J is for... Jones, Cliff

 

Professor Clifford Jones was a Nobel Prize winning scientist who was fascinated by green technologies and ecological concerns. He founded a community in the Welsh Valleys, just outside the village of Llanfairfach. This was called the Wholeweal Community, though the locals referred to it as the Nuthutch, figuring everyone in it would be vegetarians. 

Llanfairfach had lost its main employer - the coal mine - recently, and Jones hoped that his community would provide new means of employment, but the locals treated them with suspicion. They favoured the big new petrochemicals plant which had just opened nearby - Global Chemicals. Cliff started up a protest against Global Chemicals, figuring that the plant's pollution would destroy the local area. 

At UNIT HQ the Doctor's companion Jo Grant followed the professor's activities with keen interest. She decided that she would go and help him, telling the Doctor that Jones reminded her of a younger version of himself. Jo and Cliff's first meeting did not go well - mirroring her first encounter with the Doctor three years before. Initially argumentative with each other, Cliff's attitude towards Jo rapidly softened. The pair found themselves falling in love with each other. The Doctor attempted to sabotage this, but to no avail. Jo was distraught when Cliff became infected by the illness known as the "green death" - the result of the chemical plant's pollution, which had created mutant giant maggots.

One of the Wholeweal's innovations was a foodstuff made from a fungus, and this proved to be the cure for the green death. 

After Cliff was cured, and the chemical plant destroyed, Cliff invited Jo to accompany him on an expedition to the Amazon basin, in search of a mushroom which was high in protein. he also asked her to marry him.

Jo left UNIT, and has remained married to Cliff ever since. They have several children and many grandchildren, who are all passionate about green issues and political freedoms.

Played by: Stewart Bevan. Appearances: The Green Death (1973).

• Bevan was Katy Manning's boyfriend at the time. Director Michael E Briant was initially reluctant to cast him, feeling this would be nepotistic, but Bevan auditioned and was found to be the best person for the role.
• He has recently returned to the role for a series of mini episodes, with Katy, for the Blu-ray box-set Collections - one featuring a return to Llanfairfach and more giant maggots (for Season 10), and the other featuring an attack by Autons in carnival masks wielding plastic daffodils (for Season 8).
• Death of the Doctor - one of The Sarah Jane Adventures stories which brought back Jo gave us the update on the globe-trotting Jones family's activities. It featured one of Cliff's grandsons - Santiago.