Peter Davison composed and performed the theme tune to 1980’s children’s TV classic Button Moon. If that’s not a good enough reason to read his autobiography, then I despair at you all.
However, I sense you may need more convincing. Very well:
When he was training to be an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London he was classmates with Dave Clark, of the Dave Clark Five, and Freddy Marks from Rainbow’s Rod, Jane and Freddy.
He briefly, very briefly, had David “Darth Vader” Prowse as his personal trainer.
Oh and not only was he a Doctor Who, but his daughter is now married to someone who was also a Doctor Who too. Such a union is still illegal in some foreign countries.
Still not sold? Okay, some actual background:
Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett was born in Streatham on 13 April 1951. Upon embarking on a professional career in the theatre he discovered that there was already a director called ‘Peter Moffatt’ working in TV. To avoid confusion – as he’d already accidentally received a number of letters from other actors begging the director for work – he changed his surname to Davison.
Under that nom de scène he’s managed to sustain a successful 44 year career on stage and screen, from ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ on TV in the late 70’s to his Olivier award nominated role in ‘Gypsy the Musical’ in the West End in 2015.
And now, to quote the blurb: “His fans have spoken, but, despite their requests, Peter Davison has gone ahead and written his autobiography anyway.”
I’m delighted that he did. This isn’t a lazily written cash-in released to fleece compliant Doctor Who fans. His time as a Time Lord is covered, but it’s covered – rightly – as just one interlude in the longish life and career of P.M.G Moffett. And it’s a life and career that he covers clear-sightedly. He’s quite candid about his past faults and failings and he doesn’t refrain from giving his younger self many retrospective slaps. It turns into quite the beating at times.
Don’t think that this is a grim essay full of self-flagellation. His prose is kissed with dry humour and his youthful – and not so youthful – indiscretions are recalled with an air of sardonic amusement. And he’s very generous about others in the book; when he is critical the criticism is usually offered hand-in-hand with mitigation.
Flippant though it may be in tone writing this book is something Davison obviously took very seriously. He sought the input of family, ex-colleagues and friends, travelled to Florida to seek the reminiscences of his paternal aunt and included details of his father’s arrival in Britain from Guyana during the Second World War, which he found in his father’s handwriting in an old exercise book. He even changed publishers when they weren’t willing to accommodate him over the title of the book.
I’m glad he wrote the book that he wanted. The result is funny and thoughtful; unsentimental but warm.
But the main reason you should read it is because he wrote the theme tune to 1980’s TV classic “Button Moon.”
“We’re off to Button Moon! We’ve Followed Mr Spoon!”
They don’t write them like that anymore.
Twitter: @Epistler
