Sad news to open the weekend with: respected British character actor and one-time Doctor Who guest George Baker has died after a short illness, aged 80.

Baker is probably best known for the starring role of Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford from 1987-2000 on ITV, although his previous notable roles included the BBC’s legendary I, Claudius in the key role of Tiberius and various appearances in the James Bond series, in particular the key role of Sir Hilary Bray in 1969′s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (as well as appearances in You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me). Baker found himself dubbing star George Lazenby’s dialogue as the Australian’s accent was considered too broad to realistically impersonate Bray while undercover.

George Baker was born April 1st, 1931 in the city of Varna, Bulgaria, where his father was honorary vice consul. He appeared in repertory after leaving Lancing College, appeared at the Old Vic and began his film and television career in the 1950s, appearing in wartime classic The Dam Busters. A string of high-profile roles followed, with Baker easily able to pick and choose as he switched between stage, TV and cinema.

It was in 1980 that he appeared as Login in Andrew Smith‘s Full Circle, the first installment of the E-Space Trilogy. In the story, Login is a respected member of the Starliner community on Alzarius, and throughout the course of the events of the serial he finds himself as one of the three Deciders who govern their people. Despite a couple of dated visual effects sequences, Full Circle is one of the most memorable episodes from the 1980 season, featuring an interesting scientific concept; if you haven’t seen it yet, you should certainly begin making arrangements to do so.

Following his starring role as Wexford, Baker’s TV roles were restricted to prominent guest appearances, with Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) (2001), Coronation Street (2003), Midsomer Murders and Spooks (both 2005) among his guest appearances.

Naturally it is sad to lose another great British actor, and one associated with Doctor Who, but Baker’s achievements even surpass encountering the Time Lord. As well as acting, he was a talented scriptwriter and producer, and his 1980 BBC2 play The Fatal Spring won a United Nations peace award for its portrayal of the first world war poets Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves.

Baker is survived by four daughters from his first marriage and one from his second; he married three times, to the costume designer Julia Squires, to Sally Home, and to Louie Ramsay, his on-screen wife in the Inspector Wexford series.

George Baker died from pneumonia on October 7th, 2011, and will be widely missed.

Obituaries to George Baker can be found at:

• The Guardian
• BBC News
• The Telegraph

Posted by Andy on Sunday, 09-Oct-2011 03:10 AM

Roy Skelton, who contributed to dozens of Doctor Who episodes across the eras of all seven of the classic series Doctors, has died at the age of 79. BBC News reports that the actor suffered from a stroke.

Best known in Doctor Who circles for his Dalek and Cyberman voices, he was also well-known in British television for his voice work on the famous children's series Rainbow, where he famously provided the vocal characterisation of the characters George and Zippy.

Born in Manchester in 1931, Skelton's first involvement with Doctor Who came when he provided voices for the Monoids in the 1966 William Hartnell serial The Ark. He returned to the series later that year to provide voices to the first ever Cybermen in Hartnell's finale as the Doctor, The Tenth Planet. It was in 1967 that he first took on the role he became most associated with on Doctor Who, when he voiced the Daleks in Evil of the Daleks, lining up against Second Doctor Patrick Troughton. He then provided Dalek voices right through until their final classic series appearance in 1988 Remembrance of the Daleks, starring Sylvester McCoy. He also made the occasional on-air appearance, such as briefly playing the body of the Spiridon Wester, whose voice he had provided, when the character became visible on his death in the Jon Pertwee serial Planet of the Daleks in 1973.

Skelton's ability to provide Dalek voices in different registers which he could switch between as recording was in progress enabled a variety of characterisation and conversation to be played in Dalek scenes. This ability to quickly switch between voices also served him well on Rainbow, a series he stayed with from its origins in the early 1970s through to the 1990s, where he was frequently called on to voice quick-fire conversations between his two characters of George and Zippy.

His association with two such long-lasting series fondly remembered by the British public meant that Skelton often appeared in documentaries and interviews, and he even returned to voice Zippy for a surreal guest appearance in a 2008 episode of the BBC One drama series Ashes to Ashes, set in an illusory version of the early 1980s.

Skelton's daughter Samantha told the BBC:
The most wonderful thing was if Zippy and George were having an argument between themselves, it sounded like he'd double-tracked it as they seemed to be talking over each other. It was a wonderful technique and I don't know how he did it. Although he was known for Zippy and George he was actually a fabulous actor with a great singing voice and a wonderful raconteur - he used to tell us some wonderful stories.

Posted by Andy on Saturday, 11-Jun-2011 03:53 AM

It is with great sadness that we have to report that the actress Elisabeth Sladen - forever known to us as the Doctor's best friend, Sarah Jane Smith - has died. The news, which was broken on Twitter earlier today, has since been confirmed via Twitter by Doctor Who Magazine.

A full obituary up on site now

Posted by Andy on Tuesday, 19-Apr-2011 15:15 PM