Behind The Sofa
Have you ever heard the phrase “behind the sofa”? Nowadays, it has found more general usage in the UK as a humorous or satirical metaphor for being in a state of fear or terror, but did you know that phrase originated in the 1960’s from my favourite programme: Doctor Who?
The phrase originally entered British pop culture in the 1960’s to 1980’s, primarily referring to Doctor Who – describing the fearful reaction of hiding behind a sofa to avoid seeing frightening parts of it, the sofa offering a place to hide from the on-screen threat, with the implication that one wants to remain in the room to watch the rest of the programme.
At the time, I never understood the phrase at all. There was nothing particularly scary in my opinion about the Daleks, or the Zarbi, or the Yeti. But then the Autons turned up…
My Doctor Who obsession
As you would expect, my love of Doctor Who involves watching the old episodes (pre 2005) as well as the new. Inevitably, this also involves investing in DVD’s of the “Classic” series (as it’s now called) to watch them. One of such investments is a box set called “Mannequin Mania” and that comprises of two Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor) episodes: “Spearhead From Space” and “Terror of the Autons” – both stories concerned with an alien entity called the Nestenes. [Incidentally, the Nestenes and Autons were the very first story of “New” Who in 2005.] The protagonist’s servants are called Autons – mannequins made of plastic – that are controlled by the Nestene consciousness. [Hence the title of the box set.] This story – when originally aired – led to the first of two only frights I’ve ever had from Doctor Who…
Not behind the sofa
The year is 1970. It was January 1970 actually, when Spearhead from Space first aired. I had just turned 9 years old and as far as I can remember, I had watched every single episode of Doctor Who. [My Dad told me that he used to sit me on his knee to watch it when I was little (I was almost 3 years old when it started) and I’ve watched every single episode since. Not incidentally from his knee!]
Anyway, it’s 1970, there are no video recorders or DVD’s (they hadn’t been invented yet), very few audio cassettes around (they had only been invented in 1968 and were still expensive), so if you wanted to watch Doctor Who (or any other programme, for that matter) you had to watch it live. There were no repeats either – so once you had watched it, it had gone forever (or it seemed at that time). So, if you watched a programme in those days, you paid attention.
This particular fright (as it were) wasn’t actually a fright at the time that the episode aired. I remember watching the programme with my usual attention and enjoying it as we did in those times. And I didn’t have to go behind the sofa. It wasn’t until the next day that I got scared.
Sunday Window Shopping
Doctor Who always aired on a Saturday, usually after the football results at around 5:15pm. It was followed by something like The Generation Game in those days – which lasted long enough before it was time for bed.
Sundays were all about the Sunday Roast, usually a large joint of beef with roast potatoes, veg, Yorkshire puddings and onion gravy (most of this was home made or home grown). Sunday afternoons were then committed to either going off out with Mum and Dad to parks (in the summer) and visiting towns for what my Mum used to call “window shopping” in the winter.
When I say “towns”, it was usually just the next town along. Window shopping involved walking around the Town centre, literally looking through shop windows for an afternoon, before returning home for tea, which would always be beef and onion sandwiches (from the left over Sunday joint).
Remember that in 1970, there was no Sunday shop opening. No-one (except churches and pubs) opened on Sundays at all in those days, so the Town Centre was pretty quiet, with hardly anyone around.
Wind back now to Saturday’s Doctor Who. The particular episode (I think it’s episode 3) featured what is now a very famous and much talked about scene (a scene that was echoed in the first of the “new” Doctor Who episode “Rose” in 2005). It’s the scene where the shop window dummies “come to life” (because they are really Autons), crash through the shop windows and start randomly killing people on the street.
Fast forward then back through to Sunday and there we are strolling through a deserted Town centre, looking in shop windows at the goods and chattels for sale. Goods and chattels of course, include shop windows with dressed mannequins in them.
Mannequin Mania!
I’ve no idea why to this day, but for some reason, the thought hit me that these dummies may well be Autons! As I recalled the previous day’s episode, it was a woman pointing towards the dummy that made it come to life. And there was my Mum, innocently pointing out (and pointing to) one of these dummies to my Dad. Well, I didn’t want the Autons to come to life, so I literally hit my Mum’s arm down (to stop her pointing) and insisted that we go home. Now! Right now! Absolutely no amount of persuasion, shouting, talking to or otherwise could convince me that these weren’t Autons and that we had to go. I never told them why we had to go – we just did. I’ve still no idea why, but I was genuinely terrified!
And so we left to go home with a very shaken me and two nonplussed parents. Me, shaken, but considerably relieved as the dummies didn’t come to life. I never did give my parents an explanation of that day and the incident was eventually forgotten, although a few night’s sleep were disturbed waiting for the Autons to turn up – which they never did, of course.
Got away with it…. this time.