Phillip Cook lived in Calcot where he owned a shop selling antiques. Whilst in the armed forces circa the 1960s, he met and entered into a relationship with Colin, who died in a car crash in the late 1980s.
By 1998, Phillip's grief had faded to the point that it no longer hurt. However, that year he received phone calls from him due to part of the Doomsday Chronometer interfering with Superville Com's new mast. He informed the Eighth Doctor of it, initially believing him to be a police officer, and later sold him the part of the Chronometer that was in his shop. (AUDIO: Absent Friends)