Space Helmet for a Cow: The Mad, True Story of Doctor Who (1963-1989)

In Space Helmet for a Cow, Paul Kirkley (SFX magazine) provides a sweeping, wry and warm look at the behind-the-scenes story of Doctor Who – not just the greatest TV show ever made, but frequently the most insane TV show ever made. Which other program, for example, would attempt to sink Atlantis, wage inter-planetary war and crash Concorde - all in BBC Television Centre, on a budget that would barely cover a sitcom?  

This is the story of how, over 50 years, a bunch of very clever, very dedicated and sometimes plain crazy people made Doctor Who happen, often against seemingly insuperable odds; a story of triumph and tragedy, tears and tantrums, and an awful lot of men called Donald.  

Space Helmet for a Cow also answers the burning questions few have dared tackle before. Questions like: How does a talking cabbage get an Equity card? What would have been in William Hartnell’s Glastonbury set? And if you meet a Yeti coming out of a loo in Tooting Bec, how long should you give it?

Lars Pearson Lars Pearson has served as editor-in-chief and publisher of Mad Norwegian Press since 2001, overseeing such works as the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig... essay book series and the (to date) seven-volume About Time series, a seminal work on Doctor Who. With Lance Parkin, he co-writes the definitive Doctor Who timeline Ahistory (which is now 30,000 words bigger than War and Peace).

Paul Kirkley Paul Kirkley was born in Leeds some hours before The Daemons episode three, but they kept you in hospital for ages in those days, so he missed it. Currently deputy editor of Cambridge's daily newspaper, Paul writes regularly for SFX, and has frequently contributed to websites such as Behind the Sofa and Tachyon TV. In 2011, he beat off competition from other journalists to win the coveted-ish title of Newspaper Columnist of the Year (East of England), a trick he repeated in 2013.