I wasn't interested in novelty. I was looking for good drama. To want to be an actor, especially these days, is to be ill. I am a one success man. I think quite often a fate worse than death is life, for lots of people. The Old Testament is my favourite science fantasy reading. I'm very interested in nostalgia because that's pretty well all that's left for me. I'm a sort of Buddhist, like all actors are, you know, that nonsense about not bathing in the same river twice - you're not even the same person bathing in the same river. So actors, it seems to me, I don't know much about them, I avoid them like the plague, especially the ones at my age, but inevitably I do meet them and they do seem to me to be a bit like me in that they are not really certain who they are. I recently got a copy of the Tom Baker Friendship Group's Fan Letter. It said owing to diminishing interest the price of this fan letter is going up from 30 to 58 pence. [On The Magic Roundabout]: I haven't seen a script but I've accepted everything, simply because the money was excellent. The biggest cause of death in Maidstone is boredom. I learned nothing at drama school. The tutors were all far too old and out of date. Not their fault. I'm now extremely old and very dated. [On the Doctor Who serial "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"]: The BBC is very good at period drama but not very good at giant rats. I think I'm made for the role of Donald MacDonald (Monarch of the Glen). He's quite clearly from another planet. I enjoy overacting and I'm very good at it. I suppose you could say I've made a career out of it. As you get near death, as I am, you have to laugh at everything. Otherwise the alternative is to be utterly depressed. I've never had a problem with the fame thing, but as I get older I feel I am starting to look less and less like Tom Baker. People used to mistake me for Shirley Williams, but now they just seem to mistake me for my Great Auntie Molly. I don't watch television. I know better than that. [On David Tennant, who began playing the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who]: I did watch a little bit of the new Doctor Who and I think the new fella, Tennant, is excellent.