Tuesday 3 January 2012

A nice story before bedtime



The series Late Night Stories was first broadcast in 1978, during Baker's tenure as Doctor Who (a second series employed Sir John Mills as reader). The idea was to offer grown-ups bedtime stories - hence the disturbing opening graphics, which would give smaller children the heebie-jeebies.

This tale is borderline supernatural, and comes from Nigel Kneale's collection Tomato Cain and Other Stories (1949). It's based on a real incident - Kneale's brother was taken to be photographed while seriously ill. You can also find Tom Baker reading Saki's 'Sredni Vashtar' on YouTube, but several other stories from the series have not been uploaded.

3 comments:

James Everington said...

Nice.
Have you read his children's book - The Boy Who Kicked Pigs - ? Although for kids it's quite dark in places..!

valdemar said...

I haven't, James - sounds bonkers, but then Tom Baker is a 'broke the mould' sort of chap.

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