Hippy Chic

Great interview with one of our fave Who girls of yesteryear, Katy Manning, in the Radio Times (complete with little Bellamy illustrations - although very poor scans!), online here. Don't forget to check the links at the end - the RT site now has a great section on classic Who stories (they are still updating with Colin Baker and haven't got to Sylvester McCoy yet).

Here's a snippet I never knew:

"She’s a bundle of insecurities, especially about her looks. As a teenager in the 60s, she was involved in a horrendous car crash. Dating Richard Eyre (long before he became a theatrical knight), she was driven up to see him at Oxford University by Bamber Gascoigne’s brother, Brian. On the way back, “We went over a roundabout and into a garage. There were no seatbelts in those days. I was thrown through the windscreen and a plate-glass window.”

Gascoigne sustained broken ribs, whereas Katy’s legs were smashed, her back was broken, her face disfigured. She spent almost two years in and out of hospital. “They weren’t entirely sure I’d walk again. I have more metal in my body than an airport can handle. I had a lot of reconstructive surgery. When you kiss this [left] side of my face, it’s skin grafted from my bottom. So it’s kiss my ass!"

And you can't interview Katy without talking about that Dalek photoshoot...

It’s heartbreaking because most of the nation – and her colleagues – thought she was incredibly sexy. “I’d never have done those shots with the Dalek if I thought I was sexy.” She notoriously posed nude with a Dalek in Girl Illustrated in 1978. “I did it for a laugh. It was a lot of fun and it was my idea. Derek Nimmo [co-star in the West End farce Why Not Stay for Breakfast?] was furious because he’d given me those boots for my opening night. Then I wrapped them round a Dalek.”

And the best bit:

Many former Doctor Who stars have published autobiographies. Katy never has and never will. “I am asked all the time. Daily! I’m exaggerating, but I’m a very private person. I’ve been secretive since childhood. It would be so goddamn boring tracking back over my life, which ain’t over yet. There are too many people involved I don’t really need to talk about. And I’ve been a naughty girl. Naughty girls don’t write books!” A throaty cackle. How naughty, Katy? “I think I’ve been about as naughty as you can get.” She gives one of those faraway but saucy, you-name-it/I’ve-done-it grins.

It's a great little interview, well written by someone with an appreciation of Who, and Katy. I actually got quite jealous of the interviewer.

There's also a good gallery of Katy promo pics on the RT site here.