Interlude – My Best Mate

It’s most likely that I’d never have written any of this, nor would I have discovered Planet Skaro or a host of other Doctor Who related aspects of my life if it wasn’t for my best mate and Doctor Who co-fan Andrew Clancy. As he plays a major part in my teenage years as far as Doctor Who is concerned, and subsequently in a lot of other areas of my life, it only seems fair that I devote at least one of these posts to him, especially as he’s mentioned at least once in nearly every other post. I first knew of Andrew’s existence when I started at the local Middle School in 1982, though I didn’t really get to know him properly until we both transferred to Wimbledon College a few years later. Andrew was something of an anomaly at our school because he had two younger brothers who were at the time physically very similar to each other and to him, particularly as all three brothers had very light blonde hair. I can still picture seeing the three of them walking home from school on the other side of the road and not knowing which one was which, and in a quirky twist of fate, even though they’re all two years apart in age, they all managed to end up with the very same textbook whilst they were at middle school, as confirmed by the ‘This book belongs to…..’ scrawl in the front cover.

When Andrew and I started at high school in 1985, we ended up being in quite a few classes together, though at this point he already had a ‘best friend’ called Adrian Cooke whom he’d made friends with at primary school. For some reason they fell out a few months later, and it was at this stage that Andrew and I became friends, along with another boy called Leonard Buckley. Whilst most of our classes were populated by boys who were what I would describe as ‘mainstream’, i.e. the usual cheeky schoolboy types who were into football, fights in the playground, etc., Andrew, Leonard and myself were right at the other end of the spectrum. We were all quiet, reserved and slightly geeky types who would keep ourselves to ourselves, and were into things like drawing and writing, and TV shows such as Transformers and of course Doctor Who. The three of us continued to hang around together at school and occasionally after hours at each other’s parental homes, but it wasn’t really until we finished school that Andrew and I continued as good friends whereas we lost touch with Leonard.

I can’t remember a defining moment when either Andrew or I ‘decided’ that we would become best friends, but one occasion which does spring to mind was when I was round at the Clancy residence and I spied an ancient battered cornet hanging by a piece of string from the picture rail in their front room. By this point in time I’d been learning to play the trumpet for a few years, and Andrew’s youngest brother Stephen was learning the clarinet. The middle brother, David, seemed to be keen to play the drums, having been bashing around with some upturned ice cream tubs and a cymbal for a while, so our combined musical ability – albeit fairly rudimentary at this stage – plus our mutual love of jazz, immediately gave us something in common. Their dad gave me permission to play his battered old cornet whilst I was there, and we began messing around playing basic jazz tunes. Poor Andrew didn’t play any musical instrument at this stage, so in order not to feel left out, he suddenly decided that he’d play the piano as it was a natural fourth instrument to accompany the brass, woodwind and percussion. Their dad, Peter, had been playing bass guitar and double bass for some years, and so we began having regular ‘jam sessions’ at their house, something which over time developed into a proper gigging jazz band.

Peter regularly worked nights at this point, so our forced abstinence from playing loud music whilst he was asleep meant that we had to find other things with which to occupy ourselves, and Andrew’s natural passion and enthusiasm for Doctor Who began to rub off on me. David and Stephen were not as keen on Who as Andrew and I, so they tended to go off and do their own thing, whilst Andrew and I began to concentrate on all thing Who, as well as continuing our other growing mutual interest in playing and listening to jazz. This is really what kick-started our relationship into best mate territory, and our love of Doctor Who soon reached dizzy and often silly heights, as will be described in later posts.

So what of Andrew himself? I suppose if I were to try and describe him with one word it would be endearing. Not necessarily a description which everyone would like to be labelled with, but that, I would say, is his most overriding quality. If I were to try to equate him with a character from Doctor Who, it would definitely be Harry Sullivan; slightly bumbling, charming, respectful, and with a heart of gold. Okay, Andrew may not be a qualified surgeon lieutenant, but he does have a talent for playing the piano, and has a great sense of humour, a personality trait which we share and which has made us laugh almost non-stop since we first became friends almost 20 years ago. I think one of the best things about our friendship is that we’ve never fallen out or had argument about anything – we even shared a flat for three years and just had the best time from start to finish.

I couldn’t possibly post this without including a photo of Andrew which, if nothing else, shows that he’s a mad fan of Doctor Who (‘mad’ being the operative word, here, as you can see). I can’t even remember where or when this was taken, but I suspect he may have had a beer or two beforehand - I sincerely hope so, anyway. We may not see each other very much these days, but Andrew will always be my best mate, and I’d like to think the feeling is mutual.

Next Episode: Discovering BBC Videos – and other Doctors!