Bedford Who Charity Con 11 took place at King’s House Bedford on Saturday 11 April 2026 and raised over £17,000 for SMART, Bedford’s charity for supporting homeless people. Here’s what Adam Kendrick overheard from the panels…

The Companions – Nicola Bryant, Wendy Padbury, and Lisa Bowerman

Where else could you find three of the Doctor’s companions, each from a different decade of Doctor Who, on the same panel but at Bedford Who Charity Con? This year’s guests included Nicola Bryant (who played the Fifth and Sixth Doctor’s companion, Peri Brown), Wendy Padbury (who played Zoe Heriot alongside Jamie McCrimmon and the Second Doctor), and Lisa Bowerman (who voice Bernice Summerfield for Big Finish production, as well as playing Karra in Survival). Even though none of these characters appeared together on television, we soon discovered that these three actresses shared a surprising amount of common ground.

For instance, both Nicola and Wendy wanted to become classical ballerinas when they were girls. Although Nicola managed to get into The Royal Ballet School at White Lodge, Surrey, the dusty environment caused significant problems for her asthma and her parents encouraged her to follow a different career path. Instead, she was inspired to switch to acting after participating in a school production of Fiddler on the Roof. Despite only having three lines (one of which was “The potatoes are ready, Mama”), Nicola argued that acting isn’t simply about how many lines you’re given, but ensuring that you have a presence when you’re not delivering any lines. Similarly, Wendy secured a scholarship to the Royal Ballet, where she had dreams of becoming a prima ballerina and even considered adopting the Russian-sounding stage name of “Wendoski Padveoka”. However, a lack of a growth spurt and her slightly flat feet meant that she failed to meet the physical requirements for the position and was forced to abandon this dream at age eleven. Fortunately, she took up amateur dramatics and wrote to various agents during the summer before her GCSEs. She recounted how she was invited for an interview in London, but didn’t tell her parents beforehand, who assumed she was merely visiting the capital for a day trip. Eventually, she was allowed to leave grammar school at age fifteen and pursued her new dream of becoming an actress.

Having appeared in numerous stage productions, perhaps it was no surprise that both Lisa and Nicola had shared experiences of filling in for other actors at late notice. Shortly after leaving Doctor Who, Nicola performed in the West End production of Killing Jessica, taking up a role for which she wasn’t originally cast. She received an urgent phone call at midnight informing her that the actress who was playing Karen Daniels had fallen seriously ill and was asked whether she could take over with only 36 hours before the curtain rose. The next morning, she drove down from Pudsey for rehearsals, memorised the script later that evening, and went on stage the very next day. Despite making a few minor mistakes, she loved the adrenaline rush and recognition she got for the role, although she admitted that she was much younger back then and wouldn’t agree to do it if she was asked today. In Lisa’s case, she was playing Mrs. Lyons in the 1997 tour of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, with only a week of rehearsals beforehand. During one interval, she was resting in her dressing room when the director suddenly asked if she could take over the role of Mrs. Johnstone, for whom she was the understudy. Her lines were photocopied and hidden behind the set, and she needed to perform a difficult musical number, managing to land the big note at the end.

Finally, both Nicola and Wendy spoke at length about their love for dogs. Wendy used to own a West Highland White Terrier called Dixie who was diagnosed with diabetes and needed to receive insulin injections twice every day. She was always well-behaved at the vet, which gave the trainees an opportunity to practice collecting blood samples on her. Sadly, Dixie recently passed away, but Wendy now has a nine-month cavapoo who is “simply gorgeous”. Meanwhile, Nicola is an ambassador for Dogs On The Street, a charity dedicated to the welfare of dogs belonging to the homeless, and she has two rescue dogs called Harvey and Marnie, who are very much in love with each other. Harvey is three quarters dachshund and one quarter papillon, while Marnie was rescued from a puppy farm; she had broken teeth from eating stones and her ears were torn after being attacked, but now lives in a happy household. Nicola credits her dogs for helping her to stay young through exercise, worry, and laughter – you can find pictures of them on her Instagram.

The Three Doctors – Colin Baker, Jo Martin, and David Bradley

Although Bedford Charity Who Con has taken place nearly every year since 2015, this was the first time that this convention had brought together not one, not two, but three different incarnations of the Doctor. Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor) was joined on stage by David Bradley (the First Doctor) and Jo Martin (the Fugitive Doctor) – all of whom appeared in Jodie Whittaker’s final episode, The Power of the Doctor (2022). The Twelfth Doctor’s regeneration story was a very special occasion for everyone involved, particularly for Colin who had long assumed that his Doctor would never appear on television again. Jo was delighted to receive the call inviting her back, while David compared the experience of reprising the First Doctor to “slipping on a favourite coat”.

The first question asked the panel what they thought was “the essence of the Doctor”, bearing in mind how every incarnation is different and each actor brings a different energy to the role. Colin revealed how he originally wanted to play the Sixth Doctor as someone who was dedicated to truth, decency, and kindness, but would also step over a dead body to help a butterfly with a broken wing, considering it to be just as important as an injured human. Meanwhile, Jo praised the Fugitive Doctor’s sarcasm, heart, and the fact she’s not a people-pleaser. She loved how nobody (except for her husband) knew or correctly guessed who Ruth Clayton really was before Fugitive of the Judoon (2020) aired, and confirmed that John Barrowman’s return as Captain Jack in the same episode was an intentional red herring. Even though most of her appearances since her debut have been brief cameos, she always enjoys it whenever her Doctor shows up as a surprise.

David described his Doctor as having “an unquenchable curiosity of the universe”. The fact that he prioritises the importance of the mission means that he sometimes comes across as ruthless, but although he often endangers his companions, he would never act cruelly. He sees the Doctor as a very complex character whose flaws are part of what makes him more human. When asked about his approach to playing William Hartnell in An Adventure in Space and Time, he explained how there was a responsibility to portray him with accuracy and honesty, and when new elements to this character were added during every redraft, he was able to “uncover the truth” regarding this complex real-life individual. By contrast, he viewed his rather contentious depiction of the First Doctor in Twice Upon a Time as an opportunity to have “more fun” on the grounds that he was playing a fictional character, rather than a real person.

The panel was asked about their work outside of Doctor Who and whether there were any roles that they found particularly memorable. David admitted that he might have enjoyed playing the loathsome Walder Frey in Game of Thrones “a bit too much” and spoke fondly of voicing Fowler in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023), a role which he inherited from his late friend, Benjamin Whitrow. He was delighted to find that Aardman Animations recorded the voice-acting before they started animating the characters, because the absence of lip syncing allows him to have more freedom as an actor, especially when the animation process utilises mouth-tracking, as was the case for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022).

Jo was proud of playing the ambiguous Lady Onola in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Oroonoko and she fulfilled a life-long dream of working with Mike Leigh in Hard Truths (2024), having been a fan of his work ever since watching Meantime (1983) when she was sixteen. She also became starstruck upon meeting Michael Caine on the set of Batman Begins (2005), even though when she first saw this legendary actor, she somehow mistook him for her old maths teacher!

Colin spoke fondly of Corpse!, a comedy-thriller stage play where he played a dual-role as two twin brothers, one of whom is trying to kill the other, as well as Privates on Parade, a farce set during World War II where he performed in drag while impersonating wartime icons such as Carmen Miranda and Vera Lynn. He also holds the honour of being the first murder victim in Jonathan Creek (1997-2016), who was killed by a very attractive and jealous model over an affair. Perhaps the role he most relished was Bayban the Butcher, the fearsome criminal who once threw his own mother out of a window, in Blake’s 7. He recently reprised the role for Big Finish by narrating the audiobook version of Bayban the Butcher: Bayban Ascending and recalled his favourite quote: “My mother used to say ‘treat every hour as though it’s your last’. See you in an hour, Vila.”

Colin had plenty of anecdotes about being recognised at inappropriate times, such as the overeager fan who asked him for his autograph while he was using an urinal (“my hands are busy at the moment!” he replied) Another time he was visiting a stately manor with his family when a rude fan grabbed him by the stomach and remarked that he had put on weight; he responded by telling her that she had a very big bottom. He also once signed a breast implant (thankfully removed from its previous owner), and appeared as a guest at a sci-fi convention alongside some very confused Russian cosmonauts. Colin wondered why the organisers had bothered to invite him, considering that they already had guests who had been to space in real life! As for the other two Doctors, Jo recalled being asked for a selfie by the specialist who was supposed to be conducting her mammogram (to which, Colin quipped “She must have felt a right tit!”), while David reminisced about the time he was nearly trampled to death by a crowd of fans who wanted to meet Robson Green while filming Reckless (1997). After the dust had settled, David encountered a small teenage boy called Jason who asked him for his autograph out of sympathy.

When an audience member asked the panel about whether they was angry about how some early episodes of Doctor Who had been lost (in light of the two recently discovered episodes of The Daleks’ Masterplan), Colin’s response was pragmatic: although it’s very sad that it happened, the BBC’s policy of erasing tapes in the 1960s was taken out of financial necessity due to the cost of tape at the time. After all, nobody at the time could have foreseen that there would be a demand for repeats decades later. Happily, David proposed a potential solution: if the BBC ever decides to refilm these missing episodes, his services are available!