So that's why he has a long overcoat...

 

The Noel Clarke allegations rumble on… along with allegations that he told an entire class at the London School of Dramatic Art to get their kit off during “improvisation worktops” …older allegations have resurfaced about John Barrowman repeatedly exposing himself on the sets Doctor Who and Torchwood …. Which Barrowman puts down to too much “exuberance” although one suspects some kind of paraphilia.  Oh well, there are worse paraphilias … at least one understands now why Captain Jack always wears that large overcoat.  I have to say I have occasionally wondered if Captain Jack’s very tactile character would raise more questions today…

There’s something quite disturbing in the film that’s resurfaced about Noel telling the audience about John putting his penis on Camille Coduri's shoulder and her saying she was “trying to be polite” by not mentioning it.  Blurring fact and fiction one imagines Dot Clapton  in Rumpole of the Bailey dealing with the situation less diplomatically... Noel reveals that Christopher Eccleston for one was not amused …Oh, well it’s not like he left in mysterious circumstances that to this day have never been fully explained…

Strangely then I found myself wondering about all kinds of other incidents involving nakedness… like Malcolm Hardee getting his penis out frequently at Up The Creek … or the strange fad in the 1970s for streakers at sporting events.  One can possibly explain this as something to do with Test Match Special being so boring that people needed to do this as relief against two old blokes talking constantly about cake and the number 69 bus…. Then I remembered Phil Nichol's The Naked Racist show and how it led to a fad of open spots trying to strip at Pear Shaped which lasted about a fortnight.   Then I thought of Lewis CK…

Then I thought of a recent documentary on the making of "One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest" that I watched the other day (Ava Alexis couldn't believe I'd never seen the film before so bought it for me) in which  Louise Fletcher who played Nurse Mildred Ratched explained she became so jealous of the other actors who were allowed to "play mad" (to the extent of actually living in the mental institution where it was filmed) while she had to be cold and rigid and logical and asexual that one day she took off all her clothes on set as a "release" or something...  Who knows what really motivates people?  Well, probably psychologists.  Danny DeVito said in the same documentary that he became distrurbed he'd got so into the part that he'd invented imaginary friends to talk to.  He spoke to one of the doctors about this and they said "Well, as long as you know it's not real you're okay.  It's just pretend.  Children do it all the time".

Anyway, this stream of consciousness is leading nowhere in particular but I found it interesting that the convention interview where Noel talks about John’s Johnson is quite old … and I wondered if Dr Who fans live in their own bubble that the media isn’t interested in or if fans just turn a blind eye to anything disturbing.  Or if it’s only surfaced now due to a change in society or all three…

I remember suggesting to Toby Hadoke a while ago that perhaps the reason Patrick Troughton didn’t give interviews was less to do with wanting to protect the secrets of his craft and more to do with not wanting the fact he had two families exposed.  A situation he explained to his son as “Things have to change all the time for me I’m afraid, that’s the way I am made.”  Toby took a dim view of such cynicism.  But I wonder…

Sometimes I wonder if I’m really reading the News at all on the internet or it’s just some strange farce dreamed up by the Boulting Brothers or something…