I WAS delighted to watch our very own Doctor Who, Colin Baker, triumph in a TV cookery show at Christmas.

Colin turned out to be a baker both in name and deed as he beat four other celebrities to take top prize for making the best meal in Come Dine With Me. Well, actually he roasted his meal rather than baked it, but you get the general drift.

The popular Channel 4 show was aired over five consecutive days and Colin walked away with a £1,000 charity prize which he has donated to Stokenchurch Dog Rescue.

But what really impressed me and others more than the actual win was that he came across as such a nice chap.

All the other contestants, even ‘Nasty’ Nick Bateman from Big Brother, seemed to admire him for his manners and intellect.

But this is nothing new to me. I have known Colin for about 16 years, ever since he first approached me to float the idea of a column in our sister paper the Bucks Free Press.

Taking up his offer was one of the best things I have ever done because he has never let us down over the years, and has shown amazing diligence and devotion to his role as a weekly newspaper columnist.

Over the space of 16 years and around 860 columns, Colin – who starred as Doctor Who from 1984-86 – has never missed one week in the Bucks Free Press.

As you would expect, we hardly pay a king’s ransom, but you’d never tell from the devotion to duty he shows.

He files his article from wherever he is, be it working in Australia, in panto in Mansfield or at home in High Wycombe.

And, as I know full well, it’s not always easy thinking up column ideas week after week, year after year.

Whenever I’m on holiday, I’m always eager to hand this page over to my deputy to give my brain – and readers – a break. Colin, who is not a trained journalist, has no such luxury and carries on irrespective of all other considerations.

When I hired an actor to write a column, I could have been letting myself in for a nightmare.

I could have ended up with a self-obsessed luvvie throwing tantrums and giving excuses as to why he is too important and busy to fulfil his duties for a little local paper.

Instead, I landed myself a professional who never misses a deadline, even though this is not his chosen profession.

I also believe most editors would give their right arm for his kind of attitude.

Here’s just one example. I left a voicemail for Colin on Bucks Free Press deadline day last Thursday, asking him for some quotes for the news story about Come Dine With Me. He promptly rang back, but told me I had to be quick because he was just about to go on stage in panto.

We discussed his column and agreed it was a pity he hadn’t written about Come Dine With Me for the upcoming issue, and had instead sent an article on another subject. Colin then shocked me by offering to do a replacement article the minute he came off stage that day and email it to me in time for the next day’s paper.

As it was, the deadlines made it impossible, so his Come Dine With Me thoughts will come in this week’s issue.

But everyone could learn from someone like Colin Baker. He was once Doctor Who, the best role in British TV, and he has been a well-known actor for donkey’s years. However, no task or request is too small or petty from him when he is hired to do a job, and that’s what helps him retain his enduring popularity.

Maybe you think I’m trying to flatter him just to keep my star columnist sweet. Not true – his attitude to work is too rare these days to go unremarked upon.

And, okay, there is another reason – I want him to invite me round to dinner now I’ve seen his cooking.