(This interview with Ian Fraser was conducted during the same call as the one I had with Fiona Cumming, for the Tartan TARDIS supplement in the Daily Record. Ian was so lovely - he passed away in 2016)
FIRE engines, Iraqi security guards and Daleks causing a security alert in London ensured that that Scot Ian Fraser enjoyed working on Doctor Who in the eighties.
Ian, originally from Dunfermline, was involved behind the scenes in ensuring that Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy made it to screen.
He worked as production manager on Doctor Who stories between 1986 and 1989, after being hired by the show's producer John Nathan-Turner. His wife, Fiona Cumming, was a a veteran of the show, having been involved since the 60s.
He said: "I had just finished working with the children's department on Moon Stallion with Sarah Sutton and then went back to London, because we had been filming away, and I wasn't part of the BBC, I was freelance.
"I got a phone call from John (Nathan-Turner), asking me to go and see him. I went and he asked if I would like to do a Who - that's how it started.
"As production manager you make sure that everything works - that's making sure that people are there on time, that the crews know exactly what they are doing, that the props are there on time - things like that. Making sure that the scheduling works It's the equivalent of the first assistant director in film."
His first work on the series was on the Terror of the Vervoids segment of the 1986 story The Trial of a Time Lord, starring Colin Baker. The adventure featured the Vervoids, some villainous, as well as marking Bonnie Langford's debut in the series.
Ian recalled:"The Vervoids were amazing, because within the costume, the guys got so hot that at some points, they couldn't actually breathe properly. When they took the heads off from time to time, it gave them a chance to breathe. If I remember correctly we had Honor Blackman in that show.
"And we also had Bonnie - the best screamer in the business!"
Ian also worked on the final two episodes of that season, The Ultimate Foe, which was partly recorded on location at the Potteries in Stoke.
He said: "We had a wonderful time when we went to the Potteries. We had Geoffrey Hughes, who was a lovely man, and Michael Jayston, plus the absolutely wonderful Colin. It was like a huge, happy family - everybody got on and enjoyed their work.
"One of the cameramen got stuck up on a high camera, and was there for a couple of hours before we could get him back down.
"But we did cause some alarms to go off and the fire brigade to come out, but we got through it all.
"There was a real joy when working on Doctor Who - people didn't get upset or upright about it all - it was just a joy to be working.
"Colin and Michael Jayston and Geoffrey had a wonderful rapport, and the conversations they had were just incredible. Michael Jayston is one of the best mimics going, and he can impersonate so many people."
"Colin is just so straight - there are no sides to Colin. Colin is Colin - that's what you get, he was always like that an always will be."
When fellow Scot Sylvester McCoy took over the TARDIS the following year, Ian was back on Doctor Who, in a story named Paradise Towers.
He said: "For Paradise Towers, we were shooting at a swimming pool, and it was freezing cold. We couldn't get any heating put on for it, but poor old Bonnie just got on with it.
"We were recording it at the home of an Iraqi diplomat, and everywhere we went, there were always bodyguards about! Â You couldn't go into the house without an armed bodyguard being there. There was a special kind of feeling to it all."
Ian worked on Doctor Who in its 25th anniversary season, and he was delighted to work with the Doctor's oldest foes in 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks.
He recalled: "I loved Remembrance, as the whole thing was absolutely superb.
"I just adored working with the Daleks. I remember the first time I saw them going up the stairs, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end!
"I just wonder what difference it would have made to our Doctor Who if we had had the same kind of money as they have nowadays. There were all sorts of things we had to put up with because there was just no money to do it - you just worked out a cheap way to make it happen, and did it! That was all part of the joy of doing it.
"We had some interesting moments with the Daleks. We were filming under Waterloo railway bridge where we having a battle with a big explosion with a load of smoke and the police woman who was with us had a call on her walking talkie saying that a bomb had gone off at Waterloo she was trying to tell the HQ that it was not a bomb but Doctor Who filming!
"The message did not reach the emergency services and the London fire service came roaring through the smoke the look on the faces of the firemen as they came face to face with the Daleks was something to see."
Ian's final credit on Doctor Who was 1989's The Curse of Fenric, regarded by fans as a classic adventure of the show.
Now retired and living near Wigtown in Dumfries and Galloway, Ian said: "Fenric is a wonderful programme. We did all that on OB (outside broadcast).
"The director Nick Mallett and myself went to John Nathan-Turner and said, 'How much money have we got?' John told us and we asked if we could do it all on OB, but John said we just didn't have the money. But we managed it.
"It just looked so different on the screen, nothing like a studio, and the army camp we were in was a strange place - even though it wasn't supposed to be. There were a lot of people still turning up for training when we were there. Sylvester was absolutely marvellous in this episode."
He added: "Any of the Whos which Fiona and I have been involved in have been Whos that really mattered. I'm not saying that new Who isn't good, because it is, it's very good, but somehow it's just not quite the same.
"All the special effects are brilliantly done, but we had to do the same kind of effects with not even half the money.
"The other thing was you always had time to read the closing titles.
"I just wonder what difference it would have made to our Doctor Who if we had had the same kind of money as they have nowadays. There were all sorts of things we had to put up with because there was just no money to do it - you just worked out a cheap way to make it happen, and did it! That was all part of the joy of doing it."
Ian added: "My outstanding memory of Who was working with John. John cared so much for that programme, he really did.
"He loved that programme, and he liked having people who understood what it was about working with him.
"He cared for his programme, and if anyone didn't care  His attitude was, 'If you don't like it, you don't have to be involved.' He was a clever producer, and managed to make the programme for the money but the BBC just didn't appreciate him."
