Doctor Who Vs. The Vault of Horror

Shown on Talking Pictures TV last

night, this British anthology horror

film was made by Amicus Prod-

uctions, and like their previous

portmanteau feature, Tales from

the Crypt (1972), it was based on

stories from the EC Comics series.

The title was co-produced by Max

Rosenberg, directed by Roy Ward

Baker (A Night to Remember,

Quatermass and the Pit), and

comprised five original tales all

written by Milton Subotsky.

Released by Fox in 1973, Vault 
of Horror featured Tom Baker
 (pictured as Moore in the fifth segment, Drawn and Quartered), Denholm Elliott, Glynis Johns, Edward Judd, Daniel Massey, Terry Thomas,

and these fourteen Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Anna [Raymond] Massey (Donna) voiced Miss Pollard for Big Finish's The Girl Who Never Was (2007)
• Erik Chitty (Walter) was Charles Preslin in (episode 1 of) The Massacre, and Co-ordinator Engin in The Deadly Assassin
• Terence [Joseph] Alexander (Breedley) was Lord Ravensworth in The Mark of the Rani
• [Rupert] John [Blanchflower Featherstone] Witty (Gaskill) was the Computer Voice for The Seeds of Death
• Michael [Francis] Craig [born Gregson] (Maitland) was Commodore Travers in Terror of the Vervoids
• Sylvia Marriott (Mrs. Breedley) was Lexa's Follower in Meglos
• Tony Wall (Painter) was Napoleon Bonaparte in The Reign of Terror (6)
• Roy Evans (Passerby) was Trantis in The Daleks' Master Plan, Bert in The Green Death, and Miner in The Monster of Peladon
• George A Cooper (deleted scenes) was Cherub in The Smugglers
• Richard Atherton (Man) was Lama in The Abominable Snowmen, Prison Officer/Inspector in The Mind of Evil, Noble in The Androids of Tara, and Passenger in Time Flight
• Anthony Lang (Vampire) was an Egyptian Slave in The Daleks' Master Plan, Extra in The Highlanders (1) and The Faceless Ones (1), Time Lord in The Three Doctors (1), and Kaled Councillor in Genesis of the Daleks
• Oswald Hafenrichter was film editor on Dr. Who and the Daleks too
• Anthony Waye (assistant director) and Bill Waldron (construction manager) held those posts on both Daleks films

Doctor Who Vs. Agatha Christie, Part 1

"Loss-of-memory cases are rare, but occasionally

genuine" The Disappearance of Mr. Dagenham (1924)

First screened in September 2004, BBC2 celebrated the life and

career of the Queen of Crime (1890-1976) with the drama, A Life

in Pictures.

Agatha's story was told in flashback, from her perspective at two

distinct times in her life - through the sessions with her psychiatrist (following her disappearance in 1926), and then via interviews at the

tenth anniversary of The Mousetrap in 1962. Much of the film focused

on her notorious disappearance, after her first husband Archie Christie

 had asked Agatha (portrayed by Olivia Williams) for a divorce. Whilst

some contemporary commentators suggested a publicity stunt, the

doctor here concluded that the writer had experienced a fugue state,

 and her amnesia was genuine. In 1999, Hercule Poirot and the Disappearing Novelist (part of BBC2's documentary series, The Great Detective) also supported that diagnosis.

Sky Arts' Agatha Christie Vs. Hercule Poirot later examined the

novelist's flight in the context of the reception to her latest work,

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Gareth Roberts' story, The Unicorn and the Wasp also depicted the

events (albeit fictional) leading up to Agatha's flight. By the end of

 the episode, the action had moved from the Queen of Crime's

atypical setting - the English country house - to Silent Pool, where

her car was actually found abandoned. Here, the Doctor deduced

 that the incident caused Agatha's memory loss.

A Life in Pictures (last repeated by the BBC in 2008, then shown

on Drama in 2019) is now available on Britbox - it featured Mark

Gatiss, Bonnie Wright, and seven Doctor Who cast and crew

connections:

• Anna [Raymond] Massey (Older Agatha here; Narrator of Death on the Nile, 1976; Miss Pebmarsh in The Clocks) voiced Miss Pollard for Big Finish's The Girl Who Never Was (2007)
• Raymond [Anthony] Coulthard (Archie Christie here; Raymond West for The Case of the Perfect Maid) voiced Loki/Edgar/Hawks for Cobwebs (2010), Ralph/Acolyte for Suburban Hell (2015), and Robac/Servers/Dalmari for The Destination Wars (2017)
• Anthony O'Donnell (Kenward/Poirot) was Commander Kaagh in The Sarah Jane Adventures: Enemy of the Bane and The Last Sontaran
• Bertie [born Robert] Carvel (Max Mallowan here; Osborne in The Pale Horse, 2020) was the Mysterious Man in The Lazarus Experiment
• Olivia Darnley (Nurse here; Cherry in The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, 2010) voiced Emily Cole for Prisoner of the Ood (2018), and made a cameo appearance in The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
• Tim McMullan (Pharmacist here; Meredith in The Witness for the Prosecution, 2016) voiced the Eight for Doom Coalition 3 (2016)
• Mick Pantaleo was also the first assistant director on A Christmas Carol, The Doctor's Wife and Night Terror, then producer on Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar and Agatha and the Midnight Murders

The Mysterious Case of Agatha Christie (part of Sky's Urban

Myths strand) aired in April 2018, and featured seven other

Doctor Who links:

• Anna [born Charlotte] Maxwell Martin (Christie here; Sophia for Crooked House, 2008; Ethel in And Then There Were None, 2015) was Suki Macrae Cantrell in The Long Game, then voiced Maddie Bower for The Diary of River Song 2 (2016)
• Bill Paterson (Conan Doyle here; Bradley in The Pale Horse, 2010) was Dr. Edwin Bracewell in Victory of the Daleks and The Pandorica Opens
• Rosie Cavaliero (Dorothy L Sayers here; Bunch for Sanctuary & Tape-Measure Murder) voiced Cassie Schofield for Project: Twilight (2001) and Project: Lazarus (2003), and Marge Ellmore for Infamy of the Zaross (2017)
• Mark Bonnar (Billy here; Alfred for 4.50 from Paddington, 1997) was Jimmy in The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People, then voiced Heath Porteus for The English Way of Death (2015), Zoltan Frid for The Labyrinth of Buda Castle (2016), and the Eleven for Doom Coalition, Ravenous, Dark Universe (2020) and UNIT: Nemesis 1 (2021)
• Adrian [Philip] Scarborough (Danders) was Kahler Jex in A Town Called Mercy and The Making of the Gunslinger, and voiced Rupert Von Thal for The Boy That Time Forgot (2008)
• Tor Clark (Angela) was a Teacher in Let's Kill Hitler
• Alex Kaye Besley was second assistant director on The Shakespeare Code too