PERTWEE, JON (1919 – 1996) Actor. Any parent of a clairvoyant child must be constantly on guard for potential causes of psychic disruption. While microwaves, mobile phones and even digital watches can interfere with thought patterns, the most pernicious enemy of the clairvoyant child's development is television. This is hardly surprising when one considers the number of images with which the ultra-receptive mind is bombarded. Apart from the unfolding narrative seen by everyone else, the psychic has to deal with mental images projected by the writers, actors and others involved with the production. In my experience, shows such as Dr Who are particularly upsetting, not because of the preposterous plots and characters, but the private lives of the unsavoury individuals involved in the programme's production. Jon Pertwee, the third actor to play the Doctor, but the first with whom I was personally ‘acquainted', also played Worzel Gummidge, a turnip-headed symbol of cruelty emanating from depths of the universal subconscious. Gummidge was adapted from the stories of Barbara Euphan Todd in the sort of sadistic frenzy that normally results in murder. Had parents been aware of the damage this monstrous scarecrow was wreaking in their children's psyches they would have destroyed their television sets.

Unable to recover from the psychic disruption of assuming the roles of Who and Gummidge, Pertwee's latter years were spent on the Isle of Wight where he gained a reputation for shooting any dogs that wandered onto his land.

 

Jon Pertwee as Dr Who

 

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