letter printed in Doctor Who Weekly before he took up the role.
Between 1998 and 2016 Waterhouse lived in Connecticut in the United States, though he regularly visited the UK. He has since returned to live full-time in the UK alongside his American husband, Tim.
In 2010, Waterhouse joined a growing number of Doctor Who actors in publishing an autobiography. In his book, Blue Box Boy, he writes candidly about his experiences making Doctor Who. Waterhouse also appeared in the 2019 documentary A Weekend with Waterhouse that appeared on the Doctor Who: Season 18 Blu-Ray release.
Since 2014, Waterhouse has been reprising his role as Adric in Doctor Who audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions. He has also written two novels for the company's range of Audio Novels based on the series, the most recent being Prisoners of London, released in July 2023.
Waterhouse began his career as a clerk in the BBC news department before securing a role in the television drama To Serve Them All My Days in 1980. Shortly afterward he auditioned for and won the role of Adric. He was a confirmed Doctor Who fan and had had at least one letter printed in Doctor Who Weekly before he took up the role.
Between 1998 and 2016 Waterhouse lived in Connecticut in the United States, though he regularly visited the UK. He has since returned to live full-time in the UK alongside his American husband, Tim.
In 2010, Waterhouse joined a growing number of Doctor Who actors in publishing an autobiography. In his book, Blue Box Boy, he writes candidly about his experiences making Doctor Who. Waterhouse also appeared in the 2019 documentary A Weekend with Waterhouse that appeared on the Doctor Who: Season 18 Blu-Ray release.
Since 2014, Waterhouse has been reprising his role as Adric in Doctor Who audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions. He has also written two novels for the company's range of Audio Novels based on the series, the most recent being Prisoners of London, released in July 2023.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
March 30, 2011
"Why do television producers insist on casting boy geniuses in science-fiction. We hate boy geniuses!" - Stephen Moffat
It’s no secret amongst fans of Doctor Who that Matthew Waterhouse, the teenager hired in 1980 to play Adric - the ‘artful dodger’ character that joined the TARDIS crew for Tom Baker’s final series and Peter Davison’s first - was not universally loved, either by the fans or by some of his fellow actors.
Over the years he has maintained a discreet distance from the convention circuit and other spin-off events, returning only recently to record DVD commentaries for some of the stories he appeared in. In his absence he has been on the receiving end of many brickbats focussing on his personality, acting ability (or lack of) and behaviour.
It’s interesting to note that in the recent autobiography by Sixties Doctor Who actor Deborah Watling, she recalls an instance at one of her first convention appearances where Lalla Ward and Sarah Sutton (both of whom having acted with Waterhouse in the series) take the opportunity on a Q&A panel to make fun of the actor. She thinks this is appallingly unprofessional and rude and gives them a talking to afterwards. It’s fair to say that they weren’t the only ones to have done this in the long years since he left the show but it would interesting to hear his views on many of the circumstances that have become well-worn convention anecdotes. Are they a true reflection or not?
Well, perhaps now is the chance to find out. Matthew Waterhouse has written an autobiography; Blue Box Boy: A Memoir of Doctor Who In Four Episodes. I finished it this weekend with a variety of thoughts buzzing round in my head - the first of those being his choice to write it in the third person which, although an interesting device at first, rapidly starts to grate, particularly as it’s a book that could have done with a good editor and a proofreader to sort out the myriad of mistakes in the typesetting (for example, the number of times he is referred to as Mathew and Matthew on the same page is astonishing). Another drawback is that although the book is split into four ‘episodes’ there is little structure to them and there are many moments where we flash-forward to his time on the series or, indeed, long after, before dashing back to childhood. Again, this highlights the need for a professional editor and the occasional drawback to very small publishers.
Despite these niggles there is a lot to enjoy. Waterhouse is probably the only person to have acted on the original run of the show who was a proper dyed-in-the-wool fan since childhood. Much of the first quarter of the book is taken up with his reminisces of this early part of his life (comics and Target novelizations of the early serials) and it’s quite sweet to find his memories cheating or feeding him information that isn’t quite right.
Where his memory does come to the fore is, naturally enough, when we get to his time working on the show. It’s quite refreshing to read a book about Doctor Who that doesn’t paint it’s behind-the-scenes life as the rosy, “We all had SUCH a marvellous time!” programme that it often is. Matthew joined at a time when Baker was about to leave and was an unpleasant, unpredictable and erratic man, causing misery and upset to other actors, directors and production staff. I felt genuinely sad for him as he quickly realised that the man whom he had idolised for so many years as a young viewer and fan turned out to be such a monster to work with.
When reading autobiographies I automatically set my bullshit detector to “On” because it is only natural for people to paint a picture that puts themselves in a favourable light. Interestingly, Blue Box Boy doesn’t really do that. There is a startling candour to this book the like of which I doubt we will ever see again in a Who memoir and his reminiscences are in stark contrast to those we, as fans, often have related to us. I have read a few reviews of this book where it has been suggested that Waterhouse is simply being spiteful and rude and has no right to criticise others when his own acting was hardly up to par. It’s arguable whether or not he has earned the right to stick a few knives in the backs of people who have cheerfully done it to him but, quite honestly, I think these reviewers are exposing their own narrow-mindedness and, in doing so, missing the point entirely.
One thing that becomes painfully clear is that Matthew Waterhouse c.1980 is young and naive. He is awkward around people and forms his personal opinions and mannerisms from the opinions and mannerisms of those around him. As a devoted fan of the show, this was his absolute dream job. He went in ready to have a fantastic time doing what all kids wanted to do; travel with Doctor in the TARDIS. The rude awakening he received on discovering that there was no magic inside the blue box is nothing short of tragic - but at no time does he go on endlessly about how wonderful he is or by how terrible everyone else is. He can be sharp at times and his sense of humour is almost too dry but he is commenting on what was, at the time, an important part of his life as he saw and experienced it. It's not a hatchet job and Waterhouse still has a tremendous amount of warmth and love for a show that was, at the time he became a part of it, suffering on a grand scale.
For the record, I am someone who has never had much time for Adric, or gained much enjoyment from Waterhouse’s performance but, despite the odd flowery turn of phrase and the need for at least 50 pages being cut (it’s 423 pages long), this is a fascinating, extremely readable memoir and easily one of the most interesting titles to have been published about Doctor Who in recent years.
It’s no secret amongst fans of Doctor Who that Matthew Waterhouse, the teenager hired in 1980 to play Adric - the ‘artful dodger’ character that joined the TARDIS crew for Tom Baker’s final series and Peter Davison’s first - was not universally loved, either by the fans or by some of his fellow actors.
Over the years he has maintained a discreet distance from the convention circuit and other spin-off events, returning only recently to record DVD commentaries for some of the stories he appeared in. In his absence he has been on the receiving end of many brickbats focussing on his personality, acting ability (or lack of) and behaviour.
It’s interesting to note that in the recent autobiography by Sixties Doctor Who actor Deborah Watling, she recalls an instance at one of her first convention appearances where Lalla Ward and Sarah Sutton (both of whom having acted with Waterhouse in the series) take the opportunity on a Q&A panel to make fun of the actor. She thinks this is appallingly unprofessional and rude and gives them a talking to afterwards. It’s fair to say that they weren’t the only ones to have done this in the long years since he left the show but it would interesting to hear his views on many of the circumstances that have become well-worn convention anecdotes. Are they a true reflection or not?
Well, perhaps now is the chance to find out. Matthew Waterhouse has written an autobiography; Blue Box Boy: A Memoir of Doctor Who In Four Episodes. I finished it this weekend with a variety of thoughts buzzing round in my head - the first of those being his choice to write it in the third person which, although an interesting device at first, rapidly starts to grate, particularly as it’s a book that could have done with a good editor and a proofreader to sort out the myriad of mistakes in the typesetting (for example, the number of times he is referred to as Mathew and Matthew on the same page is astonishing). Another drawback is that although the book is split into four ‘episodes’ there is little structure to them and there are many moments where we flash-forward to his time on the series or, indeed, long after, before dashing back to childhood. Again, this highlights the need for a professional editor and the occasional drawback to very small publishers.
Despite these niggles there is a lot to enjoy. Waterhouse is probably the only person to have acted on the original run of the show who was a proper dyed-in-the-wool fan since childhood. Much of the first quarter of the book is taken up with his reminisces of this early part of his life (comics and Target novelizations of the early serials) and it’s quite sweet to find his memories cheating or feeding him information that isn’t quite right.
Where his memory does come to the fore is, naturally enough, when we get to his time working on the show. It’s quite refreshing to read a book about Doctor Who that doesn’t paint it’s behind-the-scenes life as the rosy, “We all had SUCH a marvellous time!” programme that it often is. Matthew joined at a time when Baker was about to leave and was an unpleasant, unpredictable and erratic man, causing misery and upset to other actors, directors and production staff. I felt genuinely sad for him as he quickly realised that the man whom he had idolised for so many years as a young viewer and fan turned out to be such a monster to work with.
When reading autobiographies I automatically set my bullshit detector to “On” because it is only natural for people to paint a picture that puts themselves in a favourable light. Interestingly, Blue Box Boy doesn’t really do that. There is a startling candour to this book the like of which I doubt we will ever see again in a Who memoir and his reminiscences are in stark contrast to those we, as fans, often have related to us. I have read a few reviews of this book where it has been suggested that Waterhouse is simply being spiteful and rude and has no right to criticise others when his own acting was hardly up to par. It’s arguable whether or not he has earned the right to stick a few knives in the backs of people who have cheerfully done it to him but, quite honestly, I think these reviewers are exposing their own narrow-mindedness and, in doing so, missing the point entirely.
One thing that becomes painfully clear is that Matthew Waterhouse c.1980 is young and naive. He is awkward around people and forms his personal opinions and mannerisms from the opinions and mannerisms of those around him. As a devoted fan of the show, this was his absolute dream job. He went in ready to have a fantastic time doing what all kids wanted to do; travel with Doctor in the TARDIS. The rude awakening he received on discovering that there was no magic inside the blue box is nothing short of tragic - but at no time does he go on endlessly about how wonderful he is or by how terrible everyone else is. He can be sharp at times and his sense of humour is almost too dry but he is commenting on what was, at the time, an important part of his life as he saw and experienced it. It's not a hatchet job and Waterhouse still has a tremendous amount of warmth and love for a show that was, at the time he became a part of it, suffering on a grand scale.
For the record, I am someone who has never had much time for Adric, or gained much enjoyment from Waterhouse’s performance but, despite the odd flowery turn of phrase and the need for at least 50 pages being cut (it’s 423 pages long), this is a fascinating, extremely readable memoir and easily one of the most interesting titles to have been published about Doctor Who in recent years.
February 20, 2013
This is a very different sort of autobiography, and you realise that from the very beginning.
The author writes about himself in the 3rd person, which takes a bit of getting used to. So rather than writing “I was excited about the audition”; we get “Matthew was excited about the audition” and so on.
It’s an unusual approach and one that I found rubbing off on me. Stephen was almost tempted to write this review in the 3rd person about Matthew’s book. Stephen’s mate Andrew got him Matthew’s book as a birthday present and Andrew had to go to great lengths to get it, which is a story in itself. Argh! It’s recursive occlusion, I’ll stop.
So that tells you from the off that Matthew Waterhouse is not one for convention (conventions, maybe). His writing style is both personal, and removed at the same time. And he is very, very honest.
I have to say, I found his whole approach to his Doctor Who life refreshing and very readable. His recollections of his time on the show, and afterwards, don’t hold back. Sometimes they go off at odd tangents, but that’s fine. At the same time that you learn some funny or insightful stuff about the acting profession, the BBC in general, or what Matthew thinks of particular actors, you also get a feel for the type of person Matthew is.
His stories about Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Nathan Turner et al never come across like hackneyed anecdotes. I found the stories hilarious, although a lot of them probably didn’t feel like it at the time.
Any book that describes working with Tom Baker is always going to be a page turner. I just found myself lapping it up, anecdote after anecdote. And hearing Matthew’s honest opinions is a unique insight into the making of the show and the relationships between cast and crew.
I have to be honest, I never liked the character of Adric. I was 7 when he joined the show and I thought he was a bad character. Also, I think I must have heard stories about Matthew Waterhouse in various interviews or publications (none of which I can recall with any precision) which made me think I wouldn’t necessarily like him. I’m glad to say the prejudice was unfounded.
This was one of the most enjoyable autobiographies that I have read, by any celebrity, and I felt sad when I reached the end. My next book had better be this enjoyable!
The author writes about himself in the 3rd person, which takes a bit of getting used to. So rather than writing “I was excited about the audition”; we get “Matthew was excited about the audition” and so on.
It’s an unusual approach and one that I found rubbing off on me. Stephen was almost tempted to write this review in the 3rd person about Matthew’s book. Stephen’s mate Andrew got him Matthew’s book as a birthday present and Andrew had to go to great lengths to get it, which is a story in itself. Argh! It’s recursive occlusion, I’ll stop.
So that tells you from the off that Matthew Waterhouse is not one for convention (conventions, maybe). His writing style is both personal, and removed at the same time. And he is very, very honest.
I have to say, I found his whole approach to his Doctor Who life refreshing and very readable. His recollections of his time on the show, and afterwards, don’t hold back. Sometimes they go off at odd tangents, but that’s fine. At the same time that you learn some funny or insightful stuff about the acting profession, the BBC in general, or what Matthew thinks of particular actors, you also get a feel for the type of person Matthew is.
His stories about Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Nathan Turner et al never come across like hackneyed anecdotes. I found the stories hilarious, although a lot of them probably didn’t feel like it at the time.
Any book that describes working with Tom Baker is always going to be a page turner. I just found myself lapping it up, anecdote after anecdote. And hearing Matthew’s honest opinions is a unique insight into the making of the show and the relationships between cast and crew.
I have to be honest, I never liked the character of Adric. I was 7 when he joined the show and I thought he was a bad character. Also, I think I must have heard stories about Matthew Waterhouse in various interviews or publications (none of which I can recall with any precision) which made me think I wouldn’t necessarily like him. I’m glad to say the prejudice was unfounded.
This was one of the most enjoyable autobiographies that I have read, by any celebrity, and I felt sad when I reached the end. My next book had better be this enjoyable!
October 26, 2015
Wise men make proverbs, but fools repeat them - Samuel Palmer (1805-1880)
Blue Box Boy is the tale of the actor Matthew Waterhouse, the eighteen year old who was cast in 1980 to play a Doctor Who companion (Adric). It is an autobiography, but very selective in its’ material. It tells the story (in great, one might argue unnecessary) detail of his obsession with Doctor Who as a child,then later his direct involvement on the show, and some moments of his life after he left.
So, as a Doctor Who fan, this told me the stuff that I was really interested in. However the lack of external context serves to make the main character seem one dimensional. And whilst some may criticise the book for this, I think it actually may have been the point.
Although Matthew writes the story, it is told in the first person. Whilst jarring for the first few pages, you quickly get used to this. The lack of background of the character (as he surely must be seen due to the choice of writing style) means that you never really understand the relationship between Matthew the young actor on Doctor Who and Matthew the human being. It is almost as though the book is being deliberately written in the style of a Terrence Dicks Doctor Who novel, it gives you a description of the action, and the dialogue, but doesn’t tell you much about the inner workings of Matthews mind. I am sure this is deliberate, his note at the front of the book (“The Changing Titles of Doctor Who”) is a deliberate pastiche of the note that appeared at the front of the Target Books, often written by Terrence Dicks, telling the new reader about “The Changing Face of Doctor Who”.
So does it work? Well, annoyingly, yes it does. If I had read the paragraph above before I read the book I think it might have put me off. But let’s be honest, as fans (and it really is only fans who are going to want to read this book) we want to know the nitty gritty about the production. It’s wonderful to know what a cantankerous sod Tom Baker was to work with – we have been told this in the past as fact but never given many details. But the style does mean that the book cannot have any casual readers, because they would frankly be bored.
There was a side of me that wanted to know more about Matthew the person. He has been a bit of an enigma in fan circles, possibly because the level of criticism that is levelled against him has made him all but disassociate himself with the show. Certainly now when you watch the DVD’s of his episodes there is the odd dud line, but few more than many of the other actors on the show. As a kid when I watched this I adored the whole Tardis crew, including Adric, and I was utterly devastated when he was killed off. In fact I couldn’t quite believe it, and was sure they would find a way to save him in the following story (the Radio Times listed him in the next story, so I must have been right. Mustn’t I?!)
So I wanted to know how he felt after his first day when Tom Baker blanked him, or told him to piss off. But that is the kind of information you almost never get. The exception was when he first reads the script for his final episode and discovers that Adric gives his own life to try and save others, which brings back some uncomfortable memories for Matthew about his brother’s suicide. But that is the only moment that hints at emotional depth, and to be honest I wanted more. I wanted to be able to empathise with him, and sadly I could not.
But as a hardcore Who fan, it is a really enjoyable read, and if you love the show then this is a very honest account of Matthew’s time on it.
Blue Box Boy is the tale of the actor Matthew Waterhouse, the eighteen year old who was cast in 1980 to play a Doctor Who companion (Adric). It is an autobiography, but very selective in its’ material. It tells the story (in great, one might argue unnecessary) detail of his obsession with Doctor Who as a child,then later his direct involvement on the show, and some moments of his life after he left.
So, as a Doctor Who fan, this told me the stuff that I was really interested in. However the lack of external context serves to make the main character seem one dimensional. And whilst some may criticise the book for this, I think it actually may have been the point.
Although Matthew writes the story, it is told in the first person. Whilst jarring for the first few pages, you quickly get used to this. The lack of background of the character (as he surely must be seen due to the choice of writing style) means that you never really understand the relationship between Matthew the young actor on Doctor Who and Matthew the human being. It is almost as though the book is being deliberately written in the style of a Terrence Dicks Doctor Who novel, it gives you a description of the action, and the dialogue, but doesn’t tell you much about the inner workings of Matthews mind. I am sure this is deliberate, his note at the front of the book (“The Changing Titles of Doctor Who”) is a deliberate pastiche of the note that appeared at the front of the Target Books, often written by Terrence Dicks, telling the new reader about “The Changing Face of Doctor Who”.
So does it work? Well, annoyingly, yes it does. If I had read the paragraph above before I read the book I think it might have put me off. But let’s be honest, as fans (and it really is only fans who are going to want to read this book) we want to know the nitty gritty about the production. It’s wonderful to know what a cantankerous sod Tom Baker was to work with – we have been told this in the past as fact but never given many details. But the style does mean that the book cannot have any casual readers, because they would frankly be bored.
There was a side of me that wanted to know more about Matthew the person. He has been a bit of an enigma in fan circles, possibly because the level of criticism that is levelled against him has made him all but disassociate himself with the show. Certainly now when you watch the DVD’s of his episodes there is the odd dud line, but few more than many of the other actors on the show. As a kid when I watched this I adored the whole Tardis crew, including Adric, and I was utterly devastated when he was killed off. In fact I couldn’t quite believe it, and was sure they would find a way to save him in the following story (the Radio Times listed him in the next story, so I must have been right. Mustn’t I?!)
So I wanted to know how he felt after his first day when Tom Baker blanked him, or told him to piss off. But that is the kind of information you almost never get. The exception was when he first reads the script for his final episode and discovers that Adric gives his own life to try and save others, which brings back some uncomfortable memories for Matthew about his brother’s suicide. But that is the only moment that hints at emotional depth, and to be honest I wanted more. I wanted to be able to empathise with him, and sadly I could not.
But as a hardcore Who fan, it is a really enjoyable read, and if you love the show then this is a very honest account of Matthew’s time on it.
January 8, 2023
First of all I have to admit that I came late to Doctor Who. The only time I saw any episode from the original series was a private showing of The Five Doctors that a boyfriend of mine took me to. He was a big fan. I was not impressed. In retrospect I think an anniversary episode would probably not have been the best thing to start with (I haven't watched The Five Doctors again yet, but it's on the list. UPDATE: I’ve watched it several times now, since I’ve written this,and it’s silly wonderful fun).
So, why did I pick up Blue Box Boy you ask? Well, I have gotten to be quite taken with the new Doctor Who series and I picked up a copy of the magazine on a whim. Included in this particular issue was an interview with the author/actor who wrote this little gem and who played Adric in the old series. I had no idea who Adric was, but by this time I had seen the Paul McGann movie and several of the old William Hartnell episodes. What caught my attention was the actor who played Adric was about my age and he is gay. I tracked down a copy of the book on the internet, ordered it and got it much quicker than expected. I was also surprised and delighted to see that it was signed. That was an unexpected delightful bonus. I started reading and was immediately charmed. I found myself enchanted to the extent that I starting picking up used copies of Adric episodes wherever I could find them. I have not made it through all of them yet (and I did pre-order Kinda, the last episode with Adric to be released in the States on DVD) but I have pleased with all those I've seen so far (UPDATE: I’ve now seen Adric’s whole run at least twice).
Waterhouse's book is a delight. The odd choice of writing about his experiences in the third person is initially strange, but quickly very endearing. It reminds one of speaking fondly of an old school friend you have not seen in years but you miss very much. And while there is nothing in the book that is outrageously shocking, there is some wonderful insight into a young man's experiences with becoming part of his childhood obsession.
I have to admit that I was disappointed that Waterhouse did not go into more detail on his more racy adventures, but as he says: "that is outside the scope of this book." Although I would love to hear/read about what happened during the "romantic encounter with a Mexican boy whose hair was dyed in orange and black stripes like a tiger" that brought a seemingly abrupt end to his days living on the streets in NYC. Clearly, Adric had just as many adventures outside the Blue Box as in.
So, why did I pick up Blue Box Boy you ask? Well, I have gotten to be quite taken with the new Doctor Who series and I picked up a copy of the magazine on a whim. Included in this particular issue was an interview with the author/actor who wrote this little gem and who played Adric in the old series. I had no idea who Adric was, but by this time I had seen the Paul McGann movie and several of the old William Hartnell episodes. What caught my attention was the actor who played Adric was about my age and he is gay. I tracked down a copy of the book on the internet, ordered it and got it much quicker than expected. I was also surprised and delighted to see that it was signed. That was an unexpected delightful bonus. I started reading and was immediately charmed. I found myself enchanted to the extent that I starting picking up used copies of Adric episodes wherever I could find them. I have not made it through all of them yet (and I did pre-order Kinda, the last episode with Adric to be released in the States on DVD) but I have pleased with all those I've seen so far (UPDATE: I’ve now seen Adric’s whole run at least twice).
Waterhouse's book is a delight. The odd choice of writing about his experiences in the third person is initially strange, but quickly very endearing. It reminds one of speaking fondly of an old school friend you have not seen in years but you miss very much. And while there is nothing in the book that is outrageously shocking, there is some wonderful insight into a young man's experiences with becoming part of his childhood obsession.
I have to admit that I was disappointed that Waterhouse did not go into more detail on his more racy adventures, but as he says: "that is outside the scope of this book." Although I would love to hear/read about what happened during the "romantic encounter with a Mexican boy whose hair was dyed in orange and black stripes like a tiger" that brought a seemingly abrupt end to his days living on the streets in NYC. Clearly, Adric had just as many adventures outside the Blue Box as in.
January 29, 2019
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3156012.html
Adric is not at the top of many people's list of favourite companions, but I must say this memoir is a very sympathetic account from Matthew Waterhouse, who played him. It's particularly interesting because Waterhouse was a huge fan of the programme before he joined the cast, and also because he did almost no other screen acting; for a lot of the Old Who actors, it was one more job, often quite a short one, in a career which had other heights which they wish were remembered better, but for Waterhouse it was an intense experience, which he knew was important at the time and whose memories haven't been faded out by later work.
Waterhouse has chosen to tell the story in the third person, which seemed really pretentious when I first heard about the book (cf Julius Caesar), but actually it works really well - it allows him to establish some distance from his not always terribly happy childhood, and from the intense experience of working with the very temperamental Tom Baker on his last few stories. Once Davison arrived and the regular team settled down (though of course Waterhouse was the first to be written out) it seems to have been more fun, though he still took it pretty seriously. I deeply sympathise with his approach, as reported in an exchange with Janet Fielding who played Tegan:
'“The trouble with you, Matthew,” she said more than once, “is that when it comes to Doctor Who you suspend your critical judgement.” This was a well-made point, but then she had no emotional involvement with it and Matthew did. He was intelligent enough to know that if too critical an approach was taken to Doctor Who, every last moment of it would collapse to dust.'
Anyway, it's a good book that made me feel interested in and sympathetic to the author, and gave me insights into Doctor Who that I had not thought of before.
Adric is not at the top of many people's list of favourite companions, but I must say this memoir is a very sympathetic account from Matthew Waterhouse, who played him. It's particularly interesting because Waterhouse was a huge fan of the programme before he joined the cast, and also because he did almost no other screen acting; for a lot of the Old Who actors, it was one more job, often quite a short one, in a career which had other heights which they wish were remembered better, but for Waterhouse it was an intense experience, which he knew was important at the time and whose memories haven't been faded out by later work.
Waterhouse has chosen to tell the story in the third person, which seemed really pretentious when I first heard about the book (cf Julius Caesar), but actually it works really well - it allows him to establish some distance from his not always terribly happy childhood, and from the intense experience of working with the very temperamental Tom Baker on his last few stories. Once Davison arrived and the regular team settled down (though of course Waterhouse was the first to be written out) it seems to have been more fun, though he still took it pretty seriously. I deeply sympathise with his approach, as reported in an exchange with Janet Fielding who played Tegan:
'“The trouble with you, Matthew,” she said more than once, “is that when it comes to Doctor Who you suspend your critical judgement.” This was a well-made point, but then she had no emotional involvement with it and Matthew did. He was intelligent enough to know that if too critical an approach was taken to Doctor Who, every last moment of it would collapse to dust.'
Anyway, it's a good book that made me feel interested in and sympathetic to the author, and gave me insights into Doctor Who that I had not thought of before.
February 19, 2012
This was a really entertaining read. I'm one of those (rather small, it seems) group of Who fans who liked Adric. Sure, he could be irritating as a character, but I thought he supposed to be a bit irritating and was an interesting foil for the others. There has been a lot said about Matthew Waterhouse over the years by various cast members, and it was clear he was not always the most well-regarded actor, to put it nicely. So hearing his side of the story was intriguing.
The first part of the book basically recounts his experience with Doctor Who before he joined the show, and his recounting of its history goes on for perhaps a bit too long but it provides a good context for his mindset as a fan joining the show he loved. Perhaps the nicest part of the book is that although his experience on the show was not always perfect, there seems to be a distinct lack of bitterness in the book. In fact, he is pleasingly self-deprecating for much of the book. If I had one complaint, it's that I wish we'd gotten a bit more stories from his time shooting Doctor Who. As it is, it feels like we zip through his time on the show fairly quickly.
Of course, there are times when he does feel the need to tell his side of some of his more infamous moments, and one does have to wonder if the truth probably lies somewhere in-between the various accounts. But it makes the retelling of these stories no less interesting. One thing he demonstrates is a real love for the program, one which he still seems to find joy in even if most Doctor Who fans seem to write him off.
The first part of the book basically recounts his experience with Doctor Who before he joined the show, and his recounting of its history goes on for perhaps a bit too long but it provides a good context for his mindset as a fan joining the show he loved. Perhaps the nicest part of the book is that although his experience on the show was not always perfect, there seems to be a distinct lack of bitterness in the book. In fact, he is pleasingly self-deprecating for much of the book. If I had one complaint, it's that I wish we'd gotten a bit more stories from his time shooting Doctor Who. As it is, it feels like we zip through his time on the show fairly quickly.
Of course, there are times when he does feel the need to tell his side of some of his more infamous moments, and one does have to wonder if the truth probably lies somewhere in-between the various accounts. But it makes the retelling of these stories no less interesting. One thing he demonstrates is a real love for the program, one which he still seems to find joy in even if most Doctor Who fans seem to write him off.
March 29, 2016
I've been a Doctor Who fan for 30+ years--finding the show on my local PBS station about the time Matthew Waterhouse was being cast in the part of Adric. For me, Adric is the most memorable of characters. I wanted to name my first-born after him, but I was (perhaps wisely) vetoed by his other parent. Every once in a while I wonder "whatever happened to...." so in one of these moods, I stumbled across this book. I'm glad I did. Matthew (I feel I can call him that since that's how he refers to himself in the third person narrative style writing), gives us charming peeks into his childhood obsession with the show, his thrill at being cast, anecdotes of behind the scenes interactions with his co-workers, and his time on the convention circuit. There are a lot of references to obscure (to me) British shows that made me glad that apparently only the best shows ever made it "across the pond" to the U.S. Matthew does a lot of name dropping of personalities I do not know, but when he mentions a name familiar to me, it was like having my own celebrity sighting. The story is not always told linearly, but some of these deviations were a little like time travel so I didn't mind. This book is definitely for a narrow reader niche, but I found it fun.
November 26, 2010
As a kid (11-12 years old) I loved Adric, and when I met Matthew Waterhouse briefly at a Doctor Who convention in Chicago (1982, I think, when I was 12 -- he actually writes about this convention in the book, and it's good for me to read his view of it), he seemed like a thoughtful and good-humored guy. (I remember him being asked at some panel or other "What do you like to do in your spare time aside from acting?" and his reply being a gentle smile accompanying "Well, there's sex." This had no specific meaning to me as a 12-year-old, but I liked it quite a bit -- it felt nicely young and British.) I didn't know he was gay at the time (I didn't know I was gay at the time either), but discovering that now feels good somehow.
I think I said to him "I really think you did a fantastic job." I hope I wasn't wearing a Tom Baker scarf, though I might have been.
I like his book. It's good-humored in the same way as I remember him being, and it's thoughtful (and insightful) in a way I probably couldn't imagine at the time. I hope he has a good life.
I think I said to him "I really think you did a fantastic job." I hope I wasn't wearing a Tom Baker scarf, though I might have been.
I like his book. It's good-humored in the same way as I remember him being, and it's thoughtful (and insightful) in a way I probably couldn't imagine at the time. I hope he has a good life.
November 14, 2017
i began this as a Kindle book, but I switched to the Audible version read by the author. this allows his slightly wistful and self mocking tone to come through, so adding greatly to my enjoyment of this memoir. It would have been good if the book had been longer and I liked Matthew more than enough in this account to have wished it had been a more traditional autobiography. still, this neatly tells the story of the boy fan who became Adric.
Read
June 8, 2020I have a lot of time for Adric. He might be very few people's idea of a Doctor Who companion, but he appealed greatly to me as a child, even though the series had killed him off long before I started watching. In that respect, John Nathan-Turner judged the show's audience shrewdly when he cast a boy as a regular - boys being what many viewers were (even some of the ones who should have grown out of it, from what we can tell).
Okay, Adric was an annoying boy, the original 'Artful Dodger in space' concept being interpreted by most writers as 'whiny maths geek in space', and the writers must be blamed to some extent for the realisation of the character. In fact I find it striking watching footage of Matthew Waterhouse himself (his interview on The Multicoloured Swap Shop, for example) just how charmingly he comes across. If that quality doesn't often shine through in his performance (and it often doesn't), this book reveals plenty of explanations aside from the way the character was written. Indeed, the treatment of a young, inexperienced actor described here would be unthinkable today; he is thrown in at the deep end of a demanding show with a toxic atmosphere and given, as far as one can tell, no help whatsoever in developing his role, artistically or technically. It's almost a miracle that he managed to stand in the right place and speak the lines.
This is but one aspect of the BBC as was, a long-forgotten mixture of frothing expert creativity and deeply inefficient bureaucracy, topped off by an unhealthy dose of excess. It is easy to see why it is a world that is much missed by those who experienced it, though also with hindsight clear why it couldn't continue along those lines. For a teenage boy given the role of a lifetime it was simultaneously a dream come true and a nightmare, and Blue Box Boy fondly and unflinchingly recreates a world that seems shockingly distant given that it existed within my own lifetime.
It is not a disciplined piece of writing; the style follows a stream of consciousness dip into the author's memories, following the Doctor Who stories more or less in order of their production, but dropping in and out of this chronology for other anecdotes. It's an intentional, and largely successful, attempt to communicate the experience of memory, a little patchy here, exaggerated there, not wholly accurate but greater than the sum of its parts. Waterhouse himself would claim that it is not an autobiography at all, hence his use of the third person (which works perfectly well, though I hardly think it would have made a difference to use the first person, so idiosyncratic are the memories); he is not overly concerned with accuracy, though I suspect it is no less accurate than any other autobiography, and just occasionally I feel that it could have done with a better copy editor to check facts (or at the very least correct spellings).
But its rambling quality is its charm, and the patchwork of memories makes for a potent picture overall. Not just of working on Doctor Who with the pain and pleasure that entailed, but of being a teenager, or being a Doctor Who fan - the cloudier recollections of childhood, the excitement of Target novelisation and old annuals, the frustrating but thrilling lack of factual information about the programme, all ringing true for this (slightly) younger viewer.
It's impossible to read without feeling empathy for Waterhouse and a deeper understanding of his character on screen, flaws and all. Whilst he certainly isn't above dishing the dirt on the people he met and worked with, he does it all with such self-effacing sincerity that he manages to make it charming rather than bitchy. His fondness for Doctor Who resonates throughout, though he also reveals a wide-ranging knowledge of other subjects, the references to which are scattered throughout to give a fuller picture of his intellectually curious and everso-slightly obsessive personality.
An easy, enjoyable read and a glimpse of an extraordinary, unrepeatable period of television history.
Okay, Adric was an annoying boy, the original 'Artful Dodger in space' concept being interpreted by most writers as 'whiny maths geek in space', and the writers must be blamed to some extent for the realisation of the character. In fact I find it striking watching footage of Matthew Waterhouse himself (his interview on The Multicoloured Swap Shop, for example) just how charmingly he comes across. If that quality doesn't often shine through in his performance (and it often doesn't), this book reveals plenty of explanations aside from the way the character was written. Indeed, the treatment of a young, inexperienced actor described here would be unthinkable today; he is thrown in at the deep end of a demanding show with a toxic atmosphere and given, as far as one can tell, no help whatsoever in developing his role, artistically or technically. It's almost a miracle that he managed to stand in the right place and speak the lines.
This is but one aspect of the BBC as was, a long-forgotten mixture of frothing expert creativity and deeply inefficient bureaucracy, topped off by an unhealthy dose of excess. It is easy to see why it is a world that is much missed by those who experienced it, though also with hindsight clear why it couldn't continue along those lines. For a teenage boy given the role of a lifetime it was simultaneously a dream come true and a nightmare, and Blue Box Boy fondly and unflinchingly recreates a world that seems shockingly distant given that it existed within my own lifetime.
It is not a disciplined piece of writing; the style follows a stream of consciousness dip into the author's memories, following the Doctor Who stories more or less in order of their production, but dropping in and out of this chronology for other anecdotes. It's an intentional, and largely successful, attempt to communicate the experience of memory, a little patchy here, exaggerated there, not wholly accurate but greater than the sum of its parts. Waterhouse himself would claim that it is not an autobiography at all, hence his use of the third person (which works perfectly well, though I hardly think it would have made a difference to use the first person, so idiosyncratic are the memories); he is not overly concerned with accuracy, though I suspect it is no less accurate than any other autobiography, and just occasionally I feel that it could have done with a better copy editor to check facts (or at the very least correct spellings).
But its rambling quality is its charm, and the patchwork of memories makes for a potent picture overall. Not just of working on Doctor Who with the pain and pleasure that entailed, but of being a teenager, or being a Doctor Who fan - the cloudier recollections of childhood, the excitement of Target novelisation and old annuals, the frustrating but thrilling lack of factual information about the programme, all ringing true for this (slightly) younger viewer.
It's impossible to read without feeling empathy for Waterhouse and a deeper understanding of his character on screen, flaws and all. Whilst he certainly isn't above dishing the dirt on the people he met and worked with, he does it all with such self-effacing sincerity that he manages to make it charming rather than bitchy. His fondness for Doctor Who resonates throughout, though he also reveals a wide-ranging knowledge of other subjects, the references to which are scattered throughout to give a fuller picture of his intellectually curious and everso-slightly obsessive personality.
An easy, enjoyable read and a glimpse of an extraordinary, unrepeatable period of television history.
January 5, 2021
Strangely compelling even though the author (writing in the third person) comes across as very opinionated and aloof - almost as if you don't agree with him, you are a brainless idiot (for example, he doesn't like Swap Shop whereas I loved it. He also seems to like things which it is considered 'cool' to like by 'cool' people - E.G. jazz.). For someone who is a self-professed fan of Doctor Who, he amazingly gets many facts about the show wrong, even about stories he was in: for example, in Black Orchid, he says George Cranleigh commits suicide by jumping off a roof. No, he doesn't. He loses his balance and tragically falls to his death. A huge difference which any 'fan' would know. His attitude is rather dismissive at times. Nevertheless, you can't stop reading: his behind the scenes journey is interesting and funny!
Unless you are a Doctor Who fan, you are not going to read this book. If you are a Doctor Who fan, I think the good outweighs the bad when you read it and I certainly do recommend reading it.
Unless you are a Doctor Who fan, you are not going to read this book. If you are a Doctor Who fan, I think the good outweighs the bad when you read it and I certainly do recommend reading it.
November 22, 2017
Like most people who have discovered this book, it is because of an obsession with 80s Doctor Who. The Fifth Doctor and his TARDIS crew will always hold a special place in my memories. I love those episodes, even the tackiest of them. As for Matthew Waterhouse's memoir: I loved it. I expected to find it interesting because I love backstage gossip, but it turned out to also be funny, clever and satirical. I really "get" Matthew's sense of humor and wit. I also found it interesting, as an American, to read about what it was like to grow up in Great Brittain an obsessed fan of the show, as Matthew was prior to being cast. Reading Matthew talk about the gay cult fandom of the show in the 80s was a revelation. I made a lot of new connections about things that I hadn't really thought about before, and explained much of my own cult-like obsession with classic Doctor Who.
Recommended for those die-hard fans of the Tom Baker - Peter Davison era of the show.
Recommended for those die-hard fans of the Tom Baker - Peter Davison era of the show.
October 23, 2015
"Why do television producers insist on casting boy geniuses in science-fiction. We hate boy geniuses!" - Stephen Moffat
It’s no secret amongst fans of Doctor Who that Matthew Waterhouse, the teenager hired in 1980 to play Adric - the ‘artful dodger’ character that joined the TARDIS crew for Tom Baker’s final series and Peter Davison’s first - was not universally loved, either by the fans or by some of his fellow actors.
Over the years he has maintained a discreet distance from the convention circuit and other spin-off events, returning only recently to record DVD commentaries for some of the stories he appeared in. In his absence he has been on the receiving end of many brickbats focussing on his personality, acting ability (or lack of) and behaviour.
It’s interesting to note that in the recent autobiography by Sixties Doctor Who actor Deborah Watling, she recalls an instance at one of her first convention appearances where Lalla Ward and Sarah Sutton (both of whom having acted with Waterhouse in the series) take the opportunity on a Q&A panel to make fun of the actor. She thinks this is appallingly unprofessional and rude and gives them a talking to afterwards. It’s fair to say that they weren’t the only ones to have done this in the long years since he left the show but it would interesting to hear his views on many of the circumstances that have become well-worn convention anecdotes. Are they a true reflection or not?
Well, perhaps now is the chance to find out. Matthew Waterhouse has written an autobiography; Blue Box Boy: A Memoir of Doctor Who In Four Episodes. I finished it this weekend with a variety of thoughts buzzing round in my head - the first of those being his choice to write it in the third person which, although an interesting device at first, rapidly starts to grate, particularly as it’s a book that could have done with a good editor and a proofreader to sort out the myriad of mistakes in the typesetting (for example, the number of times he is referred to as Mathew and Matthew on the same page is astonishing). Another drawback is that although the book is split into four ‘episodes’ there is little structure to them and there are many moments where we flash-forward to his time on the series or, indeed, long after, before dashing back to childhood. Again, this highlights the need for a professional editor and the occasional drawback to very small publishers.
Despite these niggles there is a lot to enjoy. Waterhouse is probably the only person to have acted on the original run of the show who was a proper dyed-in-the-wool fan since childhood. Much of the first quarter of the book is taken up with his reminisces of this early part of his life (comics and Target novelizations of the early serials) and it’s quite sweet to find his memories cheating or feeding him information that isn’t quite right.
Where his memory does come to the fore is, naturally enough, when we get to his time working on the show. It’s quite refreshing to read a book about Doctor Who that doesn’t paint it’s behind-the-scenes life as the rosy, “We all had SUCH a marvellous time!” programme that it often is. Matthew joined at a time when Baker was about to leave and was an unpleasant, unpredictable and erratic man, causing misery and upset to other actors, directors and production staff. I felt genuinely sad for him as he quickly realised that the man whom he had idolised for so many years as a young viewer and fan turned out to be such a monster to work with.
When reading autobiographies I automatically set my bullshit detector to “On” because it is only natural for people to paint a picture that puts themselves in a favourable light. Interestingly, Blue Box Boy doesn’t really do that. There is a startling candour to this book the like of which I doubt we will ever see again in a Who memoir and his reminiscences are in stark contrast to those we, as fans, often have related to us. I have read a few reviews of this book where it has been suggested that Waterhouse is simply being spiteful and rude and has no right to criticise others when his own acting was hardly up to par. It’s arguable whether or not he has earned the right to stick a few knives in the backs of people who have cheerfully done it to him but, quite honestly, I think these reviewers are exposing their own narrow-mindedness and, in doing so, missing the point entirely.
One thing that becomes painfully clear is that Matthew Waterhouse c.1980 is young and naive. He is awkward around people and forms his personal opinions and mannerisms from the opinions and mannerisms of those around him. As a devoted fan of the show, this was his absolute dream job. He went in ready to have a fantastic time doing what all kids wanted to do; travel with Doctor in the TARDIS. The rude awakening he received on discovering that there was no magic inside the blue box is nothing short of tragic - but at no time does he go on endlessly about how wonderful he is or by how terrible everyone else is. He can be sharp at times and his sense of humour is almost too dry but he is commenting on what was, at the time, an important part of his life as he saw and experienced it. It's not a hatchet job and Waterhouse still has a tremendous amount of warmth and love for a show that was, at the time he became a part of it, suffering on a grand scale.
For the record, I am someone who has never had much time for Adric, or gained much enjoyment from Waterhouse’s performance but, despite the odd flowery turn of phrase and the need for at least 50 pages being cut (it’s 423 pages long), this is a fascinating, extremely readable memoir and easily one of the most interesting titles to have been published about Doctor Who in recent years.
It’s no secret amongst fans of Doctor Who that Matthew Waterhouse, the teenager hired in 1980 to play Adric - the ‘artful dodger’ character that joined the TARDIS crew for Tom Baker’s final series and Peter Davison’s first - was not universally loved, either by the fans or by some of his fellow actors.
Over the years he has maintained a discreet distance from the convention circuit and other spin-off events, returning only recently to record DVD commentaries for some of the stories he appeared in. In his absence he has been on the receiving end of many brickbats focussing on his personality, acting ability (or lack of) and behaviour.
It’s interesting to note that in the recent autobiography by Sixties Doctor Who actor Deborah Watling, she recalls an instance at one of her first convention appearances where Lalla Ward and Sarah Sutton (both of whom having acted with Waterhouse in the series) take the opportunity on a Q&A panel to make fun of the actor. She thinks this is appallingly unprofessional and rude and gives them a talking to afterwards. It’s fair to say that they weren’t the only ones to have done this in the long years since he left the show but it would interesting to hear his views on many of the circumstances that have become well-worn convention anecdotes. Are they a true reflection or not?
Well, perhaps now is the chance to find out. Matthew Waterhouse has written an autobiography; Blue Box Boy: A Memoir of Doctor Who In Four Episodes. I finished it this weekend with a variety of thoughts buzzing round in my head - the first of those being his choice to write it in the third person which, although an interesting device at first, rapidly starts to grate, particularly as it’s a book that could have done with a good editor and a proofreader to sort out the myriad of mistakes in the typesetting (for example, the number of times he is referred to as Mathew and Matthew on the same page is astonishing). Another drawback is that although the book is split into four ‘episodes’ there is little structure to them and there are many moments where we flash-forward to his time on the series or, indeed, long after, before dashing back to childhood. Again, this highlights the need for a professional editor and the occasional drawback to very small publishers.
Despite these niggles there is a lot to enjoy. Waterhouse is probably the only person to have acted on the original run of the show who was a proper dyed-in-the-wool fan since childhood. Much of the first quarter of the book is taken up with his reminisces of this early part of his life (comics and Target novelizations of the early serials) and it’s quite sweet to find his memories cheating or feeding him information that isn’t quite right.
Where his memory does come to the fore is, naturally enough, when we get to his time working on the show. It’s quite refreshing to read a book about Doctor Who that doesn’t paint it’s behind-the-scenes life as the rosy, “We all had SUCH a marvellous time!” programme that it often is. Matthew joined at a time when Baker was about to leave and was an unpleasant, unpredictable and erratic man, causing misery and upset to other actors, directors and production staff. I felt genuinely sad for him as he quickly realised that the man whom he had idolised for so many years as a young viewer and fan turned out to be such a monster to work with.
When reading autobiographies I automatically set my bullshit detector to “On” because it is only natural for people to paint a picture that puts themselves in a favourable light. Interestingly, Blue Box Boy doesn’t really do that. There is a startling candour to this book the like of which I doubt we will ever see again in a Who memoir and his reminiscences are in stark contrast to those we, as fans, often have related to us. I have read a few reviews of this book where it has been suggested that Waterhouse is simply being spiteful and rude and has no right to criticise others when his own acting was hardly up to par. It’s arguable whether or not he has earned the right to stick a few knives in the backs of people who have cheerfully done it to him but, quite honestly, I think these reviewers are exposing their own narrow-mindedness and, in doing so, missing the point entirely.
One thing that becomes painfully clear is that Matthew Waterhouse c.1980 is young and naive. He is awkward around people and forms his personal opinions and mannerisms from the opinions and mannerisms of those around him. As a devoted fan of the show, this was his absolute dream job. He went in ready to have a fantastic time doing what all kids wanted to do; travel with Doctor in the TARDIS. The rude awakening he received on discovering that there was no magic inside the blue box is nothing short of tragic - but at no time does he go on endlessly about how wonderful he is or by how terrible everyone else is. He can be sharp at times and his sense of humour is almost too dry but he is commenting on what was, at the time, an important part of his life as he saw and experienced it. It's not a hatchet job and Waterhouse still has a tremendous amount of warmth and love for a show that was, at the time he became a part of it, suffering on a grand scale.
For the record, I am someone who has never had much time for Adric, or gained much enjoyment from Waterhouse’s performance but, despite the odd flowery turn of phrase and the need for at least 50 pages being cut (it’s 423 pages long), this is a fascinating, extremely readable memoir and easily one of the most interesting titles to have been published about Doctor Who in recent years.
January 6, 2026
Very good book. It’s almost stream of consciousness at times, flitting about from anecdote to anecdote, often confusing you with the timeline.
Waterhouse comes across slightly full of himself, but underneath he seems very sweet and shy. The writing thinks it is wittier than it is. He has strong opinions. Despite the overall tone, I can’t bring myself to dislike Matthew Waterhouse. Something about him is very endearing. At one point towards the end of the book, it’s mentioned that he enjoys travelling, and it suddenly hit me that the book had told me very little about the man himself. It’s full of wonderful stories and tidbits and events in his life, but I don’t feel I know any more about him than I did before reading. He gives away very little.
I do like him.
Waterhouse comes across slightly full of himself, but underneath he seems very sweet and shy. The writing thinks it is wittier than it is. He has strong opinions. Despite the overall tone, I can’t bring myself to dislike Matthew Waterhouse. Something about him is very endearing. At one point towards the end of the book, it’s mentioned that he enjoys travelling, and it suddenly hit me that the book had told me very little about the man himself. It’s full of wonderful stories and tidbits and events in his life, but I don’t feel I know any more about him than I did before reading. He gives away very little.
I do like him.
March 13, 2022
A fun dive into the Whoniverse, not only Warehouse’s time filming, but watching and reading before and participating in conventions and commentaries afterwards. He seems to write all the random info he recalls about people, places and events, mostly about people in British TV, stage and film which is a much smaller world than in the US. And mostly in chronological order, though not always.
I like the third person approach and his self-deprecating, easy-going writing style, his laid-back and curious approach to life and his sharing of his musical and literary interests. While he’s honest, he’s never mean about even the worst people he worked with. His Benny Goodman story is cool.
I like the third person approach and his self-deprecating, easy-going writing style, his laid-back and curious approach to life and his sharing of his musical and literary interests. While he’s honest, he’s never mean about even the worst people he worked with. His Benny Goodman story is cool.
March 3, 2024
I've been wanting to read this book for a long time, and finally I had the time, money, and brain in the right place to actually do so!
I've never read a biography in the third person before, but I feel it works very nicely here. Matthew's stories about being a childhood fan and the experience of being the 'baby' on set feel ironically more real and personal told this way.
While the book isn't a full five star - it feels too rambling and aimless in many places and occasionally devolves into short snippets of Matthew Waterhouse's brushes with famous names - it's definitely a must read for a fan of 1980s Doctor Who.
I've never read a biography in the third person before, but I feel it works very nicely here. Matthew's stories about being a childhood fan and the experience of being the 'baby' on set feel ironically more real and personal told this way.
While the book isn't a full five star - it feels too rambling and aimless in many places and occasionally devolves into short snippets of Matthew Waterhouse's brushes with famous names - it's definitely a must read for a fan of 1980s Doctor Who.
February 9, 2018
Loved it!
The sort of book you don't want to end so slow Down a bit at the end. Mathew is a great writer and tells his unique tale with great economy and you will have lots of fun along the way. Its a bit strange its all in third person but you soon Get used to it. A must for any who fans and a great tale of wish fulfillment for anyone else
The sort of book you don't want to end so slow Down a bit at the end. Mathew is a great writer and tells his unique tale with great economy and you will have lots of fun along the way. Its a bit strange its all in third person but you soon Get used to it. A must for any who fans and a great tale of wish fulfillment for anyone else
December 27, 2025
There's something weird about writing an autobiography in third person, especially if you're reading the audio book for it. It puts a barrier up so the honesty gets stripped back so it loses something on the way. Also this got weirdly sexual and ableist at points. Maybe the non abridged version is better but based on the things I didn't like I doubt it
November 30, 2017
Well worth a read, this isn't your ordinary memoir. It certainly isn't the book of someone who just wants to say nice things about people - though it's impossible to tell exactly how firmly Matthew's tongue is planted in his cheek.
September 21, 2017
By some distance, the best biography of a Doctor Who actor I have read, and I have read a lot.
March 4, 2017
So I'm a Who watcher who liked the character of Adric. And as luck would have it, retrotv was airing the Adric episodes right at the time I was reading Blue Box Boy. This made the book all that more enjoyable. Could it have used a good editor? Of course! But Waterhouse actually has a pretty good ear for writing, I thought, and made it work. I'm even tempted to read one of his novels. This is a gossipy light story - you won't find deep analysis of "Matthew"'s character - how he landed this role at such a young age, grew up on set, endured actor egos, and faced the downer of life after Who. He writes with typical self-deprecation "[Matthew] is glad to have seen over the cliff's edge, and glad not to have toppled over. But of course there is still time for that." I myself don't see any cliff-edge toppling in Matthew's future.
March 27, 2014
What a sad book this was. Matthew Waterhouse, who played Adric on Doctor Who in the early 80's, starts off describing in detail his love of the show growing up in the 60's and 70's, as well as many of the cultural artifacts surrounding Doctor Who fandom. Novelizations, promotional product tie-ins, fanzines, and how the show was perceived by others are all covered. Mostly it's about how zealously obsessed he was with all things "Who" growing up.
About 40% into the book he starts leading the reader through his start at the BBC which eventually led to his experiences working on the show. After that you'll read about his guest appearances at conventions, more about his perception of how the show was perceived by the general public, his participation in the DVD commentaries, occasional run-ins and reunions with others who worked on the show and what they were up to, and eventually his thoughts on the 2005 relaunch.
The book contained several fascinating anecdotes about different things that happened during the show's production as well as stories about the other people involved, especially as they related to him.
The tone starts out with the wide eyed wonder of a young devoted fan. The vibe shifts dramatically throughout the entire second half of the book. Starting with his time at the BBC, he came across as snide, cynical, and bitter. Some people he recalled with respect and kindness, but mostly just the women and gays he had worked with. Everyone else was fair game for his skewering resentment. Tom Baker and Lalla Ward suffered the most at his sharp pen, with the general fan culture close behind.
If you're a huge fan of classic Who generally, and Tom Baker in particular, you have to have thick skin to get through this. I pretty much take what he says with a grain of salt. Matthew comes across as a jaded, resentful, slightly bratty kid. The warmth the book starts out with evaporates completely and you're left with almost nothing but petulance punctuated by fascinating observations of Who culture and production from the 80's to the present day.
4/5 stars. Poor Adric, so mistreated, so misunderstood, poor kid to have his idyllic view of Doctor Who and the people involved shattered by the realities of a cut rate show made by an overworked staff on a shoestring budget under sometimes appalling conditions and the stifling confines of the BBC's political climate.
If you're on the fence about Classic Who, don't read this. It's a vitriolic slash piece that won't endear you to the show at all. Or it might, if you can read between the lines and marvel at how charming the show actually was despite the humble circumstances surrounding the show's run in the 80's.
It's because of this rare insider's look, skewed as it may have been, that the book earns 4 stars. This is only because there are so few books like it.
About 40% into the book he starts leading the reader through his start at the BBC which eventually led to his experiences working on the show. After that you'll read about his guest appearances at conventions, more about his perception of how the show was perceived by the general public, his participation in the DVD commentaries, occasional run-ins and reunions with others who worked on the show and what they were up to, and eventually his thoughts on the 2005 relaunch.
The book contained several fascinating anecdotes about different things that happened during the show's production as well as stories about the other people involved, especially as they related to him.
The tone starts out with the wide eyed wonder of a young devoted fan. The vibe shifts dramatically throughout the entire second half of the book. Starting with his time at the BBC, he came across as snide, cynical, and bitter. Some people he recalled with respect and kindness, but mostly just the women and gays he had worked with. Everyone else was fair game for his skewering resentment. Tom Baker and Lalla Ward suffered the most at his sharp pen, with the general fan culture close behind.
If you're a huge fan of classic Who generally, and Tom Baker in particular, you have to have thick skin to get through this. I pretty much take what he says with a grain of salt. Matthew comes across as a jaded, resentful, slightly bratty kid. The warmth the book starts out with evaporates completely and you're left with almost nothing but petulance punctuated by fascinating observations of Who culture and production from the 80's to the present day.
4/5 stars. Poor Adric, so mistreated, so misunderstood, poor kid to have his idyllic view of Doctor Who and the people involved shattered by the realities of a cut rate show made by an overworked staff on a shoestring budget under sometimes appalling conditions and the stifling confines of the BBC's political climate.
If you're on the fence about Classic Who, don't read this. It's a vitriolic slash piece that won't endear you to the show at all. Or it might, if you can read between the lines and marvel at how charming the show actually was despite the humble circumstances surrounding the show's run in the 80's.
It's because of this rare insider's look, skewed as it may have been, that the book earns 4 stars. This is only because there are so few books like it.
August 20, 2010
Matthew Waterhouse joins the growing number of people related to Doctor Who (be it actors or writers) who have produced autobiographies, focussed on their time on the show.
Waterhouse's approach is slightly different, as his personal experiences -- certainly at the time -- were unique. He had grown up watching Doctor Who and was a dedicated fan of the show. From childhood DW fan, he suddenly became one of its youngest-ever regular cast members. After two seasons, he just as suddenly found himself pitched into the world of minor celebrity as a former cast member... for life.
The third person narration really worked here, as it complemented the straightforward chronological structure. There were many LOL bits, and although Waterhouse recounted many observations of actors behaving like actors (i.e. self-absorbed and/or catty or both!), it was not mean-spirited in the least. As has been mentioned above, he comes across as liking almost all of the people in the Whoniverse he has worked with or encountered over the years, despite their failings or bad moments.
Overall a great read and very entertaining.
Waterhouse's approach is slightly different, as his personal experiences -- certainly at the time -- were unique. He had grown up watching Doctor Who and was a dedicated fan of the show. From childhood DW fan, he suddenly became one of its youngest-ever regular cast members. After two seasons, he just as suddenly found himself pitched into the world of minor celebrity as a former cast member... for life.
The third person narration really worked here, as it complemented the straightforward chronological structure. There were many LOL bits, and although Waterhouse recounted many observations of actors behaving like actors (i.e. self-absorbed and/or catty or both!), it was not mean-spirited in the least. As has been mentioned above, he comes across as liking almost all of the people in the Whoniverse he has worked with or encountered over the years, despite their failings or bad moments.
Overall a great read and very entertaining.
June 14, 2013
This is a lovely, lovely book. I never knew Waterhouse was a huge fan of Who, and his account of his childhood love of the show is very evocative in all its Weetabix-burying detail.
And it makes you really feel for him when it comes to him getting the job of Adric - 18, only his second ever acting job, on his favourite TV show, among his heroes in what must have seemed like a hallucination induced by sniffing the inside of a Denys Fisher toy Tardis ... and he has to deal with the weird, poisonous atmosphere between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward.
Waterhouse was in Who at just the time I had my most intense, ah, relationship with the show, so this book was huge fun for me. If you don't know who Varsh is, though, probably don't bother.
And it makes you really feel for him when it comes to him getting the job of Adric - 18, only his second ever acting job, on his favourite TV show, among his heroes in what must have seemed like a hallucination induced by sniffing the inside of a Denys Fisher toy Tardis ... and he has to deal with the weird, poisonous atmosphere between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward.
Waterhouse was in Who at just the time I had my most intense, ah, relationship with the show, so this book was huge fun for me. If you don't know who Varsh is, though, probably don't bother.
August 5, 2013
I always was pro Adric and admired Matthew Waterhouse. To me, he is an understated actor. Now that I discovered he is an author and found out he wrote a memoir about his time on DOCTOR WHO, I got this for my kindle and "ate it all up". I loved this book. The thing that got me was he was a fan of DOCTOR WHO before he was on the show, so joining the cast was a dream come true, but reality set in. It wasn't all joy in the TARDIS like he thought. He didn't think Tom Baker would be a nightmare to work with, but he was, sometimes. This isn't just about his time on the show, but a love letter about the show he loved since he was a boy too.
Matthew is a good writer and if you are a fan of the classic DOCTOR WHO (1963-1989),like me, don't miss this memoir.
Matthew is a good writer and if you are a fan of the classic DOCTOR WHO (1963-1989),like me, don't miss this memoir.
June 12, 2015
The writing is unbelievably bad and this should have had an editor. It honestly read like it had been written by a 15 year old boy. Run on sentences, and no sense that the author ever thought through what he wanted to share. A significant portion of what he writes is what he imagined was happening with other cast and crew, because he didn't actually know. I slogged through the book because the small portion that described real anecdotes and experiences of working on the show was interesting to me. But it was painful hard work to get to those interesting bits. I skimmed most of this book.
Want to read
June 19, 2011I gave in and bought it because I wanted to read it and couldn't find it anywhere other than through the publisher (who are a huge pain in the ass to deal with, by the way. Avoid them if at all possible.). I mean, it contains the sentences "It could only have been true if Matthew had been retarded. And he wasn't." I need to know if the whole thing is as painfully unfunny as that little sample.
October 6, 2011
The concept of writing autobiigraphy in 3rd person seems strange, but works quite well, here. I wasn't quite ready for some of the more biting observations, but they are well-written, on the whole. Another edition would correct some of the lingering typos, making the book better. If you're a fan of Doctor Who (that is, the original series), then this book is a must-have.
August 31, 2016
It's written in a way that's not usual in terms of memoirs - 3rd Person. Like the majority of memoirs, it does give you a perspective from said person's POV. What I couldn't STAND was the formatting of the physical book. The spacing and sizing of the text make it difficult to read for long. It really did feel like they just skipped one vital final step before publishing.
August 13, 2010
Got this-- an autographed copy!!!-- as a very special gift. :) Looking forward to reading it, as I think both the character and the actor are under-rated.
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