Doctor Who Club of Australia

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For the past five Saturdays I have been watching the Professionals on UKTV and it had some interesting Who connections. Dennis Spooner being script editor for the first couple of episodes, there were some Doctor Who guest stars including Keith Barron, Angus McKay, Alan Tilvern and the lovely Pamela Salem. The first episode Private Madness, Public Danger was written by Anthony Read and directed by Douglas Camfield. Last night's episode Heroes was written by PJ Hammond but it was under the name James McAteer. As I found out from TV.com Hammond asked for his name to be removed after certain changes were made to it. Hopefully he has had no such difficulties working on Torchwood.

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Last night's episode Where The Jungle Ends featured Robert James, Geoffrey Palmer and Jeremy Bulloch. James featured very briefly while Palmer was sort of a bad guy while Jeremy Bulloch was definitely part of the bad guys.

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Close Quarters was script edited by Dennis Spooner which came as a surprise to me because I thought his script editing duties were done with the first couple of episodes as his name did not appear in the previous few episodes.

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Everest Was Also Conquered guest starred Hand of Fear guest star Roy Boyd. He plays a character who is not exactly a baddie but he is not a goodie either. Coincidentally I currently watching Hand of Fear on DVD.

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When The Heat Cools Off had the following Who faces: Bernard Kay, Geoffrey Hinsliff, Michael Sheard and......Lalla Ward. This was one of Lalla's pre-Doctor Who appearances. Although they do not appear together in this episode she and Geoffrey would later appear together in Doctor Who in Nightmare of Eden. We usually see Lalla with her blonde hair but here she has brown hair.

Another interesting thing is that the year 1977 is shown on-screen. Coincidentally The Last Detective episode Three Steps to Hendon on the ABC which I saw straight after The Professionals was finished on UKTV also had the year 1977 displayed on screen. One difference though, 1977 in The Professionals episode took place as a contemporary event while 1977 in The Last Detective took place in the past.

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Stakeout was written by Script Editor Dennis Spooner.
The episode guest starred Barry Jackson (who was in The Romans also written by Spooner), David Collings and Ronald Leigh-Hunt.

Coincidentally Ronald Leigh-Hunt was also in the Minder episode You Lose Some, You Win Some that was on later in the night. This Minder episode also featured Leslie Schofield and Lynda Baron.

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Found out that tonight's episode Long Shot guest stars Nadim Sawalha, Julia's father.

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In Look After Annie it featured Derek Francis (Nero in The Romans) as the leader of a hate group. Interestingly enough the character he plays is called......John Howard. Also featured was Frank Jarvis who was in The War Machines, Underworld & Power of Kroll and John Sarbutt who was an extra in Genesis of the Daleks.

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Last night's episode Klansmen featured a guest stint by Sheila Ruskin.

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Hunter/Hunted was written by Anthony Read and it features another appearance by Tony Caunter but as a different character.

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The Rack featured Cyril Luckham and another appearance by Robert James.

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First Night featured Julian Holloway, George Pravda and John Nettleton.

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In The Public Interest was directed by Pennant Roberts and it featured Tony Calvin (Dexeter in Full Circle), Tom Georgeson and Colin McCormack whom Roberts had directed him in The Sun Makers.