On This Day... 23rd April

 

St George's Day in England, and both the supposed birth and death dates of William Shakespeare.

(The painter Raphael also died on his birthday, as did Hollywood film star Ingrid Bergman. In the world of Doctor Who, Ian Marter passed away on his birthday).

In 1966, it was the fourth and final instalment of The Celestial Toymaker, as Steven and Dodo faced The Final Test. This is the only remaining episode of this story in the archives.

2005 saw the concluding half of the Slitheen story make its debut - World War Three.

Series 6 launched today in 2011 with The Impossible Astronaut. CBBC showed a tribute to Lis Sladen - My Sarah Jane - on the same day.

Finally, in 2016 viewers got to see Bill Potts for the first time in a short item called Friend from the Future. This was recorded at the same time as The Pilot, using the set from Dalek section from that episode.

Today we remember another William who passed away on this date. We generally refer to William Hartnell as the First Doctor, but he really ought to be simply 'The Doctor', with everyone else since numbered after him. (He will always be the first Doctor, no matter what Chris Chibnall says).

Hartnell was keen to get out of "hard man" parts, like villains and army sergeants in 1963, which is why he elected to take on what he considered to be a role aimed at children. His first love was comedy and he made many cheap comedy quickies before getting typecast in the parts he wanted to get away from.

Only 55 when he took on the role of the Doctor, he looked older, and would act older when he wasn't getting his own way with producers and directors. 

He suffered from a hardening of the arteries which resulted in his sometimes erratic performance - especially remembering lines - and he took out his frustrations on others. His second producer John Wiles attempted to get rid of him - such as in the story mentioned at the top of this post, but Hartnell managed to cling on and outlive him. The next producer, however, guided him out of the TARDIS. 

Due to his ill health, he worked very little after 1966, but did manage to come back - albeit in a limited way - for the 10th Anniversary season story The Three Doctors. This proved to be his last acting work.

The 50th Anniversary drama An Adventure in Space and Time was as much a Hartnell biography as it was the story of the early years of the programme.

William Hartnell passed away on 23rd April 1975, at the age of 67.