The Underwater Menace

Lords of the dance: the Fish People

Four episodes (Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4)
First broadcast Dec 17 1966 to Jan 7 1967
Average audience for serial: 7.48m

• A guide to the guest cast is at the bottom of this entry. An episode by episode review of this story can be read at Time Space Visualiser here.

REGULAR CAST

Patrick Troughton (The Doctor) Mar 25 1920 to Mar 28 1987 (heart attack) See Patrick Troughton's entry on The Power of the Daleks

Anneke Wills (Polly) Born Oct 20 1941 For a full career biography for Anneke Wills, click here.

Michael Craze (Ben Jackson) Nov 29 1942 to Dec 7 1998 (heart attack) For a full career biography for Michael Craze, click here.

Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon) Born Sep 22 1944 Click here for Frazer Hines's entry on The Highlanders

GUEST CAST

Paul Anil (Jacko) 1936 to Dec 29 2014
Career highlights
Paul's other work includes It Happened Like This (1963), The Avengers (1963), The Troubleshooters (1968), Juliet Bravo (1981), The Jewel in the Crown (1984), A Passage to India (1984) and The Bill (1988).

Graham Ashley (Overseer) Apr 26 1927 to Oct 30 1979
Career highlights
Graham debuted in The Pickwick Papers (1952), followed by roles in Stryker of the Yard (1957), The Tell-Tale Heart (1960), The Young Detectives (1963), Danger Man (1966), Steptoe and Son (1970), Billy Liar (1974), Churchill's People (1975), Porridge (1974-75), Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1976), Holding On (1977), Adventures of a Private Eye (1977), Scorpion Tales (1978), Adventures of a Plumber's Mate (1978) and Licensed to Love and Kill (1978). The roles he will be most remembered for, however, are Tommy Hughes in Z Cars (1958-62), Mr Garfield in Grange Hill (1979) and the small but remembered part of Gold Five (aka Pops and Davish Krail) in Star Wars (1977).

Joseph Furst (Professor Zaroff) Feb 13 1916 to Nov 29 2005
Career highlights
Prolific Viennese-born actor who debuted on screen in Encounter (1953), followed by Counter-Attack! (1960), Ghost Squad (1961), 55 Days at Peking (1963), The High Bright Sun (1964), Theatre of Death (1967), Hammerhead (1968), Goodbye Gemini (1970), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Luke's Kingdom (1976), A Country Practice (1982), Special Squad (1984) and Tusitala (1986).
Facts
Joseph originally studied in law before becoming an actor.

Tony Handy (Zaroff's guard) Born Jul 2 1934
Career highlights
Tony also had roles in United! (1966), The Three Musketeers (1966-67), The White Rabbit (1967), The Informer (1967) and All Gas and Gaiters (1969).
Facts
Tony later moved into public relations.

Catherine Howe (Ara) Born May 17 1950
Career highlights
Catherine's other work includes Undermind (1965), Z Cars (1971), Private Road (1971) and Can You Keep It Up for a Week? (1975).
Facts
What Cathy did next... In 1971 Catherine recorded an album called What a Beautiful Place, but just before its release, the record company went bust, and the music remained largely unheard until its belated release in 2007. However, Catherine's singing career did not fade, and she went on to become a successful folk singer-songwriter, albeit one often regarded as overlooked ("Catherine Howe was a Kate Bush before her time" - Observer, 2007). In 1975 she released her second album Harry, the title song from which won an Ivor Novello Award, and was also seen singing during the opening credits of the film Can You Keep It Up for a Week?. Her 1976 album Silent Mother Nature won the Sunday Times' Folk Album of the Year. In 1977 Catherine produced and sang the songs for the BBC series That's Life! She also worked with Ennio Morricone and Piero Piccioni. In the 1980s Catherine's singing career came to an end, but was revived again in 2002 with her fifth album, Princelet Street. In 2012, having secured a first class degree in history and religion through the Open University, Catherine wrote a book on the life of the 19th century secularist George Holyoake. A second book followed, Halifax 1842: A Year of Crisis (2014), about the history of her hometown of Halifax.

Colin Jeavons (Damon) Born Oct 20 1929
Doctor Who credits
Played: Damon in The Underwater Menace (1967)
Played: George Tracey in K9 & Company (1981)
Career highlights
Colin debuted in Nom-de-Plume (1956), then appeared in The Black Arrow (1958), The Life and Death of Sir John Falstaff (1959), Great Expectations (1959), Bleak House (1959), David Copperfield (1966), Adam Adamant Lives! (1966), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), The Oblong Box (1969), Doomwatch (1971), Billy Liar (1973-74, as Shadrack), Schizo (1976), The Fuzz (1977), The Old Curiosity Shop (1979-80), The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981), Kinvig (1981), Great Expectations (1981), Jane Eyre (1983), Bleak House (1985), Absolute Beginners (1986), Blackeyes (1989), The Blackheath Poisonings (1992) and The Man Who Cried (1993). He may be best remembered as the wily Tim Stamper in the political thriller House of Cards (1990) and its sequel To Play the King (1993). Colin also presented the children's series Play School for a time in the late 1960s.
Facts
Colin's son Barney was manager of the heavy metal band Reuben, and in 2007 Colin came out of retirement to appear (with full bushy beard) in the video for the band's single Blood, Bunny, Larkhall.

Noel Johnson (Thous) Dec 28 1916 to Oct 1 1999
Doctor Who credits
Played: Thous in The Underwater Menace (1967)
Played: Charles Grover MP in Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974)
Career highlights
Debuted in Highly Dangerous (1950), then Appointment with Venus (1951), Ivanhoe (1958), An Age of Kings (1960), The Spread of the Eagle (1963), It's a Woman's World (1964), David Copperfield (1966), The Golden Age (1967),Husbands and Lovers (1970), Fraud Squad (1970), Colditz (1972), Warship (1974), Frightmare (1974), Oil Strike North (1975), Shadows (1978), Buccaneer (1980), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Harry's Game (1982), Withnail & I (1987), Inspector Morse (1990) and A Touch of Frost (1997). Noel was the first actor to play sleuth Dick Barton in the BBC radio series (1946-49), a role he reprised for the BBC's jubilee celebrations in 1972. He also voiced Dan Dare for Radio Luxembourg between 1951-56, and on TV played J M Osborne in A for Andromeda (1961) and The Andromeda Breakthrough (1962).

Peter Stephens (Lolem) Jan 3 1920 to Sep 17 1972
Doctor Who credits
Played: Cyril in The Celestial Toymaker (1966)
Played: Knave of Hearts in The Celestial Toymaker (1966)
Played: Kitchen boy in The Celestial Toymaker (1966)
Played: Lolem in The Underwater Menace (1967)
Career highlights
Further appearances were in No Other Verdict (1955), The Count of Monte Cristo (1956), Fair Game (1958), Oliver Twist (1962), Martin Chuzzlewit (1964), Danger Man (1966), Adam Adamant Lives! (1967), Herostratus (1967), The Avengers (1969), Z Cars (1971), Doctor in Charge (1972) and Arthur of the Britons (1973).

P G Stephens (Sean) 1923 to May 13 2014
Career highlights
Debuted in Pat's Private Angels (1957), followed by The Exiles (1959), The Secret Kingdom (1960), Our Man at St Mark's (1964), A Farewell to Arms (1966), The Newcomers (1967), The Liver Birds (1971), Once Upon a Time (1973), I Didn't Know You Cared (1978), The Kenny Everett Television Show (1983), The Doctor and the Devils (1985), Only Fools and Horses (1986), Ticket to Ride (1989) and The Bill (1995).
Facts
The "P G" stood for Patrick Gerard.

Gerald Taylor (Damon's assistant) Oct 11 1940 to Dec 4 1994 Click here for Gerald Taylor's entry on The Daleks

Ralph Watson (Technician) Jan 20 1936 to Jun 20 2021
Doctor Who credits
Played: Technician in The Underwater Menace (1967)
Played: Captain Knight in The Web of Fear (1968)
Played: Ettis in The Monster of Peladon (1974)
Played: Ben in Horror of Fang Rock (1977)
Career highlights
His first credit was Front Page Story (1965), then The Three Musketeers (1966), The Anniversary (1968), Barlow at Large (1973), Edward the Seventh (1975), Battle of the Sexes (1976), When the Boat Comes In (1976), Dave Allen At Large (1976-78), Hazell (1979), One By One (1985), Prospects (1986), Boon (1989), Spender (1992), The Glass Virgin (1995), Shooting Fish (1997), A Soldier's Tunic (2004) and Casualty (2007).
Facts
In the early 1980s Ralph worked as a teacher in London.
In 2016 Toby Hadoke released his Who's Round interview with Ralph here.

Tom Watson (Ramo) Mar 21 1932 to Aug 18 2001 (cancer)
Career highlights
Debuting in The Chertsey Apprentice (1956), then Kenilworth (1957), Kidnapped (1963), Martin Chuzzlewit (1964), The Flying Swan (1965), Spindoe (1968), Take Three Girls (1969), Brett (1971), The New Road (1973), The Ghosts of Motley Hall (1977), The Standard (1978), The Nightmare Man (1981), Taggart (1983/85), Prime Suspect 2 (1992), Highlander (1994), Cardiac Arrest (1994-95), Hamish Macbeth (1997), All Along the Watchtower (1999), Brotherly Love (2000) and Two Thousand Acres of Sky (2001).
Facts
Tom had been a heavy drinker in the 1970s, but gave up alcohol in 1979 and his career found renewed life. In 1997 he produced an anthology of poetry entitled Dark Whistle. Here's a 1989 interview with Tom from Scottish Television.

Roma Woodnutt (Nola) Aug 15 1925 to Nov 17 1997
This is Roma's only known acting credit, although it is known that prior to her death she worked for the Society of Authors, in particular alongside the estate of George Bernard Shaw.

CREW

Geoffrey Orme (writer) Jun 10 1904 to Jan 21 1978
Career highlights
Geoffrey's screenwriting career began with 1936's Sunshine Ahead, followed by Talking Feet (1937), Let the People Sing (1942), Here Comes the Sun (1946), The Last Load (1948), Delayed Action (1954), Ivanhoe (1958), Interpol Calling (1959), The Avengers (1963), No Hiding Place (1965) and The Long Duel (1967). However, he might be best remembered for writing several Old Mother Riley films between 1941-43.

Julia Smith (director) May 26 1927 to Jun 19 1997 (cancer)
Doctor Who credits
Directed: The Smugglers (1966), The Underwater Menace (1967)
Career highlights
Julia's directing career began with Suspense in 1963, followed by Swizzlewick (1964), the soap Compact (1965), The Railway Children (1968), Dr Finlay's Casebook (1963-69), The Newcomers (1966-69), Z Cars (1971-74), Angels (1975-76), Katy (1976), EastEnders (1985-89) and Civvy Street (1988). While becoming a respected director she also worked as producer on many of the same shows, as well as The District Nurse (1984/87) and Medics (1990). Along with Tony Holland, she also helped create the BBC soaps EastEnders in 1985 (which she also produced 1985-89) and Eldorado (1992-93).

Innes Lloyd (producer) Dec 24 1925 to Aug 23 1991 Click here for Innes Lloyd's entry on The Celestial Toymaker

Gerry Davis (script editor) Feb 23 1930 to Aug 31 1991 Click here for Gerry Davis's entry on The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve

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