Doctor Who Vs. Watch the Birdies

William Nicholas Stone Courtney (1929-

2011) had failed to land the part of King Richard

for The Crusade, but director Douglas Camfield

would soon cast him as Bret Vyon in The Daleks'

Master Plan.

Camfield then provided Courtney with his first

 lead role on TV, as photographer Bill Page in

this drama.

When the actor due to play Captain Knight in

The Web of Fear, David Langton dropped out

of the role of Colonel Lethbridge Stewart,

Courtney was 'promoted' by the director.

The long-lost BBC2 thriller centred on the

investigations of DI Clayton (played by

Nicholas Selby, also later considered as

Langton's replacement as the Colonel) into

the London underworld. The five-part series, broadcast in June and July 1966, also featured these twelve Doctor

Who cast and crew connections:

• producer Alan [James] Bromly (1915-1995) was director of The Time Warrior and Nightmare of Eden
• Camfield (1931-1984) was production assistant on 100,000 BC and Marco Polo, then director of fifty-two further instalments (from episode 3 of Planet of Giants to The Seeds of Doom)
• [Thomas] Kevin [Harvest] Stoney (Bergmann) and [Ernest] Edward Dentith (Crawford) both appeared opposite Courtney in The Invasion, as Tobias Vaughn and Major General Billy Rutlidge respectively - Stoney also played Mavic Chen in The Daleks' Master Plan, and Tyrum in Revenge of the Cybermen
• Wanda Ventham (Irene), Madalena Nicol (Countess) and Gilly Fraser (Waitress) all starred in The Faceless Ones, as Jean Rook, Nurse Pinto and Ann Davidson - Ventham was also Thea Ransome in Image of the Fendahl, and Faroon in Time and the Rani
• Royston Tickner (Attendant) and [Jocelyn] Paula Topham (Recept- ionist) both starred in The Daleks' Master Plan (7), as Steinberger P Green and Vamp - Tickner was also Robbins in The Sea Devils (1)
• Terry Wright (Dragos) was a Cheerleader in The Macra Terror (4), and White Robot in The Mind Robber
• Jo Rowbottom (Marcia) was Mollie Dawson in The Evil of the Daleks
• Sarah Lisemore [born Gee] (Extra) was a Shelterer in The Enemy of the World