In the second part of our Mary Tamm interview to celebrate the release of The Key to Time DVD, the actress speaks to Jonathan Wilkins about why she left the show, her memorable outfits and getting to grips with some of those tongue twisters.

What was it that initially attracted you to the part and why did you leave?

Well, I wasn’t sure about going up for the role in the first place, but when they described her as a Time Lady and as a companion rather than an assistant – there was a fine line between the two – that appealed to me. They said she’d be a strong character and equal to the Doctor and have her own adventures. That got me hooked.

As the series progressed, with the limitations imposed with the half hour format, I realised there was no way for it to go if you have two strong characters doing their own thing. There wasn’t the time to pursue both their adventures and to get them both out of trouble, reconcile the mystery or the puzzle or whatever. So I think the character of Romana had to revert back to a sounding board for the audience.

If there’s a lot of technical stuff going on you have to have somebody asking, “What does that do? What’s that for?” to keep the audience in the picture. That was the conclusion that I reached and I thought, well I’ve done 26 episodes, it’s been fun, but I can see that they are not going to make Romana quite what I expected her to become.

Having said that, it was a fabulous job to do and I don’t have any regrets about it. I’m more and more proud of having been in Doctor Who as time goes on.

A lot of fans have asked, why did you leave after one series and why didn’t you have a regeneration scene?

Graham Williams, who was the producer at the time, just wouldn’t accept the fact that I wanted to leave! He kept trying to persuade me that I would come back at the final hour and stay!

He was quite convinced that I would be there in Skaro and Paris, but Lalla Ward stepped into my shoes! We were on break from filming The Armageddon Factor and Graham Williams was saying, “Oh Come on Mary, we know you’ll be coming back! And if not, who do you suggest?” I said, “Well Lalla will probably do it, won’t you Lalla?”

Lalla was very enthusiastic! I should have got 15% agent's fees! She was going out with Tom, so I think it was nice chemistry between them and Graham probably thought, let's cash in on it.

I’d love to go back and appear in the new series, perhaps as a nasty villain. The whole of Equity wants to go into Doctor Who but I was there first, so I think I should be getting in there!

The scripts for Doctor Who were often filled with tongue twisters. Did you find them tricky to learn?

I did at first, but it’s amazing how quickly you get used to it though. We had plenty of time to learn and rehearse. Nowadays, you don’t really have that. On films you can have 20 or 30 takes. Now time is of the essence so you have to learn it all as you go. A week’s rehearsal at the BBC was a godsend - now you have the night before if you’re lucky.

Can you still say ‘Romanadvoratrelundar’?

[After one false start, Mary pronounces it perfectly] It’s wrongly spelt compared to the very first script, which spelt it differently. It may have been a misprint but I wish I’d kept it. It wasn’t Romanadvoratrelundar. That’s why I stumble a bit, because I’m never sure if I should say it the first or second way.

You wore a number of outfits during your time on the show. Were you involved in choosing your clothes?

I was. The white dress I wore in The Ribos Operation was stunning but it was very impractical to wear because it kept stretching. It literally stretched an inch every two hours and I’d be tripping over it. The costume lady had to keep cutting a bit more off!

The one I did love was the outfit from The Androids of Tara which I helped design. Originally Doreen, the costume lady, had designed a riding outfit. It was kind of a rough hessian type, brown costume that was very unflattering and I didn’t really fancy wearing that. It would have been very itchy and hot.

So we sat down with Graham Williams and the three of us came up with the design. She asked what my favourite colours were (turquoise and purple) and what my favourite fabric was (velvet) and she did the design. Actually, it was purple and green but it was very pretty. I have had several letters about that costume. It seems to be the fans’ favourite. I had a large input in all my costumes; they were all designed with my wishes in mind.

Did you get to keep any of the costumes?

Not one, no! I was too honest you see! There are rumours of certain people having taken certain things, but I was too well brought up to have helped myself to the clothes.

What was it like having a constantly changing supporting cast?

It was terrific. We had some excellent actors to work with like Susan Engel and Philip Madoc, who were great. Doing Brookside, you are stuck in a long running soap with exactly the same people. That’s not to say that they weren’t fun to work with, but it’s nice to have fresh people coming along which changed the dynamic of the show and kept me and Tom on our toes.

Looking back on your time in the show, is there anything that you’d change about your performance?

That’s an interesting question actually. At the time the BBC was regimented by a strict formula - and I suppose, if I’m honest, it has something to do with my own inexperience -but I played Romana as a straightforward character, which was how all the assistants had been played. I could have made her a bit weirder.

She’s from another planet, she’s an extraterrestrial so if I had the time again, I’d probably give her some quirks or a funny way of doing particular things that helps the audience realise that she comes from another planet. It was never suggested, but it would have been quite interesting. Tom got it, he got the wildness and the strangeness, but then he’s really like that anyway. That’s Tom Baker, he’s never boring!

The Key to Time is out now on DVD (region 2).

Click here to read the first part of the Mary Tamm interview.