Paul Darrow

I was sorry to hear today of the death of Paul Darrow, at the age of 78. He appeared twice in Doctor Who - first as Captain Hawkins of UNIT in the 1970 story The Silurians, and later as the villainous Tekker in 1985's Timelash.
His appearance in the latter was noted for its theatricality, as Darrow played the wicked Maylin as if he were channeling Laurence Olivier as Richard III. It was claimed that this over-acting was quite deliberate - a response to Colin Baker having gone over the top in his series, when he played Bayban the Butcher in the 1980 Blake's 7 episode City at the Edge of the World.
Darrow will, of course, be best remembered for playing the anti-hero Kerr Avon in four seasons of Blake's 7, appearing in all but the very first episode. He assumed the lead when Blake actor Gareth Thomas left the series, and indeed was the last man standing in the final episode. he reprised Avon for some audio adventures, as well as voicing other characters in the Kaldor City range of audios, which contained elements from Blake's 7 and the Doctor Who story Robots of Death in a shared universe. (Had Terry Nation got his way, the worlds of Doctor Who and Blake's 7 would have been more closely linked, as he wanted to have the Daleks feature in Star One, the finale to Season 2).
Later, he filmed scenes for the 2002 Bond movie Die Another Day, but unfortunately they were deleted before it hit the cinemas.

Paul Darrow (1941 - 2019). RIP.