Welcome to the
Longleat Cyberman site.

In 1983 the BBC marked the twentieth anniversary of Doctor Who with "Twenty Years of a Time Lord", a two day celebration held over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend at Longleat House in Wiltshire.

Apart from thousands of people (including me) forming long queues, the event featured displays of costumes and sets from the series, special effects demonstrations, screenings of old episodes, and Q&A panels with the series' stars.

And there was an additional attraction; on each of the two days, an auction of original prop and costume items from the series was scheduled...

 

Peter Davison submits to alcohol testing

Patrick Troughton escapes the autograph hunters

Tom Baker fields intelligent questions from the audience

This site attempts to trace the history of two items sold at the event, described in the catalogue as:

Lot 13 - Cyberman Head - The Tomb of the Cybermen

and

Lot 210 - Cyberman Costume - The Tomb of the Cybermen

Although listed seperately these two lots became one at the insistence of guest auctioneer Jon Pertwee, as in his opinion a Cyberman costume could not be sold without a head - and at a Doctor Who celebration, who's going to argue with the Doctor?

Where's the head?

This unexpected combination suddenly created what stood out to me as the auction's star item, an entire monster from the 1960s. And not just any monster, but a Cyberman - one of the most popular and famous Doctor Who enemies ever, and my personal favourite. I had brought the contents of my bank account to Longleat with me and decided to spend everything on this single lot if that's what it would take to own a Cyberman.

The Cybermen

And it did take everything, more or less - £235 of the £240 in my pocket. One more bid against me and it might have been a different story, but I was the very lucky new owner of a classic Doctor Who monster.

Radio Times back cover

Back at home, I noticed that the costume didn't quite appear to match those in photographs from The Tomb of the Cybermen, or any other Cyberman episodes.

Unfortunately, in 1983, there was no way to conclusively determine exactly what it was. Photos were hard to come by - I had one really good shot of a Tomb costume (shown at left) on the rear cover of the Radio Times Special from 1973. Although the mask is from a later story, this Cyberman's costume was certainly a Tomb one - and mine had several differences to the tubing and chest unit.

In the absence of any proof, a vague suspicion formed that it might be a replica, perhaps a stand-in used by the BBC if a school fete or Lord Mayor's parade wanted a monster.

There was no possibility of having the costume out on display due to its size, so the suit was wrapped in plastic and went into the attic. It remained essentially untouched (except when moving house) for almost 24 years, and the whole affair became a distant memory.

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