Whovian Tours

To the uneducated eye, the route this walking tour takes through central London might seem a little arbitrary. As well as tourist hotspots, there are stops in any number of unremarkable side streets. Thankfully, the target audience is not an uneducated one; it’s that niche band of experts known as Whovians. Caitlin, who runs the tour, specialises in new-season ‘Doctor Who’. She has a Tardis backpack and is full of facts. At the Globe she tells us about Shakespeare’s lost play ‘Love’s Labour’s Won’. She also mentions Sam Wanamaker, not because of his vision to rebuild the Globe, but because his daughter Zoë voiced ‘Doctor Who’ CGI villain Lady Cassandra. She gives less attention to The Tower of London (to Whovians, HQ of fictional military organisation Unit) than she does to a nondescript street where the Doctor’s frenemy, Missy, revealed her true identity. ‘I was here when they filmed this scene,’ says Caitlin. She’s the kind of fan who organises her life around her passions. She’s spent hours combing through the series, looking for London locations (no easy task, given it’s largely filmed in Wales). She mixes ‘Doctor Who’ trivia with enough London history to entertain the non-Whovians, who’ve been dragged along by friends, and her endless enthusiasm makes the two-hour wander a pleasure. Louise Schwartzkoff