The actor Hugh Walters has died at the age of 75.

Hugh Walters had three roles in Doctor Who. In 1965 he first made a cameo appearance as William Shakespeare in the First Doctor story The Chase, appearing on the Doctor's newly acquired Time and Space Visualiser.

He returned to the series in 1976 playing Commentator Runcible alongside Tom Baker, in two episodes of The Deadly Assassin. His final performance in the series came in 1985 when he played Vogal, the secretary and assistant to Eleanor Bron's Kara, in the Colin Baker story Revelation of the Daleks.

Walters had a long career in British television. His first major role was as Georgie in the fifth series of the ATV situation comedy The Larkins, appearing alongside David Kossoff and Peggy Mount. He played Smike in the 1968 BBC production of Nicholas Nickleby which starred Martin Jarvis in the title role.

In 1970 he played Wamba in the mini series Ivanhoe as well as regular roles in Sentimental Education and Never Say Die. He played Mr Winters in The Fenn Street Gang and Peter Pringle in The Train Now Standing. He played Vic Thatcher in two episodes of the original production of Terry Nation's Survivors.

In 1976 he took the role of Stifford in the ATV adaptation of Arnold Bennett's Clayhanger. He played Mr Little in the Channel 4 comedy drama Chance in a Million and Theo in Gems. In 2000 he portrayed Charles Hawtrey in the Carry On Docu-Drama Cor Blimey.

Other credits included Heartbeat, Rumpole of the Bailey, Z Cars, The Brittas Empire, The House of Eliott and regular appearances in The Russ Abbot Show.

Hugh Walters was born in 1939 in Mexborough in Yorkshire. He died in London last month.

Veteran Doctor Who designer Barry Newbery has died at the age of 88.

Barry Newbery was one of the most prolific designers of Doctor Who, working on more episodes of the classic series than any other designer in its 26 year history. His contribution ranged from the very first story An Unearthly Child in 1963 through to The Awakening in 1984, a total of 62 episodes across 14 stories.

Barry Newbery joined the BBC in the late 1950's after working as a freelance designer in London, overseeing window displays and designing exhibitions. Early work for the Corporation included Comedy Playhouse and The Last Man Out, a 1962 period drama starring Barry Letts.

In 1963 he found himself attached to the new science fiction programme, planned by the BBC, Doctor Who. He was one of two designers drafted in to replace original designer Peter Brachacki, who had left the series following disagreements with the series producer Verity Lambert. Brachacki had designed the sets for the original pilot, but had left the show by the time the first episode was reshot, leaving Newbery to recreate the original Junkyard and School set, which had been destroyed following completion of the pilot.

For the majority of Doctor Who's first two years Newbery would share the design work with Raymond Cusick, with Cusick taking the Science fiction stories, while Newbery worked on the historical adventures. After creating a stone age settlement for An Unearthly Child, he was tasked with creating the court of Kubla Khan in Marco Polo, the city of Tenochtitlan in The Aztecs, the cities and deserts around Jaffa in The Crusade and Saxon England in The Time Meddler

In 1965 he worked on the first Doctor Who Christmas episode, The Feast of Steven, before completing the remaining 5 episodes of the The Daleks' Master Plan. He voyged into the future with The Ark before returning to the historicals, recreating the town of Tombstone, Arizona in the story The Gunfighters.

In 1968 he worked on his one Second Doctor story, The Dominators and in 1970 his one Third Doctor story The Silurians. He completed three Fourth Doctor stories, The Brain of Morbius and The Masque of Mandragora in 1976, followed by The Invisible Enemy in 1977.

His final credit for Doctor Who came in 1984 when he designed the Fifth Doctor story The Awakening.

Outside of Doctor Who Newbery worked on vast range of projects, being involved in some of the most iconic television series of the time. He wroked on historical dramas including The Onedin Line, Prince Regent, The Citadel and The Shadow of the Tower as well as more modern dramas such as Z Cars, Softly Softly and The Expert. He ventured into comedy with shows such as Dad’s Army and Sykes.

In 1979 Newbery won an RTS Television Award for his work on The Lost Boys and the following year he received a BAFTA nomination for Prince Regent.

Newbery took a great many behind-the-scenes photographs during his time on Doctor Who and a large selection were published in The Barry Newbery Signature Collection, published by Telos Publishing Ltd. in 2013.

Barry Newbery died peacefully in his sleep Wednesday morning.

BBC Books have announced that the forthcoming novelisation of the Douglas Adams story City of Death will be released on 21st May 2015.

Two archive interviews are to be released on DVD and are available from Galaxy 4.

An interview with Tom Baker, conducted in 1989, was originally available on Video Cassette, published by Reeltime Pictures. It is released on DVD for the first time. Also available is a brand new title, an interview with Anthony Ainley from April 2000.

Both are released on 27th February.

Doctor Who director Fiona Cumming has died at the age of 77

Fiona Cumming had a long and illustrious career, working on over 34 episodes of the original Doctor Who series.

She began as an actress, working at the Royal Scottish Academy before going on to a variety of theatre and television work, including a spell at Border Television in the dual role of announcer and features interviewer. She appeared in Dr. Finlay's Casebook and Suspense.

Deciding that she would prefer production work, in 1964 gained a post as an assistant floor manager at the BBC. She first worked on Doctor Who on the season three story The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve.

By 1966 she had won promotion to the role of Production Assistant and in this capacity she worked on the second Doctor story The Highlanders, Patrick Troughton's second story and the one which saw the introduction of the character Jamie. She worked alongside the second Doctor again in 1969 on The Seeds of Death. In 1972 she worked with Jon Pertwee on the story The Mutants.

In 1974 she become a BBC Staff Director and in the 1980's she was asked to direct four stories featuring the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison. She directed his first story Castrovalva as well as the Mara sequel Snakedance, Enlightenment and the story which saw the introduction of Peri and the departure of Turlough, Planet of Fire. In 1988 she made an uncredited cameo appearance as a tourist at Windsor Castle in the 25th anniversary story Silver Nemesis.

Other productions on which she worked included two episodes of Blakes 7, Sarcophagus and Rumours of Death, as well as Emmerdale, The Walls of Jericho, God's Wonderful Railway, The Omega Factor, Play for Today, Angels, Jackanory Playhouse, Z Cars and the ill fated Eldorado.

After leaving the BBC she remained active as a freelance director while also pursuing a number of other projects, including some with John Nathan-Turner in their Teynham Productions organisation.

Fiona Cumming died on the 1st January.

It was on Saturday 26th December 1964, fifty years ago today, that we said goodbye to the first regular to leave Doctor Who, with the departure of Carole Ann Ford from the series.

When 12.4 million viewers saw Susan fall in love with freedom fighter David Campbell and the Doctor lock the TARDIS doors so she wouldn't have to choose between her grandfather and her new love, it was the end of an era for the Doctor and his granddaughter. For the programme Doctor Who it was a major milestone, with one of the quartet of actors to have created the series moving on to new challenges, and leaving a sizable hole in the tight-knit team.

Carole Ann Ford was an experienced character actress when she joined Doctor Who. She first appeared in a film at the age of eight. After appearing in a number of commercials and walk-on work, her first proper role was in the play Women of the Streets. She had appeared in the TV Movie Expresso Bongo and had roles in Horrors of the Black Museum, Probation Officer, The Ghost Train Murder, Emergency-Ward 10, Dixon of Dock Green, No Hiding Place, Crying Down the Lane, The Day of the Triffids, Mix Me a Person, Harpers West One, The Punch and Judy Man and Z-Cars.

It was that role in Z-Cars which led to her being cast as Susan, a role originally envisaged, and pitched to Ford, as a much more alien character than that which eventually emerged. It is well known that the changes to the proposed role frustrated Ford. In 2013 she talked to The Daily Telegraph: The role of Susan had been toned down on the instructions of the Head of Drama, Sydney Newman, who wanted the character to be much more ordinary, a character that a teenager in the 1960's could relate to.

Carole Ann Ford decided to leave the series at the end of the first year of production. She completed her last studio recording on Friday 23 October in Riverside Studio 1. Following the recording she sent a note to the BBC Head of Drama, Sydney Newman, thanking him for allowing her to appear in the series. He replied the following week Following her departure from the series Carole Ann Ford had a couple of small roles in British Television. However as a key member of one of the most successful series in the BBC repertoire, seen by up to twelve million viewers each week, Ford found herself typecast. She told the Daily TelegraphIn 1965 she played a prostitute, Jenny Graham, in an episode of Public Eye, the long-running British TV series starring Alfred Burke, but received complaints from parents expecting the role to be a copy of Susan. In 1974 She played Valerie in an episode of the comedy Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?.

Ford was taken ill in 1977 when a mistreatment for a back injury caused her to become hyper allergic. She nearly died in Spain when an aspirin caused anaphylactic shock. Her weight plummeted to just five stone (70lb) and she lost her voice.

To help her recover Ford undertook voice coaching which led to a new career as a vocal adviser for actors, politicians and business leaders. In 1983 she well enough to return to the role of Susan when she was offered a part in the Doctor Who Twentieth Anniversary special The Five Doctors. She was still very possessive of the role, insisting the script was changed when she was initially asked to refer to The Doctor rather than Grandfather.

Carole Ann Ford now lives in North London. She has reprised the role of Susan in a number of Doctor Who audio plays by Big Finish Productions. In 2013 she appeared in a cameo role in the BBC Two docu-drama about the creation of Doctor Who, An Adventure in Space and Time, a play where Ford herself was played by Claudia Grant.

She still holds great affection for the series she left fifty years ago, the show she helped to create.

Goodbye Susan 
Susan has fallen in love with resistance fighter David Campbell, and the Doctor decides to leave her on Earth to find a new life with him, bidding her a fond but firm farewell

The actor Tom Adams has died at the age of 76.

Tom Adams was best known to Doctor Who fans for playing Commander Vorshak, the leader of Sea Base 4, in the 1984 Fifth Doctor story Warriors of the Deep.

He played Dai Nimmo, known as Diversions, in the classic 1963 film The Great Escape.

On television he appeared in many classic series including Casualty, Strike It Rich!, The Enigma Files, Dixon of Dock Green, Spy Trap, Z Cars, General Hospital, The Avengers, Emergency-Ward 10 and The Onedin Line where he played Daniel Fogarty in twenty episodes.

Adams had a distinguished voice and worked as a voice-over artist on many adverts. He was a long-running voice of E4.

His agent Emma Harvey paid tribute The actor died after a battle with cancer.

German DVD distributer Pandastorm Pictures released a picture of the cover of the Season 25 boxed set, titled Siebter Doctor Volume 2, as well as a promotional picture on their Facebook page.

The 5 discs set will contain all the content of the UK releases, including the extras, and will include the German dub and the original English version. It will be released in Germany on 27th February 2015.

Volume 1, containing all episodes of Season 24, was just released a week ago. It can be ordered from  Amazon Germany. More season sets of the Classic Series are planned to come out in 2015.

BBC Worldwide have given an update on the status of the last classic story expected to be released on DVD, The Underwater Menace:


The highly anticipated DVD will include the only known existing episode that has yet to be made officially available to own, episode two (rediscovered in 2011).

The actor Ian Fairbairn has died.

Ian Fairbairn was a veteran actor on British television, appearing in a variety of programmes during the 1960s to 1980s, including Emergency Ward 10, Z Cars, The Onedin Line, Shoestring, The Professionals and Last of the Summer Wine.

He first appeared in Doctor Who in 1967 playing Questa, a human who lived in a colony secretly ruled by Macra, in the first Episode of The Macra Terror. He returned to the series in 1968, playing Mark Gregory, a researcher for International Electromatics in three episodes of The Invasion.

In 1970 he appeared in the third Doctor story Inferno as Bromley, a technician who became the first person to mutate into a Primord. His final apperance in the series was in 1976 when he played Doctor Chester, a medical doctor stationed at the South Bend base in Antarctica, in the third episode of The Seeds of Doom.