Frontios

The Doctor's new companion had trouble
operating the TARDIS controls, what with
his cumbersome flippers and all...

Four episodes (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four)
First broadcast Jan 26 to Feb 3 1984
Average audience for serial: 6.80m

REGULAR CAST

Peter Davison (The Doctor) Born Apr 13 1951 Click here for Peter Davison's entry on Logopolis

Janet Fielding (Tegan) Born Sep 9 1953 Click here for Janet Fielding's entry on Logopolis

Mark Strickson (Turlough) Born Apr 6 1959 Click here for Mark Strickson's entry on Mawdryn Undead

GUEST CAST

Richard Ashley (Orderly)
Career highlights
Richard's other credits include Moonfleet (1984), Dempsey and Makepeace (1985), Rumpole of the Bailey (1987), The Vampyr: A Soap Opera (1992), EastEnders (1987), Sanhedrin (2004) and O Sole Mio (2013). He also gave his vocal talent to The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1976).

William Bowen (Tractator)
Career highlights
William was actually credited incorrectly on Frontios as his real surname was Bower. William was previously production assistant on 1979's H.O.T.S.

George Campbell (Tractator)
Career highlights
Dancer George also appeared in Centre Play Showcase: The Squad in 1976.

Lesley Dunlop (Norna) Born Mar 10 1956
Doctor Who credits
Played: Norna in Frontios (1984)
Played: Susan Q in The Happiness Patrol (1988)
Career highlights
Debuting in A Little Princess aged 17, Lesley's CV includes roles in Crown Court (1973), Oranges and Lemons (1973), The Adventures of Black Beauty (1974), South Riding (1974), Haunted (1974), My Brother's Keeper (1975), Our Mutual Friend (1976), The Onedin Line (1977), A Little Night Music (1978), Penmarric (1979), Dick Turpin (1979), The Elephant Man (1980), The Monster Club (1981), Smuggler (1981), Waters of the Moon (1983), Thirteen at Dinner (1985), Capstick's Law (1989), Silent Witness (1996), Wokenwell (1997), The Phoenix and the Carpet (1997), My Uncle Silas (2000/03), The Many Lives of Albert Walker (2002) and Casualty (2007). Between 2000-06 Lesley appeared as Anna Kirkwall in the drama Where the Heart Is, after first achieving recognition as Zoe Callender in the sitcom May to December (1990-94). Since 2008, she has been playing Brenda Walker in soap Emmerdale.
Facts
Lesley was once married to actor Christopher Guard, who appeared in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy in 1988/89 (this also made her sister-in-law to actor Dominic Guard, who appeared in Terminus, and his wife, actress Sharon Duce, who was in Ghost Light). She is now married to fellow Emmerdale star Chris Chittell. Lesley's father was TV writer Pat Dunlop, who contributed uncredited to the script for The War Machines. Lesley's face is also associated with Kleenex toilet tissue in the UK due to her TV commercials in the 1990s (directed by Mike Leigh).

John Gillett (The Gravis)
Career highlights
John debuted in A Last Visitor for Mr Hugh Peter (1981), and then appeared in Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime (1983), Juliet Bravo (1985), Resort to Murder (1995), EastEnders (1997), Doctors (2003), Hustle (2004) and Benjamin Britten: Peace and Conflict (2013).
Facts
Acting teacher John wrote the book Acting on Impulse: Reclaiming the Stanislavski Approach in 2007, revised in 2014 as Acting Stanislavski.

Peter Gilmore (Brazen) Aug 25 1931 to Feb 3 2013
Career highlights
German-born Peter debuted in All on a Summer's Day (1953), and went on to appear in Ivanhoe (1958), If the Crown Fits (1961), Moody in... (1961), The Rag Trade (1961), Bomb in the High Street (1961), Master Spy (1964), Seaside Swingers (1965), The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), I've Gotta Horse (1966), Doctor in Clover (1966), Oh! What a Lovely War(1969), The Doctors (1971), The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971), Warlords of Atlantis (1978), The Manions of America (1981), The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987), Casualty (1992), Heartbeat (1993) and On Dangerous Ground (1996). Peter appeared in 11 Carry On films between 1963-92, but made his name playing James Onedin in over 90 episodes of the drama series The Onedin Line (1971-80) and Ben Bishop in One By One (1985).
Facts
Before becoming an actor, Peter was a singer, a member of the George Mitchell Singers (aka the Glee Club). In 1961 he recorded an album of the musical Bye, Bye Birdie, along with co-stars Sid James, Joyce Blair and Dean Rogers. His Onedin Line success made him very popular in maritime circles, and in 1974 he released a solo album entitled Songs of the Sea, followed by 1977's Peter Gilmore Sings Gently. All three of his wives were actresses: Una Stubbs (between 1958-69), Jan Waters (1970-76) and Onedin Line co-star Anne Stallybrass (married 1987).

Hedi Khursandi (Tractator) Born Jul 19 1953
Career highlights
This is Hedi's only screen credit. Iranian born Hedi, more recently based in Miami, is a Royal Academy trained dancer who has worked with the Vienna Festival Ballet and worked with Rudolph Nureyev. He has taught ballet in Australia, Orlando, Alabama and Florida. Of his time wearing a Tractator suit on Doctor Who, Hedi said: "It was very tedious. But on TV, it was very effective. I still get mail asking for my autograph."

William Lucas (Range) Apr 14 1925 to Jul 8 2016
Career highlights
Prolific William's first credit was in 1954's Isidor Comes to Town, followed by Portrait of Alison (1955), Postmark for Danger (1955), The Strange World of Planet X (1956), X: The Unknown (1956), Crime of the Century (1956-57), Solo for Canary (1958), The Infamous John Friend (1959), Sons and Lovers (1960), I Promised to Pay (1961), The Shadow of the Cat (1961), Sir Francis Drake (1962), United! (1965), Night of the Big Heat (1967), The Sky Bike (1967), Parkin's Patch (1970), Doomwatch (1970), Doctor At Large (1971), Horror on Snape Island (1972), The Hanged Man (1975), Squadron (1982), Vampire Cop (1990), On the Up (1990), Last of the Summer Wine (2003) and The Bill (2005). William found fame playing Dr James Gordon in 52 episodes of The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972-74) and 26 episodes of The New Adventures of Black Beauty (1990-92), but may also be remembered as George Hayward in The Spoils of War (1980-81) and Stanley Webb in 91 episodes of the soap Eldorado (1992-93).
Facts
William's appearance in Frontios was a long time coming - he'd previously been shortlisted for roles in Doctor Who in 1964 (Barrett in The Rescue), 1977 (Dr Fendleman in Image of the Fendahl) and 1983 (Hedin in Arc of Infinity). However, he only got this role after the actor first cast, Peter Arne, was murdered in August 1983, following his costume fitting for Range. William's birth name was Clucas.

Michael Malcolm (Tractator)
Career highlights
Dancer Michael's only other credit was in Gnaw: Food of the Gods II (1989).

Raymond Murtagh (Retrograde)
Career highlights
Raymond's other acting roles were in Crown Court (1978), Taggart (1983), Juliet Bravo (1985) and Coronation Street (1990), while he also wrote the TV play Requiem Apache (1994).

Maurice O'Connell (Cockerill) Born Jan 8 1941
Career highlights
Maurice's CV stems from his debut in 1972's Villains, after which he appeared in The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973), The Protectors (1974), The Sweeney (1975), Van der Valk (1977), The New Avengers (1977), The Medusa Touch (1978), Out (1978), The Bitch (1979), Angels (1981), The Borgias (1981), Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), Tucker's Luck (1984), Inspector Morse (1987) and Zorro (1990). He also played Harry Rawlins in Widows and Widows II (1983-85).
Facts
In 2016, an appeal went out to locate Maurice on Missing-You.net, but this does not automatically mean he is a missing person.

Jeff Rawle (Plantagenet) Born Jul 20 1951
Doctor Who credits
Played: Plantagenet in Frontios (1984)
Played: Mr Harding in The Sarah Jane Adventures: Mona Lisa's Revenge (2009)
Played: Mervyn Pinfield in An Adventure in Space and Time (2013)
Career highlights
Jeff is one of the busiest actors in the UK, having debuted in the title role of Billy Liar in 1973, after which he took roles in Bedtime Stories (1974), Van der Valk (1977), A Hitch in Time (1978, alongside a very Doctorish Patrick Troughton), Home Before Midnight (1979), Crystal Gazing (1982), Angels (1983), Remington Steele (1985), The Doctor and the Devils (1985), Fortunes of War (1987), The Gift (1990), Rides (1992), Moon and Son (1992), The Chief (1994), Take a Girl Like You (2000), Blackball (2003), William and Mary (2004), Spooks (2005), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Sea of Souls (2006), The Last Detective (2007), Fear, Stress and Anger (2007), Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2008), My Family (2011), The Charles Dickens Show (2012), You, Me and Them (2013), Redistributors (2015), Steptoe and Son (2016), The Crucifixion (2017), A Modern Tale (2017), Peterloo (2018), Father Brown (2019), The Durrells (2016-19) and State of the Union (2019). Jeff's other memorable roles include Paul Cooper in Faith in the Future (1995-98), George Dent in satirical show Drop the Dead Donkey (1990-98/2008), the narrator of children's series Budgie the Little Helicopter (1994-96), Colin in Microsoap (1998-2000), Roger Fenn in Doc Martin (2004-07) and Silas Blissett in soap Hollyoaks (2010-12/16). He also put pen to paper to write The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995), Mrs Meitlemeihr (2002) and The Charles Dickens Show.
Facts
Jeff's brother is artist and writer Graham Rawle, who for many years produced the Lost Consonants column in The Guardian. His wife is actress Nina Marc.

Alison Skilbeck (Deputy) Born May 6 1945
Career highlights
Debuting in Clayhanger (1976), Alison's further credits include Revolting Women (1981, which she also wrote for), Crown Court (1984), The Beiderbecke Affair (1985), Lovejoy (1986), The Fear (1988), Head Over Heels (1993), No Bananas (1996), Soldier Soldier (1996), Peak Practice (1998), He Knew He Was Right (2004), The Phantom of the Opera (2004), New Tricks (2006), Law and Order UK (2009), Wimpole Street (2013) and Call the Midwife (2018).
Facts
Alison began her professional career presenting a BBC Spanish language programme called Zarabanda. As well as being an actor, Alison gives workshops all over the globe, and is also a member of the audition panel for RADA.

Stephen Speed (Tractator) Nov 6 1955 to Nov 11 2014
Career highlights
Professional ballet dancer Stephen was chosen by none other than Rudolph Nureyev to be the Little Drummer Boy in a production of The Nutcracker, and he also worked with Margot Fonteyn, Wayne Sleep and Natalia Makarova. Stephen worked extensively in musical theatre and for the English National Opera and was a dedicated revival choreographer for The Mikado worldwide.

CREW

Christopher H Bidmead (writer) Born Jan 18 1941 Click here for Christopher H Bidmead's entry on The Leisure Hive

Ron Jones (director) Aug 6 1945 to Jul 9 1993
Doctor Who credits
Directed: Black Orchid (1982), Time-Flight (1982), Arc of Infinity (1983), Frontios (1984), Vengeance on Varos (1985), The Trial of a Time Lord (1986)
Career highlights
Starting out as a BBC Radio studio manager in the 1960s, Ron worked for a time as a researcher and writer for the children's show Blue Peter, before acting as an assistant floor manager and production manager on series such as Bergerac and Secret Army. Ron's few other directing credits include Juliet Bravo (1985), the German soap Lindenstraße (1987-88) and the TV movie Burg Wutzenstein (1988). In the 1970s Ron worked as a researcher and writer on the children's show Blue Peter. Ron's partner was Gordon Elsbury, who directed shows such as Are You Being Served?, Top of the Pops and Spitting Image (he was also production assistant on the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest).

John Nathan-Turner (producer) Aug 12 1947 to May 1 2002 (liver failure) Click here for John Nathan-Turner's entry on The Leisure Hive

Eric Saward (script editor) Born Dec 9 1944 Click here for Eric Saward's entry on on Castrovalva