The Doctor's Yo-Yo

Richard Bignell is the editor of Doctor Who research magazine Nothing at the End of the Lane. His Twitter feed (he's @NothingLane) is an absolute goldmine and earlier he shared a fascinating story about the Fourth Doctor's Yo-Yo which I felt I just had to share. Everything here comes directly from Bignell's tweets, I've just expanded things so they are a little easier to see.

This is a Louis Marx Lumar 99 Competition yo-yo- the type used by the Fourth Doctor, certainly from Genesis onwards:

Requiring reliable, quality yo-yos, BBC Enterprises sent Philip Hinchcliffe some Lumars to test.

They sent them to the wrong Phil Hinchcliffe:

 

When the correct Philip Hinchcliffe eventually got them, he sent back an equally tongue-in-cheek reply: