John R. Walker - Stories From a Doctor Who TV Extra

Stories from a

Doctor Who

TV

Extra

John R Walker was born in 1972 and was brought up in the West Country.

He always wanted to be a Film Director so ended up spending 20 years in Retail working up from Delicatessen Assistant to Assistant Head of Retail Operations for Safeway and then Head of Internal Corporate Films for WM Morrisons only to leave it all behind to become a full-time TV Extra.

His first TV Extra role was in 1998 for a Doctor Who Spin-off called Auton 2

He now lives in Dudley with his partner and works at the local Tesco store.

Stories from a

Doctor Who

TV

Extra

John R Walker

With Stephen Hatcher

First Published 2013

Copyright John R Walker 2013

ISBN- 978-1-291-53674-4

John R Walker asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form or by any form of binding or cover other than in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Photographs Copyright John R. Walker

He twinkles in the background-Unrivaled star of the TV extras

The Guardian

Who is that with John Walker? The unknown who is on TV most days of the year

The Daily Telegraph

The Tesco extra

The Sun

TV's most prolific extra- a Tesco worker who's been in 2000 shows and met his fiance on set

The Daily Mail

2000 TV shows make me extra special

Daily Express

Who is that with John Walker?

Daily Star

Criminal one day, Copper the next- The ultimate Tesco extra

The Independent

After 14 years and 2000 appearances on 200 TV shows, actor John Walker is finally playing the lead role in a story

Daily Mirror

2013 was a strange year. I had released a book called Extra Time which told of some of my adventures on the sets of the UKs most loved TV shows but for some reason the press went wild and I'm suddenly voted Britains most Prolific TV extra and I had every UK national newspaper do at least a half page spread each, I had 4 magazine articles in the UK and one in a Portugal magazine, I had top news on Yahoo, MSN and other search engines, I was on the local news as well as 8 Radio Stations around the UK and Ireland and I even turned down Daybreak and BBC Breakfast Show and all this was because I was trying to get a little local press about my book (The local press gave me full double spread pages) but most of them forgot what I was trying to push and simply made me into this super extra. To the point that currently if you Google the word TV Extra from the UK, my name is the first to come up.

I'm nothing of the kind. There are guys who've been extras longer than I have been alive but I have done my fair share and all because I'd wanted to be in Doctor Who, Highlander or Star Wars.

Well 1 of 3 isn't bad and especially when it's Doctor Who.

I did my first role on set in a straight to video Doctor Who spin-off called Auton 2 directed by Nick Briggs in 1998 and thought that was it for me and Who. I (like many of us other fans) couldn't believe the show really was ever coming back.

In 2005 it really did though and these are my stories from the set.

Theyre taken from my other book Extra Time but re written and with my final appearance added at the end.

If you would like to read more stories from other UK shows then do pick up a copy or grab yourself an E-book of Extra Time

In the time of writing this (August 2013) I have pretty much given up the extra work and after 15 years of telling everyone that extras should never try to act, I've been working hard on acting roles.

If I ever get to do Doctor Who again, I would want it to be a credited Acting role! But don't hold your breath.

I hope you enjoy the book.

All the best

John R. Walker (Aug 13)

For all my friends and friends yet to be met in the fandom world of Doctor Who.

50 years and counting

Thank you

I just needed to say Thank you to my Brilliant Mum and Dad, who let me grow up the way I wanted to.

They let me become the Sci-Fi geek I am today.

And geeks are cool!... to other geeks.

Contents

1. D octor Who- Christmas Invasion
2. D octor Who- New Earth
3. D octor Who- Cyberman Casting
4. D octor Who- Shakespeare Code
5. T orchwood-Random Shoes
6. D octor Who- Daleks in Manhattan/ Evolution of the Daleks
7. T orchwood- Exit Wounds
8. D octor Who- Turn Left
9. S arah Jane Adventures- The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
10. T orchwood- Children of Earth
11. D octor Who- Closing Time

2005 Doctor Who The Christmas Invasion- U.N.I.T Operative.

I don't remember the exact date of my first day on Doctor Who, which is weird as it was one of the greatest days of my life. But I do remember that it all started one day, when I was on an episode of Dalziel and Pascoe. I got a call to ask if I'd like to do three days on Doctor Who. This was my chance finally to do the one job that I would have done anything to get.

They wanted to pay me money to be on Doctor Who? Now that is weird Weird and fantastic, as Christopher Ecclestons Doctor would have said, although he had departed the show by now, the first season having just finished on TV with Eccleston regenerating into David Tennant.

They wanted me for three days on the Christmas Special playing a member of UNIT inside the Tower of London Base (to be filmed at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff). So, what do you think I said?

Unbelievably, I had to say NO! As I could only do one of the three days they were offering because I was very busy with my real job and there was no way my boss would allow me to take three days off.

This wasn't any good for the production so I had lost the chance to be on Doctor Who before I even got day one!

As luck would have it, the agency called me back later that very same day and asked. Which one day are you actually available? I told them and couldn't believe my luck when they said that they could fit me in.

I was so excited.

On the day in question I got up and drove down to set (all 150 miles from Derbyshire) so stupidly earlier than needed, that I had to sit in the extras bus for hours before the crew finally arrived.

You know you're early when you're waiting and the caterers had yet to arrive but I wasn't going to let anything ruin my day. Imagine if I'd had a puncture or some like.

Finally more extras arrived, none of whom seemed quite as excited as I was.

Where were all the Who fans?

Extras are looked after by a crew member called a Third Assistant Director (3rd AD) whose job it is to place us in shot somewhere

The 3rd AD came onto the bus to see us and made a seriously big deal about cameras and photographs, saying that if anyone even took out of their pocket a telephone that he thought might contain a camera (not all telephones did back then) he would send them off set and straight home!

It was at this point that I decided that I had better put my camera away into the furthest most reaches of my bag!

My costume for the day was simply my work suit but I had been given a UNIT badge with my photograph on it, so I really wanted a photo with that on! (and who wouldn't want proof they were a part of UNIT?)

I waited on the bus most of the morning whilst the people who had done the full 3 days were being used.

I finally got called to set later that morning, which was inside the Millennium stadium in Cardiff, where one corner had been set up as the UNIT Base Command.