The Tour has done of its ‘legendary’ (quotes fully intended) deep dives on a Doctor Who personality, this time revisiting John Hurt, whose gallery is one of the Tour’s largest owing to the length and breadth of his career. Of particular amusement was a sizable tranche of photos related to a 1971 theatrical ‘Cry of the Penguins’ (also known as ‘Mr. Forbush and the Penguins’) and a number of photos of Hurt, presumably in Antarctica cavorting with the titled penguins and, in mere insubstantial fascination for a Doctor Who fan, a multi-colored umbrella.
Not exactly hard to see where this is going, is it?
Notions of British gentility project, perhaps even stipulate, that an umbrella (or brolly as the idiom goes) is an essential part of an everyday ‘carry,’ a defense against the gray and wet of the predominant climate of that sceptured isle. And Doctor Who was no more resistant to this than any other English export. Patrick Troughton was spotted waiting out the wet with a couple of Yeti while recording The Abominable Snowmen. Jon Pertwee had one (a bright one at that) at the very beginning of Death to the Daleks. Even Tom Baker tried deploying a rather sad umbrella during The Brain of Morbius.
But of course the apotheosis would, and will likely always be, Colin Baker. It was always prominent in his promotional materials and even could be sighted in stories from time to time, one of which was The Mysterious Planet. Sadly the umbrella was not up to being used as a shield against stoning.
Just a bit beyond normal operational parameters we would guess.
