How Sunderland actor William Russell helped launch TV legend Dr Who - and earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records

William Russell set a new world record for the longest gap between TV appearances by the same character when he popped up for a cameo as science teacher Ian Chesterton in Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker’s last episode The Power of the Doctor.

William, 98 last month, was already a familiar star of both big and small screens by the time he was cast in the BBC’s Saturday new teatime show, having clocked up appearances in films such as Above Us The Waves and The Great Escape and played the title role in ITV’s The Adventures of Sir Lancelot.

How it started

Ian is one of three original companions who travelled alongside William Hartnell’s first incarnation of the famous traveller in time and space.

In the show’s first episode, An Unearthly Child, broadcast on November 23, 1963, Ian and Coal Hill School history teacher colleague Barbara Wright, played by Jacqueline Hill, are fascinated by new pupil Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), who seems brilliantly well-informed on some subjects but incomprehensibly ignorant on others.

They resolve to follow her home, only to find her supposed address is a junkyard. Confronted by Hartnell’s Doctor, they are about to leave when they hear Susan’s voice coming from inside what appears to be an old police box.

Forcing their way in, they find themselves inside the impossibly vast control room of the Tardis and, fearing the pair will reveal his and Susan’s secret, the Doctor sets the ship in flight…

From Ancient Rome to outer space

Over the next two years, Ian would become a Roman Gladiator and a knight in the crusades, fight cavemen and an Aztec warrior, and come face-to-face with a host of strange and terrifying creatures – including, in just his second story, the Daleks.

Eventually Ian and Barbara would steal a Dalek time machine and make it back to 20th Century London – albeit two years after they left.

That last appearance in episode six of The Chase was on June 26, 1965 – a mere 57 years and 120 days before the October 23, 2022, broadcast of The Power of the Doctor,

Previous record holder Philip Lowrie managed a paltry 43 years between his appearances as Dennis Tanner on Coronation Street.

Casualty and Corrie

William Russell would go on to have a long and distinguished career after handing in his Tardis key, with roles in the likes of Superman, Casualty, Blackadder, Shoestring and The Professionals, as well as playing Ted Sullivan in Coronation Street.

He maintained his links to Dr Who, contributing to the video and DVD ranges and playing Ian in audio plays for Big Finish.

He even appeared as a Television Centre security guard in An Adventure in Space and Time, a dramatisation of the programme’s early years made for its 50th anniversary in 2013.

At the end of The Power of the Doctor, viewers saw new series companions Graham and Dan creating a support group for former friends of the Doctor. Among those returning were Sophie Aldred as Ace, Katy Manning as Jo, Bonnie Langford as Mel – and William Russell as Ian.

As the group discusses the Doctor, he asks in astonishment: “Sorry – did you say ‘Her’?”