RIP Ian Cullen

Ian Cullen, the actor best known for his roles in Z Cars and When the Boat Comes In, has died at the age of 75.

Born in County Durham, the RADA-trained Cullen scored an early leading role when he played David Balfour in the 1963 BBC adaptation of Kidnapped. In the following year, he guest starred in the Doctor Who serial The Aztecs as the warrior Ixta, who challenged Ian Chesterton(William Russell) in mortal combat. Later in the decade he starred in Emergency War 10, before becoming a household name as PC Joe Skinner in Z Cars, a role he played for six years until his character was sensationally killed off in 1975. His next big role was as Geordie Watson in When the Boat Comes In from 1977 to 1981. In 1997, Cullen was at the forefront of Channel 5's soap opera, Family Affairs, as the patriarch, Angus Hart. Echoing his dramatic departure from Z Cars, his character was, along with his whole family, killed off in a shocking boat explosion.

Other credits included Blake's 7, The Bill, Sorry!, Return of the Saint, Catherine Cookson's The Gambling Man and Spender. As well as acting, Cullen was a screenwriter responsible for children's series The Paper Lads and Rogue's Rock in the 1970s, and he was the recipient of a Gold Award for his narration on the feature, The Destiny of Britain in 2008. In 2014, following the death of Kate O'Mara, Cullen came forward and identified himself as the father of her son, Dickon, who tragically killed himself in 2012.

RIP.

Out On Blue Six: The Timelords (aka The KLF)

This week's repeat of Top of the Pops had a rare treat at number one - Doctorin' The Tardis by The Timelords, once described by Pete Paphides as 'the one novelty record most people admit to liking' and by The Timelords themselves as 'probably the most nauseating record in the world'

All I know is that, as a kid sat in front of the TV in 1988, I loved it. And I still do now if I'm honest! It's pointed title (sending up the recent hit Doctorin' The House by Coldcut feat Yazz) mix of the Doctor Who theme tune, Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Parts 1 and 2, The Sweet's Blockbuster and football-style chanting was the perfect primer for what was to come with The KLF.

End Transmission

RIP Terrance Dicks

I am absolutely heartbroken to learn that Terrance Dicks has died at the age of 84.

It's not hyperbole to say that Terrance Dicks was the man responsible for my love of literature, and I'm sure I won't be the only person of a certain age to be saying that when paying tribute to him. Dicks may have served as script editor on Doctor Who from 1969 to 1975, and he may have written forty-five episodes of the show, and he may have written some original New Adventures and Missing Adventures novels in the '90s and beyond, but his lasting legacy lies in the fact that he penned some 60 odd Target novelisations of Doctor Who stories in the '70s and '80s, introducing children of that generation not only to many adventures that were broadcast long before they were born but also to the joys of reading. It's important to remember too that, in a time before VHS and DVD, these novels were the only way fans could experience these stories either again or for the first time, with Dicks' exceptional, deceptively simple prose style bringing them vividly to life. His contribution to the lives and happiness of so many generations cannot be adequately quantified, just as I haven't enough words to say thank you for opening up one of my most pleasurable, enriching past times way back when, as a little boy, I first took down one of his Target novels from the shelf of Sutton library.

RIP

RIP Shane Rimmer

Gutted to hear that Shane Rimmer, an actor who - if you grew up in the UK at any time in the 60s, 70s and 80s - has been such a part of all our lives, has passed away at the age of 89.

Canadian born Rimmer's most iconic role was one that only required his vocal talents, namely that of Scott Tracy in Thunderbirds, but he was instantly recognisable for several supporting roles in some of cinema's biggest franchises; Star Wars, Superman, Batman, and a total of three James Bond movies, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds are Forever, and The Spy Who Loved Me. Other film credits included Gandhi, Rollerball (pictured above), Doctor Strangelove, Reds, Out of Africa and Dark Shadows, whilst he appeared in TV dramas like Doctor Who, Coronation Street, Dockers, and the controversial 1977 April's Fools joke (which actually aired in June that year!) Alternative 3, a cod-science documentary about the 'brain drain' which revealed that the elite of society had actually left the soon-to-be-destroyed earth for a new life in space, that continues to resonate among conspiracy theorists to this day.

RIP

RIP Graeme Curry

I'm really saddened to hear of the death of Graeme Curry, the writer responsible for one of the best Doctor Who stories in its final 'classic' years, The Happiness Patrol.

The Happiness Patrol, a story about a planet where it was a crime to be unhappy and which featured a delicious satire on the then PM Margaret Thatcher and a divisive yet remarkable 'monster' in the shape of The Kandyman, was Curry's first TV commission. 

The Kandyman - for the record, I loved him!

Curry had started out as a journalist, winning the prestigious Cosmopolitan Young Journalist of the Year award in 1982. A professional singer and actor, Curry won a screenplay competition for his football comedy drama Over the Moon which was subsequently adapted for Radio 4. On the strength of this, he came into the orbit of Doctor Who script editor Andrew Cartmel and The Happiness Patrol was born - a story that was even referenced in the 2011 Easter sermon from the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams!

Curry subsequently wrote for TV serials such as The Bill and EastEnders, novelised The Happiness Patrol for Target and wrote the Radio 4 drama series Citizens.

RIP

RIP Clive Swift

Clive Swift, the Liverpool born British actor known to millions for his portrayal as henpecked Richard Bucket in 90s sitcom Keeping Up Appearances has died at the age of 82.

Swift many credits also included Born and Bred, The Old Guys and in two editions of the BBC's celebrated Ghost Stories For Christmas; The Stalls of Barchester and A Warning to the Curious. He also starred in films like Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy, John Boorman's Excalibur and David Lean's A Passage to India, as well as making two appearances in Doctor Who; firstly as Professor Jobel in 1985's Revelation of the Daleks and in 2007 Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, as Mr Cooper.

RIP   

Silent Sunday: Evil Takes a Holiday

Doctor Who: Resolution

Some 'fans', ie the Special People, threw their Dapol figures out of the pram when they heard that Jodie Whittaker's debut season would feature no returning villains. Like, how were they expected to cope with a female Doctor and no Daleks?

Personally, I breathed a sigh of relief. If there's one thing NuWho has been guilty of it's milking the Daleks to death. RTD re-introduced them so brilliantly in the first season, with Rob Shearman's excellent Dalek (still on of the very best Dalek stories ever) and a thrillingly old fashioned two-part space opera finale in Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways, but let's face it, they ought to have been used sparingly in subsequent seasons, just like in old Who. By the time we got to that hideous redesign, the Paradigm Daleks, there was only really one thing to do and that was to draw a discreet veil over proceedings and use them very carefully, or indeed not at all.

Resolution (c'mon, would it have hurt to call it Resolution of the Daleks?) brings the monsters of Skaro back with a palpable bang, first to back-hug (shades of Alien there) Charlotte Ritchie's archaeologist and force her to go on an epic killing spree, before rehousing itself in what the Doctor described as 'junk yard chic', wiping out a troop of soldiers and invading GCHQ. But perhaps the Daleks most cruelest play was in robbing bored and hungover families of their wifi on New Year's Day, forcing them to have...a conversation!

As with the last season, Resolution hits the ground running and continues to deliver something that is notably Who but yet at the same time unlike anything RTD or Moffat created. I especially liked the Limp Bizkit style score, which added to the relentless nature of the Daleks, and the regular cast continue to impress with Whittaker's Doctor getting a great moment, literally facing off against the Dalek (or rather Ritchie) who had foolishly laughed at her; "Do that again, to my face"

Some people continue to say that you can't have a female Doctor, some people continue to say that this doesn't feel like Doctor Who. I'm here to tell you that, having loved this show all my life (including the very dark period as a teenager in the 90s when all you had was DWM and the Virgin New Adventures) that these people are wrong. Dead wrong.

Doctor Who Series 11, Ranked

Well I guess it had to happen didn't it? The minute Jodie Whittaker was announced as the new Doctor, the knives were out. It wasn't just that someone had the audacity to turn the character of the Doctor from a man to a woman, it was also the fact that two of her companions would be played by actors of colour (Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill). So, before you could say 'it's political correctness gone mad' or 'Get woke, get broke', the internet and various rags of no importance were filled with so-called 'fans' who were disgusted by the direction the eleventh series of Doctor Who had chosen to take. 

They complain that there's an agenda going on here and do you know something? They're right. There is an agenda here, but it's not coming from the show, it's coming from the critics of the show. It's coming from the Trumpy, UKIP gammons who miss the 'good old days' when ethnic diversity was nowhere to be found and when the women in Doctor Who made themselves useful by putting the kettle on and taking various items of clothing off. They complain that the show has become 'SJW' entertainment that can only appeal to 'snowflakes' but all this is, to use another buzzword, 'fake news' and I have previously remarked upon this in last month's blog post for the show's fifty-fifth anniversary. That that very post was quoted at length by non other than Keith 'Telly' Topping made this blogger's day (especially as Keith was an author whose books I devoured as a younger man, and whose writing for Who novels inspired some of my own fiction) but it goes without saying that the lad himself, says it all much better in his annual round up of good TV which places Who in at number 2 and which you can read here.

Put simply, the eleventh series of Doctor Who was one of great change yes, but its core DNA remains absolutely, 100% the same. It saddens me that a show whose entire 55 years has always been about change (with the leading actor changing every few years, to say nothing of the co-stars changing just as frequently!) is now being kicked by idiots because of change. The eleventh series of Doctor Who was not 'PC', it was not 'SJW', it had not 'broke', it was its usual glorious self and yet, at the same time, different. Just like it always had been, and always will be. Or, to quote Keith Topping, "it was great" 

But just how great? Well, here are all ten episodes from the eleventh series, ranked in order of personal preference.

1. Rosa, Episode 3

"When today isn't working, tomorrow is what you have"

Not just the best Doctor Who story this series, but one of the best ever. Rosa was a proper, impassioned and educational historical episode which approached its true-life subject matter (played beautifully by The A Word's Vinette Robinson) with care, respect and love. It reminded us all just how remarkable this fifty-five year old series can be and proved that there was no limits to what kind of story it can tell. That it chooses to tell a story that will shape the minds of its young audiences for the better is the reason I love this show with all my heart.

2. It Takes You Away, Episode 9

"Solitract? It's a theory, a myth, a bedtime story my Gran used to tell me"

Arguably the most genuinely spooky episode of the year, It Takes You Away was quite simply brilliant. An inventive, dark and atmospheric thrill ride set in the Norwegian fjords with some cracking dialogue and the courage to go to some strange places (literally!). It felt a little like a New Adventure novel at times. Rumours that Theresa May's solution to the Northern Irish backstop is the fervent hope that she can get her hand on one of those mirrors are so far unfounded.

3. The Woman Who Fell To Earth, Episode 1

"Swiss Army Sonic - now with added Sheffield Steel!"

I've already blogged about this episode previously, but I will just add that I believe it to be one of the best debuts of any Doctor, and that Chris Chibnall understands the ordinary working class experience more than Moffatt or RTD, because this was was like Barry Hines mixed with James Cameron's The Terminator - who'd have thought that would have been such a good mix?

4. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, Episode 10

"Yipee Ki Yay, Robots!"

Some fans were quick to complain about a series of Doctor Who that contained no story arc or returning villains. These are the same 'fans' I referenced at the start of this blog post - the 'fans' who spend their time criticising the show, rather than actually watching it. Doctor Who has got by several times before without resorting to season arcs and the return of the Daleks or the Cybermen every year, and it managed it again with series 11. Or did it? Because the real arc here was a much more rewarding character arc as this finale shows that each of our protagonists have come a long way since The Woman Who Fell To Earth (which this was essentially a sequel to), the Doctor included. And as for returning villains - the reappearance of 'Tim Shaw', one of the most gruesome and chilling antagonists of recent years, was most welcome.

5. Demons of the Punjab, Episode 6

"Tread softly - you're treading on your own history"

Another emotional gutpuncher of an episode (see Rosa) Demons of the Punjab was a deeply contemplative and dignified drama that explored an all too little known  and contentious chapter of history and benefited from a timely piece of scheduling, given that it aired on Remembrance Sunday. Cast-wise, it reminded us that the performers who make up the TARDIS team is possibly one if the strongest, most talented ensembles in the show's history, whilst the fact that the supporting cast was made up of actors of colour shouldn't go unmentioned in this day and age either.   

6. Arachnids in the UK, Episode 4

"Are you Ed Sheeran? 

Everyone talks about Ed Sheeran round about now, don't they?"

It may have suffered coming a week after Rosa, but this remains one of the series highlights according to my friend Graham, and that's largely because it is so gloriously old-fashioned. Arachnids in the UK (great title, I wonder how many get that?) was very, very scary and very, very funny. OK, Chris Noth's Trump character may be a little bit on the nose but I wonder if he'll reappear in future series as this era's Harriet Jones? Speaking of reappearances, it was nice to be in Sheffield again too.  

7. The Witchfinders, Episode 8

"These are hard times for women. 

If we're not being drowned, we're being patronised to death!"

This was Doctor Who doing what Doctor Who does best; educating and scaring the living daylights out of kids, all at the same time. Hugely traditional, deliciously dark and undeniably witty.The Witchfinders benefited from two memorable guest stars; Siobhan Finneran and Alan Cumming as a fruity James I. Three if you include the hat Bradley Walsh had to wear. Talk about scene-stealing. 

8. The Ghost Monument, Episode 2

"I've never even heard of Moomenbeens"

I feel really bad putting this in eighth place, because it's a cracking adventure. Believe me, it's 'lowly' placing should only really tell you just how strong this series actually was. The second episode was a traditional adventure in the Hartnell mould and allowed our new protagonists the perfect opportunity to bed in whilst working well with a small yet impressive guest cast; Shaun Dooley, the divine Susan Lynch and Art Malik. The Custard Cream moment was inspired I might add.

9. The Tsuranga Conundrum, Episode 5

"A Doctor of medicine?"

"Well, medicine, science, engineering, candyfloss, Lego, philosophy, music, problems,people, hope. Mostly hope"

Perhaps not the most gripping of episodes, but a first-rate base-under-siege story with some very funny character moments (Graham's belief that Call the Midwife will help him with his latest challenge - being a birthing partner to an alien male in labour!) and, in the Pting, the cutest, funniest, tiniest menace since Austin Powers' Mini-Me! The 'fans' continued their scornful pile-on, deriding the 'silly' CGI Pting and longing for the days of Tennant and RTD...seemingly forgetting the Adipose as they did. Something of a reunion for many in the cast too; Jodie starred alongside Brett Goldstein in the excellent Adult Life Skills and Lois Chimimba in Trust Me, whilst Bradley was in Law and Order:UK with Ben Bailey Smith aka Doc Brown

10. Kerblam!, Episode 7

"You've just had a nap of about two hundred thousand years 

so your offers are out of date anyway"

Well there has to be a least favourite, and unfortunately it's Kerblam! If The Ghost Monument was Hartnell, Arachnids in the UK Pertwee and The Witchfinders Tom, then Kerblam! was McCoy. Now that ought to have been up my street, given that McCoy was really my Doctor (I refuse to consider Sixey my Doctor, sorry Col!) and this story shared a good deal of DNA with the kind of adventures from the late '80s; a kooky premise, notable guest stars from mainstream drama and light entertainment (in this case former Corrie star Julie Hesmondhalgh and the comedian Lee Mack), and a glittery presentation that belied the storyline's dark tones and its commentary on the modern day world. But it just didn't gel with me. I think the main problem I had with it was it had a terrible flaw at the heart of it and that was in its decision for the Kerblam system to murder the wholly innocent Kira (Claudia Jessie) in its attempt to make Charlie (Leo Flanagan) see the error of his ways. Now, this was bad enough, but to have the Doctor in no way admonish the system, in fact she simply accepts what it was doing, is just plain wrong. Away from this glaring error of judgement, Kerblam is actually quite strong and operates on several levels; you can take it as a political allegory for the mood that inspired Brexit in that a lowly human worker has turned to terrorism at those he believes has 'come over here and taken all our jobs', or you can just enjoy it as a traditional Scooby Doo story - it was the janitor that did it after all!

So that was series eleven. Not the most perfect series I'll be honest, but a bloody strong one nonetheless that rode the changes extremely well. I'm looking forward to Resolution, the New Year's Day special (yup, that's New Year's Day, not Christmas Day...they've changed it up and no, not because as one 'fan' on YouTube put it, because Chibnall hates Christianity) which looks set to be really good. And after that there's series twelve... 

Oh for a time machine eh?

Girl on a Bicycle

Deborah Watling

RIP Andrew Burt

Another day and another loss within the entertainment industry as it's been announced that the actor Andrew Burt passed away on the 16th of November at the age of 73.

The Yorkshire born actor was best known for being the first person to play the prodigal Jack Sugden in Emmerdale, appearing in the very first episode of the long running soap in October 1972. He stayed with the role for a year, returning for a stint in 1976, but declined a second return in 1980, whereupon the character was recast and played by Clive Hornby. Such was his lasting legacy in the role he helped to create that whenever he appeared on TV for years after in our house someone always said; "The real Jack Sugden", or "Jack Sugden, when he was a novelist" (because it's now a rather forgotten fact that Sugden was originally a best selling author who had escaped his family tradition of working the land, until being forced back following a death in the family in the debut episode) This is a similar phenomenon that my family engage in whenever Alan Rothwell appears in anything.

Burt also provided the voice/jingles of Radio Norwich in I'm Alan Partridge (indeed there's one particular jingle that always makes me crease with laughter and that's "Danny Franchetti's Jazz box!") and even appeared in one episode as Alan's old headmaster 'Sweaty' Raphael. Other memorable roles included Lt. Peek in Warship, King Arthur in 1979's The Legend of King Arthur, Gulliver in Gulliver in Lilliput, Valgard in the 1983 Doctor Who serial Terminus, Mr Farland in Swallows and Amazons Forever!, Chief Inspector Oates in Campion (which saw him reunited with Peter Davison from his time on Doctor Who) and the dual role of brothers Provastian and Ninastian Jackson in Look Around You. He also had guest appearances in all the usual shows including Bergerac (twice, no less), Casualty, London's Burning, Spooks, Heartbeat, New Tricks, Doctors, EastEnders, Tales of the Unexpected, CATS Eyes, Juliet Bravo, The Gentle Touch, Crown Court, Callan and Blake's 7. His last TV appearance was in the serial killer drama Wire in the Blood in 2006 whereupon he seems to have retired to work instead as a counsellor specialising in treating stress.

RIP.

RIP George A Cooper

George A Cooper has died at the age of 93.

A familiar and seemingly never aging face on British TV and film for over fifty years, Cooper was perhaps best known to anyone of my generation as the officious Mr Griffiths, caretaker of Grange Hill, a role which he played for seven years from 1985 to 1992. 

Born in Leeds in 1925, Cooper trained as an electrical engineer and architect and worked for the Royal Artillery in India as part of his National Service. Upon demob, he joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in Manchester and began life as an actor; using his middle initial (it stood for Alphonsus) to avoid any confusion with an American actor called George Cooper. He made his first TV appearance in 1946 and remained a regular fixture on the small screen for the next fifty years, appearing in shows such as Coronation Street, Doctor Who, Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em, Steptoe and Son, The Avengers, The New Avengers, The Saint, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Man in a Suitcase, Z Cars and Dixon of Dock Green. His film credits included The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (in which he played a thinly disguised Harold Wilson, the then Labour Prime Minister), Hell is a City, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, Smashing Time, Life at the Top, Violent Playground and Red Monarch. He made his last appearance in an episode of Casualty in 1995 and passed away in a Hampshire nursing home on Friday, November 16th.

RIP

Doctor Who - Happy 55th Anniversary!

Today marks the 55th anniversary of a TV show that has meant a HELL OF A LOT to me for all of my thirty nine years on this spinning rock we call earth.

It is of course, Doctor Who, which first hit our screens on a chilly Saturday evening on the 23rd November, 1963. 55 years and 13 (give or take) Doctors later and it is still going strong.

There are of course those who claim that the show isn't going strong right now. Those who refuse to accept that the ratings are some of the best the show has ever seen and who believe the show has become an SJW feminist ethnically diverse PC disaster simply because the show has dared to cast *gasp* a woman in the role of the Doctor and a black man and an asian woman in the role of companions. Based on some of the absolute tripe I have been reading online on YouTube and the like, these people on the whole appear to be gammon style brexiteers and 'mericans. Basically, people with an agenda and little actual understanding of the show's 55 year history. Doctor Who has always been about social justice, it has always been about politics, about being the best we can be, about fighting injustice and tyranny and demanding equality and fair play, and it has always, always been educational.

So, to those people who don't understand this and who spend their days attacking it online I say this;

RIP Derrick Sherwin

The former Doctor Who producer Derrick Sherwin, the man responsible for the creation of UNIT, has died at the age of 82 following a long illness.

Born in High Wycombe in 1936, Sherwin was initially an actor appearing in a range of small roles in many TV series of the 1960s and films such as A Prize of Arms and The Vengeance of She. His relationship with Doctor Who commenced when he took a role in the script editing team. Writing the 1968 Patrick Troughton serial The Invasion, Sherwin effectively changed the shape of the show, not only for the next five years but arguably forever more, thanks to the introduction of UNIT.

Sherwin's inspiration came from Nigel Kneale's Quatermass, believing that Doctor Who had become a little stale, hopping from planet to planet each week. His creation of a military task force, set up to investigate UFO's and peculiar goings on, enabled the show to become grounded (literally) with threats from outer space coming to earth and the Doctor having the responsibility to defend us, alongside Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart; a character who had previously appeared (as a Colonel in the regular army) in the previous year's serial The Web of Fear.

Sherwin produced Troughton's final story, The War Games, in 1969, and would go on to serve as the producer for the transition period, establishing the new earth-based format and overseeing not just the introduction of Jon Pertwee but also the series move from black and white to colour.

Following the first serial in the 1970 series, Spearhead From Space, Sherwin departed the series to be replaced by Barry Letts who continued to work to the pattern Sherwin set, ensuring that characters such as the Brigadier and all the personnel at UNIT became staples of the series for years to come. He continued to produce in-house at the BBC, with Paul Temple, The Man Outside and Perils of Pendragon among his credits.

Sherwin would continue to care deeply about the series he helped shape for the 1970s and beyond.When Michael Grade placed the show on temporary hiatus in the mid '80s, Sherwin contacted him with an offer to but the show and produce it independently for the BBC, arguing that the corporation clearly could not afford to make the show or even knew what to do with it. Grade declined but Sherwin would go on to approach his successor Peter Cregeen with the same offer to no avail.

RIP

Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell To Earth

I'll keep it brief, I loved it! 

"Swiss Army Sonic...now with added Sheffield Steel!"

Jodie is wonderful in the role (of course) there's great chemistry between her and her 'gang', and there's no weak links to be found. It was a funny and dramatic, deeply atmospheric story with great heart (much more so than the cringeworthy attempts at mature emotion that RTD or the Moff could often give us) and a gruesome bad guy. But best of all, there were clear line deliveries, crisp sound design and beautiful, subtle music - great reworking of the theme tune too!

RIP Zienia Merton

The Burmese born actor Zienia Merton who played Space:1999's Sandra Benes has died at the age of 72.

Merton became an actress as a teenager in the 1960s playing the Chinese girl Ping-Cho in the 1964 Doctor Who serial Marco Polo. Her other credits included the Beatles film Help!, Jason King, Strange Report, Return of the Saint, Dennis Potter's Casanova, The History Man, Angels, Tenko, Grange Hill, Bergerac, Dempsey and Makepeace, The Lakes, Casualty, The Bill, EastEnders, Coronation Street, Doctors, Wire in the Blood, Law and Order: UK, and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

RIP

RIP Jacqueline Pearce

Saddened to hear that Jacqueline Pearce, famous for her role as Blake's 7's alluring bad girl Servalan, has died at the age of 73.

It was the role that put Pearce on the map. The wicked sociopath Servalan was the Supreme Commander of the Terran Federation and her ambition to destroy Blake and his fellow rebels who made up the crew of the Liberator was a role Pearce embraced with relish, making her the originator of strange and complicated feelings within the pubescent boys in the audience at home and a firm fan favourite on the sci-fi circuit.

Born in Woking, Pearce trained both at RADA and the Lee Strasberg Actor's Studio in Los Angeles. Her career began in the 1960s with roles in TV series such as Man in a Suitcase, The Avengers, Callan, Danger Man and Public Eye and she starred in two Hammer classics from 1966; The Reptile and Plague of the Zombies. Her other credits include the films Sky West and Crooked, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, White Mischief, the 1988 version of The Bourne Identity and Princess Caraboo, the 1985 Doctor Who serial The Two Doctors, and TV shows such as Dark Season, Moondial, David Copperfield, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Daniel Deronda, Doctors and Casualty. Most recently she appeared alongside her friend John Hurt in several Big Finish Doctor Who audio adventures and appeared on Pointless Celebrities.

RIP

RIP Dorka Nieradzik

If you are a telly obsessive of a certain age, then the name Dorka Nieradzik will be familiar to you. The Polish born hair and make-up and visual effects designer's name that jumped out of the closing credits for shows ranging from Doctor Who to Last of the Summer Wine, so it is sad to hear that the multi award winning Nieradzik died of cancer last month at the age of 68.

I couldn't top the lovely obituary from Toby Hadoke that featured in The Guardian last week, so I'm not going to try. I'm just going to post the link here

RIP

RIP Peter Miles

The actor Peter Miles, famous for his three appearances on Doctor Who in the 1970s, has died at the age of 89. Miles' best known role of the three guest spots was that of Nyder, the cold and sadistic, loyal lieutenant to Davros in 1975's Genesis of the Daleks.

Miles was a regular on the Doctor Who convention circuit and a much loved guest. His other appearances on the show were as Dr Lawrence in the 1970s serial The Silurians and Professor Whitaker in 1974's Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Both were opposite Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, and the pair were reunited for the 1993 radio adventure The Paradise of Death. He also appeared in several audio productions for Big Finish as well as recording cast commentaries for the DVD releases of the serials he took part in. Away from Doctor Who, Miles appeared in films, including The Eagle Has Landed, in which he played Hitler, and many classic television shows such as Paul Temple, Colditz, Moonbase 3, Survivors, Blake's 7, Poldark, The Sandbaggers and Bergerac. Asides from acting, Miles was an accomplished jazz singer and musician and accompanied his childhood friend Dusty Springfield on guitar for the very first recording she made; Can't We Be Friends...

RIP

RIP Peter Wyngarde

Jason King star Peter Wyngarde has died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital at the age of 90 following a short illness.

A unique talent, Wyngarde shot to fame in the 1960s with his role as the campy flamboyant author turned sleuth Jason King in the ITC drama Department S. So popular was Wyngarde in the role that, when it came to a second series, ITC decided to relaunch it solely around his character, and Jason King was born, making Wyngarde an international star. Australia was so besotted with the actor and the Jason King character that, following his being voted 'The man most Australian women would like to have an affair with', Wyngarde was mobbed at Syndey airport and was so roughly manhandled by the lust crazed ladies of Oz that he was hospitalised for three days. At the height of his fame, Wyngarde even released an album; When Sex Leers Its Inquisitive Head is a psychedelic offering that has to be heard to be believed. My favourite track from the album is his version of The Attack's Neville Thumbcatch

Despite his ladies man pin up status, in reality Wyngarde was homosexual and had, for some time during the 60s it is alleged, enjoyed a relationship with fellow actor and flatmate Alan Bates. One of his first major roles was in the controversial 1959 ITV drama South, which saw him cast as a Polish army lieutenant during the American Civil War torn between the love of a plantation owner's niece and a fellow officer. Broadcast live, this groundbreaking drama was said to be the first to tackle homosexuality on British television just two years after the Wolfenden Report. The Daily Sketch critic at the time remarked "I do NOT see anything attractive in the agonies and ecstasies of a pervert, especially in close up in my living room" Wyngarde's sexuality became public knowledge in 1975 when he was fined £75 and convicted of an act of gross indecency when caught cottaging with a lorry driver. The revelation put an end to his career as a leading man, but he did memorably go on to star as Klytus in Mike Hodges' Flash Gordon five years later. 

Wyngarde was presumed to have been born in France in 1927 (he offered various contrasting accounts of his birth over the years) and grew up in the Far East. During WWII he was interned alongside other European and US citizens (including the young JG Ballard) in Lunghua, Shanghai. Upon ceasefire, Wyngarde came to the UK and initially studied law at Oxford for three months before taking a job in advertising. He made his theatrical debut in 1946 and his first television appearance was in Dick Barton Strikes Back just three years later. In 1961 he starred alongside Deborah Kerr in The Innocents, Jack Clayton's acclaimed adaptation of the Henry James story The Turn of the Screw. Wyngarde went on to guest star in a number of ITC dramas including The Saint and as Number 2 in The Prisoner, as well as starring as John Cleverley Cartney in the infamous A Touch of Brimstone episode of The Avengers. Other roles include that of Timanov in the 1984 Doctor Who serial The Planet of Fire and Langdale Pike in The Three Gables from the 1994 series The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

RIP