'Radio Times' TV Review of 2021

That venerable publishing colossus, Christmas perennial, and loyal Doctor Who supporter, the Radio Times, has revealed the results of their annual multi-channel survey. Their top fifty shows of the year have been elected by the magazine's TV critics, and Jodie Whittaker's long-awaited third season has been placed at a respectable number forty-four. RT  writer Huw Fullerton comments:

Whittaker’s final full Doctor Who series also proved to be her best, providing the Thirteenth Doctor with a pacy, action-packed adventure full of great cliffhangers, big twists and an all-time great episode in Chris Chibnall and Maxine Alderton’s Village of the Angels.

As the Doctor tracked down the Division, battled Swarm and Azure and tried to hold back the Flux over the course of six interlinked episodes, fans were on the edge of their seats and trying to solve every mystery.

Who were the Mouri? What were Vinder and Bel’s backstories? How did UNIT change, and what did any of it have to do with the absent Time Lords? There was so much going on, it was a surprise they managed to wrap everything up as neatly as they did in the finale.

It wasn’t a perfect series – there were a lot of underdeveloped characters, bizarre plot moves and some strange storytelling decisions – but in the face of COVID disaster, the Who team pulled

off a miracle by creating the pandemic-proof Doctor Who: Flux. Frankly, it’s a rescue the Doctor would’ve been proud of herself.

Doctor Who Vs. Bert & Dickie

This BBC1 film originally aired amid
 the buzz of the London Olympics in
 the summer of 2012, and told the
true story of two Britsh rowers,
thrown together just five weeks
before London's 'Austerity' games
of 1948.

Matt Smith and Sam Hoare port-

rayed the eventual double sculls

gold medallists, Bert Bushell (1921-
2010), and Richard Burnell (1917-

1995). The BBC News site released

a short interview with Smith on his

new role: "Billy's [William Ivory]

writing intersted me. There is

something heroic and victorious
about that story. I'd never got in

a boat before, so that was a

daunting but exciting challenge.

You learn that your body is just

a mechanism, and rowing isn't about pulling, it's about force [and]

pushing. I keep fit [on] Dr. Who but there are many levels of fit. If you watch any rowing final, you see the physical agony they're in after-

wards, it's like they've been hit over the head. Every ounce of your

body, every muscle is used, it's incredible." The drama was repeated

on Drama today - it featured fifteen other Doctor Who cast and crew

connections:

• Hoare [born Simon Patrick Douro] (pictured left) voiced Lucius for AudioGo's Serpent Crest: Tsar Wars (2011), then depicted Douglas Camfield in An Adventure in Space and Time
• Clive [Robert] Merrison (Clement Attlee) was Jim Callum in The Tomb of the Cybermen, and the Deputy Chief Caretaker in Paradise Towers, then voiced Sir Frederick Maltravers for BBV's The Barnacled Baby (2001), and George Augustus for Big Finish's The Contingency Club (2017)
• Adrian Lukis (Burleigh) voiced Officer Bragg for Cobwebs (2010), Byzan for The Children of Seth (2011), Professor Jeffrey Broderick for Counter Measures 1 (2012), Harvey Marsh for The Justice of Jalxar, and Sigmund Freud for Return of the Repressed (both 2013)
• Douglas [William] Hodge (John Bushnell) voiced Edge for Urban Myths, and Radu for Son of the Dragon (both 2007)
• Geoffrey [Dyson] Palmer (Don Burnell) was Masters in The Silurians, the Administrator in The Mutants, and Captain Hardaker in Voyage of the Damned
• Matt Barber (Wood) voiced Ivo Fraser Cannon for It Takes a Thief, and Tom Elliot for Red Planets (both 2018)
• Alexandra Moen (Rosalind) was last seen as Lucy Saxon in The End of Time
• Ron Cook (Albert) was Mr. Magpie in The Idiot's Lantern
• Graham Padden (Hawkins) was Pa in Gridlock
• Kevin Hudson (Wheelwright) had uncredited roles in twenty-nine stories (from The Long Game to The Timeless Children)
• Brian Shelley (Official) voiced Renval and Erys for The Brood of Erys, Roboman for The Traitor, and Tommy Dooley, Harrison and Viyran for The White Room (all 2014)
• Rory Herbert was also script supervisor on A Town Called Mercy, The Power of Three, The Rings of Akhaten, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS and The Name of the Doctor
• costume designer Suzanne Cave and boom operator Sarah How both worked in those capacities on An Adventure in Space and Time too
• Nick Roberts was also ADR recordist on The Time of Angels, Flesh and Stone, The Vampires of Venice, Cold Blood and The Lodger

Doctor Who Vs. Quatermass IV

Mills (1908-2005)
succeeded Reginald
Tate, Brian Donlevy,
John Robinson, André
Morell and Andrew
Keir in the seminal
role

After an absence of twenty years, Professor
Bernard Quatermass (now portrayed by Sir
John Mills) returned to British television in
late 1979. Plans for a fourth Quatermass
thriller were first proposed when BBC2
launched the Out of the Unknown sci-fi
anthology strand in 1965. Then, following
 the success of Hammer's film version of
Quatermass and the Pit in 1967, the studio
announced it was in talks with series creator
Nigel Kneale. A new BBC serial was finally
 commissioned in 1972, but was abandoned
due to mounting production costs. Four years
later, Euston Films acquired the unmade
scripts, and the new drama was eventually
shown episodically on ITV, then as a TV movie
(entitled The Quatermass Conclusion) outside
the UK.
Another repeat run of Thames TV's four-part
sequel (produced by Verity Lambert) con-
cluded on the Talking Pictures TV channel

last night - it featured Simon MacCorkindale,

Barbara Kellerman, and seventeen Doctor

Who cast connections:

• Ralph Arliss [born James] (Kickalong) was Tuar in Planet of the Spiders
• Tony [Dominic] Sibbald (Marshall) was Huckle in Terror of the Zygons
• [William Reginald] Bruce Purchase (Roach) was the Captain in The Pirate Planet
• Neil [Edwin] Stacy (Gough) voiced Major Haggard for Big Finish's Tje Emerald Tiger (2012)
• David [Nicholas] Yip (Chen) was Veldan in Destiny of the Daleks, then voiced Curly and Inspector Yew for The Girl Who Never Was (2007), and Hector for Evolution (2013)
• Donald [Yarrow] Eccles (Chisholm) was Krasis in The Time Monster
• [Thomas] Kevin [Harvest] Stoney (PM) was Mavic Chen in The Daleks' Master Plan, Tobias Vaughn in The Invasion, and Tyrum in Revenge of the Cybermen
• David Ashford (Hatherley) was Dad in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
• Brian [Henry] Croucher (Officer) was Borg in The Robots of Death, and Kurt in Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans
• Stewart Harwood (Driver) made his TV debut as an [uncredited] Daffodil Man in (episode 3 of) Terror of the Autons
• [Thomas] Declan Mulholland (Guard) was Clark in The Sea Devils, and Till in The Androids of Tara
• Trevor Lawrence (Catskin) was Lodge in Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1)
• Walter Henry [born Israel W Nagelkop] (Soldier) was an Extra in The Myth Makers (2) and The Siluruans (6), Primord in Inferno, and Brother in The Masque of Mandragora
• Christopher [Denis] Driscoll (Mugger) was the Security Guard in The Idiot's Lantern
• John [Kenneth] Tatham (Soldier) was Villager/Coven member in The Daemons
• [Frederick] Alan Meacham (Driver) and Fred Wood (Passenger) were Extras on Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD

Doctor Who Vs. The Odessa File

Based on the 1972 novel by espionage writer 

Frederick Forsyth, this thriller told the story of 

journalist Peter Miller's (played by Jon Voight) 

investigation into Holocaust survivor, Solomon
Tauber and the subsequent search for the top
secret Odessa file.
Towards the end of the Second World War,

the Nazi secret society ODESSA was formed

 by members of the SS, among them Eduard 

Roschmann (portrayed here by Maximillian 

Schell), the butcher of Riga concentration 

camp. In 1963, President Nasser of Egypt 

sought to perfect a missile strike to destroy
Israel. His key scientists were mainly 

recruited from Hitler's former rocket

program and Odessa members still intent

on wiping out the Jews.

Released by Columbia in 1974, this Anglo-German film was shown

on TCM tonight - it featured Yorkshire-born actress Mary Tamm

(1950-2012), Derek Jacobi, and two other Doctor Who cast

connections:

• Peter Jeffrey (Porath) and Cyril Shaps (Voice of Tauber) both starred opposite Tamm in The Androids of Tara, as Count Grendel and the Archimandrite - Jeffrey was also the Pilot in The Macra Terror, whilst Shaps was also John Viner in The Tomb of the Cybermen, Dr. Lennox in The Ambassadors of Death, and Professor Herbert Clegg in Planet of the Spiders

Doctor Who Vs. Code of a Killer

This two-part drama from World Productions

centred on the true story of Professor Alex 

Jeffrey's discovery of DNA fingerprinting and 

its first application by Chief Superintendent

 David Baker in catching a double murderer.

Jeffreys (portrayed here by John Simm), a 

pioneering geneticist based at the University 

of Leicester, and DCS Baker (David Threlfall) 

achieved the single biggest leap in criminal investigative history by using the world's

 first mass DNA screening programme, which

 led to the conviction of Colin Pitchfork in 1988.

First screened in April 2015, Code of a Killer

was repeated on ITV last night - it featured

Anna Madeley, and seventeen Doctor Who

cast and crew connections:

• James Strong was also the director of The Impossible Planet, The Satan Pit, Daleks in Manhattan, Evolution of the Daleks, Voyage of the Damned, Partners in Crime and Planet of the Dead
• Big Finish actor Siobhan Redmond (Joy) voiced Talin for Revenge of the Swarm, then the titular renegade for The Rani Elite (both 2014), and Planet of the Rani (2015)
• Paul [Mackriell] Copley (Jeffreys) was Clem McDonald in Torchwood: Children of Earth, and voiced Dad for Spare Parts (2007), and Jimmy Deel for Missing Persons (2013)
• Shirley Dixon (Joan) provided the voice of Skagra's ship for Shada
• Robert Glenister (DCC Chapman) was Salateen in The Caves of Androzani, then played Thomas Edison in Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror
• Andrew Tiernan (DS Taylor) was Mr. Purcell in Night Terrors
• Rakie Ayola (Helena) was the Hostess in Midnight, then voiced Pollia and Countdown for The Lords of Terror (2018), Andrea Davenport for Another Man's Shoes, Andrea for One Mile Down (both 2019), Emma for Red Base (2020), Violet Hardaker for The Blazing Hour (2021), and Dakota Bly for Charlotte Pollard: The Further Adventures (2022)
• Neil Edmond (Ashworth) voiced Boatman, Guard and Blank for Vampire of the Mind, Sarlon, Gorlan and Time Lord for The Two Masters, and Professor Aryan Wyke and Mine Worker for Absolute Power (all 2016)
• Mike Jones was also film editor on twelve episodes (from Rose to Face the Raven)
• Ray Holman was also costume designer on fifty-nine stories (from Blink to Series 13), and Torchwood
• Ian Adrian (2nd Unit DoP) and Sebastian Marczewski (2nd asst. cameraman) both worked on An Adventure in Space and Time, as camera operator and camera trainee respectively
• Ian Fowler was also costume assistant on fourteen episodes (from Into the Dalek to The Husbands of River Song)
• Andrew Mear was costume assistant on The End of the World too
• Simon Marks was also costume supervisor on the whole of Series 9
• Chris Pollard was a stuntman on Robot of Sherwood too
• Tony Lucken was also a stuntman on Dalek, Bad Wolf, The Parting of the Ways and The End of Time

Doctor Who Vs. Ashes to Ashes, Series 3

This month marks a decade
since Kudos' five-year Life On
Mars saga concluded on BBC1.
Another repeat run of the cult
show's sequel series began on
the Drama channel last night.

Keeley Hawes, Philip Glenister,
 Dean Andrews, Marshall
Lancaster, and Montserrat
Lombard all reprised their
respective roles (as DI Alex
 Drake, DCI Gene Hunt, DS
 Ray Carling, DC Chris Skelton,
and WPC Shaz Granger) for
the third season of Ashes to
Ashes, now set in 1983.
The final, eight-part series was originally shown in April and May

2010 - it featured Camille Coduri, and a total of nineteen other

Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• co-executive producer Piers Wenger held that post on twenty-nine adventures (from The End of Time to The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe), Dreamland, The Adventure Games, Space and Time, Doctor Who Confidential, Doctor Who Proms (2010), and The Sarah Jane Adventures
• BBC newsreader Matthew Amroliwala appeared on The Power of Three too
• Roy Hudd (Hardwick) voiced Max Miller for Big Finish's Pier Pressure (2009)
• Beth [Jane] Goddard (Violet) voiced Christine Colley for for The Sontaran Project (2017), Ludina Braskell for Ravenous 1 (2018), Barton for The Moons of Vulpana, Vella for A Photograph to Remember (both 2019), and Sally and Time Lady for Operation Hellfire (2020)
• Frog Stone (Woman) voiced Riva for Hour of the Cybermen (2018), and Waitress for Dying Hours (2023)
• Charles Walters (DC Romeo) was Robert Sleigh in An Adventure in Space and Time
• Daniel [Alan] Mays (Jim Keats) was Alex in Night Terrors
• Bryan Dick (Stafford) voiced the Exec for Theatre of War (2015), and Finnian Valentine for The Devil You Know (2018)
• Peter Guinness (Stafford) voiced Mr. Dread for Dreamland, Childeric for The Holy Terror (2000), Baron Teufel for The Beast of Orlok (2009), and Rovus for The Star Men (2017)
• Lee Ross (DCI Litton here & Life On Mars) was the Boatswain in The Curse of the Black Spot
• Steven Robertson (Thordy) was Pritchard in Under the Lake and Before the Flood
• Lucian [Gabriel Wiina] Msamati (Ndbele) was Guido in The Vampires of Venice
• Matthew Stirling was also a stuntman on The Angels Take Manhattan and The Name of the Doctor
• Jamie Payne was also director of Hide and The Time of the Doctor
• for Joseph Long (Luigi), Geff Francis (Viv), and Simon Archer (cinematographer) see Series 1
• Balazs Bolygo was also cinematographer on The Rebel Flesh, The Almost People and Closing Time
• Matthew Cannings was assistant editor on The Snowmen too, then was editor on The Crimson Horror and The Name of the Doctor

Doctor Who Vs. Vigil, Series 1

World Productions' acclaimed

Scottish crime drama, created

 and written by Tom Edge, was

set on a Royal Navy nuclear

submarine.

Suranne Jones portrayed DCI

Silva, the detective assigned

to a murder investigation on-

board HMS Vigil.

The six-part thriller concluded

on BBC1 last night - it featured

Anjli Mohindra, Rose Leslie,

Shaun Evans, Martin Compston,

and twelve Doctor Who cast and

crew connections:

• Jones played the titular subject in The Sarah Jane Adventures: Mona Lisa's Revenge, then Idris in The Doctor's Wife
• James Strong was also director of The Impossible Planet, The Satan Pit, Daleks in Manhattan, Evolution of the Daleks, Voyage of the Damned, Partners in Crime and Planet of the Dead
• Paterson [Davis] Joseph (Newsome) was Rodrick in Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways, then voiced Victor Espinosa for Earth Aid (2011), and Matthew for Torchwood One: Machines (2018)
• Adam James (Prentice) was DI Macmillan in Planet of the Dead
• Dan Li (Hennessy) was Alexei in The Bells of Saint John, then voiced Grillo Clavik for The Genesis Chamber, Dokan for UNIT: Shutdown (both 2016), and Okada Shumei for The Barbarians and the Samurai (2018)
• Lois Chimimba (Tara) was Mabli in The Tsuranga Conundrum, and voiced Abby McPhail for Redacted, Euphemia for The Undying Truth (2020), and Bartholom for Solitary Confinement (2023)
• Oliver Lansley (Hill) was Jorj in World Enough and Time, and voiced Jack Ridpath for Chapel of Night (2017)
• Bhav Joshi (Deerborne) was Canterbury James Olliphant in Boom
• Andrew Burford was also stuntman on The Eaters of Light, The Doctor Falls, Twice Upon a Time, Kerblam!, The Witchfinders, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos and Spyfall (2)
• Xavier Lake (Trawlerman) was stuntman on The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Revolution of the Daleks and Class
• Alex Balmer was also digital compositor on twenty-nine stories (from Deep Breath to Oxygen) and Class
• Emma Dorward (draughtsperson) was art department trainee on Robot of Sherwood, Time Heist, Flatline, Dark Water and Class

Doctor Who Vs. Ashes to Ashes, Series 2

Another repeat run of BBC1's sequel series

to Life On Mars began on Drama last night.

Keeley Hawes, Philip Glenister, Dean Andrews,

Marshall Lancaster, and Montserrat Lombard

all reprised their respective roles (as DI Alex

Drake, DCI Gene Hunt, DS Ray Carling, DC

Chris Skelton, and WPC Shaz Granger) for the

second series of Ashes to Ashes, now set in

1982. The eight-part season (originally shown

from April to June 2009) featured Endeavour

actors Roger Allam and Shaun Evans, David

Bradley, and a total of forty Doctor Who cast

and crew connections:

• Adrian Dunbar (Summers) voiced McCarthy for Big Finish's Brave New Town (2008)
• Syrus Lowe (PC) voiced Patrice Okereke for The Last Party on Earth (2019)
• Deirdre Mullins (Nurse) voiced Fleet Admiral Effenish for The Very Dark Thing (2016), Naomi Davies for Charlotte Pollard 2, Osen for Beneath the Viscoid (both 2017), Mab for Gifted (2018), Roisin and Spae Wife for Feast of Fear (2019), Amanda Latimer for The Headless Ones (2020), and Dalfin for The War Master 7 (2022)
• Pooky [born Joanna] Quesnel (Ruth) was the Captain in A Christmas Carol
• Joseph Millson (Battleford) was Alan Jackson in the first two seasons of The Sarah Jane Adventures, then voiced Colonel Keelan for Dalek Universe 3 (2021)
• Rory [Michael] Kinnear (Jeremy) voiced Samuel Belfrage for Industrial Evolution (2011)
• Robert Portal (Pattison) voiced Marshal Ney and Finch for The Curse of Davros (2012), Reggie Bassett for The Auntie Matter (2013), Jim and Midge for Lost Property, and Treadwell for Wild Animals (both 2020)
• Adrian Schiller (Lawyer) was Uncle in The Doctor's Wife, and voiced Zanith for Time Works (2006)
• Sara [Scott] Stewart [born Griffith] (Gaynor) provided the Computer voice for The End of the World
• Rita Davies (Mother) voiced Janneus for Primeval (2001), and Tashek for Innocence (2006)
• Ben Bishop (Man) voiced Johnny Stone for The Justice of Jalxar (2013), and Kenny White for Changing of the Guard (2014)
• Tom Georgeson (Mitchell) was Kavell in Genesis of the Daleks, and Police Inspector in Logopolis
• [Celia] Daisy [Morna] Haggard (Donna) was Sophie in The Lodger, Closing Time and Up All Night
• Gwilym Lee (Summers) voiced Count Rolf Wittenmeier for The Silver Turk (2011), Djahn and Lord Edgar Forster for The Emerald Tiger (2012), Pretty Swanson for Spaceport Fear, and Jack Hodges for Phantoms of the Deep (both 2013)
• Sophie Bleasdale (Donna) voiced Luux/Petra for Susan's War 2 (2024)
• John R Walker (Czarnecki) was Cured Patient in New Earth, Injured Man in Evolution of the Daleks, and Sales Rep in Planet of the Ood
• Mark Straker (Doctor) made his TV debut as the Second Trooper in Earthshock
• Michael Gould (Pathologist) voiced Frederick Lindemann for The Oncoming Storm (2016) 
• Greg Donaldson (Guard) voiced Telligan for Dalek Empire 3 (2004), Coach Bela Destry for The Game (2005), and David for Power Play (2012)
• Simon Sherlock (Bent Copper) voiced Kelsa for The Raincloud Man (2008)
• Sophie Duval (Cleaner) was Mum in Resolution
• Chris Pollard (Doyle) was a stuntman on Robot of Sherwood
• new line producer Patrick Schweitzer first worked on the revived series as location manager on The Runaway Bride, then was production manager on six stories for Series 3, and produced all thirteen episodes of Series 5
• Simon Archer was cinematographer on The Lodger too
• Toby Wood (score engineer) and Ian Adrian both worked on An Adventure in Space and Time - Adrian was also a camera operator on The Vampires of Venice, The Hungry Earth, Cold Blood, Vincent and the Doctor and The Lodger 
• production co-ordinator Holly Pullinger was PM on The Eleventh Hour, The Time of Angels, Flesh and Stone, The Vampires of Venice and Vincent and the Doctor
• stunt co-ordinator Crispin Layfield has held that post on sixty-seven instalments of the revived series (from Smith and Jones to Kerblam!)
• Stephanie Carey was also a stunt performer on Voyage of the Damned, The Beast Below, The Curse of the Black Spot, Let's Kill Hitler, The Girl Who Waited, The Angels Take Manhattan and The Crimson Horror
• for Hawes, Geff Francis, Joseph Long, Matthew Graham, Beth Willis, Julie Scott, Catherine Morshead, Edmund Butt, Simon Blackledge, Antonia Grant and Derek Lea see my blog for Series 1

Doctor Who Vs. The Pale Horse

The Queen of Crime's fifty-second
crime novel (serialised then pub-
lished in 1961) featured novelist
Ariadne Oliver. She also appeared
in seven other books (from 1936
to 1972), but was omitted from
both of ITV's adaptations of The 
Pale Horse (shown in 1997 and
2010), and Mammoth Screen's

version.
The mystery was also dramatised
twice for BBC Radio, in 1993 and
2014. BBC1's most recent Agatha

Christie thriller (another screen-

play from Sarah Phelps) was first

shown in February 2020. The full,

two-part version was repeated on

BBC4 last night - it featured Rufus Sewell, Kaya Scodelario, and twenty-

one Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Bertie [born Robert] Carvel (Osborne here; Max Mallowan in Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures) was the Mysterious Man in The Lazarus Experiment
• Sean [Carl] Pertwee (DI Lejeune here; Oglander in The King of Clubs; Dr. Griffith in The Moving Finger, 2006; Stubbs in Dead Man's Folly, 2013) made a cameo appearance in The Five(ish) Doctors
• Claire Skinner (Yvonne here; Amy in A Murder is Announced, 2005; Miss Rich in Cat Among the Pigeons;) was Madge Arwell in The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
• Sarah Woodward (Clemency here; Jane in Death in the Clouds) voiced Theodora for Secret History (2015), Vesh Taralesh for Stolen Goods (2018), and Anla Jessik for The Quest of the Engineer (2020)
• James [Edward] Fleet (Venables here; Carter in The Secret Adversary; Scudamore & Sherston for Absent in the Spring) voiced O'Reilley for Max Warp (2008), Geoff Cooper for The Entropy Composition, and Martin Ashcroft and Sir Jack Merrivale for Special Features (both 2010)
• Nicky Goldie (Mrs. Coppins here; cast in Witness for the Prosecution, 2024) voiced the Spillager Empress for Winter for the Adept, Valeria Hedone for The Fires of Vulcan (both 2000), Inquisitor Danby for Excelis Rising (2002), and Polk for The Moonrakers (2020)
• stunt co-ordinators Dani Biernat and Crispin Layfield both worked on the revived run
• Matt Hermiston was stuntman on The Woman Who Fell to Earth too
• Charlotte Mitchell (costume designer here; assistant on Poirot) was costume assistant on Love & Monsters, then supervisor on Blink and Turn Left
• David Key was also camera assistant on six adventures (from Last Christmas to Twice Upon a Time)
• Joanne Pearce (art director) was prop buyer on The Return of Doctor Mysterio, The Pilot, Smile and The Doctor Falls
• James Moss was also camera operator on The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky and Torchwood
• Matt Sanders (art director was draughtsman on ten episodes (from the 2016 Christmas special to Twice Upon a Time) and artist on Class
• Gareth Webb (3rd Crowd AD) was floor runner on Hide, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, Nightmare in Silver and The Name of the Doctor
• Shirley Schumacher was also focus puller on The Beast Below and Victory of the Daleks
• Dewi Jones (sound first assistant) was boom operator on The Five (ish) Doctors Reboot
• Mark Turner was SFX supervisor on The Long Game too
• Ben Blackall was also stills photographer on twenty stories (from The Woman Who Fell to Earth to The Timeless Children)
• Luke Jefferson was first assistant camera on Death in Heaven too
• Monty Till (location manager) was unit manager on eight episodes (from The Snowmen to The Time of the Doctor)

Doctor Who Vs. Ordeal By Innocence

Published in late 1958, the Queen

of Crime's fifty-seventh mystery

novel was one of the author's favourite works and is now

considered a classic of the genre. 

Cannon Films' adaptation of Ordeal

By Innocence was released in 1985,

followed by ITV Studio's treatment 
for Marple in 2007. 
This version was scripted by Sarah

Phelps, writer of And Then There

Were None and Witness for the Prosecution.

When allegations of sexual assault 
were levelled at actor Ed Westwick 
his role was recast and makers 
Mammoth Screen returned to 
Scotland to reshoot the drama. The whole, three-part thriller (event-

ually shown in April 2018 after a four-month postponemnet) was

repeated for BBC4's Agatha Christie season last night - it featured

Anna Chancellor, Anthony Boyle, Luke Treadaway, Alice Eve,

Matthew Goode, and eleven Doctor Who cast and crew alumni:

• Bill [Francis] Nighy (Leo Argyll here; Marsh in Thirteen at Dinner) played Dr. Black in Vincent and the Doctor
• Morven Christie (Kirsten here; Elsie in The Labours of Hercules) was Alice O'Donnell in Under the Lake and Before the Flood
• Christian [Louis] Cooke (replaced Westwick as Mickey) was Private Ross Jenkins in The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky
• Eleanor Tomlinson (Mary) was Eve in The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Mad Woman in the Attic
• Brian McCardie (Gould) voiced Alan Weir for Big Finish's Masters of Earth (2014)
• Gary Hoptrough was also stuntman on The Runaway Bride and Let's Kill Hitler
• stunt co-ordinator Tony Lucken was stuntman on Dalek, Bad Wolf, The Parting of the Ways and The End of Time
• Adam Recht was film editor on A Christmas Carol too
• Gerry Glynn and David Kneath were also SFX technicians on four- teen episodes (from Kill the Moon to Twice Upon a Time) and six- teen others (from Into the Dalek to The Husbands of River Song)
• conductor Dave Foster was a musician on over a hundred stories (from Voyage of the Damned to

Doctor Who Vs. Ashes to Ashes, Series 1

 

"My name is Alex Drake. I've been shot and that bullet's

taken me back in time. Now I'm lost in 1981. All I can do

is fight, and search, and stay alive. Because somehow I

will find a way home."

The sequel series to Life On Mars was also produced by Monastic and 
Kudos for BBC Wales. Keeley Hawes now led the cast as another out-
of-time detective, DI Alex Drake - a colleague of recently deceased

DCI Sam Tyler. Philip Glenister, Marshall Lancaster and Dean Andrews

 all reprised their roles (as DCI Gene Hunt, DC Chris Skelton and DS

Ray Carling respectively), and were also joined by newcomer

Montserrat Lombard (as WPC Shaz Granger).

Ashes to Ashes (referencing another David Bowie song) was co-

created by Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah, and centres 

on a present-day Metropolitan Police inspector, Drake who is shot 

and regains consciousness in 1981. Like its predecessor, the period

 setting was lovingly recreated against a rich backdrop of social

 history, and more importantly here, the music of the early eighties.

Another repeat run of the first six-part season (originally trans-

mitted from January 9 to February 27 2008) began on Drama

last night - it featured a total of forty Doctor Who cast and crew

connections:

• Hawes played Ms. Delphox in Time Heist 
• Graham was also writer of Fear Her, The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People
• series producer Beth Willis was an executive producer on Doctor Who Confidential, The Adventure Games and twenty-seven stories (from The Eleventh Hour to The Wedding of River Song)
• Julie Scott was also a BBC production executive on seventy-seven instalments (from The Runaway Bride to Last Christmas), Time Crash, Doctor Who Proms, Blood of the Cybermen, City of the Daleks, Dreamland, Music of the Spheres, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures
• Jonny Campbell was also director of The Vampires of Venice and Vincent and the Doctor
• Catherine Morshead was also director of Amy's Choice and The Lodger 
• Adam James (Markham) was DI Macmillan in Planet of the Dead
• Joseph Long (Luigi) was Rocco Colasanto in Turn Left, and the Pope in Extremis
• Geff Francis (Viv James) was George [Maitland] in The Bells of Saint John
• Roy [William] Skelton (voice of Rainbow puppets Zippy and George) voiced Daleks, Monoids, Cybermen and Krotons for the classic series, and was Norton in Colony in Space, James in (episode 5 of) The Green Death, Chedaki in The Android Invasion, and King Rokon in The Hand of Fear
• Rupert Graves (Moore) was John Riddell in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
• Paul Thornley (Kay) voiced the Computer and Marko for Seven Keys to Doomsday (2008), Gomori and Steward for Paper Cuts, Michael Rond for Fitz's Story (both 2009), and Robbie Flint and Cyril for Criss-Cross (2015)
• Sid Mitchell (Dane) was Pickens for The Haunting of Thomas Brewster (2008)
• Christopher Fairbank (Bonds) was Fenton in Flatline, and voiced Doc Baroque for The Scapegoat (2009), Pierre Aronnax for The Wreck of the Titan (2010), and Marc Brunel for Iron Bright (2018)
• Callum Dixon (Thief) was Jarva Slade in Kerblam!
• Amelda Brown (Elaine) voiced Margaret for The Gunpowder Plot
• Nik Howden (Youth) was Maurice in Vincent and the Doctor
• Claire [Louise] Rushbrook (Trixie) was Ida Scott in The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit, then voiced Tula Chenka for Escape from Kaldor (2018) and The Robots (2019-21), and the Abbess and Marna for Out of Time 1 (2020)
• Leo Bill (Burns) was the Pilot in A Christmas Carol
• Tracy Wiles (Girl) voiced Moira Brody for Masters of Earth (2014), Jacqui McGee for UNIT: Extinction (2015), UNIT: Silenced (2016), Death on the Mile (2018), Narcissus, The Power of River Song (both 2019), Outback and Longshot (both 2021), Commander Barnac for The Neverwhen (2016), Ground Control and Secretary for Their Finest Hour, Sharlan for The Invention of Death, Hadway, Salma and V75 for Escape from Kaldor (all 2018), Drones for The False Guardian and Time's Assassin, Announcer and Coms for State of Bliss, Marzanna and Engel for Nightmare Country (all 2019), Tryana for Return to Skaro, Ren, SV66 and Gat for The Robots 2 (both 2020), and Draven, Shira and Sentinel for The Shadow Squad (2021)
• Lucy [Jane] Briers (Patty) voiced Jenny Chaplin for After the Daleks (2021)
• Jeanie Gold (Partygoer) was Neighbour in The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky and The End of Time (1)
• Russell [George] Tovey (Johnstone) was Midshipman Alonso Frame in Voyage of the Damned, The End of Time (2) and for One Enchanted Evening (2017)
• Phil Davis (Cale) was Lucius Petrus Dextrus in The Fires of Pompeii, and voiced Titus for The Cannibalists (2009)
• Madhav Sharma (Chatterjee) was Patel in Frontier in Space (3)
• Troy Glasgow (Ska Boy) was Angelo in The Time of Angels
• Geoffrey [Dyson] Palmer (Lord Scarman) was Edward Masters in The Silurians, the Administrator in The Mutants (1), and Captain Hardaker in Voyage of the Damned 
• Paul Anderson (Suspect) made his TV debut in The Christmas Invasion as Jason
• [Michael Thomas] Jeremy Clyde (Chief Super) voiced George Sinclair for Absent Friends (2016), and Lord Braye for Planet of the Drashigs (2019)
• David Schaal (Look-a-like) voiced Sergeant Zogroth and Bus Driver for The Star Beast (2019)
• Sean Clayton was second assistant director on Dalek and Father's Day too
• Derek Lea was also a stuntman on Dalek, Bad Wolf, The Parting of the Ways, The Age of Steel and Partners in Crime
• Gary Hoptrough and Rob Hunt were both stuntmen on The Runaway Bride - they also worked on Let's Kill Hitler and The Day of the Doctor respectively
• Christine Greenwood was make-up designer on Remembrance of the Daleks too
• film editor Jamie Pearson also edited nine episodes (from The Eleventh Hour to The Angels Take Manhattan)
• Edmund Butt was the composer on An Adventure in Space and Time too
• Matt Wood (visual effects supervisor) and Simon Blackledge (VFX artist) both worked on A Town Called Mercy and The Power of Three - Wood also worked on The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
• Antonia Grant was also the location manager on The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords