Pyramids of Mars

Marcus Scarman (Bernard Archard),
Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen),
a possessed Doctor (Tom Baker) and
a mummy in the TARDIS

Four episodes (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four)
First broadcast Oct 25 to Nov 15 1975
Average audience for serial: 10.73m

REGULAR CAST

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

Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) Feb 1 1946 to Apr 19 2011 (pancreatic cancer) Click here for Elisabeth Sladen's entry on The Time Warrior

GUEST CAST

Bernard Archard (Marcus Scarman) Aug 20 1916 to May 1 2008
Doctor Who credits
Played: Bragen in The Power of the Daleks (1966)
Played: Marcus Scarman in Pyramids of Mars (1975)
Career highlights
Bernard's career stems back as far as The Immortal Lady (1948) and includes For the Children (1948), The Adventures of Annabel (1955), Kenilworth (1957) and takes in Mary Britten, MD (1958), Corridors of Blood (1958), Village of the Damned (1960), Sir Francis Drake (1962), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), Sergeant Cork (1964), Out of the Unknown (1966), The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966), The Avengers (1965/68), Callan (1969), Manhunt (1970), The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), Dad's Army (1971), The Day of the Jackal (1973), Get Some In! (1975), Sky (1975), Dick Turpin (1979), The Sea Wolves (1980), Krull (1983), Bergerac (1985/87) and Keeping Up Appearances (1991). He also had regular roles as Oreste Pinto in Spy-Catcher (1959-61), General Plaski in The Midnight Men (1964), Ian the editor in Lytton's Diary (1985-86) and Leonard Kempinski in soap Emmerdale (1992-94).
Facts
Bernard, who was a conscientious objector during the Second World War, celebrated a civil partnership with his partner of 60 years, fellow actor Jim Belchamber, in 2006.

Melvyn Bedford (Mummy)
Doctor Who credits
Played: Reig in Planet of Evil (1975)
Played: Mummy in Pyramids of Mars (1975)
Career highlights
His further credits include Waiting for God (1993), Casualty (1994), Peak Practice (1998), EastEnders (2000) and In Deep (2001).

Michael Bilton (Collins) Dec 14 1919 to Nov 5 1993
Doctor Who credits
Played: Teligny in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1966)
Played: Collins in Pyramids of Mars (1975)
Played: Time Lord in The Deadly Assassin (1976)
Career highlights
Michael's first credit is in Sing Along With Me (1952), and over the course of his career he appeared in Quatermass II (1955), A Taste of Honey (1961), The Mind of the Enemy (1965), The Prisoner (1967), The Avengers (1968), Doctor at Large (1971), The Fenn Street Gang (1973), South Riding (1974), The Haunting of Julia (1977), The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1977), Pennies from Heaven (1978), Bognor (1981), Brideshead Revisited (1981), Coronation Street (1983), The Fourth Protocol (1987), The New Statesman (1990) and the Alleyn Mysteries (1993). He had memorable roles as Ned in To the Manor Born (1979-81), Mr Thorpe in Grace and Favour (1992-93) and Basil Makepeace in Waiting for God (1990-93). He may also be remembered for playing an elderly gardener in a TV commercial for Yellow Pages.
Facts
Crippling arthritis prevented him from working on stage toward the end of his career. While serving in World War Two, he was wounded in the stomach at the Battle of El Alamein.

Nick Burnell (Mummy) Sep 14 1945 to Dec 13 2018 (lung cancer)
Career highlights
Nick later appeared in Crown Court (1982), The Tripods (1984), 'Allo 'Allo! (1987), Press Gang (1990), Hancock (1991), Second Thoughts (1992), Waiting for God (1993), Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis (1997), Bad Girls (2001), Keen Eddie (2004), Diamond Geezer (2005), Footballers' Wives (2005) and The Honourable Rebel (2015).
Facts
Nick was also an experienced drama teacher. In March 2019, Nick's son Joss ran the Hampton Court Half-Marathon in his father's memory, and raised over £2,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Peter Copley (Dr Warlock) May 20 1915 to Oct 7 2008
Career highlights
Peter's career was massively prolific, with well over 130 appearances. It all began with Tell Me If It Hurts (1934) after making his stage debut two years earlier, followed by roles in Golden Salamander (1950), The Pickwick Papers (1952), The Sword and the Rose (1953), David Copperfield (1956), A Tale of Two Cities (1958), The Strange World of Planet X (1958), The Naked Lady (1959), Follow That Horse! (1960), Victim (1961), Hamlet (1961), Thorndyke (1964), Help! (1965), The Knack... and How to Get It (1965), The Forsyte Saga (1967), Quatermass and the Pit (1967), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), Doomwatch (1970), All At Sea (1970), Callan (1972), The Long Chase (1972), The Dragon's Opponent (1973), The Venturers (1975), Sky (1976), Bill Brand (1976), The Famous Five (1978), The Foundation (1977-78), Flambards (1979), The Chinese Detective (1982), The Gathering Seed (1983), Empire of the Sun (1987), Hot Metal (1998), One Foot in the Grave (1990), Grange Hill (1993), Cadfael (1994), Wives and Daughters (1999), Strange (2002), The Last Detective (2003), Riot at the Rite (2005) and The Colour of Magic (2008).
Facts
Off screen, Peter was a sharp-witted law expert and part-time attorney who successfully handled several court cases in the 1960s. He was also on the board of directors of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Trust. In November 2001 he was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by the University of West England in recognition of his career and dedication to regional theatre. His parents were lithographer and printmaker John Copley (at 73, once recognised as the oldest ever Olympic medal winner in the now defunct arts categories) and artist Ethel Gabain. Peter's first wife was Emmy-winning actress Pamela Brown (who divorced him in 1953 for infidelity); his second was actress Ninka Dolega; and his third was the writer Margaret Tabor (aka "Shosh").

Peter Mayock (Namin) May 31 1940 to Dec 15 1998
Doctor Who credits
Played: Namin in Pyramids of Mars (1975)
Played: Solis in The Deadly Assassin (1976)
Career highlights
Peter made his debut in The Wright People (1959), then Triton (1961), The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), Ulysses (1967), The Very Merry Widow (1968), Fraud Squad (1969), Emmerdale Farm (1972), My Old Man (1974-75) and Spend Spend Spend (1977).

Kevin Selway (Mummy) Born Jan 24 1953
Kevin's only other credit was Return of the Saint (1978).

Michael Sheard (Laurence Scarman) Jun 18 1938 to Aug 31 2005 (cancer)
Doctor Who credits
Played: Rhos in The Ark (1966)
Played: Dr Summers in The Mind of Evil (1971)
Played: Laurence Scarman in Pyramids of Mars (1975)
Played: Lowe in The Invisible Enemy (1977)
Played: Mergrave in Castrovalva (1982)
Played: Headmaster in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988)
Career highlights
Michael was a prolific character actor, appearing in over 120 productions, starting in a 1962 episode of Suspense. Further roles included The Likely Lads (1965), Adam Adamant Lives! (1966), The Borderers (1969), Albert! (1969), Paul Temple (1971), The Onedin Line (1972), On the Buses (1973), The Sweeney (1975), Space: 1999 (1975), The Tomorrow People (1978), Blake's 7 (1980), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Outsider (1983), Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983-84), The Invisible Man (1984), Hannay (1988), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), 'Allo 'Allo (1992), Takin' Over the Asylum (1994), Another Life (2001), The Green Door (2005) and Shadows in the Woods (2006). Michael had a regular role as Mr Bronson in children's school series Grange Hill (1985-89).
Facts
During his career, he played Adolf Hitler five times, and Heinrich Himmler three times. He acted alongside five Doctors in the TV series, and a sixth (Paul McGann) in audio story The Stones of Venice (2001). Michael was the one to formally identify actor Declan Mulholland at the police mortuary after he was found dead on a train (as well as being the original actor to play Jabba the Hutt in a scene deleted from Star Wars, Declan also appeared in the Doctor Who stories The Sea Devils and The Androids of Tara).

Vik Tablian (Ahmed) Born Oct 10 1937
Career highlights
Doctor Who was Jerusalem-born Vik's credited debut (he was born Varoujan Aintablian), after which he appeared in Midnight Express (1978), The Assassination Run (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983), EastEnders (1985), Rockcliffe's Babies (1988), Navy Seals (1990), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992), Hard Men (1996), The Knock (1999), Between Iraq and a Hard Place (2003), The Bill (2007) and The Promise (2016).

George Tovey (Ernie Clements) Mar 8 1914 to Dec 4 1982
Career highlights
George first appeared in The Prince and the Pauper (1955), then O.S.S (1957), Black Ice (1957), Expresso Bongo (1958), Life in Emergency Ward 10 (1959), The Army Game (1959), Colonel Trumper's Private War (1961), The Dickie Henderson Show (1963), The Valiant Varneys (1964), Crooks in Cloisters (1964), Barney is My Darling (1965-66), Poor Cow (1967), Mum's Boys (1968), Detective (1968), Steptoe and Son (1963/65/70), Budgie (1971-72), Frenzy (1972), Baxter! (1973), The Dick Emery Show (1972-73), My Old Man (1974-75), Yus My Dear (1976), Citizen Smith (1977), Mind Your Language (1978), The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1978), Minder (1979), A Fine Romance (1981-82), The Kenny Everett Television Show (1982) and The Wicked Lady (1983).
Facts
George was the father of actress Roberta Tovey, who played Susan to Peter Cushing's Dr Who in the two 1960s Dalek movies.

Gabriel Woolf (Sutekh) Born Oct 2 1932
Doctor Who credits
Played: Sutekh in Pyramids of Mars (1975), The Legend of Ruby Sunday/ Empire of Death (2024)
Played: Voice of the Beast in The Impossible Planet/ The Satan Pit (2006)
Career highlights
Gabriel was first credited in The Boy with a Cart (1951), then appeared in Knights of the Round Table (1953), Rob Roy (1961), Emergency Ward 10 (1961), Merry-Go-Round (1968), Honey Lane (1969), Paul Temple (1971), Look and Read: The Boy from Space (1971), The Brothers (1972), Dial M for Murder (1974), Bognor (1981), The Prisoner of Zenda (1984) and Wizards vs Aliens (2012-13).
Facts
He is married to opera singer Dame Felicity Lott, who sang at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York in 1986. In 1981 Gabriel read three Doctor Who novelisations as RNIB talking books (imagine a bedtime story read to you by Sutekh!). Gabriel is also a vice-president of the Joyful Company of Singers.

CREW

Lewis Greifer (writer) Dec 19 1915 to Mar 18 2003 (stroke-related illness)
Career highlights
Lewis's writing career began with Dearth of a Salesman (1957), followed by Insomnia is Good for You (1957), Five names for Johnny (1957), Web (1957-58), The Voodoo Factor (1959-60), Ghost Squad (1961), Up Jumped a Swagman (1965), The Prisoner (1967, as Joshua Adam), Love Story (1965-67), Who-Dun-It (1969), Suspicion (1971) and Special Branch (1970/74).
Facts
Lewis wrote the original story for Pyramids of Mars, but when script editor Robert Holmes rewrote it with new themes, Lewis asked for the story to be transmitted under the pseudonym Stephen Harris. After serving in the RAF during the war, Lewis became a journalist on the London Evening Standard, then dabbled as a sketch writer for the Goons on the radio. After writing for Doctor Who, Lewis turned to teaching at the University of Tel Aviv. Lewis suffered a heart attack in 1983, and then a stroke in 1984.

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

Paddy Russell (director) Jul 4 1928 to Nov 2 2017
Doctor Who credits
Directed: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1966), Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974), Pyramids of Mars (1975), Horror of Fang Rock (1977)
Career highlights
Paddy had worked in the 1950s as production assistant on various Rudolph Cartier shows, as well as the Quatermass serials and the 1954 adaptation of George Orwell's 1984. Paddy also directed for Compact (1962), The Mind of the Enemy (1965), The Newcomers (1967), Late Night Horror (1968), Little Women (1970), The Moonstone (1972), Harriet's Back in Town (1973), My Old Man (1975), Z Cars (1967-76), Within These Walls (1975-76), 3-2-1 (1979-80), The Omega Factor (1979), The Squad (1980) and Pick of the Week (1988).
Facts
Along with Julia Smith (who directed two Doctor Who stories in 1966/67), Paddy was one of the first two female directors for the BBC. After she retired, Paddy moved to the Yorkshire Moors and lived in relative seclusion, but worked for various cat charities.

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