My dramatisation of Nigel Kneale’s famous lost television play, The Road, for Radio 4 was recorded in Maida Vale at the beginning of February. The cast is phenomenal : Mark Gatiss, Adrian Scarborough, Hattie Morahan, Colin McFarlane, Susan Wokoma, Francis Magee and Ralph Ineson. It will be the Halloween Fright Night production for BBC Radio 4 on October 27th. It is one of my proudest achievements. Nigel Kneale’s widow Judith Kerr (a writer of great repute herself : Mog, The Tiger Who Came for Tea etc) attended the recording and had a lovely time talking about “Tom” (Kneale’s actual first name) and his work.
With Judith Kerr at the recording of The Road.Adrian Scarborough plays Sir Timothy and Mark Gatiss is Gideon Cobb in the recreation of this lost classic.
I have jumped in at relatively short notice to play Doc in West Side Story at the Royal Northern College of Music at the end of February. There’s a terrific young cast and it’s a great show. Ticketshere.
The Guardian asked me to add a positive note to their coverage of the death of actor Peter Wyngarde which I was more than happy to do. The result ishere.
Please vote for XS Malarkey as Best Comedy Club (that runs weekly or has a capacity of 150 or more) in the Chortle Awards. Stiff competition this year so please help!!Here.
The forthcoming DVD release of The Enemy of the World has an hour long documentary produced by Ed Stradling in which I try to find out some brand new facts about the making of this once lost Doctor Who serial. I interview some hitherto unheard from folks, and get some insights into the leading man who, in this story, plays a dual role.
Chatting to Mary Peach at her home about Doctor Who and much, much more.
From Sir John Hurt to Deborah Watling, via Trevor Martin and Victor Pemberton, and not forgetting Paddy Russell and Dudley Simpson, we lost a lot of Doctor Who luminaries last year.
I have done a video commemorating those good people from the world of Doctor Who who passed away in 2017. I hope you like it. If like is the right word – but you know what I mean.
After a few months off during which I have slept and stuff, Who’s Round is back… and it’s about time (etc etc).
It’s certainly about time we had a Doctor.Most Doctors have been interviewed loads, so of course I have gone for one with a unique claim to the Gallifreyan throne. He’s actually been involved in the programme in practically every medium possible, this fellow, and has worked with more than one of the “other” Doctors. Oh, and Laurence Olivier, Ian McKellan and the bloke who played Varan in The Mutants. They’re all here, in the 200th edition (blimey) of this ridiculously time consuming podcast. These will be back to their weekly release schedule and there’s a fantastic mix of familiar faces and hitherto un-interviewed folk from the history of Doctor Who, all of whom have fascinating stories about their times with and without our favourite programme.
It’s tricky being an amateur researcher.I don’t kick doors in, nor do I follow up if someone forgets to email me back. So I do leave stones unturned, largely because I don’t want to annoy anyone. The ridiculous thing, of course, is that without exception all of the actors and production personnel I have spoken to have been very happy to have been remembered. But that doesn’t stop me being shy.
The ultimate “I Know The Face But…” actor Victor Platt, who died in January.
So this month, when I discovered that Victor Platt, a very recognisable actor with a Toby Jug countenance that made him born to play coppers and barkeeps,passed away in January aged 96 I rued that I had not found him (hiding in plain sight as he was). He could have told me about Quatermass and the Pit (he has a great cameo as a spooked PC who
takes Andre Morell around a deserted, possibly haunted house) and Doomwatch and The Road. Of course, his loss is properly felt by his family and loved ones and he may not have remembered much about the acting career he retired from 40 years ago in order to turn his hand to sculpting – but he might have enjoyed a lunch and a reminisce and I’d have been flattered and excited to have met him. Getting in touch with such people (which I attempted to do with Mr Platt several times) is more difficult now – my union, Equity, used to forward mail to members but since belligerent autograph seekers began to overuse the free forwarding system to send gazillions of unwanted items through the post to unsuspecting pensioners (and then kicked off when some weren’t returned) they no longer do – which means genuine researchers lose out too.
Actor and Radio Caroline DJ Carl Conway, who died last month.
Carl Conway also passed away recently – and his death highlights another aspect of how tricky amateur research can be.My friend Ben Jolly let me know that IMDB was suggesting that Mr Conway had just passed away aged 95 (IMDB previously had him listed as deceased in 1992 by the way). So I did some digging. I found a Texan Carl Conway had died on February 17th aged 95 and I immediately put this down to IMDB being useless and people not fact checking properly (a real internet malaise, especially with IMDB and Wikipedia). Digging deeper however, I discovered that our Carl Conway – from Doctor Who‘s The War Machines and The Ambassadors of Death – had passed away exactly a week before the American one. Also aged 95!
Mr Conway had been suggested to me as a potential interviewee.He had been a DJ on Radio Caroline and had contacted the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame in 2008 to tell them what he was up to (which is what had made me certain that IMDB’s 1992 death date was wrong). His two roles in Doctor Who plus his career as the voice of the famous pirate station and his subsequent life organising film shows for old people’s homes would have made him a fascinating subject, but alas I never tracked him down (remember, I do all this stuff in my spare time).
So, Mr Platt and Mr Conway – sorry I never got to meet you, and believe me I would have loved every minute of doing so. Sorry not to have had the chance to thank you for all the entertainment. In the great scheme of things the fact that I never managed to track you down will have meant very little to you – but it would have meant a lot to me, and I think the small band of people who read and listen to my stuff would have been chuffed too.
Peter Thomas – actor from missing William Hartnell story The Savages – dies.
Peter Thomas as Captain Edal in The Savages
Peter Thomas, who played Captain Edal in The Savages, has died at the age of 80.He had worked with Christopher Barry prior to the making of the story and so was in the director’s mind when it came to casting the chief of the security forces on the unnamed planet where all is not what it seems. With Frederick Jaegar, ostensibly the story’s lead villain, spending much of the action impersonating William Hartnell’s Doctor it is Thomas who provides most of the thuggishness. He’s the enforcer and easily the story’s most unpleasant character – and unusually, he survives at the end, in a story which has no fatalities. Thomas had to undergo golden facial make-up but that wasn’t his biggest problem on the show: “Bill Hartnell and I did not get on that well in The Army Game – I fell out with him during rehearsals. He used to shout, and if you forgot a line or miscued him he would tell you! Literally in our last episode of Doctor Who I think he forgave me: in the final scene, owing to the pressure of work instead of “Grab him and strap him to the trolley” I said “Strab him and grap him to the trolley” – but it did get a laugh even from Bill Hartnell.” The finished result wss good though – the audience research report for The Savages finds the viewers singling out the performances of Hartnell and Thomas for the most praise.
Thomas trained at LAMDA from 1952 and upon graduation did a short stint in rep at Lancaster before National Service (the RAF) intervened. Having done his duty (and performed onstage in RAF variety shows and stage productions while he was doing so) he returned to the theatre and then broke into television where he made something of a career of playing bad guys. His TV roles included Probation Officer (1959), Walk A Crooked Mile (1961), Z-Cars (1962), No Hiding Place (4 different characters 1962/65), The Plane Makers (1963), No Cloak, No Dagger (1963), The Avengers (three times – 1966/67/68) and Big Breadwinner Hog (1969) with Peter Egan, whom he had encouraged to become an actor when Egan was a young lad. In this excellent but very violent series Thomas is unmissable as a leather clad thug with a teddy boy quiff and a flick knife.
In Tales From The Crypt (1972), one of his last roles before leaving the business for 30 years
After the film Tales From The Crypt (1972) and an episode of Crown Court (1976) he disappeared from the acting profession for about thirty years due to the unfortunate illness of his wife. Having established himself as an onstage comedy stooge (he worked with Hancock, Benny Hill, Graham Stark and Jimmy Jewel) he had to turn down 35 weeks touring alongside Bob Monkhouse – such a commitment was impractical with two young children and a terminally ill partner and so he made the difficult decision to sever ties with his agent and accept no more offers.
In the early 80s he started a production company, and he kept his hand in the performance side of things when he provided the voice overs and the occasional presentation spot for the corporate videos that they made. Approaching the age at which most people retire, and with his children now grown up, he began to work professionally as an actor again and was very proactive in getting his own work – doing short films and modelling shoots whenever he could, and creating a character called Mr Grumpy.
Peter in a recent advertising campaign
In 2013 his face adorned the London underground as part of the Turn2US charity campaign, one of many posters he featured on in recent years (he also showed up for the NHS carers recruitment campaign and the Oxford Hearing Centre). He also contributed to advertising campaigns for Heineken (a James Bond/Skyfall tie in) and French Netflix. This sort of work was a callback to the 60s when he had a high old time appearing in adverts for all sorts including Don Carlos Cigars, Remington Razors, Rich Tea Biscuits, Black & Greens Tea, Guinness and Bilslands Bread. He was also an able guitarist and folk singer.
He was happy to be associated with Doctor Who, and kept up with it over the years:“It was caught the atmosphere of the 60s – and when they brought it back years later it was an instant success. One of my favourite Doctor Whos was Jon Pertwee and in the newer versions it has to be David Tennant. It was a good show”. Peter recently joined me and Kay Patrick to discuss The Savages for one of Fantom Films’ forthcoming Who Talk releases: he was sprightly and full of memories so the news of his passing was as surprising as it was saddening..
With thanks to Paul Dunn.
Peter Thomas took part in a Who’s Round which you can listen to here.
Kay Patrick an myself with the late Peter Thomas on 23rd November 2016, just two months before his death. Photo: Simeon Carter/Fantom Films.
You can see my video of the Doctor Who names we lost in 2016 here.
The actor Philip Bond has died suddenly whilst on holiday on the island of Madeira. He was 82.
He will be known to Doctor Who fans for his important guest role in the second ever story, The Daleks (1963/4). He played Ganatus, who accompanies Ian and Barbara on their deadly mission through the perilous environs of Skaro in order to defeat the Daleks. During the mission he witnesses the death of his brother Antodus (Marcus Hammond) and develops a soft spot for Barbara. Bond, who was cast late in the day after original choice Dinsdale Landen became unavailable, gives a great performance. Whilst some of the members of his tribe have an element of mannered, misty eyed 60s-ness about them, Bond capers about gamely and is clearly the “one to watch”. He has an energy and vitality which make his very naturalistic performance work 50 years later and his character is certainly the perkiest and most likeable of those encountered by the TARDIS crew during this groundbreaking 7 part story. More recently he lent his vocal talents to the Torchwood audio adventure Forgotten Lives (2015) meaning that he hold the record for the longest amount of time between performances in the series and/or its spin offs.
He told me in 2012 that he had accepted the part (whilst appearing at the Glasgow Citizen’s Theatre) without looking at the script and that he “enjoyed many a pint with William Hartnell during lock-ins at The Black Prince after recording”. As for Jacqueline Hill – “loved her” which might explain their chemistry on screen and they, along with William Russell (whom he had known since 1955) and Verity Lambert socialised together a lot. “We knew we were at the start of something after the Daleks first appeared,” he remembered. We discussed his doing a Who’s Round recently but geography – he spent his latter years based in a remote village in Wales – was making it tricky. He had, however, agreed to come and do a Who Talk commentary over some of his episodes when he returned from holiday later this month and indeed only recently did a signing for Fantom Films (who produce them).
Born in Burton-on-Trent to Welsh parents, he attended Burton Boys’ grammar school which he where he got his first taste of the stage. He studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama and one of his early theatre roles was playing Jean to the Miss Julie of Sonia Dresdel in Edinburgh in 1956.
Philip Bond was still working.
He never returned to Doctor Who on but carved himself an impressive television career including regular roles in199 Park Lane (1965), The Onedin Line ((1972, as Albert Frazer), The Main Chance (1970 as Peter Findon). He also cropped up in everything from Peter Cushing’s TV Hound of the Baskervilles (1968, as Stapleton) to Midsomer Murders (2007), taking in such varied fare as The Avengers (1969), Doomwatch (as Inspector Drew in The Human Time Bomb, 1971), The Children of the New Forest (1977), Diana Rigg’s Hedda Gabler (as Lovborg, 1981), Only Fools and Horses (1985), Shakespeare : The Animated Tales (1994), Fever Pitch (1997) and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001) along the way.
The BBC cameraman Roger Bunce worked with Bond often and remembers him as “a really nice, humorous guy – and a classic actor. A likeable hero in the The Onedin Line, a dastardly villain in The Hound of the Baskervilles. I think I first worked with him on a TV play called The Pistol Shot in which he played a callous cad – so different from the real person. A great character range.”
Philip’s daughter Samantha in The Sarah Jane Adventures
Philip Bond died surrounded by his children Matthew, Samantha (known in the Doctor Who universe as Miss Wormwood in The Sarah Jane Adventures) and Abigail and his long standing partner Elizabeth. They survive him, as do his grandchildren Molly, Tom, Nancy, Bill and Ivan.
Philip George William Bond, born 1st November 1934 – died 17th January 2017
There’s a more detailed article about Mr Bond on the superb Avengers Forever website here. Thanks to Gavin Gaughan.
Thanks To Roger Bunce.
You can see my tribute video to those from Doctor Who who died in 2016 here.
