The actor George Waring has died at the age of 84.

The actor portrayed the role of Arden in the Patrick Troughton adventure The Ice Warriors. Arden was a scientist whose team discover an "Ice Warrior" buried deep in a glacier, and ultimately becomes the Martians' first victim.

Born in Eccles, Lancashire, Waring made his career in theatre and then television, appearing in a number of notable roles in shows like Six Days of Justice and Mixed Blessings. However, he will be best remembered for the character of Arnold Swain in Coronation Street.

The actor Mark Jones has died at the age of seventy.

Mark Jones played the role of Arnold Keeler in the 1976 Tom Baker story The Seeds of Doom. Keeler was a botanist, working for Harrison Chase, who during the story transformed into a Krynoid.

Jones had a long career in British Television appearing in programmes such as Casualty, Red Dwarf, Blott on the Landscape, The Onedin Line and Z Cars. He also had roles in the movies Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back and Bear Island. He died on 14th January 2010 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

The actor James Cairncross has died at the age of 93. He played the part of Lemaitre in the first Doctor story The Reign of Terror and Beta in the second Doctor story The Krotons.

Cairncross was born in Dunfermline in 1915. He was a well known actor and lyricist appearing in many early television programmes such as Play of the Week and Z-Cars and films such as The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Tom Jones. He appeared with Ian McKellan in Hamlet and with Michael Redgrave in Twelfth Night. James Cairncross died 17 December, 2009, in Edinburgh.

Scotsman Obituary.

The actor Donald Pickering has died at the age of 76.

Donald Pickering was a well known British actor appearing in many classic television, film and radio roles. His television appearances included The Pallisers, The Avengers, The House of Eliott, All Creatures Great and Small, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, Yes, Prime Minister, The Bittas Empire and Executive Stress.

He is best known to Doctor Who fans for his three appearances in the Classic series. He fist played the role of Eyesen in the 1964 story The Keys of Marinus alongside William Hartnell. Eyesen was the Court Prosecutor, who has succeeded in persuading the Three Judges of Millennium to find Ian guilty of murder.

Pickering returned to the series in 1967, this time with Patrick Troughton, playing Captain Blade in The Faceless Ones. Blade was an airplane pilot at Gatwick Airport whose identity was taken over by a Chameleon.

His final appearance in the series was twenty years later in Sylvester McCoy's first story, Time and the Rani. In this story he played Beyus, the leader of the Lakertyan race, who was forced to serve the Rani alongside his daughter.

Donald Pickering died peacefully at home on 19th December 2009.

The actor Richard Todd has died at the age of ninety.

Arguably one of the most respected actors to appear in the classic series, Richard Todd was a British film star well known for his heroic roles in such films as The Dambusters, D-Day the Sixth of June, and The Longest Day.

Born in Ireland, he was a war hero in his own right, being one of the first soldiers to parachute into occupied France on D-Day in 1944. He had a long and distinguished career in British stage and film. He was Oscar-nominated for the 1949 film The Hasty Heart, appearing alongside future American President Ronald Reagan. He won the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer for the same film. In 1957 he appeared in Yangtse Incident alongside William Hartnell.

He appeared in many Disney adventure movies such as The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, The Sword and the Rose and Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue. In 2002 he was made a Disney Legend.

Todd appeared in the 1982 Doctor Who story Kinda. Appearing with Fifth Doctor Peter Davison, Todd played Sanders, the leader of the Earth colonisation survey expedition to the jungle planet Deva Loka.

Todd, who was made an OBE in 1993, was last seen on screen in a 2007 episode of ITV drama Heartbeat.

He died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday at his home near Grantham in Lincolnshire.

BBC Obituary

Former Production Unit Manager Christopher D'Oyly John has died.

D'Oyly John worked on many stories from the classic era of Doctor Who. He was an Assistant Floor Manager on the William Hartnell story The Ark, before working as Production Assistant on several Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee stories.

As Production Unit Manager, he worked on six Tom Baker stories working with producer Philip Hinchcliffe on some of the most-loved stories in the series history, including The Robots of Death and The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

His work outside of Doctor Who included The Bill, Poldark, House of Elliot and EastEnders.

He died peacefully at his home in Eastbourne on 21st October.

Assistant Floor Manager
• The Ark

Production Assistant
• The Macra Terror
• The Invasion
• Doctor Who and the Silurians
• Inferno
• The Curse of Peladon
• The Mutants
• Carnival of Monsters
• Death to the Daleks

Production Unit Manager
• The Masque of Mandragora
• The Hand of Fear
• The Deadly Assassin
• The Face of Evil
• The Robots of Death
• The Talons of Weng-Chiang

The Guardian newspaper in the UK has published an obituary for actor Timothy Bateson, who died in September at the age of 83. Bateson enjoyed an acting career stretching from the 1940s to the present decade, and in 1955 appeared in the first London production of the play "Waiting for Godot". He appeared in Doctor Who only once, in the 1978 serial The Ribos Operation, where he portrayed Binro the Heretic. In this role he took part in the scene where Binro explains that be believes there are other planets and other stars; this is frequently regarded as one of the most memorable scenes from Doctor Who, most recently acclaimed as such in Doctor Who Magazine's "200 Golden Moments" special edition. The serial, along with the others in the 1978 "Key to Time" series, is due to be re-released on DVD next week, following its previous limited edition issue.



Image courtesy of the Doctor Who Image Archive

The actor and stuntman Alan Chuntz has died at the age of 81. Chuntz appeared in at least 15 stories from the classic series. He was a member of HAVOC, the team that provided much of the stunt work for the programme. He played Omega's champion in The Three Doctors and had a rare speaking role as the Chauffeur in The Seeds of Doom.

As well as his work on Doctor Who, Chuntz was a regular face on British Television in the seventies appearing in series such as Z Cars, Some Mothers Do Ave Em, The Avengers, The Persuaders, The Onedin Line, Hazel and Minder.

• The Invasion - Stuntman
• The Seeds Of Death -Technician
• The Ambassadors Of Death - Soldier
• Inferno - Soldier
• Terror Of The Autons - Stuntman
• The Mind Of Evil - Prisoner
• The Sea Devils - Stuntman
• The Three Doctors - Omega's Champion
• The Green Death - Security Guard
• Planet Of The Spiders - Stuntman
• Genesis Of The Daleks - Kaled Guard
• Revenge Of The Cybermen - Stuntman
• The Seeds Of Doom - Chauffeur
• The Face Of Evil - Stuntman
• The Talons Of Weng-Chiang - Stuntman
• State Of Decay - Guard
• The Visitation - Stuntman

"Barry always had a warm respect for the fans of Dr Who. As Barry’s family, we would like to thank everyone for their good wishes on the websites and forums following the news that Barry had died. We have been very touched that the many messages and tributes show such an appreciation and understanding, both of his work and of the very kind and wise man that Barry was."

Tom Baker - cast as the Doctor by Barry Letts - will be reading the obituary of the producer/director on BBC Radio Four's The Last Word from 4:00pm this afternoon; it should then be available on the BBC's iplayer service for the next seven days.
(with thanks to Simon Watkins)