Doctor Who legend William Russell has died aged 99

After that fleeting encounter I hoped to meet him one day but it would take almost two decades. In 2010, I realised Radio Times had never formally interviewed him, so I made contact and he was only too happy to speak.

I arrived at his London home in a leafy terrace south of Hampstead Heath, and as soon as I’d rung the doorbell, a window flew open high above. I stepped back and saw a beaming head emerge. “Is that Patrick? I’ll be right down.” Moments later this spry man, just about to turn 86, was on the doorstep firmly shaking my hand. Then he led me up to a third-floor apartment, the Enoch family home for many years.

A note: he may be known as “William Russell” professionally, but he was born William Russell Enoch (in Sunderland, 19 November 1924) and friends and colleagues called him Russell or, even likelier, Russ. I’ll call him Russell here.

A vivid memory of that afternoon... He offered me tea, then apologised that his kettle was on the blink, so he was soon boiling water in a saucepan. Tottering across the kitchen with the pan to the teacups, he splashed scalding water on the lino and deployed the F word. How unlike the Mr Chesterton of my imagination! I hooted with mirth. Couldn’t help it. But it broke any ice. We shortly settled in two armchairs and whiled away a pleasant few hours talking about his life and career.

I was embarrassed, really, to focus on Russell’s Doctor Who years, so long ago, when this charming and cultured man had accomplished so much in his long lifetime. But he was delighted that, for a photoshoot (below), I’d brought along an original camera script from his first episode An Unearthly Child. He’d last held a copy 47 years earlier.

William Russell at his London home in 2010, with the script to the very first Doctor Who episode. Photographed by RT's Patrick Mulkern

Let’s get the police box out of the way first. From 1963 to 65, Russell played Ian Chesterton, the Doctor’s first male companion, the show’s hero at a time when William Hartnell’s Doctor was really more of an anti-hero. Courageous, intelligent, good-natured, Ian was the science teacher at Coal Hill School, who taught the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan and was soon spirited away by the Tardis. Across nearly 80 episodes he fought Daleks, Aztecs, Zarbi, Saracens, befriended Marco Polo, became a gladiator for Nero and was even dubbed Sir Ian, Knight of Jaffa, by Richard the Lionheart.

In those days Russell was already a well-established face on television; handsome, practically a matinee idol. He had begun theatre acting in the 1940s, and on 20 March 1954 received his first credit on BBC TV. Billed in Radio Times as Russell Enoch, he played the Rev Frank Alleyne in Lonesome Like, a Harold Brighouse play starring Wilfred Pickles. One month later (18 April) he was playing a young Yorkshireman in It Never Rains, a TV play by Lynne Reid Banks. By the end of that year, he’d switched to William Russell to play rebellious Renny in The Whiteoak Chronicles (5 December).

In 1955, he bagged his own children’s TV serial as St Ives, the young French nobleman from the Robert Louis Stevenson novel. On Boxing Day 1955, he played the Prince in Sleeping Beauty. (His first wife Balbina was in the cast as Lady Isobel.)

In 1956, he moved to ITV to take the lead in 30 episodes of The Adventures of Sir Lancelot. This has the distinction of being the first British series with episodes made in colour. In 1957, he won the distinguished lead role in the BBC’s ten-part adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby (below).

Then, in 1960, St Ives was remade from scratch. An RT feature reported: “The part of St Ives will be played by William Russell, who knows France intimately and whose French – and ‘sense of Frenchness’, as one might say – is perfect. (His wife, Balbina, the actress, actually is French.)”

That same year he appeared in four Sunday Night Plays for the BBC, including The Elder Statesman with Vanessa Redgrave, and An Inspector Calls.

In 1961, he co-starred with a pre-007 Sean Connery in Adventure Story, a “dramatic study of Alexander the Great” by Terence Rattigan...

...and in A Song of Sixpence again with Balbina (below).

In 1963, he was St John Rivers in two episodes of Jane Eyre (BBC). And Doctor Who followed shortly after that. It turned out to be an 18-month commitment that would stay with him the rest of his life...

William Russell as Ian and William Hartnell as the Doctor in Doctor Who: The Web Planet. Photographed by RT's Don Smith in 1965.

As we jump ahead to the 1970s, he got his first taste of soap as a rakish divorcee in Thames TV’s Harriet’s Back in Town. In 1992, he joined Coronation Street as Ted Sullivan, a sweet elderly gent who wooed and wed Rita; alas after 40 or so episodes Ted collapsed and died from a brain tumour.

If the TV roles thinned out, he was well served by theatre. Back in 1960, RT observed that he’d had “great personal success in Moscow with the Old Vic Company”. Across the decades he was engaged by the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Indeed, the Bard was always close to Russell’s heart. I remember he called me a year or two after our interview and he’d just returned from Berlin, where he’d watched Macbeth in German.

William Russell at his London home in 2010. Photographed by RT's Patrick Mulkern

Well into later life Russell was an enthusiastic traveller, often accompanying his second wife, Dr Etheline Enoch (née Lewis), on medical engagements abroad. Yes, Russell had married a doctor! He once told me that while Etheline was attending a World Health Organisation conference in Rio de Janeiro, he would be relaxing on the beach. He also enjoyed sojourns in Aberdeen while she was engaged at a local hospital. Etheline was a great home baker too. On a second visit to their home, I was treated to some delicious macaroons she’d just baked.

He’d had three children with Balbina and in his 60s became a father again with Etheline. They were proud of their son Alfie – actor Alfred Enoch – who even as a child was making a name for himself in the Harry Potter movies. Alfie later won major roles on stage and in BBC1’s Trust Me and the US series How to Get Away with Murder.

While mystified by the undiminishing appeal of Doctor Who (“Extraordinary!”), Russell was always happy to give interviews to fans and attend conventions. He was thrilled to be part of the 50th anniversary celebrations given by the BBC and BFI in 2013, and graciously accepted a cameo as a BBC commissionaire in An Adventure in Space and Time. He told me he was delighted when his friends spotted a small acknowledgement I put into Radio Times (below).

Advancing into his 90s, Russell cut a remarkable figure, keeping his energy going with joie de vivre, open-mindedness and a thirst for culture. In 2010 he told me: “I’m always looking forward to the next experience. You have to as an actor.”

In 2022, he amazed his fans by returning to Doctor Who itself for the first time in 57 years – making a surprise cameo appearance as Ian Chesterton in The Power of the Doctor, a special programme for the BBC's centenary. He filmed it in autumn 2021 at the grand old age of 96, driven with his daughter to a secret location in Cardiff. He was pleased and determined to participate, despite failing health, both physically and mentally. I last spoke to Russell in October 2022, when he called joyously down the phone line, "Hello, Radio Times!" Of the future of Doctor Who, he remained certain of one thing: "I think it will grow!"

He died on 3rd June 2024 aged 99.

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