Tom Baker's finally going to watch the show he starred in for seven years, or at least the 50th anniversary special, as mentioned in an interview with the BBC. Which mostly goes over familiar territory for fans (the building site anecdote, his joy at being a hero for kiddies everywhere, getting whacked-out letters, that sort of thing), but hey, it's all very cosy and comforting for the celebrations.

"I hope it's going to be terrific," he says. "It's such a landmark. It'll be a big, emotional thing, but I don't know what they'll do - I'll make an exception and watch that...I can't explain the show's longevity any more than I can explain my own. It's just a happy accident."

He talked about how wonderful it was to be the Doctor in '70s Britain: "It was so much better than real life. I stayed so long because real life at the time wasn't so terrific. Being Doctor Who, I used to look at the clock and know at half past four we were going to stop rehearsing - and that was a sad moment for me because I wanted to stay in this beautiful, unreal world." And now, for the Big Finish adventures: "I'm back now in the groove...The fans want to go back in time and I don't disappoint them because I haven't advanced at all from Doctor Who."

(Did we get around to mentioning he's got a website here? There's a good bit in the forum where he used to answer fan questions with delightfully eccentric answers. Plus his DWM interviews from over the last two decades, in which he insists that the one thing he does not do is watch the show, ever, even the ones he was in...except for that one time when he invited himself into a family's house. And the ones with him on the DVD commentaries. Still, this comes as more of a surprise than the casual fan might expect.)