Doctor Who Vs. Van Der Valk, Series 2

ITV's classic crime drama (based 
on characters created by Nicolas 
Freeling for his Van Der Valk novels
in 1962) again starred Barry Foster
as the eponymous Dutch detective.
Produced at Thames Television's
studios in London, with location
scenes shot in the books'
Amsterdam setting, the series
first aired in the autumn of 1973.

Viewers then had to wait four years

for the next series, and the show 
was revived in 1991. Marc Warren
was cast in the modern remake.

Another repeat run of the second,
seven part season (including
episodes directed by Douglas 
Camfield, whilst Robert Banks Stewart acted as story editor) began
on the Talking Pictures TV channel last night, and featured Lalla Ward,
and twenty-three Doctor Who cast connections:

• Lisa Daniely (Margo here; Mrs. Visser in Series 3) and Jack May (Minister) both starred in The Space Pirates, as Madeleine Issigri and General Nicolai Hermack
• Mark Jones (Martin) was Arnold Keeler in The Seeds of Doom
• Kevin Stoney (Kemeling) and Ian Fairbairn (Grenech) both appeared in The Invasion, as Tobias Vaughn and Gregory - Stoney was also Mavic Chen in The Daleks' Master Plan, Tobias and Tyrum in Revenge of the Cybermen, whilst Fairbairn was Questa in (episode 1 of) The Macra Terror, Bromley in Inferno, and Dr. Chester in The Seeds of Doom (3)
• John Gill (Man) was Mr. Oak in Fury from the Deep
• Donald Pelmear (Vierman) was Professor Rubeish in The Time Warrior
• Richardson Morgan (Bargee) and Rod Beacham (Technician) both starred  in The Web of Fear, as Corporal Blake and Corporal Lane - Morgan was also Rogin in The Ark in Space
• Wanda Moore (Irene) was Dr. Ruth Ingram in The Time Monster
• Dennis Lill (Van Houten here; Roberts in Series 3) was Dr. Fendelman in Image of Fendahl, and Sir George Hutchinson in The Awakening
• Arne Gordon (Reinhart) began his TV career as Hrostar in The Web Planet, and was Guide in The Chase (3)
• Lois Baxter (Emma) was Lamia in The Androids of Tara, and voiced Carrion for Circular Time: Spring (2007)
• Roy Evans (Caretaker) was Trantis in The Daleks' Master Plan, Bert in The Green Death, and Miner in The Monster of Peladon
• John Quarmby (Zondag) was Henry Tobias in K9 & Company
• John Bailey (Huisman) was the Commander in The Sensorites (6), Edward Waterfield in The Evil of the Daleks, and Sezom in The Horns of Nimon (4)
• Ronald Leigh Hunt (Bekker) was Commanders, Julian Radnor in The Seeds of Death, and Stevenson in Revenge of the Cybermen
• Donald Morley (Dr. Stapper) was Jules Renan in The Reign of Terror
• Roy Boyd (Anton) was Driscoll in The Hand of Fear
• prolific Big Finish actor Christopher Benjamin (Mulder) was Sir Keith Gold in Inferno, then Colonel Hugh Curbishley in The Unicorn and the Wasp, but is best known as Henry Gordon Jago in The Talons of Weng-Chiang - a role he reprised for The Mahogany Murders (2009) then the Jago and Litefoot series (from 2010), Voyage to Venus, Voyage to the New World (both 2012), The Justice of Jalxar (2013), Mind Games, The Screaming Skull (both 2014), Stage Fright, The Haunting (both 2015), The Beast of Kravenos, Jago & Litefoot Revival (both 2017), Jago & Litefoot Forever (2018), The Talents of Greel (2019) and Merry Christmas, Mr. Jago (2020) - he also voiced Tardelli for Grand Theft Cosmos (2008)
• David Webb (Leo) was Leeson in Colony in Space (1)
• Jim Norton (Linden here; Hanson in Series 3) voiced Major Thomas Kennet for Scream of the Shalka
• for Dave Carter (Stribos) see Series 1

Doctor Who Vs. King Ralph

Released by Universal in 1991, this minor box-

office hit was shown on Sky Comedy tonight. 

When the entire House of Wyndham is 

electrocuted to death in a freak accident,

the only survivng heir to the British throne

 is revealed as the long-lost, working-class

American, Ralph Jones (played by John

Goodman).

Installed in London, Ralph is then schooled 

as the new monarch by (the real heir)

Willingham (Peter O'Toole) and Phipps

 (Richard Griffiths), but is frustrated by
the traitorous heir apparent, Lord Graves

(John Hurt). The cast of King Ralph also
featured Camille Coduri (pictured as
Miranda) and fifteen other Doctor Who
cast and crew connections:

• Julian Glover (King Gustav) played King Richard in The Crusade, and Scaroth in City of Death
• Ian Gelder (Instructor) was Dekker in Torchwood: Children of Earth, then provided the Remnant voices in The Ghost Monument, was Zellin in Can You Hear Me?, and voiced the Commander for Legend of the Cybermen (2010)
• Leslie Phillips (Halliwell) voiced Robert Knox for Medicinal Purposes (2004) and Assassin in the Limelight (2008) - Phillips also appeared with Hurt in Scandal
• Ann Beach (Mum) voiced the Deacon for Night Thoughts (2006)
• Rudolph Walker (King Mulambon) was Harper in The War Games
• Dallas Adams (MC) was Professor Howard Foster in Planet of Fire
• Angus MacKay (Tailor) was Lord Cardinal Borusa in The Deadly Assassin, and the Headmaster in Mawdryn Undead
• Roger Ashton-Griffiths (Photographer) was Quayle in Robot of Sherwood
• Rodney Cardiff (Servant) was a Draconian Guard in (episode 5 of) Frontier in Space
• Henry Roberts (Researcher) was a Jousting Judge in The King's Demons (1)
• Tina Simmons (Dignitary) began her career as an Inferno Customer in The War Machines (1)
• stunt co-ordinator Greg Powell was the Knight in The Time Monster
• cinematographer Kenneth MacMillan had been a film cameraman on Planet of Evil
• Peter Walpole was also the set decorator on Rose, The End of the World, The Unquiet Dead, Aliens of London and World War Three
• associate editor William Webb also edited Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures

Doctor Who Vs. S.O.S. Titanic

Warner also appeared
in James Cameron's 1997
blockbuster

This Anglo-American production was
originally shown over two nights on ABC
television in September 1979, then
opened in European cinemas.

The TV movie depicts the doomed maiden
voyage of 1912 from the perspectives of
passengers in First, Second and Third
Classes, and was the first Titanic film
released in colour.

Exterior deck scenes on the famed liner
were filmed on board RMS Queen Mary,
whilst TSS Manxman doubled for rescue ship RMS Carpathia. Some interior onboard scenes were recorded in the
Adelphi and Waldorf hotels in Liverpool
and London, and Peel in the Isle of Man 
served as the backdrop for Queenstown.

Shown again on the Talking Pictures channel

 tonight, the film featured David Warner (as

Laurence Beesley), Ian Holm (Bruce Ismay),

David Janssen (John Jacob Astor), Harry
Andrews (Captian Smith), and thirteen 

Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Ed Bishop (Harris) voiced General Finch for Big Finish's Full Fathom Five (2003)
• Tony Caunter (Officer Wilde) was Morgan in Colony in Space, and Jackson in Enlightenment 
• Robert Pugh (Farrell) was Tony Mack in The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood, and voiced Emmett Burrows for Five Twenty-Nine (2016) 
• Maurice Roeves (Stoker Barret) was Stotz in The Caves of Androzani
• Peter Bourke (Harold Bride) was Mr. Chambers in Human Nature
• Alec Sabin (Frederick Fleet) was Ringway in Earthshock
• Malcolm Stoddard (Officer Lightoller) voiced Urtak for The Zygon Who Fell to Earth (2008)
• Phil Davis (Lookout) was Lucius Petrus Dextrus in The Fires of Pompeii, and voiced Titus for The Cannibalists (2009)
• André Maranne (Navratil) was Roger Benoit in The Moonbase
• Nick Brimble (Abelseth) voiced Shreeni for Exotron (2007), Kith for Max Warp (2008), Dudley Jackson for The Eternal Summer (2009), Olaf Ericksson for The Book of Kells (2010), and Commander Harlan for The Conscript (2017)
• Barbara Lane was also the costume designer on The Claws of Axos, The Daemons, The Curse of Peladon, The Time Monster, The Android Invasion, The Seeds of Doom and The Hand of Fear
• gaffer Maurice Gillett was the supervising electrician on both Amicus Dalek films

Doctor Who Vs. We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story

Produced in the same vein as
BBC Two's previous celebra-
tory dramas, The Road to
Coronation Street (broadcast
 in 2010) and An Adventure in

Space and Time (2013), this

film chronicled the troubled

conception of another iconic

British television institution,
namely Dad's Army.
In 1967, actor Jimmy Perry
 (1923-2016) submitted a
script (based on his time in
the Home Guard, entitled
Fighting Tigers) to Michael Mills (BBC Head of Comedy). Perry and his
friend David Croft (1922-2011) were commissioned to write a pilot
episode then a full series. Dad's Army launched in July 1968.
Perry and Croft (portrayed here by Paul Ritter and Richard Dormer)
assembled a now legendary ensemble cast - Arthur Lowe (depicted
by John Sessions), John Le Mesurier (Julian Sands), Clive Dunn

(Mark Heap), John Laurie (Ralph Riach), Arnold Ridley (Michael

Cochrane), James Beck (Kevin Bishop), Kieran Hodgson (Ian
Lavender), and Bill Pertwee (Shane Ritchie).

Dad's Army was watched by over 18 million viewers at its peak and
became one of the best-loved and most successful British sitcoms 

ever. The show endured for nine years, and spawned two films (in 

1971 and 2016), a radio series (1974-76), two stage shows (1975 

and 2007), a newspaper comic strip (1973), and even a musical 

(2004). Presented by Victoria Wood, documentary Don't Panic: 

The Dad's Army Story celebrated the writers' legacy in 2000.

UKTV marked the comedy's golden anniversary in July 2018
with Saluting Dad's Army, and the Gold channel (home to
regular repeats) debuted The Lost Episodes last September.

Croft and Perry later conceived other hit period pieces, It Ain't
 Half Hot Mum (1974-81) and Hi-De-Hi (1980-88). Croft also
collaborated with Jeremy Lloyd and they created Are You Being 
Served? (1972 to 1985) and Allo' Allo' (1982-92).

Originally shown in December 2015 (then repeated on BBC2 to

celebrate fifty years of the comedy), We're Doomed! aired again

today - it featured Keith Allen and seven Doctor Who cast alumni:

• Ritchie voiced Drax for Big Finish's Connections (2022)
• Hodgson voiced Findel for Last of the Cybermen, Arin/Dennis for The Red House, Alam and Hilsee for The Isos Network, Bennus for The Innocent (all 2015), Klick Chervain for The Skin of the Sleek and The Thief Who Stole Time (both 2017), and Devon Pryce for Tales from New Earth (2018)
• Cochrane was Charles Cranleigh in Black Orchid and Redvers Fenn-Cooper in Ghost Light, then voiced Lieutenant Colonel Brook for No Man's Land (2006), Murgat for Brotherhood of the Daleks (2008), Colonel Hugh Spindleton for The Trail of the White Worm and The Oseidon Adventure (both 2012), Professor Chivers for The Time Machine (2013), and Geralk for The Fate of Krelos and Return to Telos (both 2015)
• Sessions provided the voice of Gus for Mummy on the Orient Express, and voiced Tannis for Death Comes to Time, Mozart for 100: My Own Private Wolfgang (2007), and Roland for Castle of Fear (2009)
• Heap voiced the Middleman for The Middle (2017)
• Harry Peacock (Mills) was Proper Dave in Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead
• Roy Hudd (Bud Flanagan) voiced Max Miller for Pier Pressure (2006)