Exclusive Peter Purves Interview
The images are reproduced with the permission of the BBC Archive.
Oliver Crocker chronicles the day charitable trust Film is Fabulous! gave a legendary Doctor Who star the surprise of a lifetime.
Peter Purves is a national treasure. For six decades, he has enriched many thousands of programmes with his natural warmth and meticulous presenting style, cementing his status as one of British television’s most respected, iconic and beloved frontmen. But now, thanks to the unbelievable recovery of two long-lost episodes of Doctor Who, generations of viewers are about to be reminded that Peter Purves is also an exceptionally fine actor.
Performing over 90 plays in an exhaustive two-year period of weekly rep during the early Sixties, the “smooth and attractive” young actor, as he was described in The Stage, regularly received critical acclaim. Peter’s “excellent performance” in Peter Shaffer’s Five Finger Exercise, his “chilling intensity” in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, and his “outstanding” Professor Serebryakov in Chekov’s Uncle Vanya highlight just some of the notices he earned throughout his accomplished repertory theatre career.
With comprehensive stage experience in his armoury, Peter quickly established himself as a reliable and versatile television actor by the middle of the decade, winning parts in Granada’s The Villains, the BBC’s seminal Theatre 625 and his first leading role in ATV’s Armchair Theatre play The Girl In The Picture. But it was his hilarious, scene-stealing guest performance as Texan tourist Morton Dill in the Doctor Who story The Chase that ultimately won Purves an invitation to join the TARDIS crew later in the very same serial.
“When I was rehearsing Morton Dill, the director Richard Martin, and indeed Bill Hartnell, both let me have my head. They let me play it funny, which was the impression I got of this guy from the script, he was gauche and all over the place. I think I got more out of it than perhaps either Terry Nation or Dennis Spooner might have expected. What I didn’t know until later was that Bill Hartnell was very worried, because Jacqui and Russ, playing Barbara and Ian, were leaving in three weeks and they hadn’t got a replacement…
“Maureen O’Brien, playing Vicki, watched me and Bill in rehearsal. On the Wednesday, she said, “Bill, you like him. How about it?” Then Bill went to Verity Lambert and said, “Watch this boy at the producer’s run-through tomorrow, see what you think…” After the studio recording at Riverside Studios on the Friday night, Verity and Dennis Spooner invited me to the pub across the road, which was known as Studio 3. They bought me a drink and asked me if I’d be interested in taking over as the new companion. On the Saturday, I went into the BBC and had a long chat with Dennis, who told me about the character, and I got the part.”
Across 10 television serials, daring space pilot Steven Taylor experienced arguably the most diverse range of journeys through time and space of any of the Doctor’s companions. In the future, he escaped his Mechanoid imprisoners, rebelled against Monoid overlords, and outwitted the fantastical machinations of The Celestial Toymaker. His footprints are also scattered across Earth’s history, having helped thwart a Viking invasion in 1066, bravely battled in the Trojan War and survived the Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve.
On Wednesday 11th March 2026, exactly 60 years to the day he was shooting Episode 1 of The Ark in Riverside Studios 1, the actor who brought the heroic time traveller to life was completely unaware that he was about to step back into the TARDIS and play an important part in another historic moment himself. “Today was not what I expected…” revealed the screen legend, who received a standing ovation from a small and appreciative audience as he walked into Leicester’s Phoenix Arts Cinema and Art Centre, captured by a local BBC news crew. What happened next took the great man’s breath away.
“I was greeted by my friend Toby Hadoke, who brought me in and immediately said, ‘Peter, I’ve been lying to you. You’re going to see something today, which you didn’t expect…’ “What was on offer was the very first episode of The Daleks’ Master Plan. My flabber was gasted, and I was a little bit speechless for probably half an hour. My bewildering day continued when I was invited into a private showing of The Nightmare Begins, projected onto a proper cinema screen. As I watched, I gradually grew in confidence as it went on, and I stopped being speechless and feeling stunned by it all. I then just felt very happy to see this rather good episode for the first time ever. It was excellent.”
The Daleks’ Master Plan was commissioned following BBC management’s desire for more appearances from the Doctor’s mortal enemies. Following the single-episode teaser Mission to the Unknown, the 12-part dystopian space odyssey, set in the year 4000AD, was the most ambitious production that the Doctor Who team had ever attempted. The Nightmare Begins launched this epic adventure on Saturday 13th November 1965, its first and only broadcast anywhere in the world.
The opening caption plays over a dramatic close-up of Purves’ anguished face, his character having been badly wounded during the dramatic finale of the previous serial, The Myth Makers. “I was almost comatose in it. Steven was recovering from a wounded shoulder, so I didn’t have much to say, I was just in agony and seen on two or three occasions. The major part was really played by Nick Courtney, interestingly so, because I can actually remember when we were in the rehearsal period for that episode. I thought Nick had been brought in to be my replacement and I was expecting to get the boot from the show. Luckily, it didn’t happen that way. My only major contribution to The Nightmare Begins is to give Nick a good clout and knock him out, which is an important story element that stops him from stealing the TARDIS and leaving the Doctor stranded.”
Purves agrees that his extensive theatre work proved invaluable when he joined the series, shooting 45 episodes in a 12-month period. “It was essentially weekly rep on television, but instead of it being a two-hour play, it was a 25-minute television programme, so it was easy for me in comparison and learning the script was never a problem. When we started rehearsals on the Monday, everyone would be there from hour one, whether they had a big part or a little part. By the Wednesday, there wasn’t a script in sight.”
Whilst the mammoth scriptwriting duties were shared between Dalek creator Terry Nation and outgoing script editor Dennis Spooner, the responsibility for bringing this colossal saga to the screen fell to one visionary director. “Dougie Camfield was a superb director. I was very impressed by his work on The Nightmare Begins, it was beautifully directed and I know that episode 2, Day of Armageddon, is also of exactly the same calibre. Dougie didn’t waste time on anything unnecessary; he concentrated on the detail and the accuracy. Dougie knew exactly what his camera angles needed to be, which of course he had to, but that was one of his great skills. When I was working with him in rehearsals, I’d be playing my part and he would literally be standing two feet away from me, being the camera, so I knew I’d have a big close-up there.”
“I can’t tell you how complicated directing was for all the directors on Doctor Who, which was done ‘as live’. They didn’t have the money to edit, and so any mistakes along the way went out on air. But Dougie was one of the best, and also one of the nicest. He used me again after Doctor Who, when he cast me as the title role in Ross, Terence Rattigan’s play about Lawrence of Arabia, which Dougie shot for a course when the BBC was going into colour. I was very proud of that and, again, Dougie got the best out of me. He was a wonderful director, I loved him.”
Camfield’s direction of The Nightmare Begins is pure cinema, injecting a real sense of danger, intrigue and jeopardy into some truly stunning visuals. As these episodes were not captured by John Cura’s Telesnaps services, there is a treasure trove of surprises in store for Doctor Who fans, including one moment that particularly delighted Purves. “There’s a lovely sequence following on from when Bill has been attacked by Nick Courtney’s Bret Vyon, and he looks like the mad professor, his hair’s all over the place!”
As well as Courtney’s first-ever appearance in Doctor Who, the episode also offers fans the chance to finally see Adrienne Hill’s Trojan handmaiden Katarina in the TARDIS. “I liked Adrienne a lot. In The Nightmare Begins, when she’s looking after me, we can see that she was giving a very nice, sweet performance. I think she was very unlucky, because she was introduced in The Myth Makers as the new Doctor Who girl, but they realised fairly quickly that they would have to explain far too many things to someone from Troy about space and time travel. It was too complicated and they wrote her out. It was a great shame that she had to go, because her performance was calm and very sensitive and I thought she brought a lovely performance out of Bill, who was very tender towards her. I think it worked, and it’s very sad that Adrienne didn’t have much of a career after Doctor Who.”
Peter gave special praise for guest actor Kevin Stoney, who portrayed the villainous Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System, corrupted by power and hellbent on galactic conquest. “I enjoyed everyone’s performance, but I thought Kevin Stoney’s performance was absolutely immaculate.”
One recovered episode from this highly sought-after story is a miracle, but two coming back is a gift from the missing episode Gods, and Film is Fabulous! had a second surprise in store for Peter.
After the credits had rolled and the BBC news team got Purves’ initial reaction to the episode, Toby Hadoke, whom Peter had invited to sit beside him to share this impossibly rare viewing experience, apologised as he revealed he’d lied again. Toby explained that Film is Fabulous! hadn’t just found the first episode of The Daleks’ Master Plan… ‘They’ve also found Episode 3.’ An astonished Purves bolted upright in his cinema seat. “You’re kidding!” Asked if he would like an interval before the screening continued, the jubilant star couldn’t contain his excitement and enthusiastically requested that the episode be played without delay.
Transmitted on the 27th of November 1965 to an audience of 10.3 million viewers, Devil’s Planet propels the story into space, as our heroes flee the Daleks having commandeered Mavic Chen’s Spar ship. Purves shines in this recovered masterpiece, the actor subtly shifting his body language and upper mobility as the injured Taylor recovers his strength throughout the episode. “Steven is still not fully recovered, and I played it that way, reflecting back to my injury so it was consistent.” Once fully revitalised, Flight Red 50 finally gets to show his skills as a space pilot, taking over from Courtney’s Bret Vyon in the Captain’s chair and handling the controls of the futuristic craft, in new scenes on Raymond Cusick’s impressive spaceship set that have been unseen for decades.
Devil’s Planet also showcases how Hartnell and Purves created one of the all-time great TARDIS partnerships, as the duo gently pepper Terry Nation’s suspenseful script with some perfectly judged comedic interplay, exchanging humorous asides and obvious signs of affection. “Very early on, when I was playing Morton Dill, I did an expansive gesture and I remember Bill coming over and saying ‘Peter, you don’t need to do big gestures like that. It’s very small, television.’ And he framed his face with his hands, as if he was being captured on a screen, ‘Everything needs to be seen there. There’s no point in doing gestures which aren’t going to be seen.’ I never forgot that tip that he gave me, and I took that advice into my presenting work as well. I’ve always said there would be no Doctor Who without Bill. He was the King.”
Their magical chemistry was enhanced by the two actors forming a genuine friendship off-screen. Whilst rehearsing The Daleks’ Master Plan in a drill hall at Bulwer Street, the two leads would spend their lunchtimes together, just around the corner at Bertorelli’s restaurant on Shepherd’s Bush Green. “I got on very well with Bill, he was a great lunchtime companion. He taught me things about food. I used to have burnt steaks, whereas he ordered his rare, exactly as it should be, and so he got me into eating a blue fillet steak, which he showed me was the perfect way to eat it. He also taught me to choose my wines more carefully.”
“He was extremely good company, he was a charming, funny and witty man, who had a good sense of humour. My wife and I used to take him out probably once a fortnight for an Indian meal, or a Chinese, which he liked. He used to come around to my flat and we would sit and chat for hours. He was most generous, both as a person and as an actor, because he didn’t try to steal the show for himself. You can see that in these two recovered episodes. He had all the faults that everyone has said he had, but he was never unpleasant to me. His main fault was that he aimed to be perfect, and the fact that he couldn’t be, because his memory was going and he couldn’t remember the script every so often, used to make him very annoyed, and he would be quite ratty with people when he was getting it wrong.”
Purves provided a vital and reassuring presence for Hartnell during a time of great flux for the programme. As well as three different producing and script editing teams, the pair worked with five different leading ladies across 10 serials. “We’d had to say goodbye to Maureen, which was a great loss to the programme. Adrienne’s replacement was Jean Marsh, but only for eight episodes, because she had another job to go to and couldn’t stay. Then we had Annette Robertson for four episodes in The Massacre, followed by Jackie Lane at the end. Jackie didn’t last very long, and neither did I, and finally of course Bill himself had to go. It was all rather sad.”
On a happier note, there are many standout moments in Devil’s Planet, which I will not spoil here to allow others to enjoy when the episodes are released. But I’ll share one moment which gave me goosebumps. Aboard the Spar, our heroes don protective visors to examine the Taranium core, a vital component of the devastating Time Destructor weapon. For the first time since original broadcast, audiences will be illuminated as to the contents of the mysterious metal prop. Then, in a curious twist of fate, William Hartnell delivers a line of dialogue to Purves, which in this context gave me shivers. “You’re a very privileged person, you realise that very people have seen this, in this universe?” The double meaning of that line was not lost on this humble writer. Watching this rarely seen episode in advance of its public announcement, especially in the presence of the mighty Peter Purves, was both an honour and a life highlight.
Again, rather fittingly, towards the end of the episode, Purves himself delivers another line that neatly mirrors the reason that these two episodes, which technically should not exist, have been preserved. Excusing the eccentric Doctor’s protestation that he and Bret are still wet behind the ears when it comes to space travel, Steven explains “We all have our obsessions, don’t we…” And it is thanks to a passion for film collecting that these two 16mm prints, thought to be exterminated forever, were discovered in the possession of a film enthusiast who, prior to his death, had given his blessing for Film is Fabulous! to catalogue and preserve his cherished collection.
At the finale of this landmark screening, John Franklin of Film is Fabulous! showed Purves the original film can of The Nightmare Begins found buried within the private film collection. Peter was fascinated by the various markings and documentation on the can, which Film is Fabulous! has preserved as an important part of the history of these two recovered gems, which might help provide further clues to the origins of these unique prints.
Back in the foyer, Peter had a chance to catch his breath and began by hugging and thanking Hadoke, who he refers to as “one of the good guys”. It was then time for some refreshments. “Is all this for me?” Purves asked, standing over an impressive lunchtime spread organised in his honour. After selecting his sandwiches, the disciplined star carefully examined a captivating array of dessert options. “Those cakes look delicious… Nope, I mustn’t.”
After conducting his BBC news interviews with an assured ease and professionalism, Peter took great interest in getting to know the select group of assembled TV historians, each tasked with documenting different aspects of this momentous occasion. Sporting a magnificent T-shirt inspired by Kevin Stoney’s Mavic Chen costume, bestselling author, 3D artist and researcher extraordinaire Gavin Rymill was introduced to Peter as “a Dalek expert.” Peter shook Gav’s hand and, with a knowing wink, mischievously quipped, “How embarrassing…”
Tim Burrows, host of the phenomenal Doctor Who: The Missing Episodes Podcast, congratulated Purves on his own excellently produced The Peter Purves Podcast. Deeply touched, Peter explained that he has upcoming recordings planned with more Doctor Who stalwarts and casually revealed that he edits the episodes himself. “I use GarageBand. It’s very easy.” You can’t help but be full of admiration and respect for Purves, who at 87 is still learning new tricks, being creative and doing his utmost to defy the passage of time.
Throughout his year in the TARDIS, Purves regularly carried the series on his shoulders; taking the lead in nine episodes where William Hartnell was either absent from the studio recording or, due to behind-the-scenes politics, had become a supporting player in his own series. In these storylines, most sadly missing from the archives, Steven Taylor drives the action. In an age when special attention is given when modern Doctor Who produces Doctor-lite episodes, or boldly features the leads singing or trying their hand at comedy, it feels important to acknowledge that Peter Purves was doing all that six decades ago, and the fact that he did this to such a consistently high standard is to his enormous credit.
Thanks to his proud association with Doctor Who, over the last two decades Peter has continued to flex his acting muscles, recording dozens of audiobooks and headlining full-cast audio dramas for Big Finish Productions, once again channelling his repertory versatility by deftly bringing many hundreds of characters to life. In 2023, he reprised the role of Steven on television, giving an incredibly moving performance opposite Maureen O’Brien in Tales of the TARDIS. And very soon, when these two classic encounters with the Daleks materialise on BBC iPlayer, they will further remind the world that Purves remains a very special actor.
“The one thing I found hardest when I joined Blue Peter, and it took me several months to become comfortable, was to stop acting. As an actor, you’ve always got a character to hide behind. As a presenter, you’ve got to stand there and just be you, which is difficult for an actor. Johnny Noakes created a character that was not like him off screen at all, he became a different person. I like to think that I mastered the art of being myself, but I’ve always regretted that I didn’t get more acting work. I missed it.”
“Three years ago, I played the lead in a pilot for a television series, where I believe I gave the performance of my life. No one’s seen a frame of it, myself included, and I fear they never will, which breaks my heart. But you have said some very kind things about my acting today, things nobody has ever said to me before. I’ve never really noticed that people like my work particularly, but I love doing the audiobooks and Big Finish stories, and I like choosing voices for all my characters. You’ve reminded me of some work that I am quite proud of, which I appreciate. You’ve made me feel very good and have made my day. Thank you.”
At the end of this very special visit to Leicester, it was a chauffeur-driven car, rather than a spaceship, that arrived safely in orbit, ready to take the actor home. Standing tall, Peter personally thanked each of the assembled team for playing their part. Having recently battled illness, an emotional Purves explained that the experience had rejuvenated him. “Today has given my recovery such a boost, I cannot tell you. It’s been an honour and an absolute joy for me to meet you all, and to be amongst people who actually care about preserving the work we did, and who have said very nice things about my part in it. It’s been a very happy experience for me.”
Film is Fabulous! have collaborated with BBC Archives to enable these programmes to be returned to the BBC. BBC Archives has ensured that the original 16mm telerecordings are restored – meaning viewers will be able to watch them in the best possible condition on BBC iPlayer. The recovery of these two missing episodes is a fitting reward for a wonderful actor, who has been one of the Time Lord’s longest-serving ambassadors and greatest friends. Today, Peter Purves becomes Doctor Who’s leading man once again. He deserves it.
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Film is Fabulous! Preserving film treasures for future generations.
13th March 2026
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