Mary Tamm (1950–2012)

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3249736.html

After reading First Generation, billed as Mary Tamm's autobiography, I wondered why she had stopped writing when she reached the middle of her time on Doctor Who; a friend pointed out to me that there is in fact a second volume, published in 2014 after her death in 2012, so I went and got it.

It starts very strongly, with The Androids of Tara, which Tamm identifies as her favourite of the six Who stories she was in, challenging her to act in four different roles (and as I noted in 2008, gorgeous in all of them). And she takes us through the higlights of her later career, in particular two linked series called The Treachery Game and The Assassination Run, which I must look out for. But then she goes oddly silent on her subsequent career; maybe she simply ran out of time, but it's a shame not to find out about her Blanche Ingram in the 1983 Jane Eyre, or her time on Brookside.

She does cover her experiences of motherhood, and of travel (mainly to Doctor Who conventions). It was very interesting to learn that she used the local National Childbirth Trust meetings to get source material for future performances by observing the other new mothers, the experience of pregnancy and birth being a great social leveller in its way. But unfortunately the book was never finished, and ends with a series of warm tributes to her from friends and colleagues (some referring to things we have not previously come across in the book). Still, it fills some of the gap left from the first volume.… (meer)

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3231786.html

Published in 2009, three years before the writer's early death, this is the autobiography of Mary Tamm, who played the first incarnation of Romana in Doctor Who. It's interesting on her early career and romantic life, but the heart of the book is her visit to Estonia in 1990, the home country of her parents, just as it was shaking off the Soviet Union. (The only time I myself have been to Estonia was in August 1990, during her time there, and it is tantalising to think that I may have brushed past her in the streets of Tallinn.) The experience of being taken out of her comfort zone and reconnecting with relatives who she had never seen before clearly moved her deeply, and she expresses it well.

Otherwise, the account of her career stops with Doctor Who in 1979, which is a bit surprising as she continued acting until 2009 according to IMDB. And in fact she goes into detail only about the first three stories of her six, though also gives a brief account of her decision to leave and why she didn't get a proper regeneration scene (Graham Williams, the producer, couldn't believe that she was really leaving; she obviously got on well with Tom Baker, much better than her immediate predecessor had).

The other point I found of interest was her comment that she was the first high-profile actress to play the companion. She was certainly the first for several years, but I think Anneke Wills and Deborah Watling both had equally high profiles before joining the TARDIS crew. I must try and watch The ODESSA File, her biggest cinema role. There's also a funny story of a disastrously organised cruise with Peter Davison and Deborah Watling. So it's not at the top of my list of Who memoirs, but it's charming enough in its own way.… (meer)