How West Ham made it into Doctor Who's Planet of the Ood…

Thanks to my fellow season ticket holder Michael the (Possible) Whovian and pal Charlie Ross for a great joint birthday bash on Saturday that included a host of Doctor Who luminaries. This resulted in a world exclusive revelation about the only-ever mention of West Ham in Doctor Who.

In Planet of the Ood David Tennant's Doctor asks Catherine Tate's Donna where she learned to whistle like that. Donna replies, "up West Ham!" As the writer of Planet of the Ood Keith Temple was present at the party I was able to ask him directly how this came about. 

Temple revealed that he didn't actually write this line, it was added in by script editor Lindsey Alford. Could Ms Alford be a Hammers fan? Told that this was the only ever mention of the Irons in Doctor Who Andrew laughed and said his home-town team of Newcastle have never got any mentions at all. The only other team to be mentioned in Doctor Who is Charlton Athletic, who got a name-check from Sophie Aldred's Ace in 1988's Silver Nemesis. Not a lot of people know that.