For me as a teenager, Dr. Who was just another sci-fi TV program. It was not until much later in life I realised that most of my preserved audio recordings of Dr.Who were missing from the BBC archives.

Read the story below to find out why...

My era of Doctor Who was from the very beginning. That fateful day on 23rd November 1963, watching the "new" BBC sci-fi program on a black and white 17" Mc Michael television, only to hear that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. A day I shall always remember.

At the time I was interested in anything electronic and busy making, repairing or building anything I could get my hands on. I had a second-hand Elizabethan reel-to-reel tape recorder at first, and hung the microphone by the TV speaker. My stock of tapes was limited and recordings were overwritten by new ones. The earliest recording I still have is first episode of "The Keys of Marinus" (now available on BBC DVD), aired on 11th April 1964. This is possibly when I started recording Dr. Who on a regular basis.

At the end of 1965 after the original machine was wearing out, I was able to purchase (over 52 weekly payments through my Mother's Gratton club book) a new Philips EL3548 tape recorder. Here is a picture of it:

I connected the tape recorder directly to the TV (with screened audio cable), something that would not be allowed today under current health and safety rules. TV's of the era were made with valves and the metal chassis was connected to one wire from the mains plug. Normally any metal part of the TV was kept away from the outside case for safety reasons. Connecting up the recorder in this way, also made the tape recorder live. I had to ensure that the TV had the neutral side of the mains supply connected to the chassis and disconnect the earth from the tape recorder. Using this new machine I was able to record in better quality than before and now working could buy more tapes when needed. I used the 1 7/8ths inch per second speed, being sufficient for speech recordings. My first recording using the 'direct method' was episode 8 of the Dalek Master Plan on the 1st January 1966. Nearly every episode was recorded up until episode 5 of The Dominators.

Episode 11 of the Dalek Master Plan was not recorded and I cannot recall why. Maybe I was not at home that evening (tape recorders and TV's had to be manually switched on in those days), something modern technology has overcome! The Celestial Toymaker was not kept, as I personally didn't like the story. Looking back in hindsight though, I wish I had kept those recordings.

When this recorder eventually died, the replacement, a Philips N4414, was purchased in 1974. I still have it today and it's in excellent working order. A few rubber bands have been replaced over the years and some routine servicing, but that's to be expected. You may notice from the picture that it has been modified. Firstly to be able to play back my previous Dr. Who recordings. This new tape recorder did not have the 1 7/8ths inch per second speed, but my modification will in fact allow for a continuously variable tape speed between about 1 and 4 inches per second.

We now move on to 1994 when through an accidental meeting with an avid Doctor Who fan, who had contacts in the BBC, insisted my tapes were taken to the BBC in London for them to borrow. This we did, and an enjoyable day out it was, being escorted around the studios and seeing some of their professional equipment.

After some reassurance that my tapes would be carefully cared for, I left them at the BBC. My four tapes contained over 100 Doctor Who episodes and the BBC copied them onto a digital format for storage. About a year later another "home recordist" (David Holman) came forward, and it seems that between us we had virtually covered all the missing Doctor Who episodes. David was subsequently encouraged to visit the BBC with his tapes, and we all enjoyed another day out at the BBC studios! Although David used a faster recording speed than I did, he used a microphone. My recordings are (as far as is known) the only ones made directly, and therefore have no unwanted external sounds.

To find out more about my recordings, from the BBC perspective, visit the link below to the Steve Roberts Restoration website. Click on the links "Audio Releases" then "Daleks' Master Plan" to read about the various recordings which the BBC have utilised in creating a fantastic supply of CD's and DVD's, filling blanks where video does not exist.

Thanks must also be given to Mark Ayres, who did such an excellent job in re-mastering the various Doctor Who audio recordings (including mine of course!).

I was invited to the BBC studios in Bath for an interview about my recordings and how they were made. This was broadcast on Radio 4 on Boxing Day 2009.