EARLY DOCTOR WHO GUEST STAR DIES. Philip Bond as Ganatus in The Daleks 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,…
RODNEY BENNETT, classic Doctor Who director, has died. The director Rodney Bennett, who was behind three memorable early Tom Baker stories and whose work outside of the show included many classic dramas has died peacefully aged 81. Rodney Bennett at home in Bath in 2013 Bennett was brought on board at a time during which the…
Doctor Who In Memoriam Video 2016 At the end of the year I always do a video tribute to those people from the Doctor Who universe who have left us. I had trouble uploading this so it didn’t go up on New Year’s Eve as hoped. Anyway, it is here now, and I hope it…
TERENCE BAYLER I was very saddened to learn of the death of Terence Bayler. He was a fine actor: tall, handsome, with soulful eyes and a slight warble to his voice which could suggest plummy aristocracy or a hint of melancholy. He often played upper class toffs or British officers so I was shocked to discover,…
I’m up to all sorts during this year’s Psoriasis Shout Out. I’ll be giving short talks at a couple of seminars in Manchester and London where people far more qualified than I will be on hand to provide credible testimony and scientific insight. I’ll be giving the patient perspective which is basically “Ow. Itch. Bloody…
It’s been very actor heavy of late so it’s time to delve behind-the-scenes to an era rather under-represented in the Who’s Round lexicon : the 7th Doctor’s.So there are plenty of stories about that turbulent time on the show, the regular cast who were extremely popular with the crew, and making space and time against…
REG WHITEHEAD RIP – The First Cyberman dies, but his legacy encompasses more than his Doctor Who milestone… Reg Whitehead Reg Whitehead, the actor who played Krail, the Cyberman who explains their origins during episode two of The Tenth Planet (1966), has died at the age of 83. He played another Cyberman – Jarl – later…
SONIA MARKHAM RIP Sonia Markham Sonia Markham, who was the make-up supervisor of Doctor Who for the majority of the Hartnell era has died at the age of 78. Her connection with the show began early on when she was a make-up artist on The Sensorites (1964), assisting Jill Summers, and she continued in that…
A key contributor to a story who didn’t appear on its DVD release, this villainous fellow turns out to be charming, chatty and slightly eccentric – and all the more interesting for it. My friend Peter and I drove to the coast in order to spend a windswept afternoon over a pint or two with…
Jon Rollason, who played Harold Chorley in the recently recovered Doctor Who story The Web of Fear, has died at the age of 84. Born in Birmingham in 1931, he enrolled at the Old Vic theatre school in London after completing his National Service. In interviews he claimed that his early work in the theatre…
The Dad Who Fell Onto A Shortlist… The Dad Who Fell To Earth has been nominated for a prestigious BBC Audio Drama Award. It made the initial shortlist of six, which was to be boiled down to three on January 5th 2016. Rather delightfully, it stayed on, alongside the acclaimed Cabin Pressure by John Finnemore…
A new podcast… at last! The latest Who’s Round was actually conducted at the request of the interviewee. He has a special charity he would like to make you aware of. He has a heartfelt and moving story and highlights something most of us know nothing about but some of us could help with :…
WHO’S ROUND HITS A LANDMARK Russell T Davies It’s actually passed the landmark as I type this but I couldn’t not have a mention on my blog that we’ve arrived at edition 150 of my podcast of interviews with Doctor Who luminaries . It’s the last of my chats with the marvel that is Russell T Davies…
Here is how it works – if I haven’t been asked to do an obituary of someone for a paper I will try to do a good one here. Even if I have been asked, I still might blog about them, but giving a more personal or Doctor Who flavoured slant to the piece. I…
RTD I think I had planned to end the who run of releases of Toby Hadoke’s Who’s Round with the extremely popular Russell T Davies interviews but they have been in the can for nearly two years and the timings meant that if give them to you now then Mr Davies would take us all the way…
Oh, I’m a bit behind (I’ve been posting about Psoriasis a lot instead as it has been Psoriasis Awareness Week so I hope you are now sufficiently aware!). Anyway, two new Who’s Rounds have come out. The first was recorded immediately after I had performed a Christmas comedy show with this particular fellow (with whom…
KENNETH GILBERT DIES AGED 84 Kenneth Gilbert as Richard Dunbar in The Seeds Of Doom. Kenneth Gilbert, who played World Ecology Bureau official Richard Dunbar in the Tom Baker classic The Seeds Of Doom (1976) has died at the age of 84. Prematurely grey and with distinguished granite features, he often played authority figures, although the…
Neville Jason, the actor who played Prince Reynart in the 1978 Tom Baker story The Androids Of Tara has died. His good looks and bearing had an old fashioned and regal quality that made him perfect casting for the prince, a part that also required him to perform as an occasionally malfunctioning android. The serial is…
The accomplished and much loved Welsh character actor Richard Davies has died at the age of 89. Balding, with a gap tooth and distinctive accent he was best known for his appearances as Mr Price in the ITV sitcom Please Sir! (starring John Alderton). That said, and despite an ever detectable twinkle, he was an actor of…
Derek Ware, the stuntman who founded the agency HAVOC who provided much of the trademark action of the Jon Pertwee era, has died. His association with Doctor Who went back to the very first story, for which he arranged the fight between caveman Kal and Za, as well as doubling for actor Jeremy Young. He…
TOM BAKER ERA LIGHTING DESIGNER AND MUCH ADMIRED “GENIUS” PASSES AWAY AT HOME. Duncan Brown, the highly respected BBC studio lighting designer who worked on four Doctor Who stories has died – this news comes just after the airing of a new series episode that could be seen as a sequel to his very first credit…
As I am apparently the BBC’s Man Who Interviews Elderly Actors in residence I was fortunate enough, earlier in the year, to participate in a fascinating archive release that will be available very soon. Agatha Christie – The Lost Plays is a triple bill of audio productions from the mistress of murder. I had the pleasure…
Clifford Earl, who played the Station Sergeant in the Christmas Day 1965 episode of The Daleks’ Masterplan (The Feast Of Steven) and Major Branwell in 1968’s The Invasion opposite Patrick Troughton – both for director Douglas Camfield – has died at the age of 81. Better known in certain quarters of the outside world under…
Robin Phillips, who played Altos in 1964’s The Key’s Of Marinus, has died at the age of 73. A friend of the director, John Gorrie, he was brought aboard to assist the TARDIS crew as they struggled to complete a task (discovering the whereabouts of s series of hidden micro-keys) which they had to compete without…
Olaf Pooley was Doctor Who’s oldest surviving actor until he passed away yesterday at the grand old age of 101. As ever with people who have crossed paths with the famous Time Lord, there was much more to him than his 7 weeks as the obstinate Professor Stahlman in the Jon Pertwee classic Inferno (1970). That…
News has reached me, via his widow Julia, that Michael Hawkins – who played General Williams in the 1972 Doctor Who adventure Frontier In Space – died late last year. Julia is happy for the information to appear online so I thought I’d do a quick post for the actor best known among visitors to…
Examining the extraordinary role of HG Wells in the creation of the nuclear bomb 70 years ago – how a simple, devastating idea led to the world we know today. In his 1914 novel The World Set Free, Wells imagined bombs that destroy civilisation and lead to a new world order. But his “atomic bombs”…
As I type this you have just over three weeks to catch The Dad Who Fell To Earth on iPlayer. It is a play I wrote for Radio 4 about a man who discovers that his recently deceased father wasn’t a door-to-door salesman as he thought but in fact an alien from a distant world…
Thanks to the success of the BFI Out Of The Unknown DVD Box Set for which John Kelly and (to a lesser extent) I supplied the majority of the extra material, we have been asked to provide a similar service on the forthcoming release of the Douglas Wilmer series of Sherlock Holmes (click on the title…
Myself and Bernard at the CAA last month. I am very sad to report the death of that fine actor Bernard Kay. I’ll add something personal later but for now: The actor Bernard Kay, who starred in Dr Zhivago and was a recognisable TV face in over 100 programmes ranging from the very first episode…