Well, sometimes the strangest coincidences occur in life, and I'd say the events of last week will be among the most serendipitous of my life. One night I get an e-mail from a guy called Steve Hardy, telling me how much he enjoys my website and that he also lives in Derby.

He also tells me that he has come into possession of a TARDIS prop, that has been verified as from the series itself, by it's former owners, News International, who bought it from the BBC.

WOW! I can hardly contain my excitement as I read the mail further to discover that the Box's new owner is approaching me as a Police Box and TARDIS expert in the hope that I can help him renovate the 'old girl'. Obviously I was more than delighted to offer my services As soon as I possibly could - but was the box genuine?

I cast my mind back to around the time of the 1996 movie when I vaguely remember a story about 'The Sun' newspaper claiming to have an actual TARDIS prop from the show, the story was dismissed by most fandom including Doctor Who magazine, simply because as far as everyone knew, all TV props were accounted for. So I went along with a digital camera and some reservation.

It turns out (mad coincidence number 2) that Steve was the engineer on my first ever recording studio session with my first band way back in 1990 and after talking about all the local music scene mates we share without ever having run into each other again for ten years, we finally moved on to the matter in hand - the TARDIS prop. Straight away I thought I recognized where I had seen this particular version of the Doctor's type 40 (and Steve and cohorts had already thought this themselves) but a bit of close viewing of the correct reference material and we think we've figured it out. It would seem that this is in fact the box used in the 1993 documentary '30 Years In The TARDIS'

The box was purchased at auction in around 1996 whereupon it went into storage. Steve works with Tree Root , a production company who had heard about The Sun owning a TARDIS and had asked if they could borrow it for a photo shoot with Tom Baker for a forthcoming charity event.

The Sun initially said they'd gladly lend Tree Root the box for the shoot, but then contacted them again saying they couldn't actually find where they'd put it! 'Quite how you lose an 8 foot tall blue box is beyond me' Steve said, 'but they seemed to think it must have been destroyed, but nobody could say for sure'. Tree Root quickly made alternative arrangements for the photo shoot and forgot all about the box until one night a few months back, The Sun contacted them again.

They'd found the missing TARDIS afterall and wanted rid as soon as possible. They offered the box to the company on the condition that he came and collected it as soon as possible, naturally Steve obliged immediately.
The only place he found to store the box was at his girlfriends (a location that will remain secret) under a car port, with the roof removed so that it would fit.

The plan is to renovate the box with a view to it ultimately making convention appearances as well as accompanying Tom on any of his Who related public appearances.

I will, of course be assisting all the way on the box's renovation - the paint is in a bad way, the lamp is missing and there is no glass in the windows, just black board across the inside - one of the features that helped us establish exactly which prop it was - that along with the shade of blue it was originally painted (check out the phone panel) and the white window frames.

Event organizers - don't contact me just yet with a view to hiring the box, (that's nothing to do with me really), but I will let you know how, once the box is renovated and when Tree Root have decided whether or not that's what they want to do with it.

UPDATE
Well, if anyone saw the BBC Six O' Clock News on Friday 8 September, you will have seen that the Met are considering implementing Police Boxes on a wider scale, having decided that the Earl's Court box is a success. A producer from BBC news left me a phone message trying to get my opinion on this at about 2.30 on friday, but sadly I missed the call being out of the office, so bang went my chance to get on national news. Details of this story can be found on the BBC website here. There's also a link to, surprize surprize, a story of the BBC auctioning off a TARDIS prop and I think it pretty much confirms that it is in fact the one pictured above. Check it out here

OXFORD PLAYS HOST TO 2 'THIS PLANET EARTH' TARDISES
	As part of his exhibition entitled 'Time And Relative Dimensions In Space' Mark Wallinger, resident artist of the Oxford University Natural History museum has commandeered two 'This Planet Earth' TARDISes. One of the boxes sits on the grass outside the museum whilst another has been placed inside the entrance to the museum.
	The idea of producing something that would appeal to the imagination of children, and to the child within himself and other adults, became fused with the idea of the museum as a global repository of time and memory. Rather than showing these themes in an orthodox way, he decided to make them manifest in an object familiar to him - and many others of his generation - the TARDIS. The museum is on Parks Road opposite Keble College. It is open every day from 12pm to 5pm through the year, except for breaks over Easter and Christmas, and admission is free.