https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/jun/04/william-russell-obituary
"On 23 November 1963 – the day after the assassination of President John F
Kennedy – the actor William Russell, who has died aged 99, appearing in a new
BBC television series, approached what looked like an old-fashioned police box
in a scrapyard, from which an old chap emerged, saying he was the doctor.
Russell responded: “Doctor Who?”
And so was launched one of the most popular TV series of all time, although the
viewing figures that night were low because of the political upheaval, so the
same episode was shown again a week later. It caught on, big time, with Russell
– as the science schoolteacher Ian Chesterton – and William Hartnell as the
Doctor establishing themselves alongside Jacqueline Hill as the history teacher
Barbara Wright and Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman.
Russell stayed until 1965, returning to the show in 2022 in a cameo appearance
as Ian and, since then, participating happily in all the hoop-la and fanzine
convention-hopping, signing and schmoozing that such a phenomenon engenders.
Before that, though, Russell had achieved prominence in the title role of the
ITV series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-57) – he was strongly built
with an air of dashing bravado about him; he had been an RAF officer in the
later stages of the second world war – and as the lead in a 1957 BBC television
adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, transmitted live in 18 weekly episodes.
When Sir Lancelot went to the US, the first British TV import to be shot in
colour for an American audience, Russell rode down Fifth Avenue on a horse in
full regalia, like some returning, mystical, medieval knight in the heart of
Normandy. The show was a smash hit."
Via Muse.
RIP,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
