The day Doctor Who’s Tom Baker ended up watching the show with a Radio Rentals girl at her home in Nuneaton in 1976

The Tardis has taken the Doctor to many otherworldly places since he first appeared in 1963 – but have you heard about his unexpected journey to the home of a Radio Rentals employee in Nuneaton?

It happened on November 13, 1976, when the then doctor, Tom Baker, watched one of his own episodes in Pauline Bennett's living room, to the surprise of her children.

Ms Bennett was working at the Radio Rentals store in the Warwickshire town that Saturday when Baker and a BBC manager entered.

They had returned from the show's exhibition in Blackpool and wanted to see that evening's episode.

Mrs Bennett was working at the Radio Rentals store in the Warwickshire town that Saturday when Baker and a BBC manager entered.

The TV store manager bluntly told them they were about to close, Ms. Bennett said, adding, “I said, 'You can come to my house and watch it if you want,' and they took him up on the offer.”

Baker, in a scarf and long coat like the doctor, and his BBC colleague followed Ms Bennett's Hillman Imp – and even helped push it to her house when it broke down.

Once inside, Baker pulled “a comfy chair right in front of the TV,” she said.

'Our children Karen and Martin couldn't believe their eyes. There was a guy on TV and he was sitting here watching TV with them. They were watching him with their mouths open.'

The episode – part three of The Deadly Assassin, in which the Doctor is trapped in a virtual reality by his nemesis the Master – was watched by 13 million viewers.

After the show, Baker was “very grateful,” Ms. Bennett said. “He gave the kids autographed photos. We received a letter from him, and also Christmas cards.'