The actress Barbara Shelley, one of the icons of 1950s and 1960s screen horror and described by her agent as the ‘technicolour queen of Hammer,’ has died at the grand age of 88. Considered a great beauty in her day, Shelley appeared in over 100 films and numerous television roles, including Doctor Who and Blake’s 7. As Sorasta in Planet of Fire (1984) Barbara Shelley was born Barbara Kowin on…

It was announced yesterday that Maurice Roëves has died at the age of 83. He had been in poor health for some time. Roëves played a single, but notable role in the Doctor Who universe: the cynical and brutal gun runner Stotz in the Fifth Doctor’s spectacular finale, The Caves of Androzaniin 1984. But in real life this was a minor note in a six-decade career, during which he frequently capitalised…

The DWC are sad to report that the actor Peter Miles has died at the age of 89. Miles made three memorable appearances in Doctor Who. In 1970 he played Dr. Lawrence in the second Third Doctor serial The Silurians. Lawrence was the director of the Wenley Moor nuclear research facility, who refused to aid UNIT’s investigations before he met a memorable end when he succumbed to the Silurian virus.…

The DWC is sad to announce that Rodney Bewes has passed away aged 79. Bewes will be familiar to Doctor Who fans as Stien from the Fifth Doctor story Resurrection of the Daleks, however, he’s best known to British audiences for playing Bob Ferris in 1960’s sitcom The Likely Lads and its sequel Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads? In 1964 Bewes won the role of Ferris, the working class boy made…

Terribly out of work and supplementing his income between acting jobs, Thomas Stewart Baker wrote a pleading letter to William Slater in February 1974 looking for a part. The contents of that letter remain somewhat elusive, as they should. The date in which it was sent to seems to have been mislaid. Baker himself said he posted it on a Monday. The only certainty to come from that correspondence…