Categories
Classic Series

Happy birthday William Russell

It’s easy to forget just how many great performances there were in Doctor Who – familiarity often dulls the wonderful in that way. The 60s were something of an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the regulars’ – and guest actors’ performances – the audio of Marco Polo convinced me of that some time ago.

Among the wonderful actors the shows was blessed with was William Russell, aka Ian Chesterton. His readings of Target novelisations are probably the best, for my money, and he again shows here quite how wonderful he is, in a short recorded for the DVD release of The Crusades.

The headline for this vid is ‘William Russell Returns to the Role of Ian Chesterton after 34 Years’. By my money, given that it was recorded a couple of years ago, that should read something like 47 years unless I’m missing something.

Anyway, here’s Russell, looking incredible for a man in his mid-80s.

Happy birthday, Chesterfield.

Categories
Classic Series

Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor audition

Never seen this before – and never actually knew it was publicly available. This seems a little unfair to McGann, but hey ho.

There are a few things of interest here: McGann’s reading is very still, very focussed – but there’s an odd distance to him too. It’s very alien, very Doctorish and rather more unsettling than his rather more excitable portrayal in the utterly appalling TV movie.

There’s a flash of the excitable Eighth Doctor when McGann is told to be more excitable – and it;s recognisable from his sole TV portrayal and Big Finish efforts, which I’ve never really warmed to.

What’s also noticeable is the script he’s reading, a lot of which will be familiar to anyone who’s had the misfortune to come across the Leekey Bible – Philip Segal’s manual for the Universal/BBC that, thankfully, never was.

To borrow an epithet from Tom Baker, Id call it undiluted whippet shit. It’s hard to listen to and McGann does well not to start laughing out loud at how terrible the whole thing is.

The Master is the Doctor’s brother; the Doctor is half-human, borne of an earth woman and a Gallifreyan adventurer called Ulysses. It’s a car crash of a dozen hackneyed sources with a few Doctor Who references thrown in for good measure.

That McGann got through the audition is one thing; that he still wanted the part is scarcely believable.