On Acting (Part Two) - Doctor Who, Out Of The Unknown & Crossroads

Why didn’t you return to the programme as Captain Turner?

I was asked to go back, but I couldn’t. I had been out of work for a while when I was offered the opportunity to join the Chichester Festival Theatre for a season – back on stage again! I had signed the agreement, and literally three or four days later I received a call about the possibility of returning as Captain Turner. I was badly disappointed that I couldn’t go back to Doctor Who.

So, you would have returned to the show otherwise?

Of course! I was thinking, “I’m playing one of the principal characters, this is a dream!”

Were you aware at the time that The Invasion was seen as a pilot for a potential new format for Doctor Who?

No. We had no idea. We just knew that, for its time, this was a really big production of Doctor Who. We knew it was important because it had a big budget. We were all just glad to be working!

Did you enjoy making The Invasion?

Sometimes a group of actors are cast and get together and it works – everybody gets on, and everybody enjoys working together. It’s great when that happens because it doesn’t always. But when it does it really helps. At the time it made quite an impact, and The Invasion has since become iconic. And, of course, now I’ve been animated! There aren’t many actors that have been animated! It’s been fun to see those missing episodes of us all in animated form.

And I remember the big action sequence we shot on location by St Paul’s in the City Of London. The classic sequence when the Cybermen came up through the manholes and the invasion was on! It was a hectic Sunday shoot and a tight schedule. Douglas was at his disciplinarian best and we had to be fully concentrated and on our marks from dawn to dusk. I had my 3-year-old son bought to watch the filming. To this day, when Ashley walks in the street he always avoids manhole covers!

Are you surprised that Doctor Who is still running after all these years?

Back in the sixties, I knew that Doctor Who was popular, but it was just another teatime series in those days. But when you look at the quality that started to develop, I can understand exactly how it survived and has been revived successfully and is now part of television’s cultural history. Especially because people like Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis really came along at just the right time. It was exciting.

Actually, back in the 90s, the private bank Coutts & Co. had a financing division for film and television. They were going to be part of the finance to produce a fantasy film called Rainbow in 1994. In the end they didn’t back us, for various reasons. But my son and I got to know the guy who was running the film division very well, and he asked us if we could come up with some ideas for reviving Doctor Who. Contacts of his were looking at how to reimagine the programme, as the BBC were at that time looking to freshen it up with outside partners. So, we were sort of semi-commissioned to come up with ideas and storylines for the new Doctor Who.

We did some work on the project at a time when there was no definite decision to bring it back. Especially after Steven Spielberg’s involvement fell through and a Doctor Who TV movie didn’t turn out too good. The BBC delayed longer any decisions on a revival. Who knows what happened to our work!

Why have you never given an interview about your time on Doctor Who?

I don’t think I had ever realised how iconic Doctor Who had become - even when I started getting offers to sign autographs and talk to the fans some years ago. And the other thing is that I was so involved in writing and producing my own films and television over the years. You start from scratch with a script, and it demands 100% dedication to get it developed, produced, and released, whilst everything else from the past was something I just hadn’t got time for, which I know now was a mistake – I should have made time.

I still get fan letters which somehow find me wherever I am in the world. I came to Montreal a few years ago because of a tv series and was sharing an office with a local producer. One day his assistant approached and said that there was a letter for me, which was a surprise since I’d only been there a few weeks and not yet given out the mailing address. It was a fan letter from Sweden asking for a signed photo and telling me she’d followed my career since Doctor Who, and would I ever be coming to Sweden! I was left thinking, how on earth did she find me here? How does that happen?

I’d put my acting past aside, because for the last forty years it’s been film and television writing and producing. That’s been my life, behind the camera.

You also featured in many television programmes that continue to attract a great deal of interest – do you remember of your appearance in Out Of The Unknown?

Yes, I do! Peter Sasdy directed an episode called The Midas Plague. I didn’t have a big part, but he really gave me encouragement. He tried to cast me in other things, but again I was in the theatre a lot. Peter was a very talented director, and Out Of The Unknown was an interesting series. At the time, I felt that they were making some brave television, adapting classic science fiction short stories, as well as getting contemporary authors on board to write some of the episodes.

You were also featured in, and wrote for, the afternoon soap opera Crossroads?

I was in a few episodes of Crossroads in 1973. Noele Gordon was a difficult woman to work with - some of the regulars dreaded going into rehearsal if she was in a bad mood. I also discovered that the audience took the show very seriously. Although I was only in three of episodes, I immediately had a fanbase. I used to wonder how people could be so dedicated to an afternoon series like Crossroads and believe that the characters were real.

What made me realise how seriously some people took a programme like Crossroads was when the character of Sheila Harvey, played by actress Sonia Fox, was heavily pregnant with an illegitimate child. Sonia and I were in a Birmingham department store, paying at the counter, when a woman came rushing up to her and punched her in the stomach. She was shouting “I hope you lose the f*****g child, you whore!” I remember helping to pull this woman off her. Sonia was dazed and in pain. The woman really did believe in the character. It was a shocking moment. After this I always made an effort to reply to fan letters!

Peter Ling (who was co-creator and main writer of the soap) asked me one day if I had ever written anything. I showed him a script, and he called and offered me a chance to join the writing team. At that time, I was a single dad, and I couldn’t do much TV or theatre, so I joined the team for six months – until Noele Gordon got me sacked!

I thought I would like to bring an element of light and fun into the storylines, as well as all the drama. It went down well with everybody, except Noele Gordon. Comedy was always a thing that I’ve loved and enjoyed writing, but she didn’t like my style of comedy, and felt that some of the characters that I had created with the team in the writers’ room were not to her taste! We developed the character of Benny Hawkins, which was quite brave at the time, but she didn’t like it at all. So that was the end of me on the team, and Peter Ling reluctantly had to let me go.

Why did you quit acting?

I quit finally because I was a single dad, and I couldn’t cope with theatre as well as television and film as a single father. I’ve never regretted it, but I’ve always missed it. Ironically, I have missed acting on stage more than television. Work that one out - after my young dreams of being a film star!

On Acting (Part One) - Beginnings & Doctor Who

Interview with Robert Sidaway, parts of which were originally published in Doctor Who magazine in June 2022.

How did your acting career begin?

When I started, I initially wanted to be in television and film, but because of my voice and stature I started getting a lot of work in theatre - and it was frustrating because I was crazy in wanting to be a movie star! In fact, after graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art at the age of 21, I turned down the Royal Shakespeare Company. I auditioned for Peter Hall at the Aldwych Theatre, and he said “Would you like to join our family?”, and I said yes. But after, when I went and sat in a coffee bar in the West End, I wrote a letter saying that reluctantly I had to decline his offer. I posted it, and then went back to my bedsit in Earls Court. I don’t know why I did it, and I was really worried as one of his associates, who had promoted me, called to tell me he would make certain “I never worked in theatre again!”

But when I got home that same evening, I was told a friend of mine had called. It was Donald Sutherland, who I was at drama school with. He was in repertory at Chesterfield Civic Theatre, and had been offered a Hammer film, and would I take over from him. So instead of joining the RSC, I ended up in Chesterfield Rep for four months, taking all the parts that Donald was originally going to play!

Soon my career took me to the West End, and gradually television parts started to come, but even then I was frustrated as I was only offered upright policemen and good guys. I wanted the same kind of meaty stuff that I could get in the theatre!

What do you recall of working with William Hartnell?

William Hartnell was on an island of his own. He had terrible trouble learning his lines. On The Savages the rehearsals were above a pub in Shepherd’s Bush, and I can remember we were all waiting for him to arrive so that we could start rehearsals again in the afternoon. He eventually turned up looking terrible, as he’d managed to get into a fight in the pub! I also remember he had a wicked temper. He wasn’t the easiest of people to work with, very spiky, so we were not all that surprised when he came back with his face knocked-up, and plasters across his eye. But we still recorded the episode at the end of the week, and the makeup department managed to hide his injuries!

The one person he did get on with was Peter Purves, and I think that was because they’d been working together for some time. Peter was a big help for him.

What can you remember of the production?

I have very little memory of it. I can remember how helpful and friendly Peter Purves was, I really enjoyed working with him. I played a character called Avon, and I had a girlfriend in the story called Flower. We were referred to as the ‘beautiful people’, which caused us constant laughs! I do remember Kay Patrick, who played Flower, was a real professional and generous to work with. Interesting that we both have had long careers behind the camera.

The Savages was directed by the legendary Doctor Who director Chris Barry, do you recall what it was like to work with him?

He was a very thoughtful and gentle person, very good with actors. He was very loyal to the script, but also a really creative director. I was horrified to hear that he had died because of an accident on an escalator at a shopping mall.

What memories do you have of working with Patrick Troughton?

Patrick Troughton was a little bit distant to the guest cast, but he was such a professional. Nothing was too much trouble for him. When you were acting with him, he was always generous to a fault, and would do anything to help you in a scene. He’d give his all to you. But offscreen, he had his mates, Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines and they were very tight. He took the load of the work all the time, and he wasn’t your chum - he didn’t have the time to be. But that was fine, he was completely different from William Hartnell.

And Wendy Padbury?

Wendy was just the loveliest of people, full of energy and very welcoming to those of us who were part of the guest cast for The Invasion. And Frazer was always one of us. There was a lot of laughter during the weeks the main cast worked together.

Can you recall any incidents from the location action sequences?

Mad Mike was flying the helicopter in the rescue sequence. As Captain Turner, I was with him in the helicopter. As he was flying over the crew, he suddenly said to me: “Let’s give them a scare, let’s just drop!” He switched off the rotor blades, and the helicopter started to fall and fall and fall. I was terrified, and I could see everybody scattering below. At the last minute, he turned the blades on again and up we went. I nearly passed out!

He got absolutely slammed for it by Douglas Camfield, the director, because they all thought we were about to crash. I remember remarking afterwards how fortunate it was that there was insurance, because it could have been pretty awful. The production manager said that no, we weren’t actually insured if anything went wrong! So that was quite a day.

Sally Faulkner played your love interest in the story.

Sally was a really lovely actress to work with, I enjoyed being her character’s “dolly soldier!”

She’s a natural actor, never any ego, just loved acting and giving her best. I always thought she could have been a name in comedy. But I remember she was absolutely mortified in the sequence when she was climbing the rope ladder during the helicopter escape and the wind got hold of her skirt. She was told that they’d got some wonderful shots. However, a lot of them were cut as her bottom was deemed unsuitable for early evening television!

The Invasion marked the second appearance of Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart – how do you remember him?

As a good actor friend! He never took things too seriously and had a great sense of humour. He was totally professional, and he enjoyed his work. We used to tease him on set that his moustache always managed to look different every day! I spent a lot of time with Nicholas, and I saw him once or twice afterwards. He was just a genuine guy, an actor’s actor. I’d like to have kept in touch with him.

The Invasion was directed by the legendary Douglas Camfield, what are your recollections of working with him?

He was ex-army, and everything was meticulously rehearsed. He was a really precise person in all he did. He was also an absolute disciplinarian, but he had to be – The Invasion was a big production. Because of his army connections he was able to bring in army consultants and soldiers to do some of the big action scenes. The studio work was incredibly difficult, because it was something of a spectacle for Doctor Who at that time.

Douglas had absolutely no sense of humour, he used to get so irritated by the amount of fun and laughter we had. People would intentionally turn up a few moments late to do something on purpose, to rile him, because he was such a disciplinarian! He could lose his temper with us because it was a real exercise, there were so many extras involved. It was a big production for then.

I was actually the last to be cast. I remember going to the production offices in Shepherd’s Bush to audition for the part. Douglas was difficult to talk to, he didn’t say much. He asked me to read a scene, and I read it. He looked at me and said “yes, well, ok!” He wouldn’t look at me, so I assumed that it was going to be the usual story of ‘we’ll be in touch’. And then he stood up, and almost saluted, and said: “We start rehearsing next week.” And I said, “So I’ve got the part?” He nodded and I actually did feel that I ought to salute! I remember walking out into Shepherd’s Bush thinking that I’d just had the easiest audition ever!

I got to know him and his wife Sheila very well. I had dinners with them and kept in touch. I was absolutely devastated when he died so early. Technically he was a damned good director. Not that good with actors, but they respected him, and he got what was needed because there was that respect. You wouldn’t wrap your arm around him or share a joke with him, but you did respect him, and that was a good thing for a production like The Invasion.