Tom Burgess

@nottomburgess

Comedian, voice actor and cult TV lover (esp. Doctor Who and Blue Peter). 📺 Archivist for fictional BBC children's pioneer Peter Fleming and producer of his 'Into the Archives' podcast. He/him. linktr.ee/tomburgesscomedy

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Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Jun 29

Justin Richards' name has been in my head pretty much as long as I've been a fan. 7/8 year old me was lucky to find The Book of Lists in Waterstones one day. A few years later in 2005, his fictions and fact files captured a moment. RIP.

My well-worn golden-covered copy of Doctor Who: The Book of Lists, held in my hand.

The electric blue cover of Doctor Who: Monsters and Villains. In the foreground, a bronze Dalek. Behind it, the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) shielding Rose Tyler (Billie Piper).

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Apr 3

The boys were so proud watching their big brothers today. #DoctorWho

Two toy Daleks standing on a multi-coloured striped rug. The one on the left has a black dome and panels with blue spheres round the sides (the Dalek Supreme from The Daleks' Master Plan). The one on the right is silver all over with blue spheres round the sides, with its sink plunger replaced by a flamethrower (also featured in The Daleks' Master Plan).

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Apr 3

Another reason to be delighted at this morning's recovered #DoctorWho episodes: the chance to see Hugh from The @aiannucci.bsky.social Shows in his days as an extra!

Publicity still for Doctor Who: The Nightmare Begins (1965). William Hartnell poses with two bald Technix, one played by Hugh Cecil.

The Armando Iannucci Shows (2001): Armabdo greets a smiling Hugh Cecil at his front door.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Mar 28

One week till new Doctor Who!

The Nightmare Begins: a dishevelled Kert Gantry (Brian Cant) with his back to the camera, looking up at the Dalek that is about to kill him.

Devil's Planet: The Doctor (William Hartnell) examining the shiny metal cylinder containing the stolen core of the Time Destructor on board Mavic Chen's stolen Spar, standing next to Steven (Peter Purves) and Katarina (Adrienne Hill).

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Mar 21

The traditional photoshoot! Spoiled for choice this time. #DoctorWho

Me, a white man with brown hair, wearing a blue, white and pink striped shirt, holding in my hands the vibrant pink and yellow Doctor Who Season 21 Blu-ray box set, depicting the Fifth Doctor. A manic smile is on my face.

Me, a white man with brown hair, wearing a blue, white and pink striped shirt, holding in my hands the Doctor Who Season 21 Blu-ray box set. The lilac-tinted back cover depicting the Sixth Doctor and Peri is angled towards my face, and I am lustily closing my eyes and extending my tongue towards it.

Focused in the foreground, the vibrant purple and red Doctor Who Season 13 Blu-ray box set, depicting the Fourth Doctor. Unfocused in the background, me, a white man with brown hair, wearing a blue, white and pink striped shirt, holding in my hands the vibrant pink and yellow Doctor Who Season 21 Blu-ray box set. The white of my teeth and eyes shines clearly as I angrily bellow and stick two fingers up at the now spent Season 13.

Unfocused in the foreground, the vibrant pink and yellow Doctor Who Season 21 Blu-ray box set, depicting the Fifth Doctor. Focused in the background, a comfy bed on which I, a white man with brown hair, am sitting up in shock and shame - under the covers but clearly wearing nothing. My arms are outstretched, and held in each is an image depicting the newly recovered Episodes 1 and 3 of First Doctor classic The Daleks' Master Plan.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Feb 4

What if Jeffrey Epstein is in the Mandelson files?

BBC News headline: MPs back plan to release Mandelson files after Labour anger forces climbdown.

Accompanying picture: Peter Mandelson, a white man with grey hair, a suit and black framed glasses, next to Sir Keir Starmer, a white man with grey hair, a suit and black framed glasses, in a lavish old building with tiled flooring and orange marble pillars in the background.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Jan 19

I deleted my Twitter in 2024 due to disagreements with its owner over the existence of a white super-race, but here's a screengrab! A special day.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Dec 24

A Christmas present from Peter Fleming! From 1974, seven steps to the perfect Christmas Eve. Share and enjoy! shows.acast.com/into-the-arc...

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Dec 4

Farage's sudden change of heart on outdated British TV shows is surprising given he was advocating for the n-word to be freely available on iPlayer and used in BBC Two repeats five years ago.

From a Google search, a Daily Express article from June 2020. Headline: "Farage declares humour is dead as BBC removes Fawlty Towers" - referencing The Germans being temporarily removed from iPlayer, possibly due to featuring the n-word and w-word, though possibly due to other reasons, since that scene's normally edited out from repeats anyway.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Nov 23

No, but seriously, I am of course celebrating by watching an episode of Doctor Who not broadcast on 23 November 1963.

On my television screen, a TV studio countdown clock, set within a small chalk board, counting down the seconds to recording. The programme title is written in chalk: Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child. (This version was not broadcast.)

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Nov 10

"And we now go live to the BBC." My controversial view: good Doctor Who story, that.

Pyramids of Mars: the old priory, silhouetted against the night sky by flames as it burns to the ground.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Nov 10

"If you can save Sarah's life, you will add £2,000 to the prize pot."

Pyramids of Mars: the Doctor, a white man with brown curly hair in a velvet jacket and long stripy scarf, crouches by a clear tube in which Sarah, a white woman with dark hair wearing a white dress, is imprisoned. At the back of shot are two mummies, their bandages decorated with gold bands.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Nov 10

FUN FACT: Sir Charles Curran was forced to resign as Director-General after Pyramids of Mars implied Sutekh, god of violence, was bad.

More Pyramids of Mars. Sutekh, seated on a black throne in a painted red and black wooden mask, declares, "All life shall perish under the reign of Sutekh the Destroyer!"

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Nov 10

"Fezes... are not cool." Think that's what he's saying anyway, the guy's screaming over him. Rude man.

More Pyramids of Mars: in a Victorian house, a man in a shiny black all-over body covering presses his hands onto the immediately smoking shoulders of a cowering man in a Fez.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Nov 10

Woke up too early and angry about the state of things, so naturally watching this.

A TV on which the blue, alien patterns of the 1974-80 Doctor Who title sequence are hurtling towards the camera. Story title: PYRAMIDS OF MARS

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Oct 30

If you see this, quote with a robot that isn’t from “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Doctor Who,” or “Transformers".

Hypnodisc from Robot Wars. A flat silver body on four tiny wheels. A razor-sharp rotating disc is on the front, decorated with a black spiral pattern from the edge to the centre.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Oct 18

It's that time of year again.

The Doctor Who Season 7 Blu-ray box set in the foreground, and me, a white man with brown hair wearing a red shirt and blue trousers in the background, holding the vibrant new Doctor Who Season 13 Blu-ray box set and angrily sticking two fingers up at the old box set.

The Doctor Who Season 13 Blu-ray box sitting on a bed to the left of the frame, and me, a white man with brown hair wearing a red shirt and blue trousers, looming over it to the right of the frame. The blue trousers are open, with belt unbuckled, and I am looking very alarmed down the camera at having been caught doing whatever it is I'm doing, holding my hands up in a defensive and unsuccessful attempt to obscure the view of this sorry spectacle.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Sep 21

"Ed Davey should do more to be taken seriously, like fold his arms and look almost at ease."

BBC News headline from Laura Kuenssberg:

"Ed Davey loves clowning around, but is it time the Lib Dems got serious?"

Accompanying image: a black and white photo of Ed Davey gesturing with his hands whilst giving a speech, looking quite serious. Next to that, a colour image of Laura Kuenssberg in a pink blazer staring down the camera, giving a satisfied smile. Clearly she knows what's what, especially what to do with her arms, which are folded with a level of comfort and command that suggests she is attempting this pose for the first time.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Sep 14

I wouldn't say standards are slipping at BBC News, no.

BBC News headline about the founder of the John Rylands Library in Manchester. It reads: "Unknown lady who funded a Hogswarts-style library"

Yes, Hogswarts.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Sep 6

A good test case for whether journalistic standards are slipping at the BBC, where an article veers between the authoritative, factual voice of one author and the irritating, faux-folksy gossip of the other.

BBC News article, dated 6 Sept 2025.

A photo of Sir Keir Starmer.

Authors' bylines: Chris Mason, Political editor. Brian Wheeler, Political reporter.

BBC News article excerpt:

Ministers of state and junior ministers are given specific areas of responsibility in government departments, while cabinet ministers are in charge of the department as a whole and take part in cabinet meetings for major decisions.

Dame Angela and Dame Diana have been moved to roles in other departments, with Sarah Jones and Alex Norris brought into the Home Office, to work with new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

Worse BBC News article excerpt:

Another appointment that stands out is Jason Stockwood, vice-chairman Grimsby Town football club.

Stockwood is a local boy done very well in business, that some in the party were keen to see run as a candidate in a parliamentary seat.

He was not interested, but has been lured into the Lords and becomes a business minister.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Aug 16

People aged SO differently back in the day. For example, when Eric Elliott appeared in Doctor Who, he was only four months old.

Eric Elliott, a 62 year old man with wrinkly skin and grey hair, who could comfortably pass for 80, playing the Commander of the Guardians in the 1966 Doctor Who story The Ark.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Aug 10

The incredible things that happened thanks to Biddy Baxter, the imaginations lit up, the generations brought together by her work, and the lives saved and shaped by the Blue Peter appeals. The most amazing legacy. RIP.

John Noakes, Peter Purves and Valerie Singleton attempt to manage Lulu, a baby elephant urinating and defecating on the Blue Peter studio floor.

The first Blue Peter time capsule, a pale grey metal box. Its burial broadcast to the children of 1971, to be dug up 29 years later for the children of the year 2000.

Janet Ellis, Peter Duncan and Mark Curry in the Blue Peter studio. Peter stands next to the Sightsaver appeal totaliser, charting the amount of money raised, while Janet and Mark are at their Bring and Buy Sale table, littered with goodies to raise more.

Biddy Baxter smiles on the Blue Peter set as she sits with Goldie the dog.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Aug 7

If you see this, post a TV ident.

The BBC2 Optics ident of the 1990s. A number 2 composed of red, blue and green fibres swishes to and fro on a black background.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Aug 1

Ahh, go on then!

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Jul 14

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three or four times, you never fooled me.

BBC News reporting Trump's remarks today on Putin:

Asked about his relationship with Putin, Trump said that the two speak "a lot about getting this thing done" but voiced his displeasure at the fact that "very nice phone calls" with the Russian president are often followed by devastating air strikes on Ukraine - which have been growing in intensity and frequency.

"After that happens three or four times you say: the talk doesn't mean anything," Trump said.

"I don't want to call him an assassin but he's a tough guy. It's been proven over the years, he fooled a lot of people – Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden," he added. "He didn't fool me. At a certain point talk doesn't talk, it's got to be action."

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Jun 18

20 years since its first step came to a perfect ending and made a teenage Wilderness Years fan very happy, thinking back once again to the trip of a lifetime.

A 2005 billboard of Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper outside the TARDIS, advertising Doctor Who: Saturdays at 7pm on BBC One.

The Moxx of Balhoon, a small blue alien with a bulbous head and pointy teeth.

A blue-tinted hologram of Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor, smiling down the camera inside the TARDIS.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Jun 15

Change a letter, ruin a #DoctorWho story: Planet of the Dales

Compo, Foggy and Clegg from Last of the Summer Wine. Standing in their aged jackets against the Yorkshire Dales.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Apr 26

"I keep telling you, if this was the funeral there would be more chairs."

In the vast grandeur of St Peter's Basilica, President Trump and President Zelensky are seated on two small chairs, very close together. Zelensky is talking intensely. Trump's back is to the camera, but we can presume he is struggling to understand.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Apr 11

My flat has had a truly beautiful week thanks to @hiddenbritain.bsky.social. The trouble was deciding which second to share a photo of.

I, a white men with short brown hair and a blue/purple shirt, excitedly unpack a blue and yellow clock modelled on the early 1980s BBC1 idents from a cardboard box. There is a pinboard covered in colourful postcard and trinkets behind me.

I, a white men with short brown hair and a blue/purple shirt, anxiously hold up a complimentary postcard modelled on a scene from Doctor Who: The Daemons (1971). It depicts a TV channel notice: "DEVIL'S END. Temporary fault. BBC 3 TV."

A beautiful blue and yellow clock, modelled on the BBC1 idents of the early 1980s, placed on a white wall above a Vincent Van Gogh calender. The time is coming up to 5 o'clock, just in time for Blue Peter.

I, a white man with short brown hair but now in blue/grey shirt and trousers, sit in a cinema looking intently at my phone gallery, browsing through the enormous number of photos I have taken of my lovely new BBC1 clock.

Tom Burgess@nottomburgess· Mar 1

Love it when Doctor Who fans post themselves carefully putting their new box set on the shelf like we don't all actually do this.