The Android Invasion

The deadly fingers!

Four episodes (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four)
First broadcast Nov 22 to Dec 13 1975
Average audience for serial: 11.68m

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

Dave Carter (Grierson) Click here for Dave Carter's entry on Doctor Who and the Silurians

Heather Emmanuel (Tessa)
Career highlights
Sri Lankan Heather, just 4ft 10in tall, seems to have forged a career out of playing nurses, something she first did in her screen debut in Dixon of Dock Green (1961). She went on to play nurses in The Andromeda Breakthrough (1962), The Marriage Lines (1965), Coronation Street (1969), Angels (1976), The Professionals (1982), Grange Hill (1986) and Prime Suspect (1995), although she was promoted to a doctor in a 2005 episode of Coronation Street! Other credits include Outbreak of Murder (1962), Sergeant Cork (1964), The Doctors (1970), Doctor in Charge (1973), Within These Walls (1975), Survivors (1977), First Among Equals (1986), Family Pride (1991), Casualty (1994), The Tailor of Panama (2001), Doctors (2005), Mamma Mia! (2008) and Trauma (2018). Heather also works as a voiceover artist, lip-synching and dubbing dialogue on films such as Blade Runner, A Passage to India and Little Buddha, and working extensively on BBC Radio 4 and on educational/ schools recordings.

Max Faulkner (Corporal Adams) 1931 to Feb 13 2010 Click here for Max Faulkner's entry on The Ambassadors of Death

Stuart Fell (Kraal) Born 1942 Click here for Stuart Fell's entry on The Curse of Peladon

Martin Friend (Styggron) May 30 1931 to Mar 14 2014
Career highlights
Martin's earliest credit was in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1958), after which he appeared in Emergency Ward 10 (1963), two episodes of The Avengers (1963/64), Public Eye (1965), Dr Finlay's Casebook (1967), The Prince and the Pauper (1976), Airline (1982), Prospects (1986), Jack the Ripper (1988), The New Statesman (1991), Red Dwarf (1991), Grace and Favour (1993), Baddiel's Syndrome (2001), Only Fools and Horses (2002), Night and Day (2001-02), Hustle (2009) and Reuniting the Rubins (2010).

Milton Johns (Guy Crayford) Born May 13 1938
Doctor Who credits
Played: Benik in The Enemy of the World (1967-68)
Played: Guy Crayford in The Android Invasion (1975)
Played: Castellan Kelner in The Invasion of Time (1978)
Career highlights
Milton's career began in The Shop at Sly Corner (1960), then Orlando (1965), The Three Musketeers (1966), The Devil in the Fog (1968), The Flaxton Boys (1969), Sense and Sensibility (1971), Budgie (1972), The Jensen Code (1973), South Riding (1974), Poldark (1975), The Good Life (1977), King of the Castle (1977), Midnight is a Place (1977-78), Going Straight (1978), Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1978), A Horseman Riding By (1978), Spearhead (1978-81), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Gaffer (1982), Pink Floyd's The Wall (1982), Tucker's Luck (1983), Butterflies (1979-83), Foxy Lady (1982-84), The Pickwick Papers (1985), Ever Decreasing Circles (1986), Supergran (1987), Campion (1989), Happy Families (1989-90), Haggard (1992), Harry's Mad (1995-96), Glam Metal Detectives (1995), Chalk (1997), The X-Files (1998), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1999-2000), Micawber (2001), Born and Bred (2002), The Basil Brush Show (2003-07, as Mr Rossiter) and Kidz Time TV (2015). He also had a long-running role as shop owner Brendan Scott in soap Coronation Street (1991-93).
Facts
For a number of years he served as treasurer of actors' union Equity, and also as course announcer and MC at Lingfield racecourse.
In 2015 Toby Hadoke released his Who's Round interview with Milton here.

John Levene (Benton) Born Dec 24 1941 Click here for John Levene's entry on The Web of Fear

Hugh Lund (Matthews) c.1925 to Dec 29 2021
Doctor Who credits
Played: Zarbi/ Larvae gun in The Web Planet (1965). Note: Despite being credited as operating a Zarbi, Hugh revealed in a 2008 interview that he actually operated the larvae gun, and never a Zarbi at all.
Played: Matthews in The Android Invasion (1975)
Career highlights
Hugh's other work included A for Andromeda (1961), Suspense (1963) and The Borgias (1981).

Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan) Oct 28 1944 to Oct 28 1986 (diabetes-related heart attack) Click here for Ian Marter's entry on Carnival of Monsters

Patrick Newell (Colonel Faraday) Mar 27 1932 to Jul 22 1988 (heart attack)
Career highlights
Prolific character actor Patrick first appeared uncredited in The Way Out (1955), followed by Web (1957-58), Skyport (1960), Jango (1961), Walk a Crooked Mile (1961), Six More Faces of Jim (1962), Thorndyke (1964), The Alphabet Murders (1965), A Study in Terror (1965), Cooperama (1966), The Sandwich Man (1966), The Illustrated Weekly Hudd (1966), Send Foster (1967), The Troubleshooters (1968), Never Say Die (1970), Casanova (1971), The Misfit (1971), Stars on Sunday (1973), Vampira (1974), Bootsie and Snudge (1974), Sadie, It's Cold Outside (1975), The Incredible Sarah (1976), The Dick Emery Show (1976), The Duchess of Duke Street (1976-77), Thundercloud (1979), Worzel Gummidge (1981), Kinvig (1981), Whizkid's Guide (1981-83), Bottle Boys (1984), CATS Eyes (1985), Galloping Galaxies! (1986) and Consuming Passions (1988). He also had a regular role as Steed and Tara's boss Mother in The Avengers (1968-69).
Facts
Patrick carried out his National Service alongside Michael Caine, and trained at RADA with Albert Finney and Peter O'Toole. In a 1968 interview, Patrick alleged that he gained weight as a deliberate attempt to boost his career as "fat men". His entry in Who's Who on Television in the late 1970s described him as an "actor with a weight problem - the more he diets, the less work he seems to get". Despite losing a lot of weight in later life, he died of a heart attack at the age of 56. In the 1970s he moved to Cyprus, but when the Turks invaded he had to leave, and lost everything.

Roy Skelton (Chedaki) Jul 20 1931 to Jun 8 2011 (pneumonia following a stroke) Click here for Roy Skelton's entry on The Ark

Peter Welch (Morgan) Mar 30 1922 to Nov 20 1984
Doctor Who credits
Played: Sergeant in The Highlanders (1966-67)
Played: Morgan in The Android Invasion (1975)
Career highlights
His career began in Dial 999 (1955) and included The Admirable Crichton (1957), The House of the Seven Hawks (1959), Danger Man (1961), The Secret of Blood Island (1964), Callan (1969), Doomwatch (1970), Spy Trap (1972-75, as Clark), Law and Order (1978) and Juliet Bravo (1982).

CREW

Terry Nation (writer) Aug 6 1930 to Mar 9 1997 (emphysema) Click here for Terry Nation's entry on The Daleks

Barry Letts (director) Mar 26 1925 to Oct 9 2009 (cancer) Click here for Barry Letts's entry on The Enemy of the World

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

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