Bedford Who Charity Con 8 took place on Saturday 18 March 2023 at King’s House Bedford, raising a total of £3,583 for charity. Adam Kendrick was there.

Christopher Ryan and David Gooderson

The morning opened with a villains’ panel, where Christopher Ryan and David Gooderson discussed their appearances on Doctor Who, how they got into acting, and revealed that even though they had first met in 1974 while performing on stage, they hadn’t talked to each other since until very recently. 

Christopher’s first acting experience was playing Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, complete with fake beard, at his school’s drama club. When he was 18, he trained at East 15 Acting School and became a professional actor at Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre. Over the course of his career, he played “Mike The Cool Person” in The Young Ones, made appearances in classic sitcoms such as Bottom, Absolutely Fabulous, and One Foot in the Grave, and played three different aliens in Doctor Who – Lord Kiv (Mindwarp [1986]), General Staal (The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky [2008]), and Commander Stark (The Pandorica Opens [2010]). To become Staal, he had to sit through up to four hours of makeup every day and perform his scenes while wearing very heavy armour and a prosthetic mask which was impossible to hear through. With very little time for rehearsal, he had to jump straight in and take what he could from the script, while drawing inspiration from certain people he had previously met in order to create the larger-than-life Sontaran. That said, Christopher prefers being able to refine his performance in the theatre and playing a broader range of characters on the radio.

David, a former member of the Cambridge Footlights, caught the acting bug while performing at Salisbury Playhouse and went on to appear in hundreds of radio broadcasts. His prolific output led to his casting as Davros in Destiny of the Daleks (1979) since director Ken Grieve considered the masked role to be effectively “a radio part”, not to mention that he also happened to fit Davros’s existing costume. Slipping into the role of a megalomaniac scientist was a fun and wild experience for David, who praised Grieve as “a brilliant director” and befriended Tom Baker during rehearsals. However, his greatest nemesis would prove not to be the Fourth Doctor, but his uncomfortable latex mask: after an hour in makeup, he was left practically blind, unable to eat anything, and had to drink through a straw. Sweat would accumulate and dry on his face, especially from the effort of pedalling around in his chair. To make matters worse, the mask itself was reused from Genesis of the Daleks (1975) and suffered from wear-and-tear – according to David, his portrayal of Davros can be easily identified by the battered mouth, which makes him look like he’s just eaten a Mars Bar! These difficulties meant that David had to “push through” and perform with lots of vocal energy, but without falling into pantomime. Nevertheless, he was delighted to reprise the role of Davros for the Season 17 Collection announcement trailer, for which he feels he delivered a superior performance, and hopes to someday appear in a multi-Davros story with all the other Davroses!

Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury

The second panel featured two companions of the Second Doctor: Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon) and Wendy Pandbury (Zoe Heriot), who both recounted their memories of working with Patrick Troughton. For Frazer, Pat was “an absolute joy” who was always in a good mood and excited to meet new cast members. They both shared a cheeky sense of humour and often tried to slip innuendo into the script, such as their exchange at the start of The Two Doctors (1985) (“Look at the size of that thing, Doctor!” “Yes, Jamie, it is a big one.”) Wendy described Patrick as “a wonderful man” who advised her on how to become a professional actor, emphasising the importance of avoiding the press and keeping one’s private life. In Frazer’s case, however, his appearances in a popular television show sometimes led to unwanted attention: he remembered being approached by a tough-looking bloke who wanted spoilers for the following week’s episode, while Wendy recalled an incident where Frazer was heckled by a taxi driver. After being asked “Are you that bloke who wears that stupid kilt in that stupid TV program?” Frazer immediately responded with, “Yes, are you the t*sser who watches it?”

The fast-paced production schedule meant that following a week of intense rehearsals, the entire episode would be filmed continuously and only stopped for technical issues. Sometimes costume changes had to take place during recording, such as when Patrick played both the Doctor and the malicious dictator Salamander in The Enemy of the World (1967/68). Between filming, the three of them would relax by playing games like poker, Last Card, Aggravation, and Liar’s Dice. The only time they could watch the recorded footage back was during supper, although Wendy much preferred the anticipation of waiting for a new episode every week like everyone else.

Out of all the serials that Jamie appeared in, Frazer’s favourite was his debut story, The Highlanders (1966/67). He was glad that he took the role seriously and got on with Patrick so well that he was asked to become a companion. Wendy’s favourite story was The Mind Robber (1968), not only because it was completely different to what they had done before, but also because Frazer caught chickenpox and didn’t appear for one episode! Luckily, he couldn’t have picked a better story to fall sick because they were able to rewrite the script and temporarily replace him with “a proper actor” called Hamish Wilson. When asked which lost serial they’d love to see again, both Frazer and Weny hoped that The Space Pirates (1969) would receive a reanimation in the future.

Although Zoe didn’t meet the Daleks while travelling with the Doctor, Wendy finally got her chance in Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday, a 1974 stage play in which she played a companion called Jenny. At the start of every performance, she would sit in the audience with James Matthews and watch as the Doctor, played by Trevor Martin, stumbled out of the TARDIS and asked the audience for help. She and James would then loudly chatter about helping the poor man on stage before getting up from their seats to join him. Most of the time, however, the audience would shush them and during one performance, someone even hit her on the head with a program! Although the writer Terrance Dicks hated this opening, she loved how the children were thinking that they too could have been the Doctor’s companions, if only they had spoken up sooner. Since this was a very technical production full of lightning cues and large sets, things often went wrong; props would occasionally get stuck and Wendy once burnt her leg while climbing into a Dalek, whose lights were powered by car batteries. 

Outside of Doctor Who, Wendy made her first TV appearance in Crossroads in 1966 as Stevie Harris, foster daughter to Noele Gordon’s Meg Mortimer. Despite accidentally sitting in Noele’s reserved chair on her first day, she didn’t have a bad word to say about her and revealed that she discussed her time on the show with Russell T Davies while he was writing Nolly, his recent biographical miniseries on the life of Noele. At this point, however, Frazer interjected to say she should have used the opportunity to tell Russell to bring Jamie and Zoe back to Doctor Who!  Fortunately, neither of them needed to have worried – both Frazer and Wendy appear in Tales of the TARDIS as part of a special omnibus version of The Mind Robber.

Sadie Miller and Christopher Naylor

Sadie Miller is the daughter of the much-missed Elisabeth Sladen, best-known for portraying Sarah Jane Smith. Her first acting credit was Royal Celebration (1993), a BBC Screen One drama about the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (although her parents forbade her from watching the naughty scenes). Because her parents initially wanted to protect her from acting, she studied English at the University of York and then went to drama school afterwards. She appeared alongside her mother in both series of Sarah Jane Smith, a Big Finish series which predates television’s The Sarah Jane Adventures. A few years ago, Sadie was contacted by producer David Richardson and was offered to become the new voice for Sarah Jane Smith. Although it was very intimidating for her to follow in her late mother’s footsteps, she received a warm reception and considers herself lucky to be in her position. Big Finish are a lovely team to work with and she’s glad that she’s able to pay tribute to her mother. Sadly, her own children aren’t interested in Doctor Who and aren’t even impressed about their grandmother having her own action figure!

Chris Naylor was cast as Harry Sullivan after Big Finish realised that his voice sounded similar to Ian Marter. When he was growing up, he was a huge fan of the Fourth Doctor and was captivated with Tom Baker’s performance. Once he was old enough to understand the concept of acting, he wanted to pursue it for a living. While performing at the Orange Tree Theatre, Jamie Newell put in a good word for him at Big Finish, which led to him appearing as a murderous camp fashion designer in The Avengers. Eventually, he mentioned his dream of working with Tom Baker and was surprised by how easily it was arranged. He was terrified to meet his childhood hero, but Tom turned out to be a lovely friendly man who always meets people as if it was the first time. Even though he plays the eccentric and puts on an outer shell, it’s possible to have more serious conversations with him. Although he doesn’t talk much about Elisabeth Sladen, he clearly loved her and used to write postcards congratulating her after her latest performance.

Chris and Sadie talked about the challenges of recreating someone else’s performance while honouring the memory of their predecessor. There’s a natural instinct to make the character your own, but in reality, they’re playing an actor who’s playing another character. Chris’ anxieties come and go, but he likes to picture Ian Marter in his costume and will relisten to old episodes if he can’t quite capture his voice. Working with renowned impressionist Jon Culshaw has been especially helpful, and he often has conversations while in-character as the Brigadier.

They praised Big Finish’s scripts for always being diverse and interesting. The writers are very good at capturing the character’s voice in dialogue and there’s a fresh cast every week. Sadly, Big Finish’s famously lavish lunches at The Moat Studios are no more, following Toby Hrycek-Robinson’s retirement from sound and music design – these days, it’s sandwiches from Pret a Manger! When the global COVID pandemic began in 2020 and it became impossible to meet people in person, everyone was sent a professional microphone and they began recording audios in conference calls using Cleanfeed. For the most part, it was business as usual and a thousand employees were able to keep their job. The main challenges for Chris were the lack of company, accidentally putting himself on mute, and thinking that he had imagined the whole recording session afterwards! Once they’ve finished producing each audio, they’re usually gifted a physical copy, although Chris mentioned that he had recorded some audios back in 2018 which still haven’t been released. He’s looking forward to re-listening to them because he has no memory of what happens during them!

Chris was disappointed that we never got to see Harry inside the TARDIS and disliked how abruptly he was written out at the end of Terror of the Zygons (1975). He wishes Harry had been given a more poignant farewell with a comic element like Sarah Jane. When asked whether Harry and Sarah Jane were more than just friends, Chris and Sadie felt that the two characters have a platonic relationship akin to brother and sister. While they occasionally annoy each other, they do genuinely love each other – that said, considering Harry’s buffoonery and Sarah’s independence, anyone shipping these two shouldn’t hold their breath!

Derek Martin and Andrew Burford

The final panel of the day was a Stuntman Special with two stuntmen, each from a different era of the show: Derek Martin worked as a HAVOC stuntman alongside a range of Doctors in the 1960s and 1970s before moving into acting, with his best-known role being Charlie Slater from EastEnders. Andrew Burford has worked as a professional stuntman since Thin Ice (2017) and was even involved in the 60th anniversary specials. During his time on Doctor Who, he has been a Cyberman, a Judoon, a decapitated Kerblam! Man, and covered for Paul Marc Davies as Corakinus in Class (2016). Outside of Doctor Who, he doubled for Mads Mikkelsen in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, did swordfighting in Game of Thrones, and did wirework as a Stormtrooper in Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. With these two stuntmen together on the same panel, we learnt just how much the television industry has changed over the past fifty years.

Derek always wanted to become a famous Hollywood actor “but only got as far as Heathrow”. After starting out as an extra in Z-Cars, he was personally invited to join HAVOC by founder Derek Ware. However, his skills were so lacking that he couldn’t even tie his own shoelaces and only managed to become a stuntman because he could drive a car. The fact he was untrained meant that every stunt was dangerous: his worst injury was a dislocated shoulder after falling off his horse during the making of a Queen Elizabeth I film. By contrast, Andrew started out by making ten-minute shorts with his friends, which often involved climbing up trees and falling down stairs. Originally, he wanted to be a policeman and worked as a special constable during the London 2012 Olympics but since he didn’t enjoy the paperwork, he decided to become a stuntman instead. In order to get onto the British Stunt Register, he needed to become qualified in six different disciplines, including martial arts, gymnastics, and swimming, which led to him becoming skilled in judo, trampolining, high diving, and rock climbing.

Andrew’s favourite serial to work on was The Doctor Falls (2017), where he spent a week getting bruises from jumping off trampolines and landing on mattresses while explosions were set off behind him. These scenes were filmed using a long lens so that these explosions appeared closer than they really were. Most memorably, he played the Cyberman who holds the Twelfth Doctor’s unconscious body in its outstretched arms during this episode’s cold open. He didn’t realise at the time how iconic this shot would become, although he revealed that due to Peter Capaldi being six feet tall, he was very heavy and the production crew had to trust that Andrew wouldn’t drop their lead actor. 

There was a discussion of how one mutes the instinct to protect yourself when doing a dangerous stunt: it’s particularly difficult to fall down without putting your hands out instead of using your body mass, which is essential if your character has been shot in the head. Andrew pointed out that accidents are more likely to happen if you become too complacent about what you’re doing, which is why it’s important to always have some fear. Even so, there were some stunts which even Derek refused to do, such as when he was asked to crash a car into a shop window made from real glass while filming an episode of Budgie: the driver was replaced with a dummy instead.

Derek described today’s stuntmen as “finely tuned athletes” who need to be good at a variety of skills. Back in his day, anyone could get the job if they were able to run through a brick wall or throw themselves down a flight of stairs. Nowadays, larger budgets mean that there’s much more training and coordination; rehearsals take place so that everybody understands how the scene will be filmed and in some cases, post-production techniques might be used for more dangerous stunts, such as using computer graphics to replace a buggy with a bus. Andrew replied that today’s stuntmen lack the courage that Derek had and that were it not for the bravery of untrained amateurs, the stunt industry wouldn’t be where it is today.