The Faceless Ones

A fond farewell to Ben (Michael Craze)
and Polly (Anneke Wills)

Six episodes (Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6)
First broadcast Apr 8 to May 13 1967
Average audience for serial: 7.38m

An episode by episode review of this serial 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

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

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.

GUEST CAST

James Appleby (Policeman) Jan 1 1923 to Mar 9 2014
Doctor Who credits
Played: Guard in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1966, uncredited), The Masque of Mandragora (1976)
Played: Policeman in The Faceless Ones (1967)
Career highlights
James debuted in An Enemy of the State (1965), then The Troubleshooters (1967/68), Hine (1971), My Name is Harry Worth (1974),  Fawlty Towers (1975), Our Mutual Friend (1976), Bless This House (1972/73/74/76), Shoestring (1979), Potter (1983), Bluebell (1986), and The Countess Alice (1992).

Pauline Collins (Samantha Briggs) Born Sep 3 1940

Doctor Who credits

Played: Samantha Briggs in The Faceless Ones (1967)

Played: Queen Victoria in Tooth and Claw (2006)

Career highlights

After starting out as a teacher, Pauline first emerged in Emergency Ward 10 (1963), and went on to appear in The Corridor People (1966), The Three Musketeers (1966), The Liver Birds (1969, as Dawn), Wodehouse Playhouse (1975-76), The Black Tower (1985), Shirley Valentine (1989), Paradise Road (1997), Mrs Caldicott's Cabbage War (2000), Bleak House (2005), From Time to Time (2009), Merlin (2010), Mount Pleasant (2011-12), The Time of Their Lives (2014), Dickensian (2015-16) and Ernestine and Kit (2016). Pauline enjoyed regular roles as Clara Burrell-Danby in No, Honestly (1974-75), Sarah Moffat in both Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-75) and Thomas and Sarah (1979), Harriet Boult in Forever Green (1989-92) and Harriet Smith in The Ambassador (1998-99). She also narrated the cartoon series Little Misses and the Mr Men (1983).
Awards
1988: Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a New Play (Shirley Valentine)
1989: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Shirley Valentine)
1990: BAFTA Film Award for Best Actress (Shirley Valentine)
2001: Officer of the order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to drama

Facts

Pauline turned down the chance to appear in Doctor Who as a regular companion when she appeared as Samantha Briggs in 1967. In 1973 Pauline recorded a single called What Are We Going To Do With Uncle Arthur?, which was sung by her Upstairs Downstairs character Sarah several times in the series. Pauline won countless awards for her role as Shirley Valentine on the stage, before she reprised the role for the film version, for which she was nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe. She is married to actor John Alderton, and their daughter is actress Kate Alderton. Pauline has another daughter called Louise, with actor Tony Rohr, who she gave up for adoption in 1963 because she was penniless. They were reunited in 1985, and Pauline wrote a book about the experience, called Letter to Louise.
This is Your Life: Pauline was the subject of Thames TV's This is Your Life on April 5th, 1972, surprised by host Eamonn Andrews while on location filming a trailer for Upstairs, Downstairs in Belgravia, London.

Gilly Fraser (Ann Davidson) Born Mar 24 1939
Career highlights
Gilly also appeared in Watch the Birdies (1966), Champion House (1968), The Morecambe and Wise Show (1969), The Liver Birds (1971) and A Warning to the Curious (1972).
Facts
Gilly is also a writer (as Gilly Fraser Lester), and was for a time married to Peter Purves (aka Steven Taylor in Doctor Who).

Colin Gordon (Commandant) Apr 27 1911 to Oct 4 1972
Career highlights
Sri Lanka born Colin appeared in around 100 productions, beginning with 1947's Jim the Penman and including Golden Arrow (1949), The Man in the White Suit (1951), Up to His Neck (1955), The Green Man (1956), Don't Tell Father (1959), The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960), Don't Bother to Knock (1961), Hancock (1961), Night of the Eagle (1962), Strongroom (1962), The Pink Panther (1963), The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), Casino Royale (1967), Oh, Brother! (1968), Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River (1968), Department S (1970), UFO (1970), Bachelor Father (1970) and Steptoe and Son (1962/72). As well as playing regular character John Alexander Templeton-Green in The Baron (1966) and Walpole Gibb in Hine (1971), Colin also played Number Two in two episodes of The Prisoner (1967).
Facts
Colin's first wife Sidney Short divorced him for adultery in 1943. The Cheltenham Chronicle reported: "A few years after their marriage [in 1936] there were financial troubles between them and her husband left her. She asked him to return to her for the sake of their only child, but in 1941 he admitted being in love with another woman, an actress in his company." His second wife was actor and playwright Zena Howard, who he married in 1945, but for the last 20 years of his life, Colin lived with actress and writer Gwen Cherrell. Colin was appearing in the Jack Popplewell play Darling, I'm Home in Johannesburg, South Africa (alongside Cherrell), when he was taken ill and flown home to the UK, where he passed away.

Bernard Kay (Inspector Crossland) Feb 23 1928 to Dec 25 2014
Doctor Who credits
Played: Carl Tyler in The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964)
Played: Saladin in The Crusade (1965)
Played: Inspector Crossland in The Faceless Ones (1967)
Played: Caldwell in Colony in Space (1971)
Career highlights
Bernard's first acting job was in ITV Television Playhouse (1957), followed by Carry on Sergeant (1958), The Avengers (1962), Compact (1964), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Breaking Point (1966), Witchfinder General (1968), The Hunting Party (1971), Warship (1974), Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), Accident (1978-79), The Gentle Touch (1982), The Bill (1984), Remington Steele (1987), Bomber Harris (1989), Century Falls (1993), Jonathan Creek (1997), Foyle's War (2002), Harry Hill's TV Burp (2008), Casualty 1909 (2009) and Psychosis (2010).
Facts
Bernard began as a reporter on the Manchester Guardian and Bolton Evening News in the 1940s. In 2006 he won the creative non-fiction prize of the New Writing Ventures Awards for his account of life growing up in 1930s/40s Bolton. Between 1963-77 (until her death) Bernard was married to actress Patricia Haines (first wife of Michael Caine).
In 2013 Toby Hadoke released his Who's Round interview with Bernard here.

Michael Ladkin (RAF Pilot) Mar 3 1945 to Apr 17 2017
Michael's only other credit is in Deja Vu (1985). He later became an actors' agent, including for Kate O'Mara (aka the Rani).

Madalena Nicol (Nurse Pinto) Dec 25 1919 to Nov 6 1996
Career highlights
Brazilian-born Madalena's other credits include Grande Teatro Tupi (1951-52), International Detective (1961), Watch the Birdies (1966) and The Champions (1968).
Facts
She was also a director of stage and screen back home in Sao Paulo, and worked for a time as a drama teacher in Texas, USA.

Brigit Paul (Announcer)
Career highlights
Other work includes David Copperfield (1966), Vanity Fair (1967) and The First Churchills (1969).

Donald Pickering (Captain Blade) Nov 15 1933 to Dec 19 2009
Doctor Who credits
Played: Eyesen in The Keys of Marinus (1964)
Played: Captain Blade in The Faceless Ones (1967)
Played: Beyus in Time and the Rani (1987)
Career highlights
Donald's prolific career began with an appearance in Woman in a Dressing Gown (1956), after which he took roles in Sykes in a ... (1964), Gideon's Way (1965), A Challenge for Robin Hood (1967), Barlow At Large (1971), The Pallisers (1974), Wings (1977-78), Zulu Dawn (1979), Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson (1980, as Watson to Geoffrey Whitehead's Holmes), The Professionals (1982), Yes, Prime Minister (1986), Executive Stress (1986-87), The Camomile Lawn (1992), Lovejoy (1994), The Brittas Empire (1997), Heartbeat (2001) and Holby City (2004).
Facts
Donald once said in an interview that he did not recall ever working on The Keys of Marinus!

George Selway (Meadows) Feb 21 1924 to May 1994
Career highlights
George's earliest credit was Saloon Bar (1947), followed by The Only Way (1948), New Ramps for Old (1956), The Secret Place (1957), Tiger Bay (1959), The Spread of the Eagle (1963), A Tale of Two Cities (1965), The Gamblers (1967), Paul Temple (1970), Jason King (1972), All Creatures Great and Small (1978) and The Gentle Touch (1980). He played the regular role of Mr Campbell in And Mother Makes Three (1971-72) and Tom Humphries in Beryl's Lot (1976-77).
Facts
George married actress Patricia Greene (best known as Jill Archer in radio soap The Archers) in 1959, but they later divorced.

Christopher Tranchell (Jenkins) Born Apr 13 1941
Doctor Who credits
Played: Roger in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1966)
Played: Jenkins in The Faceless Ones (1967)
Played: Andred in The Invasion of Time (1978)
Career highlights
Christopher's other credits include The Whisperers (1961), 199 Park Lane (1965), Out of the Unknown (1971), Churchill's People (1975), Survivors (1975-76, as Paul Pitman), County Hall (1981), Casualty (1992/93), Between the Lines (1993) and The Bill (1987/96), and he also presented Playschool (1976-84).

Leonard Trolley (Superintendent Reynolds) Jan 1 1918 to Feb 10 2005
Career highlights
Leonard first appeared in Rebecca (1947), then Prelude to Fame (1950), Destination Downing Street (1957), Jane Eyre (1963), A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), Tales of Unease (1970), Jason King (1971), Turnbull's Finest Half-Hour (1972), The Zoo Gang (1974), One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (1975), London Belongs To Me (1977), Dick Barton: Special Agent (1979), The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981), Jane (1982), The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Consuming Passions (1988) and Come Home Charlie and Face Them (1990). He also had a regular role as Shaab in Crane (1964-65).

Wanda Ventham (Jean Rock) Born Aug 5 1935
Doctor Who credits
Played: Jean Rock in The Faceless Ones (1967)
Played: Thea Ransome in Image of the Fendahl (1977)
Played: Faroon in Time and the Rani (1987)
Career highlights
Wanda is a stalwart of British TV and film, first appearing in 1956's Teenage Bad Girl. Over her long career she popped up in The Navy Lark (1959), Carry On Cleo (1964), Hit and Run (1965), The Likely Lads (1965), The Avengers (1965), Death is a Woman (1966), The Prisoner (1967), Carry On Up the Khyber (1968), The Blood Beast Terror (1968), A Family at War (1970-71), The Troubleshooters (1967-71), Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1974), Rutland Weekend Television (1975), Emmerdale Farm (1976), Fallen Hero (1978-79), The Two Ronnies (1980), Union Castle (1982), Don't Wait Up (1987), Executive Stress (1986-87), Capstick's Law (1989), Only Fools and Horses (1989-92, as Rodney's mother-in-law (coincidentally, her husband in this is played by Denis Lill, who she plays against in Image of the Fendahl)), Next of Kin (1995-96), Heartbeat (1996-97), Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1998), Coupling (2001), Oscar Charlie (2001-02), Mrs Caldicott's Cabbage War (2002), Lewis (2007), Run for Your Wife (2012), Sherlock (2014/17, as Sherlock's mum - which she is, of course!), Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016), Father Brown (2018), Holby City (2018), Departure (2019) and Penance (2020). She regularly played Shirley in The Rag Trade (1962-63), Virginia Lake in UFO (1970-73) and Ann Shepherd in The Lotus Eaters (1972-73).
Facts
Wanda's son is actor Benedict Cumberbatch (best known for Sherlock), and her husband actor Timothy Carlton. Wanda is a collector of barn owl memorabilia.

Peter Whitaker (Inspector Gascoigne) Feb 12 1921 to Nov 24 2002
Doctor Who credits
Played: Inspector Gascoigne in The Faceless Ones (1967)
Played: Weather station worker in The Seeds of Death (1969, uncredited)
Played: Thal politician in Genesis of the Daleks (1975, uncredited)
Played: Mentiad in The Pirate Planet (1978, uncredited)
Played: Grecian man in Four to Doomsday (1982, uncredited)
Played: Onlooker in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988, uncredited)
Career highlights
Peter's other credits included Compact (1962/63), Taxi! (1963), Adam Adamant Lives! (1966), The First Churchills (1969), Crown Court (1972), Blake's 7 (1978), The Dark Side of the Sun (1983), London's Burning (1992) and The Secret Rapture (1993).

Barry Wilsher (Heslington) Mar 24 1932 to Mar 30 2020
Career highlights
Debuted in The Castiglioni Brothers (1958), then The Moonstone (1959), The Amazing Dr Clitterhouse (1962), Oliver Twist (1962), The Avengers (1962), Silas Marner (1964), Miss Adventure (1964), Softly Softly (1968), The Gold Robbers (1969), Six Days of Justice (1973) and The Cherry Picker (1974). In 1972, he and his wife Jill wrote a story for Jackanory Playhouse called The Wednesday Wand.
Facts
Barry also narrated audiobooks, and along with his wife Jill helped bring poetry to life as part of a variety of performance media aimed at primary schoolchildren called Words Alive.

Victor Winding (Spencer) Jan 30 1929 to Oct 9 2014
Career highlights
Victor's earliest credit was in Three Golden Nobles (1959), then The Splendid Spur (1960), A Tale of Two Cities (1965), The Informer (1966), The Jazz Age (1968), Warship (1973), Frightmare (1974), House of Mortal Sin (1976), Bognor (1981), Angels (1983), Strike It Rich! (1986-87), The Bill (1989) and Casualty (1993). Victor had regular roles as Dr Fairfax in Emergency Ward 10 (1965), Detective Chief Inspector Fleming in over 50 episodes of The Expert (1968-71), Benjamin Sweet in The Flaxton Boys (1970-73) and Victor Lee in Crossroads (1978-79).

CREW

David Ellis (writer) Jun 22 1918 to Jun 30 1978
Career highlights
David had also written for Trinder Box (1959), Pops and Lenny (1962), Compact (1965), United! (1965-66), Dixon of Dock Green (1963-71), The Inside Man (1969), Paul Temple (1969-71), Spy Trap (1973), Z Cars (1967-74) and Marked Personal (1974).
Facts
David had sent in a number of scripts previously to the Doctor Who team (including The Clock, The People Who Couldn't Remember and The Ocean Liner), all rejected, although his ideas for The Big Store were reworked for The Faceless Ones.

Malcolm Hulke (writer) Nov 21 1924 to Jul 6 1979
Doctor Who credits
Wrote: The Faceless Ones (1967), The War Games (1969), Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970), The Ambassadors of Death (1970), Colony in Space (1971), The Sea Devils (1972), Frontier in Space (1973), Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974)
Career highlights
He had earlier written This Day in Fear (1958), Gert and Daisy (1959), Target Luna (1960), the Pathfinders series (1960-61), Ghost Squad (1961), Sergeant Cork (1963), The Protectors (1964), United! (1966-67), and his career also saw him penning nine scripts for The Avengers (1962-69), Woobinda, Animal Doctor (1969-70) and Crossroads (1971-74). He also acted as script supervisor on Spyder's Web (1972).
Awards
1975: Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Children's Drama Script (Season 11, shared with Robert Holmes, Terry Nation, Brian Hayles and Robert Sloman)
Facts
Malcolm was also author of the industry "bible" Writing for Television in the 70s (1974), and in the 1950s was a member of the British Communist Party. In 1959 he helped to set up the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. His other non-Who titles included Bring Your Own Towel (1977) and The Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine and Self-Help (1978). Malcolm's first connection with Doctor Who was in 1963 when he pitched scripts called The Hidden Planet and Britain 408AD for Season 1, but neither were developed. Malcolm also wrote a pilot for a planned radio series starring Peter Cushing as the Doctor in the late 1960s entitled Journey into Time which was produced but never aired.

Gerry Mill (director)
Doctor Who credits
Production assistant: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1966, uncredited)
Directed: The Faceless Ones (1967)
Career highlights
Starting out as an assistant floor manager on Hancock's Half Hour (1959-60) and A Song for Europe (1961) - as well as Doctor Who - Gerry forged a successful directing career on series such as The Newcomers (1966-67), The First Lady (1968), Coronation Street (1969), A Family at War (1970-72), Follyfoot (1972), Adam Smith (1972-73), Harriet's Back in Town (1973), Doctor on the Go (1975), Couples (1975-76), Rooms (1977), The Duchess of Duke Street (1977), Crown Court (1972-78), Hazell (1979), A Kind of Loving (1982), The Gentle Touch (1982-84), Dempsey and Makepeace (1985), Super Gran (1985), Robin of Sherwood (1986), Pulaski (1987), Yellowthread Street (1990), She-Wolf of London (1990), London's Burning (1988-95), Runaway Bay (1992) and over 50 episodes of Heartbeat (1995-2009). He also produced 187 episodes of Heartbeat between 1996-2004.

Facts

Gerry is the godfather of actor Benedict Cumberbatch, son of Wanda Ventham (who appears in this story).

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

Peter Bryant (associate producer) Oct 27 1923 to May 19 2006 (cancer)
Doctor Who credits
Associate producer: The Faceless Ones (1967 - credited on episodes 1-3 only), The Evil of the Daleks (1967, uncredited)
Story editor: The Evil of the Daleks (1967, episodes 4-7), The Abominable Snowmen, The Ice Warriors, The Enemy of the World (1967-68)
Produced: The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Web of Fear, Fury from the Deep, The Wheel in Space, The Dominators, The Mind Robber, The Invasion, The Krotons, The Seeds of Death, The Space Pirates (1968-69)
Career highlights
Peter started out as an actor in TV such as BBC Sunday Night Theatre's Wuthering Heights (1953) and playing Jack Grove in The Grove Family (1954-57, the first British soap opera - here's a clip), as well as productions such as The Man Who Sold Death (1958), Champion Road (1958), Leave It to Todhunter (1958) and A Farthing Damages (1959). After a spell as a radio announcer, he became head of the Drama Script Unit for BBC Radio. He later trained to go behind the camera, dabbling in a number of roles while on Doctor Who. After leaving the series, he worked as producer on Special Project Air (1969) and Paul Temple (1970-71), and then became a literary agent for actors and writers, including Eric Pringle, who would write for Doctor Who in 1984.
Facts
He was for a time married to actress Shirley Cooklin, who appeared in The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967).

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