ANNE ROBINSON (The Parting of the Ways, 2005)

Anne Robinson, who was recently announced as the new host of Countdown, featured in Doctor Who when Rose was trapped in a futuristic version of The Weakest Link. Anne appeared as an Anne-Droid, a robotic version of herself.

ALAN CUMMING (The Witchfinders, 2018)

Over the years, many people have expressed hopes that Alan Cumming will one day take on the titular role in Doctor Who. For now, they’ll have to make do with his one guest appearance in the show, when he played King James I in The Witchfinders in one of the most amusing guest spots in recent Who history.

JOHN CLEESE (The City of Death, 1979)

The Monty Python man may have only appeared in Doctor Who briefly, but his short spot in the show is still regarded as one of the most entertaining and interesting guest appearances in its history. Cleese was spotted briefly admiring the TARDIS in an art gallery before Tom Baker flew away in it.

TIMOTHY DALTON (The End of Time, 2009 – 2010)

The man who starred as James Bond in The Living Daylight and Diamonds Are Forever played Rassilon, the Lord President of Gallifrey. His portrayal of Rassilon is widely agreed to be one of the most memorable in the show’s history. The End of Time was a two-parter that was broadcast over the Christmas and New Year period. It featured the return of several former Doctor Who actors, including John Simm, Catherine Tate, Billie Piper and the late Elisabeth Sladen.

DEREK JACOBI (Utopia, 2007)

One of the acting world’s most renowned national treasures, Derek Jacobi was part of the show’s most shocking twists when he was exposed as the evil Timelord, The Master, who has been warring with the Doctor for several centuries. Before his identity was revealed, Jacobi’s character featured to be a gentle ageing inventor.

KYLIE MINOGUE (Voyage of the Damned, 2007)

The legendary Australian popstar was no stranger to the screen by the time she appeared in this 2007 Christmas episode, having appeared not only in Neighbours but movies like The Delinquents, Street Fighter and Moulin Rouge too. She played Astrid Peth, who was a waitress on a replica of the Titanic. A romance between David Tennant’s iteration of the doctor and Astrid appeared to be blossoming until she met an untimely end.

CAREY MULLIGAN (Blink, 2007)

Carey Mulligan has starred in a string of critically-acclaimed indie films but featured in Doctor Who before appearing in movies like Shame. Mulligan played Sally Sparrow in the drama, with many fans hoping she will one day reprise her role.

JOHN HURT (The Day of the Doctor)

The iconic John Hurt appeared in the 50th-anniversary episode of the show. He played a version of the Doctor from the Time War that apparently destroyed Gallifrey. John sadly passed away in 2017 at the age of 77.

ANDREW GARFIELD (Daleks in Manhattan, Evolution of the Daleks, 2007)

Hollywood star Andrew Garfield appeared in Doctor Who years before becoming Spiderman. He featured in a two-parter and portrayed the character, Frank. Away from Doctor Who, who appeared in the movie Never Let Me Go with Carey Mulligan.

ANTHONY HEAD (School Reunion, 2006)

The former star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer played Mr Finch, an alien disguised as a headmaster. He also played an academic figure in Buffy. Viewers of a certain age may also remember Anthony as the suave character from the Nescafe Gold Blend ads in the 1980s. He is also the father of The Inbetweeners’ and Emmerdale’s Emily Head.

BRIAN BLESSED (Mindwarp, 1986)

The much-cherished and somewhat shouty star appeared in Doctor Who back in 1986, as King Yrcarnos. In this episode, Colin Baker’s iteration of Doctor Who faced court for breaking the First Law of Time. Brian Blessed recently took part in a sponsored silence to raise money for charity, saying he had learned the art of silence in Nepal.

PETER KAY (Love and Monsters, 2006)

Northern comedian Peter starred as the alien Victor Kennedy where she transformed a detective firm into a creepy spying business seeking out David Tennant’s Doctor. When other characters start to disappear, it transpires that Kennedy is an alien called Abzorbaloff who has absorbed them into his body. The character resulted from a Blue Peter competition.

KEN DODD (Delta and the Bannermen, 1987)

Much-missed comedy legend Ken was still entertaining audiences with his lengthy shows almost right up to his death in 2018 at the age of 90. Ken appeared alongside Sylvester McCoy’s doctor, The Tollmaster in the eighties when he gave The Doctor and Bonnie Langford’s Mel a trip to 1950s Disneyland. However, a satellite crash meant they landed in South Wales instead.

Get closer to Doctor Who with Brit Movie Tours

If you are interested in checking out some of the most talked-about and interesting locations used in Doctor Who tours, we can help.  At Brit Movie Tours, we have been running fascinating, educational and fun tours of key filming locations across the UK for well over a decade.  Each of our tour guides is an expert in their field and will go the extra mile to provide you with an unforgettable experience. We have worked hard to win incredibly high ratings across all the main review sites and can bring you closer to the stories behind your favourite shows than ever.

Book your experience today

Talk to us today if you’re a Doctor Who superfan keen to learn so much more about many of the locations featured in the long-running series. Our customer network consists of film and TV lovers of all ages, from all around the world. You can reach us today by giving us a call on 0844 2471 007 (UK) or +001 20 7118 1007 (US). You can also contact us by sending an email to info@britmovietours.com.

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The BBC found that tape was an expensive item to keep, so they simply taped over the original recordings of Doctor Who causing many to be missing and listed as lost.

Two episodes found!

In December 2011, two lost episodes were found; Galaxy Hour part 3 and The Underwater Menace part 2. For the British audience and worldwide Doctor Who fans, this was bigger news than the Americans finally withdrawing from Iraq.

The British Film Institute (BFI) has a section called Missing Believed Wiped. They were the first to show the missing episodes. They were bought by film collector, Terry Burnett, from a Southampton village fete almost thirty years ago. He knew what was on the tapes, but didn’t know the canisters contained important media missing from the BBC. He has now loaned them to the BFI. Featuring the first doctor William Hartnell and second doctor Patrick Troughton, Christmas came early for Dr Who fans.

Looking for over 100 episodes

Of the BBC list of 783 episodes, there are still over 100 missing, all from the 1960s. It was thought that old black and white tapes of episodes would be of no interest to the public once the tapes had been through any possible chance of repeats, so the tapes were habitually wiped clean – the BBC wiped the first 253 episodes during the 1960s – so they could be used again. Luckily, copies of shows were sent to various countries around the world, so other tapes still exist, and almost 150 have been found but no others have been found since 2004.

Of the first 27 series, 10 complete series remain unfound, but material from all but three episodes exists in part. The BBC used to record on two inch tape before wiping the episodes. Fortunately, at some stage they transferred recording to 16mm to send overseas. It is these tapes that have surfaced on occasion.

In the mid seventies, the BBC decided to keep tapes, perhaps foreseeing a future of selling pre-recorded VHS/Betamax tapes. Now called the BBC Film Library, they held 53 of the early episodes until they incredibly managed to completely lose six of them.

Audio versions exist

There is good news for those who want to listen to the lost tapes as audio recordings exist in one form or another for all of the missing tapes – recorded by enthusiasts from television output. Fans have reconstructed some episodes with a mixture of audio recordings, photographs from the lost episodes and animation.

The recent find is the first of the Galaxy 4 tapes to be found, while the Underground Menace episode is the earliest find of Patrick Troughton’s Doctor.

These tapes were originally sent to the ABC channel in Australia who censored and removed some small sections of the Underwater Menace tapes. The National Archives of Australia will add these scenes back in for the DVD release.

Fan groups and the BBC have released reconstructions of missing episodes, matching photographs from the episodes with the soundtracks. Two episodes of The Invasion were reconstructed using animation and released with the surviving episodes of that serial on DVD.

When the BBC started asking for the lost tapes in the late 1970s, good copies have been returned by television companies around the world particularly Nigeria, Hong King and Australia. Some censored (cut) clips from Australia and New Zealand have been found, but not necessarily the rest of the episodes.

Seeking Daleks

The Daleks’ Master Plan episodes were not sold abroad. No-one wanted them. Only Australia asked for viewing copies but didn’t run the series. Two episodes have come to light – found in an LDS church group in the early 1980s – which were passed back to the BBC. Finally, Episode 2 was returned in 2004 by a former BBC engineer who simply took the tape home after being told to dispose of it.

One Australian filmed direct from his television in 8mm film and has brought forward copies of lost episodes. The BBC also found 16mm films in their archive that weren’t listed but other episodes that they listed as stored were missing.

The search continues. The others might exist somewhere or they may have been lost forever – a sad thing for Dr Who fans.

Doctor Who tour

The post Doctor Who – Where Are The Lost Episodes? appeared first on Brit Movie Tours.

What?

The Twubcrawl will be an opportunity for Doctor Who fans on twitter to meet in person and get to know each other over a few drinks at various pubs along a walking route designed to take in various Classic Doctor Who locations.

The idea is for people to tweet the progress of the group using the hashtag #twubcrawl  so others can join along the route, as well as documenting the event in the same way by uploading pictures to twitter etc.

It is organised by Helen, from Brit Movie Tours, who specialises in Doctor Who Location Tours of England and Wales and Rod, from A Journal of Improbable Things: The Podcast, who will be documenting the event.

You don’t have to be on twitter to join in, so feel free to bring along people that haven’t quite gotten into the whole tweeting thing yet, maybe we can convince them by the end of the day!

Please feel free to get dressed up as The Doctor or your favourite companion although this is completely optional.

When?

The Twubcrawl will take place on Saturday 2^nd April 2011. We will be meeting at the first pub at 3pm. We are expected to finish at about 8pm.

Where?

The Twubcrawl will start at The Centre Page pub on Knightrider Street in the City of London near to St. Paul’s and will be finishing in the Shad Thames/Butler’s Wharf area (near Tower Bridge).

Things to remember:

–          Wear sensible shoes! We’ll be doing a fair amount of walking.

–          Wrap up warm as we will be by the river for a lot of the walk between pubs.

–          You must be 18 to join in with this event. Please bring ID with you if you’re lucky enough to look young. We really don’t want anyone to get refused entry into pubs because they can’t prove they’re over 18.

You can say hello to us or ask questions about the event on twitter @DW_Tours or @JOITPodcast. Don’t forget to use the #twubcrawl hashtag!

Disclaimers

This is not an official Doctor Who event and is not endorsed by or connected with the BBC or any of the writers, authors or publishers. Doctor Who logo ™ & © Copyright BBC 1963. Doctor Who, Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures are registered trademarks of the BBC. No infringement intended. Licensed by BBC Worldwide Limited.

Brit Movie Tours and A Journal of Improbable Things do not accept responsibility for any loss of personal items or injury that may occur during the event and encourage responsible drinking.

Pictures and audio recordings will be taken/made at the event and may be used on the internet/ in publicity material. If you do not want to appear in these you must tell the organisers at the start of the event.

The post The First Ever Doctor Who Twitter Pub Crawl (Twubcrawl)! appeared first on Brit Movie Tours.