Customer Reviews

Who's There?: The Life and Career of William Hartnell (Doctor Who (BBC Hardcover))

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The biography of William Hartnell, written by his granddaughter Jessica Carney, is very informative and very interesting. I was really only familiar with William Hartnell's work on Doctor Who and was fascinated reading about his childhood and how unhappy he was growing up. I never knew about his personal life, and I'm sure not many other people did, and was amazed at what William Hartnell did. I think Jessica Carney did a real nice job writing about his life and tied everything together in a way that was enjoyable to read. I learned quite a lot about William Hartnell and would recommend this book to any fan of Doctor Who or anyone who is familiar with William Hartnell.

William Hartnell is generally remembered as the first actor to take the title role in Doctor Who.

This biography, written by Hartnell's granddaughter Jessica Carney, tells the bigger story: the difficult childhood, his career (Doctor Who coming at the end of it), his family and private life, and all those things that, together, make someone human.

Ms. Carney writes with affection for her grandfather while striving to produce a biography that is much more than a series of fond reminisces. That she succeeds is a tribute to her skills as a writer.

If you read this book simply for Hartnell's time playing the Doctor, you will miss out on a fascinating life. You'll still get something, but take my word that the rest of the book is worth your while, too.

"My grandfather was a Time Lord..." Jessica Carney says on the back of her biography of William Hartnell. Yes, he was the very first Time Lord, but more than that, as readers will find out.
The book that Jessica Carney mentioned being in the process of writing in the More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS documentary was Who's There-The Life and Career of William Hartnell, who was both the first Doctor Who and one of Jessica's grandfathers.

However, after reading about his early life and career, his years in Doctor Who might as well be a postscript. Carney painstakingly traces her grandfather's life from his hard childhood in Devon, trying to overcome the shame of his illegitimacy, going on a stage career, meeting his future wife Heather McIntyre, making the string of B-movies in the 1930's, (quota quickies they were called), moving up the ladder with films such as The Way Ahead, Brighton Rock, Carry On Sergeant, and This Sporting Life, doing The Army Game TV series, a crisis of sorts as parts dried up, and his glorious finish in Doctor Who. It's indeed ironic that the movie that started the entire Carry On series is not on video. I've seen Brighton Rock and he played the character of Dallow very well. Another irony is that both of Jessica Carney's grandfathers appeared in Brighton Rock, the other being George Carney, although the latter died before the Hartnells and Carneys became united with the marriage of Anne Hartnell to Terry Carney.

William Hartnell emerges as someone who could be hot-tempered, but also good-humoured, kindly, and overgenerous. One example was his rivalry between Bob Monkhouse when making Carry On Sergeant. Hartnell only warmed up to him when Monkhouse was affected with the death of his father. He also valued security, hating change, and was upset to see the various TARDIS crew and even producer Verity Lambert leave in his Doctor Who years.

His early journal details his various capers, such as "bunking", basically trying to get free admission without paying, be it the tube or a movie theatre. He even got drunk on his uncle's cider and even snuck out at night from his grandparents. That this document itself survived is a miracle, considering how much of a throw-away society we've become.

Carney presents Hartnell as a grandfather, her "barmy sampa" as she states quite early on in her book, but as a human being as well. Like all humans, he did have his faults, i.e. gambling, womanizing, this which hurt his wife very much, and his going to the pub and getting very slashed. Sometimes, the womanizing accompanied that. However, he took his departure from Doctor Who hard, as his wife noticed how much he went pubbing.

His arteriosclerosis that hit him during his Doctor Who years and untimely, I might add, (I say untimely because he died aged 65, and given 1974, that's not even life expectancy) showed up in his dialogue troubles in the show which I've noticed upon seeing later stories.

This book is a treasure due to the available source material, be they personal diaries of William and Heather Hartnell, photo stills, and playbills from the plays they starred in during their early period. The tail end of the book has a list, cast, and brief synopses of his films and plays.