Doctor Who’s Peter Purves on his exit and why “no-one felt secure” at the end of the Hartnell era

The original version of that story is now missing from the archives, but with audio tapes surviving, it will shortly be released with brand-new animated visuals.

Speaking at a screening of The Savages animation at the BFI Southbank, Purves looked back on his time in the show and how it coincided with multiple cast changes.

"I was dropped from the show – they hadn't renewed my contract," he explained.

"I got the script for The Savages and [series producer] Innes Lloyd, as it was handed to me, said, 'We're not renewing your contract' – and I knew I had four weeks [left] on the show."

Purves suggested that his co-star William Hartnell was displeased at news of his imminent departure but "couldn't do anything" to change the production team's mind.

Following his final filming day, Purves remembered: "I went and had a drink at the pub with two or three of the cast... but that was it. There was no party, no nothing... no goodbye, absolutely nothing. I never heard anything again – and I never worked on Doctor Who again."

The actor and broadcaster – who would go on to host children's programme Blue Peter for 11 years – felt there was "very little security" on Doctor Who in the mid-1960s, citing how he worked with a string of female co-stars in quick succession, with Maureen O'Brien as companion Vicki being replaced by Adrienne Hill as Katarina, who quickly gave way to Jean Marsh as another short-lived character, Sara Kingdom.

"Then we had Annette Robertson [playing Anne Chaplet] for The Massacre, that was all, and then Dodo [played by Jackie Lane] appeared.

"Then I went and four weeks later Dodo went. It was an odd time of flux, really. There'd been a lot of companion changes."

Purves had actually feared he might be dropped from Doctor Who earlier, suspecting that Nicholas Courtney's character Bret Vyon in the story The Daleks' Master Plan was being introduced as Steven's replacement.

"I thought he'd been brought in to replace me – I thought I was on the way out," he said. "It was a very uneasy time, no-one felt secure in the show at all."

If the decision had been his, Purves insisted he would have stayed with Doctor Who for longer. "I liked the job. I would have stayed, oh yeah."

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William Hartnell's final episode as the First Doctor would air just four months after Purves' own departure, but Purves said he had no clue when he left the show that Hartnell would soon follow. "I knew Bill was struggling – fluffing his way through things was quite the norm... [but] I didn't know that they were planning to remove him."

Purves reprised his Steven role in live-action for the first time in 57 years for BBC iPlayer spin-off Tales of the TARDIS in 2023.

Having his character reunite with the Doctor on-screen after the events of The Savages was, he said, something he "always wanted to happen".

"The end of The Savages, there's a thought, 'We might meet again...' – it would've been nice if they had, it was quite possible that they could have, but I don't think it was ever really considered."

Doctor Who: The Savages will be released as an animation on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday, 24th March – pre-order now.

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