RICHARD FREEMAN: Obituary for The Brigadier

OBITUARY NICHOLAS COURTNEY

I’ve always said that Doctor Who, and in particular the Jon Pertwee years, were what inspired me to become a cryptozoologist. I will never forget those Saturday evenings when for half an hour between ‘a round up of the regional news and sport’ and The Generation Game I would be transported into another world; a world inhabited by giant killer maggots, Sea Devils, Autons, Daleks, Axons, Silurians and other fantastical horrors. Besides the Doctor himself one man was always there: UNIT’s Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, ably played by the wonderful Nicholas Courtney.

Nick was born in Cairo, a diplomat’s son and was educated in a number of places including Kenya, France and Egypt. He could speak Arabic and French before he could speak English. After his national service he joined the Webber Douglas Academy of Drama where he was awarded the Margaret Rutherford medal. Later he did repertory theatre in Northampton before moving to London.

During the 1960s he appeared in a number of classic shows such as The Avengers, The Champions and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). In 1965 he was cast in the Doctor Who story The Daleks’ Masterplan staring William Hartnell as the first Doctor. His portrayal of Space Security Agent Bret Vyon so impressed director Douglas Camfield that he cast him in two later stories The Web of Fear (the one with robot yetis on the London underground and an alien intelligence that manifests as an ecoplasmic web) and Invasion (featuring the Cybermen haunting the sewers beneath London) both with the second doctor Patrick Troughton. These stories introduced United Nations Intelligence Taskforce or UNIT (basically the army’s alien-fighting division) and Colonel Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart.

When the third and best Doctor arrived in the shape of Jon Pertwee in 1970's Spearhead from Space the Colonel had become a Brigadier. For the next five years he appeared alongside Jon Pertwee and then Tom Baker, battling such foes as the Loch Ness Monster (a saurian cyborg created by the alien Zygons from their crippled spaceship beneath the Loch’s waters), alien daemons, and rouge time lords The Master and Omega.

The dynamic between the actors during this era has never been replicated and is largely due to Nick’s wonderfully pompous Brigadier at odds with Jon’s authority-hating Doctor. The show tackled some difficult themes. In the 1970 adventure 'The Silurians' the Brigadier bombs the cave system were an intelligent race of reptiles, the titular Silurians, former rulers of the earth, are hibernating. The Doctor talked them into returning into suspended animation to avoid conflict with humans whom they see as a pest much like rats.

The Brigadier’s appearances became less with the advent of Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor and a return to more stories based in outer space.

The Brigadier returned in the 1983 stories Mawdryn Undead and The Five Doctors and the woeful 1989 effort Battlefield.

In the revamped series UNIT has returned but seemingly plays second fiddle to the pointless and irritating Torchwood. The Brigadier was mentioned several times but did not actually appear. Nick took up the role one last time in the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. He was said to have been on a mission in Peru for sometime. He remarked that he disliked the new way UNIT works. Sadly ill health prevented him from reprising the roll. That was a real shame as I had always wanted to see the Brigadier return to Doctor Who and give the insufferable prats at Torchwood a good hiding.

After his main stint on Doctor Who Nick featured in a number of shows such as Minder, Only Fools and Horses, and Yes Prime Minister.

I was lucky enough to meet him several times and found him to be utterly charming.

Nick died on 22 February 2011 at the age of 81 after a long battle with illness. One hopes that on reaching the Pearly Gates he said “Archangel Gabriel? Chap with wings, five rounds rapid!”