Unusually, the first scenes we filmed were actually the first ones broadcast. And like a knowing nod to all the time I’d spent in one during my time on Who, they were set in a quarry – this time in Cromhall, Gloucestershire. From the moment I arrived to start filming, I was already aware the script asked for me to be buried under rubble. Now, depending on who the director is, this might be interpreted in a number of ways. Unfortunately for me, our director was the blood-thirsty Lennie Mayne.
And he fancied the literal interpretation.
It was quite a big deal when they blew the rocks up – it doesn’t matter how often you see them, dynamite and explosives always catch the eye. But then yours truly had to be buried underneath. Lennie was all for keeping me down there for as long as possible so he could get the perfect shot. Luckily for me, our First on that one was Marion McDougall. She’d been on Spiders, Ark, The Sontaran Experiment and Android as well. If you had Marion as your First, you knew it would be a good day at the office.
I had to lie on the ground and when Lennie called ‘Action!’ the rocks started to fall on top of me. Literally. They weren’t huge, they weren’t going to crush me to death. But it was terrifying and I felt every single one hit my body. I desperately covered my head with my hands for protection but even though I could stop the rocks hitting my face I couldn’t do anything about the dust. I could feel it coating my lungs with every breath. I’d never known claustrophobia before but another minute and I would have, I’m convinced. I remember thinking, You’d better get the shot, Lennie, because there won’t be a second take.
I’d been in there for God knows how long when I heard Marion say, ‘Lennie, I think Lis should come out now.’
‘What’s that?’ he asked, completely distracted by his camera angles. ‘Nah, nah, don’t you worry, Mother’s all right in there, she’s fine! Tell her to relax, we’ll just do one more.’
‘No,’ Marion replied, ‘I’m getting her out now, Lennie! Getting her out!’
They were a perfect match – Marion would look after you really well while Lennie was such fun. I still see Marion sometimes, always a pleasure to catch up with her. Unfortunately, Lennie died in quite tragic circumstances not long after we wrapped. He loved sailing and one day took his boat out in the fog and never came home. They found the boat but not Lennie – I think he was washed overboard. It’s a tragic, terrible waste of life and my heart went out to Pidge and their two daughters.
It was only Tom and me at the quarry but the full complement had arrived by the time we made it to Oldbury-on-Severn, just up the road, a few days later. No quarries this time – just a bloody great nuclear power station. Sometimes you look at these scripts and think, Well, it says we use it, but obviously it will all be in a studio.
Think again, Sladen.
Oldbury Power Station had been operational for nine years by the time we arrived. As far as I was concerned, it was just another location. You get driven somewhere, deliver your lines and go home; that was as complicated as I liked things to get. This one was just the same. It was only afterwards that I thought about how we were swept down with Geiger counters on the way out every day as a precaution. It sounds naïve but I had no idea that place was radioactive. What if one of the girls had been pregnant, for God’s sake? I wouldn’t have gone in if I’d known but we didn’t have a clue. I just trolled onto the coach as usual, asking no questions, head in the clouds, la la la. Do the job, back to the hotel for a drink and a laugh afterwards.
I heard later that we got Oldbury because Hand of Fear’s writers, Bob Baker and Dave Martin, live nearby. They kept that quiet, the buggers! It would have been nice to pop in for a cup of tea.
One of the thrills of boarding the location bus, with your clothes case in hand, was never quite knowing who you’d find on there. For The Hand of Fear I was delighted to see Rex Robinson, who’d been Gebek in Peladon. Rex was never short of an anecdote or a kind word. Mr Versatile, Roy Skelton, was on board as well, unrecognisable as usual as King Rokon. Roy was always such fun on set – I don’t know why they don’t use him now. His voices just flow from him, without gizmos – and it wasn’t only monsters. Sadie used to love the kids’ show Rainbow and of course Roy would do the voices of Zippy and George. When they did Christmas shows with the cast’s Rod, Jane and Freddie, she got to meet Zippy and still has all sorts of things signed by him.
And then there was brilliant Glyn Houston – he really enjoyed himself. If I’m honest, I don’t think Hand of Fear was particularly well put together. In places it felt like a draft rather than a polished final script. It probably wasn’t the best episode to go out on because there were one or two boring scenes, but Glyn really enlivened them. He was exceptional value.
I have to take some of the blame for the pace of the thing. This was the second serial, after Android, where I wasn’t playing myself so you’d think I might have been used to it by then. For those who haven’t seen it, the explosion at the quarry unearths the fossilised hand of Eldrad, a criminal from millennia past. Sarah’s touch reignites its life and as a result, she is possessed by Eldrad. I think I should have played those scenes much more quickly; I remember toying around with it and no one said to do it differently so that’s the direction I took. I don’t think I’d do it that way again. That whole performance is far from one of my favourites. It’s just so slow, especially those lines, ‘Eldrad must live! Eldrad must live!’ There were a dozen ways to take it and unfortunately I opted for the wrong one.
Despite my personal reservations, it seems to be a very popular serial. Believe it or not, the single most requested line I’m asked to quote for fans is ‘Eldrad must live!’. Bizarre, isn’t it? Of all the thousands of words Sarah must have said. I remember being at a convention in LA, in the lift on the way up to my room, and this guy got in. He must have been from the convention because it was clear he was nearly fainting with excitement behind me. I couldn’t ignore it, so I turned round and gave him a smile.
‘Please,’ he begged me, ‘please just say “Eldrad must live!” I won’t get out until you say it.’
Absolutely true!
So I said it – in that ridiculous slow-mo delivery – and he got out at the next floor, the happiest man in California.
Apart from the exposure to radioactivity, the power station proved a challenging location in other ways. There were so many platforms and ladders running all over the place that it would have been remiss not to incorporate them, but during the final chase scene I thought my legs were going to drop off. I was going up and down, up and down this bloody metal ladder, literally quivering with exhaustion by the end of it. There was a rail all the way up but I wasn’t allowed to fall on it for help and it was really steep. The next day I could barely walk, my quads were screaming in agony. You’d just make it to the top then you’d hear bloody Lennie, ‘Lis, could you do it again but this time …’ It was really horrendous.
At least they could see me coming. I still get letters today about my outfit for The Hand of Fear – my ‘Andy Pandy’ costume as I call Sarah’s red top, striped dungarees and little cap.
I remember saying to our costume girl, Barbie Lane, ‘Do you know what? It’s the end of the road, she could wear anything. Let’s just go to town on it.’