"And I used to sit in the kitchen with the oven on and play with the mangle."

"And I used to sit in the kitchen with the oven on and play with the mangle."

In our most recent videos about 'Doctor Who' on Twitch we've discussed the first five stories of Season 18.

We also got on to the subject of my maternal grandmother Lillian Cope, known to  me and my sister's children as Nanny Stick. So called of course because she had a stick - nothing like saying what you see.

The reason she came up was because it was through regularly visiting her and my grandad George that I missed Season 18 on original transmisson, only starting to watch with the advent of Peter Davison's first season.

Andrew found it fascinating to hear about my time spent there, all the details that I had forgotten until reminded both by discussion with my niece Michelle and her younger brother Russell, of things that I had long forgotten.

Flat coke for one, and probably cheap Nisa (other brands are available) coke too. A large bottle would be bought and until it was nearing its end another one was not forthcoming, so it rapidly became very flat. One reason perhaps for my dislike of flat coke to this day and the reason I buy cans and not bottles.

We would sometimes add a spoonful of sugar from the sugar bowl, which would briefly make it fizz back up again, sometimes overflowing if the glass was too full.

There was also a mangle in the kitchen, long since abandoned but fascinating to me and I would turn the handle and watch the rollers go round, whilst being told to mind my fingers.

The reason I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with the oven on as indicated in the title of this blog is because my grandparents had an open fire on which the coal used to fuel it would crack and this for some reason scared me. So I spent a fair amount of time sat in the kitchen with the oven on and the door open, warming the room.

After my grandad died over Christmas 1980, my nan must have decided that the open fire was too much to look after on her own and either a gas or electric fire was installed. In front of this she kept a bowl of water to keep the air moist, to this day I don't know why but she had obviously been told it would help.

Then there was the bowls of loose change kept on the sideboard, filled with copper and silver coins ready to be dipped into if necessary. She would quite often hand us 50p each, saying "Here's 10 shillings for you" something that sounds so much better, but that confused us at the time.
We also had chips from the local fish and chip shop with bread and marge, possibly Stork when it wasn't just used for baking.

All of these memories have been trigged by discussion of Season 18 and it has been nice to look back and remember my distant childhood.

As for Season 18 as I've mentioned on the video it's not amongst my favourite seasons or indeed stories as I find it a bit melancholic and downbeat, something I believe the production team were aiming for after the silliness of the previous season.

But I would say that out of the season 'State Of Decay' is my favourite story, probably helped hugely by the fact that I had the audiobook as read by Tom Baker on cassette and listened to it a lot. To me it was like listening to the Doctor telling you the tale; as far as I remember Tom Baker pretty much does it in character.

So even though I may not enjoy of the stories in Season 18, remembering and talking it about it has bought back lots of lovely memories.

And for that I am grateful.

(By Lisa Parker)