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