{"id":35556,"date":"2023-08-08T14:16:52","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T12:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1869033"},"modified":"2023-08-08T15:50:42","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T13:50:42","slug":"doctor-whos-10th-anniversary-photoshoots-classic-companions-look-back","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/doctor-whos-10th-anniversary-photoshoots-classic-companions-look-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who\u2019s 10th anniversary photoshoots \u2013 classic companions look back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking back on Radio Times photography from 1973, with commentary from Peter Purves, Katy Manning and more. <\/p>

By Patrick Mulkern\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 08 August 2023 at 12:16 PM<\/p>

\n\n

The 10th anniversary of Doctor Who<\/a> in 1973 was huge. So huge, it actually started one year early.<\/p>\n

Season 10 launched on BBC One on Saturday 30th December 1972 with the first multi-Doctor story, The Three Doctors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Radio Times<\/strong> led the blaze of publicity with a striking cover uniting William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee. Indeed, the RT<\/strong> photo session (main picture above) with photographer Ray Rathborne was the very first time all three leading men had come together. It took place at a studio in Battersea, south London, in October 1972.<\/p>\n

Radio Times<\/strong> soon started planning a standalone publication to celebrate the important anniversary in 1973. The Doctor Who special was an instant classic and became a fan bible, documenting every adventure to date, and interviewing many of the actors who had played the Time Lord\u2019s companions.<\/p>\n

They were also captured in brand new, striking and strange photoshoots that recalled the ethos of their time on the programme.<\/p>\n

Fifty years later, RadioTimes.com<\/a> has caught up with some of those Doctor Who stars to hear what they recall of their sessions with the revered photographer Allan Ballard.<\/p>\n

Carole Ann Ford<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The original Unearthly Child<\/a>, Carole Ann Ford had starred in the very first episode in 1963, playing the Doctor\u2019s granddaughter Susan.<\/p>\n

Their first on-screen adventure took them back to the Stone Age where they encountered savage fur-clad cave dwellers. This storyline was reinterpreted \u2013 rather loosely \u2013 10 years later with Carole dressed in furs in a pastiche of Raquel Welch in the 1966 movie One Million Years BC.<\/p>\n

\"Carole<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Carole Ann Ford for Doctor Who. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cI was delighted that Radio Times<\/strong> was celebrating the tenth anniversary in this way,\u201d says Carole in 2023, \u201cand I appreciated being invited to be a part of the special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her photoshoot took place in the extensive grounds of Crystal Palace Park, which are still open to the public today, and the lakeside prehistoric creatures remain in place.<\/p>\n

\"Carole<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Carole Ann Ford stars in a Radio Times shoot. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cI remember the dinosaurs, some emerging from the water. The photographer was nice to work with, and we shared lots of giggles during the day. The only downside was it was quite cold, so I was grateful for the fur, except when I pulled it up to my chin for extra warmth, I had to pull it away immediately because it was ticklish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also accumulated lots of mosquito bites \u2013 whether they were already in the fur, or in the park and attracted to my furs, I\u2019ll never know, but they were not very welcome guests!\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Purves<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Before his fame as a long-running Blue Peter presenter, Peter Purves had made a name for himself in Doctor Who with a year-long stint as Hartnell\u2019s companion, Steven Taylor (1965\u201366).<\/p>\n

His 1973 photoshoot evoked one of his most popular stories and was organised for a location not too far from BBC Television Centre \u2013 underneath the A40 flyover, aka the Westway.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Peter Purves in a 1973 Radio Times photoshoot. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re right,\u201d says Peter in 2023. \u201cIt was taken under the Westway near Royal Oak, and I think that the Westway hadn\u2019t been open all that long. The shots were reflecting Blue Peter \u2018makes\u2019 [how children could easily make items] and The Celestial Toymaker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Peter Purves with some dolls for a Radio Times shoot. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cI remember that it was pretty noisy, and Allan, who had taken my picture on several occasions previously for Radio Times, had to shout instructions to me from time to time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an enjoyable shoot, and not too windy, so the dolls didn\u2019t fall over as much as we anticipated. But beyond that I have little recall. The hair and the suit date me! And I did like the pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anneke Wills and Michael Craze<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Soon after Peter Purves\u2019s departure from Doctor Who, Anneke Wills and Michael Craze arrived as Polly and Ben in 1966. Together they were the companions who oversaw the transition from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton, and left after a year in the TARDIS in 1967.<\/p>\n

Talking to RadioTimes.com<\/strong> in 2012<\/a>, Anneke recalled how RT<\/strong> tracked her down for the 10th anniversary special in 1973. \u201cIt was slightly disturbing for me \u2013 my old life coming back. I\u2019d turned left, and left it all behind. I was saying, \u2018No, I don\u2019t do that any more. I\u2019m busy watering my vegetables. If you want pictures, you\u2019ll have to come here.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Anneke<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Anneke Wills and Michael Craze holding hands on Stiffkey Marshes, Norfolk, with Cybermen behind them. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

RT<\/strong> dispatched Allan Ballard, Michael Craze and two Cybermen to Anneke\u2019s home near the north Norfolk coast. \u201cWe went out to Stiffkey Marshes to a waterpipe that stretches right out, then to Cley Beach to get that strange, lunar landscape for the Cybermen as seen in The Moonbase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Anneke<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Anneke Wills and Michael Craze on Cley Beach, Norfolk, with Cybermen in the background. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cAfterwards we all went to the Jolly Farmers pub opposite me and took pictures of the Cybermen eating boiled eggs for lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Michael Craze died in 1998.]<\/p>\n

Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Jamie and Victoria were another classic pairing from the Troughton era in the late 1960s, and had fought off the robotic Yeti twice, in The Abominable Snowmen<\/a> and The Web of Fear<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Five years after they\u2019d bid each other farewell, RT<\/strong> reunited the actors Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling \u2013 and ensured another encounter with the furry menace.<\/p>\n

\"Frazer<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling climbing away from a Yeti. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cBeing chased by a Yeti \u2013 I remember it well,\u201d says Frazer in 2023. \u201cAnd it was lovely seeing Debs again. We took the pictures on Hampstead Heath. People often think the heath is flat, but it\u2019s actually pretty hilly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put on a kilt again but, of course, by that time I didn\u2019t still have my Beatle-like Doctor Who haircut. It was my hairstyle from [ITV soap] Emmerdale Farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Frazer<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Frazer Hines and Debbie Watling with a Yeti behind them. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Frazer also casts some mystery over another Radio Times<\/strong> shoot from 1972. \u201cThere\u2019s one I\u2019ve seen with Katy Manning and Carole Ann Ford and supposedly me in the background. But that wasn\u2019t me. They must have cleverly superimposed my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Deborah Watling died in 2017.]<\/p>\n

\"Katy<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Carole Ann Ford and Katy Manning with a possibly superimposed Frazer Hines in the background. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Wendy Padbury<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Super intelligent Zoe shook things up during the final years of Troughton\u2019s Doctor Who. So brainy was she that, in The Invasion<\/a>, she had a mental battle with a computer and gave it a \u201cnervous breakdown\u201d.<\/p>\n

Four years after her departure, Radio Times<\/strong> caught up with actress Wendy Padbury and festooned her with computer tape.<\/p>\n

\"Wendy<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Wendy Padbury in a shoot for Radio Times. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cIt makes me laugh thinking about those photos with lots of tape around me,\u201d says Wendy in 2023, calling from her home in France.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was way after I was in Doctor Who. I was in another series, Freewheelers on ITV, and very pregnant. We only had a few weeks to go with the filming, and the costume designer had given me little smocks to wear so that hopefully my bump wouldn\u2019t be too noticeable. So I was wearing one of those for the Radio Times photos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wendy<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Wendy Padbury in a Doctor Who shoot. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

All these years later, she can\u2019t be 100 per cent certain where the shoot took place. \u201cIt was at a big computer company in somewhere like Bracknell.\u201d Indeed, the branding on the tapes and hardware indicate Honeywell.<\/p>\n

Wendy is delighted with the constant interest in the series. \u201cNothing surprises me about Doctor Who. It\u2019s an absolute phenomenon and has lasted because of the idea of regeneration, which came in with Patrick [Troughton]. I\u2019m biased because he was my Doctor, but he was brilliant when he took over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A stalwart of Doctor Who, Nicholas Courtney<\/a> played Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, the CO of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, across several decades.<\/p>\n

In 1970\u2019s Spearhead from Space<\/a>, he and Jon Pertwee\u2019s Doctor were joined by Caroline John as scientist Elizabeth \u2018Liz\u2019 Shaw. They were reunited for this 1973 photoshoot, Courtney appearing with the Brig\u2019s cap and swagger stick but without his familiar moustache.<\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John with Bessie for Radio Times. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Also pressed into service was the Doctor\u2019s favourite car, Bessie \u2013 which, of course, he had slyly named after his new UNIT assistant (both Bessie and Liz being diminutive forms of Elizabeth). The precise location of this photoshoot remains a mystery but looks like an airfield. Anyone out there know\u2026?<\/p>\n

[Nicholas Courtney died in 2011 and Caroline John died in 2012.]<\/p>\n

Katy Manning and Stewart Bevan<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You could be forgiven for supposing that these shots were taken during the filming of The Green Death<\/a>, the Doctor Who story that had aired most recently on BBC One in 1973.<\/p>\n

But, as Katy Manning<\/a> points out in 2023, she was nowhere near the colliery slag-heaps of Glamorgan. \u201cThat giant maggot had made it from Wales all the way up to the Edinburgh Festival,\u201d she laughs. \u201cIn fact, I think it had a front row seat to my show every night!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Katy<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Katy Manning and Stewart Bevan and giant maggot for Radio Times. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Her popular character Jo Grant had left Doctor Who a few months earlier to go up the Amazon with Professor Clifford Jones, played by Katy\u2019s real-life partner, Stewart Bevan.<\/p>\n

When Radio Times caught up with the young couple, it wasn\u2019t a wet winter in Wales but Scotland in August, hence their summery clothes. \u201cLoving Stewart\u2019s shoes \u2013 and mine! Just the thing for climbing about on Arthur\u2019s Seat, pursued by a maggot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Katy<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Katy Manning and Stewart Bevan in a shoot for Doctor Who. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Katy and Stewart were living in Edinburgh while she starred in a zany play called Union Jack and Bonzo. She recalls a very hectic period: \u201cDuring the day I had to be down south filming my series Serendipity for the BBC, then flew back up to Scotland to be on stage every night at the Traverse Theatre as a 16-year-old mass-murdering girl guide. Wearing white frilly knickers and little white socks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show did well and transferred to Hampstead and then we toured Holland with it. And that led to my part in the West End.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katy has signed pictures from the RT shoot countless times over the past 50 years, and even has one on display at home. \u201cThat was one of my favourite shoots ever \u2013 Stewart, me and the maggot!\u201d<\/p>\n

Decades later, the couple were reunited with giant maggots for a special short film publicising the 2019 release of season 10 as a Blu-ray box set. Katy and Stewart Bevan remained close friends until his death in 2022.<\/p>\n

Elisabeth Sladen <\/strong><\/h2>\n

With this evocative shot, the Radio Times<\/strong> 10th Anniversary Special introduced fans to the new woman in the Time Lord\u2019s life \u2013 journalist Sarah Jane Smith.<\/p>\n

\"Elisabeth<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Elisabeth Sladen and a Sontaran in a 1973 Radio Times photoshoot. (\u00a9 Radio Times Archive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Elisabeth Sladen had yet to make her screen debut. Her first story, The Time Warrior<\/a>, would also mark the first appearance of a Sontaran.<\/p>\n

Allan Ballard photographed the new companion and alien foe up on the ramparts of Peckforton Castle in Cheshire. Sladen left Doctor Who in 1976 but would return many times over the decades, and ultimately garnered her own CBBC series, The Sarah Jane Adventures<\/a>. She died in 2011.<\/p>\n

With thanks to Radio Times head of heritage Ralph Montagu and archivist David Carlisle.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n