The Talons of Weng-Chiang

Magnus Greel (Michael Spice)
unmasked (and all melty)!

Six episodes (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six)
First broadcast Feb 26 to Apr 2 1977
Average audience for serial: 10.35m

REGULAR CAST

Tom Baker (The Doctor) Born Jan 20 1934 Click here for Tom Baker's entry on Robot

Louise Jameson (Leela) Born Apr 20 1951 Click here for Louise Jameson's entry on The Face of Evil

GUEST CAST

Conrad Asquith (PC Quick) Feb 10 1945 to Sep 13 2020
Career highlights
Conrad's other work includes Village Hall (1975), The Legend of Robin Hood (1975, as Little John), The Professionals (1980), Sky Bandits (1986), Robin Hood (1991), Forever Green (1992), Being Human (1994), Black Beauty (1994), Cold Fish (2001), 7 Lives (2011), The Hollow Crown (2012) and Stan & Ollie (2018).
Facts
Conrad has reprised his role as PC (later Sergeant, then Inspector) Quick in Big Finish's Jago and Litefoot audios, starting in 2010.

Trevor Baxter (Professor Litefoot) Nov 18 1932 to Jul 16 2017
Career highlights
Trevor made his earliest screen appearance in The Cruise of the Toytown Belle (1950), followed by roles in Harpers West One (1961), Taxi! (1963), The White Rabbit (1967), Seeing and Believing (1961-69), So It Goes (1973), Spy Trap (1975), The New Avengers (1976), The Barchester Chronicles (1982), Maelstrom (1985), Jack the Ripper (1988), Selling Hitler (1991), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Parting Shots (1998), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), My Family (2006) and Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj (2006). Trevor was also a playwright, and in 1985 wrote the TV film The Last Evensong.
Facts
Trevor reprised the role of Litefoot in 2009 for Big Finish audios and played him alongside Christopher Benjamin as Jago until his death.

Christopher Benjamin (Jago) Born Dec 27 1934
Doctor Who credits
Played: Sir Keith Gold in Inferno (1970)
Played: Henry Gordon Jago in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977)
Played: Colonel Hugh Curbishley in The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008)
Career highlights
Prolific character actor Christopher first appeared in Suspense (1962), and then popped up in The Man in Room 17 (1965), Orlando (1966), The Forsyte Saga (1967), Late Night Horror (1968), Ring of Bright Water (1969), Ace of Wands (1970), Jason King (1971), The Strauss Family (1972), Baffled! (1973), Father Brown (1974), Poldark (1975-76, as Sir Hugh Bodrugan), When the Boat Comes In (1976), Rooms (1977), Dick Turpin (1979-80, as Sir John Glutton), Shoestring (1980), Chintz (1981), Holding the Fort (1980/82, as Colonel Aubrey Sanderson), It Takes a Worried Man (1981/83, as the Old Man), Minder (1984), Dempsey and Makepeace (1986), The Diary of Anne Frank (1987), Young Charlie Chaplin (1989), Anything More Would Be Greedy (1989), Campion (1990), Maigret (1992), The Tomorrow People (1994), Hard Times (1994), Pride and Prejudice (1995), Treasure Island (1999), Judge John Deed (2003/06, as Steve Gaydon), Angel (2007), The Merry Wives of Windsor (2011) and The Legend of Tarzan (2016).
Facts
Christopher reprised the role of Jago in 2009 for Big Finish audios and has been playing him alongside Trevor Baxter as Litefoot ever since.

John Bennett (Li H'sen Chang) May 8 1928 to Apr 11 2005
Doctor Who credits
Played: General Finch in Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974)
Played: Li H'sen Chang in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977)
Career highlights
John's career began in Diplomatic Passport (1954), then The Wild Duck (1957), The Challenge (1960), The Amazing Dr Clitterhouse (1962), Richard the Lionheart (1962), Front Page Story (1965), The Forsyte Saga (1967), Strange Report (1969), The House That Dripped Blood (1971), The Edwardians (1973), The House in Nightmare Park (1973), Hitler: The Last 10 Days (1973),  I, Claudius (1976), Watership Down (1978), Blake's 7 (1979), The Cleopatras (1983), Boon (1987), Saracen (1989), Mulberry (1992-93), Jake and the Fatman (1992), Cadfael (1994), Priest (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), Charlotte Gray (2001), The Pianist (2002), Minority Report (2002), New Tricks (2004), Rome (2005) and Waking the Dead (2005).
Facts
John's second wife was Caroline Mortimer, whose parents were playwright John Mortimer (and creator of Rumpole of the Bailey) and writer Penelope Mortimer. One of his three sons sadly pre-deceased him.

Alan Butler (Buller)
Career highlights
Alan's few other credits include Blake's 7 (1978) and Secret Army (1979).
Facts
It is believed Alan has passed away, as a fan approached his agent for an autograph in July 2015 and was told he was deceased.

Vaune Craig-Raymond (Cleaner) Born May 22 1954
Career highlights
Vaune's other work includes Sinister Street (1969), Further Up Pompeii! (1975) and Fathers and Families (1977).
Facts
Vaune later became an editor for Production and Casting Report, started by her father Peter in 1968.

Chris Gannon (Casey) Aug 8 1931 to Apr 19 1983
Career highlights
Chris debuted in Seaside Stars (1958), then appeared in Scotland Yard (1960), Design for a Headstone (1962), Jury Room (1965), Softly Softly (1966), The Informer (1967), My Partner the Ghost (1969), The Liver Birds (1971), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Dad's Army (1972), Jack the Ripper (1973), Six Days of Justice (1975), The Sexplorer (1975), Gangsters (1976), Pennies from Heaven (1978), Room Service (1979), The Day of the Triffids (1981) and Armchair Thriller: The Chelsea Murders (1981).

Penny Lister (Singer)
Career highlights
Penny's only other TV credit was a 1959 episode of Nick of the River. However, it is known that Penny was a member of the all-female backing vocalist group The Ladybirds, which entertained audiences on series such as Top of the Pops (1966-78), The Reg Varney Revue (1972), Twiggy (1975), Mike Yarwood In Persons (1978), The Tommy Cooper Hour (1978), The Ken Dodd Laughter Show (1979) and particularly The Benny Hill Show (1968-91). The Ladybirds, in various permutations, provided backing vocals on albums for Marc Bolan, Sandie Shaw and Rolf Harris.

Judith Lloyd (Teresa) Born Mar 7 1950
Career highlights
Judith's other credits comprise The Liver Birds (1975), Galaxy's Last Tape (1977), The Gentle Touch (1980), Happy Since I Met You (1981), The Year of the Bodyguard (1982) and Traffik (1989).
Facts
Judith's husband was actor Christopher Malcolm (often recognised as Saffy's gay father Justin in sitcom Absolutely Fabulous). One of their children is the playwright and screenwriter Morgan Lloyd Malcolm.

David McKail (Sergeant Kyle) Mar 13 1938 to Dec 6 2021
Career highlights
David's debut came with Death of a Gladiator in 1963, followed by roles in Life at the Top (1965), Z Cars (1967), The Vortex (1969), The Brothers (1973), Hawkeye, the Pathfinder (1973), Poldark (1977), 1990 (1978), Ladykillers (1980), Murder Not Proven? (1984), Oliver Twist (1985), The Charmer (1987), City Lights (1988), Take the High Road (1989-90), Waiting for God (1991), The Crow Road (1996), The Murder of Stephen Lawrence (1999), Brotherly Love (2000), Black Books (2002), Hawking (2004), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and Paddington (2014). David also enjoyed a recurring role as Dr McKenzie in 20 episodes of A Touch of Frost (1992-2008).
Facts
David also wrote plays under the aliases of John Mohr or Frederic Mohr.

Deep Roy (Mr Sin) Born Jan 26 1949
Doctor Who credits
Played: Mr Sin in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977)
Played: Possikar delegate in The Trial of a Time Lord (1986, uncredited)
Career highlights
Born in Kenya as Mohinder Purba, Deep made his screen debut in The New Avengers in 1976, but his 4ft 4in height has given him plenty of high profile roles in subsequent productions, including The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976, in which they mistakenly credited him as Roy Deep!), The Man from SEX (1979), Blake's 7 (1978/79/80), Flash Gordon (1980), The Dark Crystal (1982), Return of the Jedi (1983, as Droopy McCool), The NeverEnding Story (1984), Return to Oz (1985), Going Bananas (1987), Alien from LA (1988), Rising Storm (1989), Disturbed (1990), The Resurrected (1991), Freaked (1993), Night Stand (1996), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), The X Files (2001), Planet of the Apes (2001), Big Fish (2003), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005, as all 165 Oompa-Loompas, for which he was paid $1m), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Paranormal Movie (2013), Mantervention (2014) and God Came 'Round (2017). He has also played the role of Keenser in the films Star Trek (2009), Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek: Beyond (2016). Deep has also performed stunts in films such as Poltergeist II (1986), Hook (1991), Leprachaun (1993), The Jungle Book (1994), Matilda (1996), The Kid (2000) and Van Helsing (2004).
Facts
Deep was actually 4ft 1in until his parents paid out thousands for corrective surgery to make him taller. As well as playing Jabba's musical friend Droopy McCool in the Star Wars universe, Deep also occasionally operated R2-D2, stood in for Yoda when walking in distance shots, and also played an Ewok on Endor. He is one of only two actors (along with Simon Pegg) to appear in all three of the Doctor Who, Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. Deep is short for Gordeep, meaning "God's Light".

Patsy Smart (Ghoul) Aug 14 1918 to Feb 6 1996 (barbiturate poisoning)
Career highlights
Prolific Patsy's earliest role was uncredited in soap The Grove Family (1954), then The Mailbag Robbery (1957), William Tell (1959), Sons and Lovers (1960), The Tell-Tale Heart (1960), Danger Man (1961), Hugh and I (1962), Benny Hill (1962), Hancock (1963), Bat Out of Hell (1966), The Prisoner (1967), The Avengers (1969), Paul Temple (1970), Wives and Daughters (1971), Tightrope (1972), Spy Trap (1972), Reg Varney (1973), Steptoe and Son (1973), The Dick Emery Show (1974), Carry On Laughing! (1975), One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (1975), And Mother Makes Five (1976), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), Blake's 7 (1978), Tess (1979), Only When I Laugh (1979), Night of One Hundred Stars (1980), The Wildcats of St Trinian's (1980), The Elephant Man (1980), The Two Ronnies (1980), Open All Hours (1981), Emmerdale Farm (1982), Electric Dreams (1984), Filthy Rich & Catflap (1987), King and Castle (1988), Alexei Sayle's Stuff (1988) and The Return of Shelley (1990). Patsy also had regular roles as Miss Roberts in Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-73), Aunt Mable in Rentaghost (1983-84) and Nora Dingle in Terry and June (1983/85).
Facts
Patsy's brother was TV producer, writer and director Ralph Smart, who was responsible for, among many other programmes, Danger Man (1960-61). In Upstairs, Downstairs, when her character returns from surviving the sinking of the Titanic, Patsy used her anguish at the death of her daughter from cancer to tackle the emotion of the scene.

Michael Spice (Magnus Greel) May 20 1931 to Nov 2 1983 (cancer of the lining of the organs of the digestive system, caused by asbestos)
Doctor Who credits
Played: Voice of Morbius in The Brain of Morbius (1976)
Played: Magnus Greel in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977)
Career highlights
Michael also appeared in Hamlet (1961), Cross-Roads (1964), Seeing and Believing (1966), A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), Edward II (1970), Advent of Steam (1971), Brett (1971), The Pallisers (1974), Z Cars (1975), The Brothers (1976), Love Lies Bleeding (1977), Blake's 7 (1979), Frost in May (1982) and Number 10 (1983).
Facts
Michael worked extensively on radio as an accomplished voice actor. If you've ever wondered what he actually looked like, here's a screencap of him in The Pallisers. His wife was actor Polly Murch, who died in 1978 aged just 45.

Tony Then (Lee) Jun 16 1944 to Dec 16 1995
Career highlights
Singapore-born Tony's earliest work was in The Swordsman (1974), followed by The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, as the grey-haired Trannie), Jubilee (1977), The New Avengers (1977) and Gangsters (1978).
Facts
Tony trained as a dancer, and had a passion for ballet, tango and mambo music. He then had a short-lived career as a draughtsman, but soon returned to the arts and secured a place with the Ballet Rambert in the UK. Following a knee injury, Tony worked variously as a waiter, model and actor, but in 1977 returned to Singapore as director of the song and dance section of the Neptune Theatre there. After a brief stint at the Nevada Ballet School, USA, Tony became a dance teacher both in Singapore and across Europe, and in 1988 co-founded the Singapore Dance Theatre with Goh Soo Khim. Records show that Tony died in the communicable disease centre in Singapore, and that his ashes were scattered outside the Singapore Dance Theatre. Looking at the principal communicable diseases that the CDC treats, it might be assumed that Tony died of HIV/ AIDS.

Vincent Wong (Ho) Feb 4 1928 to Mar 13 2015 (natural causes)
Doctor Who credits
Played: Chinese delegate in Day of the Daleks (1972, uncredited)
Played: Ho in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977)
Played: Chinese captain in Enlightenment (1983, uncredited)
Career highlights
Jamaican Vincent's prolific career stems from a role in 1958's Yesterday's Enemy, followed by work in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), The Terror of the Tongs (1961), The Champions (1968), Monty Python's Flying Circus (1970, as Mr Kamikaze), Diamonds are Forever (1971), The Sweeney (1975), One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (1975), Space: 1999 (1975), Rogue's Rock (1975), The New Avengers (1977), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Spy! (1980), Silver Dream Racer (1980), The Chinese Detective (1981), Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982), Privates on Parade (1983), Duty Free (1984), Tenko (1984), Mind Your Language (1986, as Fu Wong Chang), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Ping Pong (1987), Noble House (1988), Batman (1989), One Foot in the Grave (1992), Resnick (1993), Bramwell (1996), Jonathan Creek (1998), Kiss of the Dragon (2001), Die Another Day (2002), Batman Begins (2005) and Blood Ties (2006).

John Wu (Coolie)
This is John's only known credit.

CREW

Robert Holmes (writer and script editor) Apr 2 1926 to May 24 1986 (chronic liver ailment) Click here to see Robert Holmes's entry on The Krotons

David Maloney (director) Dec 14 1933 to Jul 18 2006 (cancer) Click here for David Maloney's entry on The Mind Robber

Philip Hinchcliffe (producer) Born Oct 1 1944 Click here for Philip Hinchcliffe's entry on The Ark in Space