Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first episode of the British television institution Doctor Who.
Sadly there is no direct link to Alan Ayckbourn - although he has written several time-travelling plays including Whenever which included a box which travelled through time....
However, the blog is going to indulgently link two of my passions (Alan Ayckbourn and Doctor Who, obviously) for one day only with a - admittedly - tenuous tour through the various incarnations of the Doctor and their even more tenuous links to Alan Ayckbourn.
So for a bit of fun, let's celebrate the life (so far) of the greatest time-traveller the universe has ever seen!
Verity Lambert, the famed original producer of Doctor Who and the BBC's first female drama producer, was responsible for producing the popular 1977 television adaptation of Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests. This was also notable because it was the first time six hours of the primetime evening television schedule had ever been given over to a living playwright.
Also the very first episode of Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child - was directed by a young director named Waris Hussein. In 2000, Waris Hussein directed an acclaimed audio adaptation of Alan Ayckbourn's play Just Between Ourselves for LA Theatre Works featuring Alfred Molina as Dennis.
Although many actors who have worked in Doctor Who have also worked with Alan Ayckbourn, Martin Jarvis probably has the earliest Doctor Who connection. Martin - who has worked with Alan in the West End and at his home theatre in Scarborough - played Hilio in The Web Planet opposite the first Doctor and would go on to appear in Invasion Of The Dinosaurs with the third Doctor and Vengeance On Varos with the sixth Doctor.
One of several very tenuous connections (!) to Alan Ayckbourn, but Patrick Troughton's son, David Troughton, will be known to many Ayckbourn fans for playing the role of Tom in the acclaimed 1977 television adaptation of The Norman Conquests - which was produced by Verity Lambert and also featured Richard Briers and Penelope Wilton, who would both go on to appear in Doctor Who. David has appeared in Doctor Who in Midnight, The Enemy of the World, The War Games and The Monster of Peladon (thanks to Paul Morris for suggesting the latter three serials).
David also played Harvey in the National Theatre's acclaimed 2010 revival of Season's Greetings - which also featured Doctor Who alumni Mark Gatiss and Catherine Tate.
The intrepid reporter Sarah Jane Smith is one of the most popular of the Doctor's companions - so popular she returned to the revived series for several adventures with the tenth Doctor as well as receiving her own spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Sarah Jane Smith was played by the late Elisabeth Sladen, who was part of Scarborough Library Theatre company in 1969 and 1970 and appeared in two Ayckbourn world premieres: How The Other Half Loves (1969) and The Story So Far... (later retitled Family Circles) in 1970. In How The Other Half Loves, she created the role of Fiona Foster.
Not quite a direct link to Alan Ayckbourn - but a notable one for the theatre he is most associated with. In 1968, Tom Baker joined the company for the summer season at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, where Alan Ayckbourn made his writing and directing debuts and of which he would become the Artistic Director in 1972. Sadly, it is one of the few years since 1959 in which Alan Ayckbourn did not premiere or direct one of his plays but Baker appeared in several plays including Hay Fever and Arden Of Feversham; entirely coincidentally, this was the year before Elisabeth Sladen joined the company and who - as Sarah Jane Smith - is the companion most associated with Tom Baker's Doctor.
Although not as widely known as the television series, there has been a prolific amount of official Doctor Who audio adventures featuring the 'classic' Doctors (Doctors 1 - 8) over the years. In 2009, a series of three stories featuring the fifth Doctor (performed by Peter Davison) were released under the title Key 2 Time. Within them, Laura Doddington played Zara, one of two twins created in human form to find the Key to Time. She went on to star in a spin-off series of audio adventures about the character called Graceless.
Laura is a very prolific Ayckbourn actress who has worked with his Scarborough company a number of times including the world premieres of Miss Yesterday, Improbable Fiction, Life Of Riley and Surprises.
In 2003, following issues with the West End production of Damsels In Distress in the West End, Alan Ayckbourn put a temporary moratorium on all West End and major touring productions of his plays. Between 2003 and 2007, only the Stephen Joseph Theatre was touring Alan's plays. This altered in 2007 when veteran Ayckbourn actor and acclaimed director Robin Herford produced the first major UK tour since 2002 with Bedroom Farce.
This well-received production of the classic play featured the sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, as Ernest with Louise Jameson (who played the fourth Doctor's companion Leela) as his wife Delia. Colin has previously appeared in several other Ayckbourn plays and once said 'Alan Ayckbourn is a genius' - so we like him!
One of the most memorable villains of the Sylvester McCoy era was Sheila Hancock's portrayal of Helen A in The Happiness Patrol; now regarded as a thinly veiled allegory of the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Sheila Hancock was notably in the original West End production of Absurd Person Singular in 1973 as Marion Brewster-Wright; Absurd Person Singular still stands as the longest running single production of an Ayckbourn play in the West End.
The quintessential Ayckbourn actor Richard Briers also appeared opposite the seventh Doctor in The Happiness Patrol. Richard appeared in the West End premieres of Absurd Person Singular and Absent Friends.
The Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann)
A bit of a difficult and tenuous one here as Paul McGann has only appeared twice as the Doctor on screen (the TV movie and a mini episode for the 50th anniversary). He has been one of the most prolific Doctors though thanks to a range of official audio adventures, some of which have featured actors who have worked with and been directed by Alan Ayckbourn such as Samantha Bond, Nigel Havers, Julia McKenzie, Steven Pacey and Rupert Vansittart.
When Doctor Who returned to television in 2005, one of the most acclaimed and popular episodes was Dalek. This episode memorably re-introduced the Doctor's oldest and most popular foes, the Daleks.
The Hugo award nominated episode was written by Robert Shearman, an award winning author and playwright, who has had a number of plays premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough; two of which - Fool To Yourself & Knights In Plastic Armour were directed by Alan Ayckbourn.
During the tenure of the ninth and tenth Doctors, the Scarborough-born actress Penelope Wilton played the recurring role of Harriet Jones (MP, then Prime Minister, then former Prime Minister and Dalek victim).
Penelope Wilton has numerous connections with Alan Ayckbourn; she was directed by him in the National Theatre's production of Sisterly Feelings, played Ruth in the London premiere of The Norman Conquests at the Greenwich Theatre and played Annie in the television adaptation of the trilogy.
Most recently, she appeared in a scene from Bedroom Farce alongside Nicholas le Provost as part of the National Theatre's 50th anniversary celebration production.
Two Christmas episode connections here as the stars of each of Matt Smith's first two Doctor Who Christmas specials have connections with Alan Ayckbourn.
In A Christmas Carol, Michael Gambon played the protagonist Kazran Sardick. Gambon is one of the most famous actors to be associated with Alan Ayckbourn and has appeared in more West End / National Theatre productions of Alan's plays than any other actor. He memorably played Tom in the original London production of The Norman Conquests and won Olivier Awards for his performances in A Chorus Of Disapproval and Man Of The Moment.
The following year, Claire Skinner played Madge Arwell in The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe. Claire has worked with Alan Ayckbourn on several occasions and appeared in the world premiere production of The Revengers' Comedies and the London premiere of Invisible Friends at the National Theatre.
Apologies to the many, many actors who have worked with Alan Ayckbourn over the years and who have appeared in both classic and new Doctor Who adventures. There's an awful lot of them and too many to mention here!
Happy 50th anniversary to Doctor Who!
Update 23 November: And this Archivist's day has been very much made. As part of the Doctor Who 50th celebrations, a mock-documentary The Five Doctors(ish) Reboot was screened. And in a scene at the end, Doctor Who producer Russell T Davies makes an appearance with a poster for Alan Ayckbourn's Taking Steps very prominently displayed behind him! Two worlds collide at last!
