Nicholas Courtney, known to and beloved by Doctor Who fans worldwide as Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and one of the longest-serving co-stars of the series, has died, aged 81.

Born in Egypt, William Nicholas Stone Courtney spent his childhood and education in a variety of places - his father serving in the diplomatic service - before entering the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art after completing his National Service in 1950. He then entered rep in 1952 - his first job being actor/ASM in Cromer! - before a move to London brought him to the world of television.

His first appearance in this media was as a Warrant Officer in the 1957 series Escape, followed by playing King Charles II in Looking About and Mark Norman in an episode of No Hiding Place. He was then to appear throughout the 1960s in shows like Callan and Sword of Honour, as well as popular fantasy genre titles like The Saint, The Champions, The Avengers, and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (alongside Master-to-be, Roger Delgado).

His first brush with Doctor Who was to be as Space Security Agent Bret Vyon in the First Doctor epic The Daleks' Master Plan. For Doctor Who fans, of course, he will always be remembered as UNIT stalwart Lethbridge-Stewart. Originally slated to play Captain Knight in the Second Doctor adventure The Web Of Fear, he was 'promoted' to the role of Colonel by director Douglas Camfield when original actor David Langton pulled out, and returned a year as a newly promoted Brigadier in The Invasion, a role he was to become associated with for over forty years! Appearing as one of the main characters throughout the Third Doctor's incarnation as the UK head of UNIT, he was then to appear with every other classic series Doctor, both during the television show's original run and through the Big Finish audio adventures. Name-checked a number of times in the revived series of Doctor Who, Sir Alistair was to eventually return in the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures in 2008 - the actor being re-united with 70s co-star Elisabeth Sladen.

Work continued after his departure from Doctor Who, appearing in shows such as All Creatures Great And Small and Sink or Swim (both alongside Fifth Doctor Peter Davison), Shelley, Yes, Prime Minister and Only Fools and Horses; he also played Lt. Col. Robert Witherton in 1993's Then Churchill Said to Me. More recently, he appeared in popular shows like The Bill, Doctors, and Casualty. In 2008 he played the Archbishop of Canterbury in Incendiary.

In 1997, he became the Honorary President of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, a position he was very proud to hold.


There have been two autobiographies on his life, Five Rounds Rapid! in 1998 and Still Getting Away With It in 2005; his memoirs were also released by Big Finish as A Soldier In Time in 2002.

He is survived by his wife Karen, his son Philip and daughter Bella.

William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16th December 1929 - 22nd February 2011)

Special Tributes: Tom Baker, Steven Moffat (via BBC Doctor Who), GreyhoundLeader (Nicholas Courtney's official site).
Media coverage: Sat: The Independent; :Fri: TVlia (Spanish), MyJoyOnline; Thu: Unreality TV, Airlock Alpha, Pure People (French), The A.V. Club, AceShowbiz, The Telegraph (Blog), TNT Magazine, Mirror, MTV, The West Australian, Adelaide Now; Wed: BBC News, BBC Doctor Who, BBC America, RadioTimes, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Express, Belfast Telegraph, AOL News, CBS News, Digital Journal, The Stage, Big Finish Productions, SFX, io9, The Register, Den of Geek, Digital Spy, The Sun, Metro, The List, Geeks of Doom, Anglotopia, Zap2It, ATV Today, TV.com, MediaSpy, Kansas City Star, AlloCiné (French)

The actor T.P. McKenna has died, aged 81.

He appeared in the Season 25, seventh Doctor story, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, playing the intergalactic explorer, Captain Cook.

Born Thomas Patrick McKenna, he made his stage debut in Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams at the Pike Theatre in Dublin 1954. He continued to appear in therater productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre Company.

Following several years on the stage with, he began appearing in popular television dramas from the 1960s including Dangerman, Adam Adamant, The Avengers, The Saint, Jason King, The Sweeney, Blakes 7 and Minder.

He also featured prominently in other television dramas including The Duchess of Malfi, The Changeling, Napoleon and Love, Holocaust, The Manions of America, To The Lighthouse, Bleak House, Strong Medicine, Jack the Ripper, and the final episode of Inspector Morse. McKenna had fulfilled a long-held ambition to appear with John Thaw in Inspector Morse.

He had film roles in Ulysses, Straw Dogs, and A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man. In 1985 he appeared in The Doctor and the Devils alongside Timothy Dalton (Rassilon, The End of Time).

He died on 13th February in London following a long illness. He will be laid to rest in Mullagh, County Cavan, Ireland alongside his wife May, who died five years ago. He is survived by his sons Rafe, Killian, Breffní and Stephen and his daughter Sally.

Thomas Patrick McKenna (7th September 1929 – 13th February 2011)


Media coverage by: BBC News, The Irish Times, The Telegraph.

The actress Margaret John has died, aged 84.

She appeared twice in Doctor Who, featuring in the 1968 Patrick Troughton story Fury from the Deep as Director of Euro Sea Gas, Megan Jones, and returning in the revived series as Grandma Connolly, victim to the Wire in The Idiot's Lantern. Speaking in a special programme dedicated to her last year (Margaret John: National Treasure ), she was quite proud of holding the title for the longest spanned appearances in Doctor Who until Bernard Cribbins came along (if you count the movies!).

John has had a varied career, with appearances on stage (The Vagina Monologues, Calendar Girls, soaps (Coronation Street, Crossroads), drama (Dixon of Dock Green, Z-Cars, The District Nurse), film (The Baker, Run Fatboy Run), and comedy (High Hopes, Satellite City); she also played alongside Torchwood star Eve Myles and Trevor Eve in the 2009 BBC Wales drama Framed. Her last role has yet to be seen, in an episode of new American fantasy series Game of Thrones.

She was awarded the Bafta Cymru Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

However, she will be perhaps best remembered as Doris, the "unrestrained" neighbour to the Wests from the sitcom Gavin and Stacey. Co-writer and star of the programme James Corden said on Twitter: "All my thoughts are with the family of Margaret John who played Doris in G and S. A great actress and an incredible lady. She will be missed x".

Margaret John (December 1926 - February 2011)


Media coverage by: BBC Wales Arts, BBC News, Wales Online.

Norman Taylor, one of the men behind the original iconic Doctor Who title sequence, has died.

Norman Taylor was a BBC Technical Operations Manager on Crew 9 based at Lime Grove in London. He was the man who, while experimenting with a camera looking at a monitor showing its own picture, made the serendipitous discovery of "visual howlaround" - the effect that was subsequently used for Doctor Who's original title sequence.

The original titles for Doctor Who are believed to have been recorded in August 1963 in an empty TC5 at Television Centre. Bernard Lodge, who was credited for the sequence, was in the gallery and Norman Taylor lighting matches to trigger the howl-round. Hugh Sheppard was on the camera at the time.

Taylor was later given a Technical Suggestion award of £25.00 for his howl-round idea which featured in various forms in the title sequence until 1980, when it was replaced by the star-field effect.

You can read more about his contribution to the series on the Tech-Ops History site.

The actress Ingrid Pitt has died at the age of 73.

Ingrid Pitt had two roles in Doctor Who. She played the role of Galleia in the 1972 third Doctor story The Time Monster. Galleia was Queen of Atlantis and the wife of King Dalios. In 1984 she returned to the series to play Solow in the fifth Doctor story Warriors of the Deep. During the eighties she also co-wrote a Doctor Who story The Macros with her husband Tony Rudlin which, though it never progressed into a televised production at the time, was later produced by Big Finish as part of their Lost Stories series.

Pitt was best known for her work in horror films of the 1960s and 1970s. She was born in Poland on 21 November 1937 as Ingoushka Petrov. She had a German father and a Jewish mother and as a result she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp during the second World War. In 1965 she made her film debut in Doctor Zhivago, playing a minor role. In 1968 she co-starred in the low budget science fiction film The Omegans and in the same year played in Where Eagles Dare opposite Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.

Her work with Hammer Film Productions elevated her to cult figure status. She starred in The Vampire Lovers, and Countess Dracula, as well as having a small part in the cult film The Wicker Man. She founded her own theatrical touring company and starred in successful productions of Dial M for Murder, Duty Free, and Woman of Straw.

Pitt made her return to the big screen in the 2000 production The Asylum. The film starred Colin Baker and Patrick Mower. In 2003, Pitt voiced the role of 'Lady Violator' in Renga Media's production Dominator. The film was the UK's first CGI animated film.

She died earlier today at a hospital in south London after collapsing a few days ago.

We are saddened to report the death of the writer Mervyn Haisman.

An actor in his early career, Mervyn Haisman turned his hand to writing, forming a partnership with Henry Lincoln where together they penned three Doctor Who stories for the Patrick Troughton era of the series. The Abominable Snowmen saw the first appearance from the slopes of the Himalayas of the Yeti - robotic servants of the Great Intelligence. The strength of this first story subsequently led to the sequel The Web of Fear, which also saw creation of one of the most enduring guest characters in the series, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart (The Brigadier). Their third outing The Dominators introduced the Quarks, but artistic disagreements with the production team ended further contributions to Doctor Who. However, their association with the show was to be marked once again with a credit on The Sarah Jane Adventures story Enemy of the Bane for Sir Alistair.

Haisman went on to script-edit a number of television series, notably Sutherland's Law (alongside future Doctor Who producer Graham Williams), Jubilee, and some seventeen episodes of The Onedin Line. He also wrote a number of episodes for the popular 1980s drama Howards' Way.

The actor Graham Crowden has died at the age of 87.

Graham Crowden has had an expansive career in film, television and theatre. He has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and appeared in variety of films such as The Amazing Mr Blunden, Jabberwocky, For Your Eyes Only, The Company of Wolves, Out of Africa, and Calendar Girls. On television he is probably best remembered for two major roles, alongside Peter Davison as head of medical department Jock McCannon in the series A Very Peculiar Practice, and as Tom Ballard in the comedy series Waiting for God.

He was one of the actors considered to take on the role of the Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who in 1974, but felt he couldn't commit to many years in such a role. However, he did get to appear in the series in 1979 for the Season Seventeen adventure The Horns of Nimon playing Soldeed, the leader of the planet Skonnos and ally of the titular Nimon - his death throe has been considered one of the most 'memorable' in the classic series! The story was released earlier this year as part of the Myths and Legends boxed set, and featured the actor on the commentary.

Graham Crowden (30 November 1922 – 19 October 2010)

Reported by: The Times (subscription only), BBC News, Scotsman, What's on TV. STV, Gonzo Media, Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Mirror, Press Association, Post Chronicle, British Comedy Guide, Inverurie Herald

The actor Frank Jarvis has died at the age of 70.

Jarvis played characters in three Doctor Who stories. He first appeared in the 1966 story The War Machines as a corporal; then it wasn't until Tom Baker assumed the role that he returned to the series to play Ankh in the 1978 CSO-laden story Underworld. A year later he featured as swampie Skart in The Power of Kroll.

Outside of Doctor Who, he had a variety of roles in film and television, including the character of Roger in the original The Italian Job film with Michael Caine, and alongside former Doctor Colin Baker in the BBC series The Brothers.

Frank Jarvis died on 15th September 2010.

The writer Louis Marks has died at the age of 82.

Louis Marks wrote four stories for Doctor Who. In 1965 he wrote the first story of Season Two, Planet of Giants, the first contemporary story in the series since the first episode. He returned to the series in 1972 to plot the return of the Daleks after a gap of several years in Day of the Daleks a story which saw the introduction of the Ogrons.

For the Fourth Doctor he penned two stories, Planet of Evil in 1975 was set on the far distant planet Zeta Minor on the edge of the universe, while The Masque of Mandragora a year later was set in 15th century Italy.

His work away from Doctor Who included The Man Who Finally Died (1967) for the BBC and Special Branch for Thames Television (1970). He wrote for Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan, and for the Doomwatch series. His work as a producer included The Lost Boys (1978), Fearless Frank (1979) and the BBC's adaptation of George Eliot's Middlemarch (1994).

Louis Marks died on 17th September, 2010.

Film and television composer Geoffrey Burgon has died, aged 69.

Burgon composed the music for the Doctor Who stories Terror of the Zygons and The Seeds of Doom.

He went on to win Ivor Novello awards for his scores to the BBC's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in 1979 and for Granada's Brideshead Revisited in 1981.

More recently Burgon had won BAFTAs for Best Television Music to Granada's The Forsyte Saga and Channel 4's Longitude.

Amongst many other works, Burgon scored the BBC's Chronicles of Narnia adaptations and the cult Monty Python film The Life of Brian.

Alongside his commercial success, Burgon continued to produce many acclaimed serious works, two of which were an opera based on Dickens's Hard Times in 1991, and a concerto for the percussionist Evelyn Glennie in 1994.

James Rushton, of his publishers Chester Music, said: "Geoffrey Burgon was one of very few composers in recent times whose music has truly touched the hearts of the international public.

"The music and unforgettable melodies that Geoff wrote for the great classic BBC and ITV TV series over the past 40 years have established themselves as standards, both within their genre and as pure music."

Burgon was interviewed for the DVD release of The Seeds of Doom, which is due to be released in the UK on October 25th.