Doctor Who Vs. Cadfael, Series 2

Thirteen of The Cadfael Chronicles (the

series of medieval murder mysteries from

Ellis Peters - pen name of Edith Pargeter),

were dramatised by Central TV, and first

shown between 1994 and 1998.

The drama, set mainly in twelfth century

Shrewsbury, was filmed in Hungary, and

the eponymous Benedictine Brother was

portrayed by Derek Jacobi.

A repeat run of the three part season

began on ITV4 today - it featured Sean

Pertwee, Michael Culver, Julian Firth, and

a total of fourteen Doctor Who cast and

crew connections:

The Virgin in the Ice

• Robert Cavanah (de Bretagne) voiced President Gilbert for Big Finish's Saltwater (2022)
• Ronan [David Jackson] Vibert (Le Gaucher) was Professor Skinner in The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Last Sontaran, and voiced Ravener for Jago & Litefoot 12 (2016), and Zaal for The Perfect Prisoners (2019)
• Tim Barker (Dutton) was Harold V in The Happiness Patrol
• Jamie McCoan was film editor on Blink too
• Lisa Pickering (make-up artist) was assistant on (part 4 of) Warriors' Gate

The Devil's Novice

• Julian [Wyatt] Glover (Ashby) played King Richard in The Crusade, and Scaroth in City of Death
• Ian McNeice (Canon) portrayed Winston Churchill in The Beast Below, Victory of the Daleks, The Pandorica Opens and The Wedding of River Song, then reprised for Big Finish's The Churchill Years, Their Finest Hour (2018), Subterfuge and Operation: Hellfire (both 2020) - he also voiced Zeus for Immortal Beloved (2007), and Reginald Harcourt for Renaissance Man (2012)
• Ian Reddington (Clemence) was the Chief Clown in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy - a role reprised for The Psychic Circus (2020) and AUK Studios' Children of the Circus (2023) - and voiced Nobody No One for A Death in the Family (2010)
• Christien [Alexis] Anholt (Meriet) was Perkins in The Curse of Fenric

A Morbid Taste For Bones

• John [William Francis] Hallam (Rhysart) was Light in Ghost Light
• Ellis Jones (Ianto) was Radar Technician/voice of Dr. Lomax in Spearhead from Space (1)
• for Pertwee, Terrence Hardiman and Sarah Badel see Series 1

Doctor Who Vs. Carry On Cowboy

Series stalwarts Sid James, Kenneth

Williams, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey,

and Jim Dale all returned for the

eleventh production in the iconic

Carry On franchise. Angela Douglas

and Peter Butterworth (1919-1979)

made their series debuts here.

After the historical panto that was

Carry On Cleo (1964), the next title

in the run was an ambitious Western

inspired by The Sheriff of Fractured

Jaw (1958), where Kenneth More

played an Englishman in the Wild

West.

Shown on ITV3 today, the comedy

(released in late 1965) featured Jon Pertwee (pictured left as Sheriff Earp

- his second series role), and twenty-nine Doctor Who cast connections:

• Peter [William Shorrocks] Butterworth (Doc here; Slobotham in Carry On Screaming!; Bidet in Don't Lose Your Head; Simpson in Follow That Camel; Smith in Carry On Doctor; Belcher in Carry On Up the Khyber; Fiddler in Carry On Camping; Patient in Carry On Again Doctor; Various in Carry On Christmas (1969/1973), Carry On Stuffing & Carry On Laughing; Client in Carry On Loving; Earl in Carry On Henry; Pepe in Carry On Abroad; Admiral in Carry On Girls; Tom in Carry On Dick; Barnes in Carry On Behind; Carstairs in Carry On England; Richmond in Carry On Emmannuelle) was the Meddling Monk in The Time Meddler and The Daleks' Master Plan
• Douglas (Annie here; Doris in Carry On Screaming!; Lady Jane in Follow That Camel; Jelhi in Carry On Up the Khyber) was Doris Lethbridge Stewart in Battlefield
• for Bresslaw see Carry On Nurse
• for Peter Gilmore see Carry On Cleo
• for Billy Cornelius see Carry On Screaming!
• for Fred Wood see Carry On at Your Convenience
• David Ashton [born David Scott] (Rider) was Kendron in Timelash
• Bill Brandon (Horseman) was an uncredited Mongol Warrior in Marco Polo
• John Cam (Patron) and Bryan Mosley (Rider) both appeared in The Daleks' Master Plan, as Technix and Prop Man [Buddy Windrush]/ Malpha
• Simon [born Terence] Cain (Short here & That's Carry On; Riff in Follow That Camel; Orderly in Carry On Doctor & What a Carry On!; Soldier in Carry On Up the Khyber; X-Ray Man in Carry On Again Doctor; Barman in Carry On at Your Convenience) was Curly in (episode 1 of) The Enemy of the World, and titular reptile in The Silurians
• Alf Mangan (Townsman here; Assistant in Don't Lose Your Head; Burpa in Up the Khyber; Camper in Carry On Camping; Audience in Carry On Girls) was an Extra in Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 AD
• Tim Condren (Rider) was Saxon Warrior in The Time Meddler (4), Soldier in The Web of Fear (4), and Guerilla in Day of the Daleks (1)
• Billy Dean and Raymond Novak (Riders) were Guard in The Curse of Peladon (1); and Saracen Warrior in The Crusade
• Reg Dent (Rider) was Horseman in The Highlanders (1) and The War Games (3)
• Rick Lester (Rider) was an Ogron in Day of the Daleks, Carnival of Monsters (2) and Frontier in Space
• Steve Emerson (Rider) was UNIT Soldier in The Claws of Axos (1), and Rebel in Frontios (3)
• Peter Pocock (Rider) was a Soldier in The Tenth Planet (4), and Guard in The Masque of Mandragora (1)
• Norman Stanley (Drunk) was Engineer in Terror of the Autons (3)
• Johnny Scripps (Rider) was Foot Soldier in The War Games (3)
• Roy Street (Rider) was UNIT Motorcyclist in Terror of the Autons (1), Guad in The Curse of Peladon (4), and stuntman on The Masque of Mandragora (1)
• Michael Stevens (Horseman here; Orderly in Carry On Again Doctor; Man in Carry On Henry; Monk in Carry On Abroad; Policeman in Carry On Dick) was Soldier in The Myth Makers (1), Daffodil Man in Terror of the Autons (3), Prisoner/UNIT Motorcyclist in The Mind of Evil, and Guard in The Curse of Peladon (1)
• Chris Webb (Cowboy) was a Monoid in The Ark, and Guard in The Curse of Peladon (1)
• Rocky [born Laurie] Taylor (Rider) was Warrior in The Daleks' Master Plan (9), Guard in The Curse of Peladon (4), then stuntman on The Idiot's Lantern
• for Maxwell Craig and Bernard Barnsley see Carry On Jack
• for Mick Dillon see Carry On Henry
• for Reg Thomason see Carry On Sergeant

THE RIPPER AND THE WHONIVERSE, Part 2

Analysing Doctor Who: Matrix, by Robert

Perry and Mike Tucker (BBC Books, 1998)

When the novel's narrative first moves to London's

'Autumn of Terror' (page 63), East End local, Jed

Barrow has been following "shadows" in the fog for

months, and had even heard the "strangled

screams" of the second Ripper victim at Hanbury

Street [2] in Spitalfields (we can dismiss the pea-

soup fog here - it was never foggy during any of

the attacks). Jed also watched the police search

of the yard at number 29, and even "found two

gold rings".

In fact, two brass rings were apparently taken by

the killer from Chapman's left hand, but never

recovered (similar cheap rings were discovered

amongst suspect Francis Tumblety's belongings

after his death in 1903).

Jed later meets Jacques Malacroix, the tyrannical

circus-owner, at Mitre Square in Aldgate, as the

police remove Eddowes' [4] body. Malacroix wants

to find the Ripper to display with his other freaks, and so employs Jed as

his "eyes".

There had already been a murder that night, the first of the so-called

'double event' when a prostitute had been "cut from ear to ear". This

was the victim's only injury since the killer was supposedly disturbed

by Louis Diemschutz, and he needed to sate his bloodlust by seeking

another kill. The murder of this third canonical victim [3] has led to

further speculation that she wasn't slain by the Ripper at all, but by

a copycat killer (or that this single murder was hidden amidst the

series).

Nearly six weeks later, Jed witnesses the arrival of the TARDIS at a

Thames-side wharf, and recalls similar magical scenes at Mr. Jago's

Palace Theatre (p. 69, see The Talons of Weng-Chiang). Coming

under immediate mental attack, the Doctor explains to Ace that

according to the distorted version of history (studied from Barbara

Wright's books in 1966), a sixth Ripper murder, one that should

never have happened, occurs on the very wharf where the duo

have landed (p. 72).

 Coincidentally, former detective John F Plimmer is convinced that

Jack was based in docklands (In the Footsteps of the Whitechapel

Murders, 1998). In 2005, Trevor Marriott named German merchant

seaman, Carl Feigenbaum, as the killer, and even speculated that

the murderer had first struck in 1863, then 1872.

In channel Five's Mapping Murder (2002), however, geographical

profiler David Carter speculated that Jack's lair was located in the

Middlesex Street area - the actual site of Ripper 'diarist' James

Maybrick's London rooms.

This would-be victim, a young woman wearing a cream dress

(presumably the one that Ace changed into at Gabriel Chase, see

Ghost Light) was never identified, and the subsequent 'Jacksprite' 

incidents spiralled out of control. Interestingly, the Ripper episode 

of The Outer Limits (1999) features a victim credited only as a

 "woman in [a] cream dress".

ITV mini-series Jack the Ripper (1988) also includes a sixth

 (staged) murder attempt, whilst From Hell (2001) reinterprets

the fifth canonical killing by presenting the murder of a French

prostitute mistaken for Kelly [5].

TO BE CONTINUED

KEY Canonical Murders:

[1] Mary Ann Nichols - Buck's Row, Friday August 31st 1888

[2] Annie Chapman - Hanbury St. Saturday September 8th

[3] Elizabeth Stride - Berner St. Sunday September 30th

[4] Catherine Eddowes - Mitre Square, also September 30th

[5] Mary Jane Kelly - Miller's Court, Friday November 9th