One of the very first Doctor Who companions, William Russell, has left us at the age of 99.
William Russell enjoyed a long and successful career on TV, the stage and film but will forever be remembered by Doctor Who fans as one of the very first Doctor Who companions, playing the science teacher Ian Chesterton from the Coal Hill School.
In fact, William Russell played one of the most important characters in the show’s history as he was with the programme from the very beginning, even acting in the unaired pilot episode. In its first season, Doctor Who achieved dizzying heights of success, and he played a key part in that success as one of the series’ main cast members.
In those days, the TARDIS team was much bigger; the Doctor had three companions by his side in the form of his granddaughter Susan, history teacher Barbara Wright and of course Ian Chesterton played by William Russell. From the outset, Russell was included for the more physical, action-oriented sequences; the producers were looking for an older man to play the Doctor, and therefore needed someone younger alongside him to do some of the ‘heavy lifting’ – sometimes literally. William Russell’s character was very much the action hero in contrast to Hartnell’s wise, authoritative, paternal persona – although that’s not to say that Ian was lacking in wisdom. He was an accomplished science teacher, after all.
William Russell also brought much humour and charm to his character, and to the TARDIS team as a whole. The scene from ‘The Chase’ in which he performed a terrible but amusing dance to The Beatles’ ‘Ticket to Ride’ will forever be cherished by fans, as will the moment where he showed a disproportionate amount of rage towards the loss of his school tie in ‘The Web Planet’ – not to mention his gold pen!
Moreover, there was a great chemistry between the original cast members, and this was very much reflected in their on-screen performances. By the end of their third adventure ‘The Edge of Destruction,’ it’s clear that the TARDIS team have become firm friends; they are fellow travellers, and they stick together through thick or thin. Ian is tremendously loyal towards his friends, and it’s clear that he cares for them a great deal; in ‘The Edge of Destruction,’ for example, he lies to the females about the TARDIS’ imminent destruction, so as not to frighten them.
There is also the suggestion of a romance between himself and Barbara Wright, his fellow school teacher, although this is only implied in the show itself. It is clear, however, that the pair have become close, perhaps because of their shared experience of being violently uprooted from their lives in the 20th century and forced to roam in time and space with the Doctor. The pair also enjoy great banter; if Twitter (or X) had existed in the 1960s, there doubtless would have been many people ‘shipping’ the two teachers, but who knows what they would have been called: Chesterwright, or Barbarian, perhaps?
Indeed, when the pair finally leave the TARDIS at the end of ‘The Chase,’ there is a photographic montage of Ian and Barbara’s further adventures in London, and it’s strongly implied that they’ve become a couple. In fact, in an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, it’s confirmed that the pair have married and, according to rumour, haven’t aged since the 1960s.
And whilst little else is said about this marriage, Ian Chesterton did make one final appearance in Doctor Who in the 2022 episode ‘The Power of the Doctor,’ but he is an old man in this story. So he either aged very rapidly in his final years, or Sarah Jane was mistaken.
Interestingly, William Russell’s appearance in ‘The Power of the Doctor’ bagged him a Guinness World Record for the longest gap between TV appearances. In William Russell’s case, this was a staggering 57 years as, before ‘The Power of the Doctor,’ his last appearance as Ian Chesterton had been in the final episode of ‘The Chase,’ unless you count his uncanonical appearance on ‘The Crusade’ video cassette to narrate the lost episodes.
But even though William Russell seldom appeared in Doctor Who after his departure, he remained an active presence within the fan community, making frequent appearances at conventions and contributing to DVD commentaries and documentaries, as well as Big Finish audio adventures. He also had a cameo appearance in the 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, which chronicled the show’s first three years.
He also enjoyed a fresh wave of popularity when the BBC aired all of the classic Doctor Who episodes on the streaming platform Twitch. In between the episodes, the BBC ran trailers for the upcoming stories, one of which included Ian standing outside a warehouse shouting “London 1965!” This proclamation quickly took on a life of its own and became a meme; the Twitch chat was frequently filled with excited fans giddily shouting “London 1965!” at random intervals.
In short, it’s hard to imagine how Doctor Who would have panned out with William Russell’s contribution. Whilst it wouldn’t be fair to say that the success of the entire series rested on his shoulders, it did fall on the TARDIS team as a whole, and he was an integral part of it, both on camera and off. In the TV stories, he was the Doctor’s foil and had no qualms about squaring up to him. He was resourceful, knowledgeable and heroic and took good care of his fellow travellers.
Off screen, however, he was equally important; Russell knew how to communicate with (and appease) his sometimes-irascible co-star William Hartnell, and was skilled at calming him down.
William Russell Enoch was born on the 19th November 1924, and died on the 3rd June 2024. He will be sorely missed by the Doctor Who community.
What is your favourite memory of William Russell? And what is your favourite Ian Chesterton moment? Let us know in the comments below.
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