Ian Williams – Doctor Who and the Emerald Figaro

Words & Pictures by member Ian Williams. You may recall back in October last year a request was sent through to Kevin at Figaro HQ to recruit an Emerald Green Figaro to be featured in a special Doctor Who box set.  Well, the message was flashed across the internet and within minutes offers were filling up the producer’s inbox.  Luckily before Kevin’s message had even finished scrolling across my screen I was dialing the producer Chris Chapman.

This was how I secured the gig and got our Figaro featured in the biography of the late Elisabeth Sladen, AKA Sarah Jane Smith, The Doctor’s feisty side-kick who drove an emerald green Figaro.

The late Elisabeth Sladen (1965–2011 ) played Sarah Jane Smith in the spin off TV series

I’d said yes before really considering what a three-day shoot would entail but I was available, it sounded fun and more importantly it would be another opportunity to get good publicity for all of us who love our little Figaros.  A date was set and Chris dispatched the filming ‘call sheet’ which was planned with military precision, timings at each location were scheduled to the minute, shots and angles were calculated and permissions agreed.  It was November and daylight hours were getting short so there would little time for delay between locations and the call sheet was full. 

It was about this time the realization of what was expected from my little Figgy was sinking in.  Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff, London all in three days, it was going to be full on… no pressure then!  Figgy had been tucked up in the garage and I wasn’t really expecting to see her out again as winter was lurking just around the corner.  Now I suddenly needed to give her a service, get an MOT and wax her so much even flies wouldn’t stick.

As day 1 of filming approached I admit I was a little nervous, we’ve driven thousands of miles together without a hitch but somehow the thought of letting everyone down due to a flat tyre, a burst hose was making me nervous.  The first leg was a 170 mile hike to Liverpool, which reminded me just how comfortable and pleasant our car is to drive.  Just like any diva on a film set there was one request, Figgy must have secure overnight parking, this was duly arranged in the centre of town within sight of my bedroom window.

The next morning was full on, with shooting locations planned at several sites across the city, my favourite being early morning drive-pasts of the Liver Building.  Have you any idea how many shots it takes to see a car drive past a building?  Wide angle, long shot, low shots, side views, rear shots, wheel shots, stop, start, the list was endless, then of course there are the GoPro’s suckered to the bodywork as I drove around the city making us look like a weird google street view car!

Later that morning we filmed close to Penny Lane where Elisabeth lived as a child, I drove past Sgt Peppers Bistro at least twenty times while watched by a queue of increasingly perplexed pensioners at the bus stop. Rain threatened but stayed away for our sprint to Manchester, where the Central Library was our focus for the afternoon.  In its day the Library housed a theatre where Elisabeth trod the boards in her early days and such a distinctive building gave another great backdrop for the Figaro.

The heavens opened that evening making the drive to Nantwich abysmal in the evening rush hour traffic.  That night I washed down Figgy in the rain outside the hotel, obviously the other guest though I was barmy and to be fair I was beginning to think I was!

Doctor Who, Sarah Jane and the mighty Time Warrior!

Day 2 was an even earlier start, leaving the hotel pre-breakfast for a short hop to the beautiful Peckforton Castle.  Any self-respecting Doctor Who aficionado will tell you was the location for the 1973 story ‘The Time Warrior’ in which Sarah Jane made her debut with The Doctor Jon Pertwee.  The castle is now a stunning hotel in a beautiful location which I’ve added to my bucket list of places to stay.

With a long drive ahead to the next location in Cardiff there was no time to lose.  A quick refuel and a belated breakfast snatched in the shape of a forecourt ‘meal deal’ it was a run against the clock to make the far side of Cardiff by 1:00.  By mid-day and making good time we were abruptly brought to a crawl by torrents of rain and bumper-to-bumper traffic but even this didn’t prevent El Figaro arriving bang on time.

As the producer had forged ahead in a ‘normal’ vehicle, filming was ready to begin as soon as I pulled up kerbside.   The rain continued throughout the shoot coming out of the heavens in the proverbial stair-rods, everything was getting soaked, me included.

Kerbside was the house used in the ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ The Figgy was required to drive off the driveway and down the street multiple times, all in relentless unremitting rain.  The windows were steaming up and every time I opened the window for the direction, as any Figgy driver will confirm, the water runs off the roof and straight into the car. Even with the weather against us, spirits were not deflated one iota, our producer Chris decided the wet weather would be turned to work in our favour, creating a more poignant end for Elisabeth’s biography, which it certainly did.

Shooting over for the day, I still needed to hot-foot it (sorry wet-foot it) over to London for my last overnight stop.  The journey along the M4 was awful, rain continued unabated as Figgy’s windows became opaque, it was like driving through a car wash, poor Figgy I felt so sorry for her, but she kept plugging away never complaining or missing a beat while the eighteen wheelers tried to force her off the highway.

 On arrival at my Kings Cross hotel I was exhausted and ravenous however before I could rest, my priority was to give Figgy’s bodywork a well deserved clean.  The effort of waxing the paintwork before leaving home was certainly paying dividends and fifteen minutes later she was looking great, eager to star again in the morning.

 Morning came sooner than I would have liked and it was out again before breakfast for a pleasant meander to Covent Garden as the city woke up.  Waiting at the side of the road for the crew to arrive, I was surprised by the materialization of a traffic warden, saying those immortal words ‘You can’t park here mate’, however after explaining we were filming the Figaro for ‘The Doctor’, the traffic guy was immediately helpful, turning a blind eye to my parking, showing once again that the Figaro can pull strings even with London’s notoriously tough traffic wardens.

For anyone interested, the BBC have now announced the release of a Blu-ray DVD box set Doctor Who the Collection, Season 14 featuring biographies of ‘The Doctors’ and I can now report our Figaro plays a key roll in the disc featuring the life of Elisabeth Sladen.

BUY HERE

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