Friday, 2 January 2015
Bernard Kay
I was very sorry to hear yesterday of the death of actor Bernard Kay, at the age of 86. I heard him talking about his time on the programme just the other day - on BBC Radio 4Xtra (a repeat airing of Shaun Ley's 2009 documentary about the missing episodes).
Kay featured in four Doctor Who stories, working alongside the first three Doctors.
His first role was that of the cynical resistance leader Tyler in The Dalek Invasion of Earth in 1964. He made a quick return to the series the following season - appearing as Saladin in The Crusade, bringing a quiet dignity to the character. He's an old soldier, wearying of war and longing for peace, but who will not concede an inch.
Kay returned during the early Troughton era - playing the police detective Crossland (as well as the Chameleon leader who takes on his likeness) in The Faceless Ones.
His final role in the series was alongside Jon Pertwee in Colony In Space, where he was Caldwell - the IMC mining engineer who rebels against his corrupt, murderous bosses and ends up settling with the colonists.
Kay also featured alongside William Hartnell in Carry On Sergeant, and with Patrick Troughton in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, amongst his many screen roles.
RIP.
He was also in the brilliant children's TV serial Century Falls, written by a certain Russell T Davies.
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