#252 - The Original Leading Man

We pay our respects to William Russell, the actor who played Ian Chesterton, Doctor Who's original leading man. With Russell, Ian proved to be a solid and dependable man of action and reason. Along with Jacqueline Hill, who played Barbara Wright, the two provided the moral centre for the early show, which relied on their decency, normality, and dependability to guide the viewers in the early mid-1960s along this amazing adventure in space and time. The programme will likely never see another character like Ian again. The opening music is from "The Chase" soundtrack composed by Dudley Simpson and the closing music is from "The Aztecs" composed by Richard Rodney Bennett and performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2021. We recorded this episode on 15 July 2024.