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Gary Russell | |
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| Born | 18 September 1963 Maidenhead, Berkshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1976–present |
Gary Russell (born 18 September 1963) is a British freelance writer, producer and former child actor. As a writer, he is best known for his work in connection with the television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs in other media. As an actor, he is best known for playing Dick Kirrin in the British 1978 television series The Famous Five .
Russell was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire.[ citation needed ] His on-screen acting career included leading roles in the BBC's adaptation of E. Nesbit's novel The Phoenix and the Carpet as Cyril, ITV's adaptations of Enid Blyton's Famous Five novels (as Dick) and the BBC's Look & Read schools series, playing Lord Edward Dark in Dark Towers. He also spent seasons performing with Prospect Theatre Company and the Royal National Theatre.
He has written guide books, under the pseudonym Warren Martyn, to Frasier and The Simpsons for Virgin Publishing. [1] He was editor of Doctor Who Magazine between 1992 and 1995. He was the producer for the Doctor Who licensed audio drama tie-ins at Big Finish Productions from its inception in 1998 until July 2006, when he stepped down [2] to work for BBC Wales as a Script Editor on Doctor Who The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood . [3] He has written a number of Doctor Who spin-off novels and in 2000 co-wrote with executive producer Philip Segal the book Doctor Who: Regeneration (HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-710591-6), the making-of book of the 1996 Doctor Who television movie, as well as the TV movie's novelisation in 1996.
He wrote a series of The Art of The Lord of the Rings , one per film, plus a fourth featuring material that could not be fitted into the individual volumes, and contributed to Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic with Andy Serkis. He also wrote the behind-the-scenes book on the making of the Matthew Warchus directed 2007 stage musical version of The Lord of the Rings. His behind-the-scenes book Doctor Who: The Inside Story was published in October 2006, coinciding with his joining the Doctor Who production team. His most recent reference work was also for Doctor Who; published in 2007 by BBC Books, The Doctor Who Encyclopedia is a guide to the current Doctor Who series (2005–present), which has been regularly updated (most recently in 2012) and published both in hardback and via an app. He also wrote a similar encyclopedia for Torchwood and The Torchwood Archive, a semi-fictional guide to the show. He also co-produced and directed the animated mini series The Infinite Quest and Dreamland, which tied in with the current television series of Doctor Who as well as a series of award-winning animated online games also based on the show.
In 2011, having left BBC Wales, he briefly returned to Big Finish to produce the Bernice Summerfield and Gallifrey audios, [4] before moving to Australia and becoming the Executive Producer at animation company Planet 55 Studios. There he has overseen the development and production of a new children's sci-fi cartoon Prisoner Zero for ABC Television. [5] He returned to the UK in 2016.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976–77 | The Phoenix and the Carpet | Cyril | |
| 1978–79 | The Famous Five | Dick Kirrin | |
| 1981 | Look and Read : Dark Towers | Lord Edward Dark | |
| 1982 | A Shocking Accident | School Captain | Short film |
| Schoolgirl Chums | Stephen | ||
| 1983 | Octopussy | Teenager in car [6] | Uncredited |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | A Month in the Country | Kolya [7] | Prospect Theatre Company |
| 1980–81 | The Browning Version/Harlequinade | Taplow/Halbidere | Royal National Theatre, London/Baltimore |
At the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, IDW Publishing announced their intention to publish a new series of Doctor Who comics, which will follow the adventures of the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones. The first six issues of this series, later collected as Agent Provocateur, were scripted by Russell and published in early 2008. He has also written a number of Torchwood strips for Titan Publishing.
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Doctor Who : Legacy | Series: Virgin New Adventures |
| 1995 | Doctor Who: Invasion of the Cat-People | Series: Virgin Missing Adventures |
| 1996 | Doctor Who: The Scales of Injustice | Series: Virgin Missing Adventures |
| Doctor Who: The Novel of the Film | Novelization | |
| 1997 | The New Adventures: Deadfall | Series: Virgin New Adventures |
| Doctor Who: Business Unusual | Series: Past Doctor Adventures | |
| 1998 | Doctor Who: Placebo Effect | Series: Eighth Doctor Adventures |
| 1999 | Doctor Who: Divided Loyalties | Series: Past Doctor Adventures |
| 2001 | Doctor Who: Instruments of Darkness | Series: Past Doctor Adventures |
| 2005 | Doctor Who: Spiral Scratch | Series: Past Doctor Adventures |
| 2007 | The Sarah Jane Adventures : Warriors of Kudlak | Novelization |
| 2008 | Doctor Who: Beautiful Chaos | Series: New Series Adventures |
| Torchwood : The Twilight Streets | [8] | |
| The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Lost Boy | Novelization | |
| The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Last Sontaran | Novelization | |
| 2010 | Doctor Who: The Glamour Chase | Series: New Series Adventures |
| The Sarah Jane Adventures: Death of the Doctor | Novelization | |
| 2012 | Doctor Who: Horror of the Space Snakes | Collected in the book Doctor Who Book 5: Monstrous Missions [9] |
| 2014 | Bernice Summerfield: Adorable Illusion | |
| 2015 | Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation | Series: New Series Adventures |
| 2021 | Robin of Sherwood: Here Be Dragons | [10] |
| Year | Title | Published in |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | "Missing, Part One: Business as Usual" | Doctor Who: More Short Trips |
| "64 Carlysle Street" | Doctor Who: More Short Trips | |
| 2000 | "Countdown to TV Action" | Doctor Who: Short Trips and Sidesteps |
| 2003 | "A Boy’s Tale" | Doctor Who - Short Trips: Companions |
| 2004 | "Repercussions..." | Doctor Who - Short Trips: Repercussions |
| 2006 | "Echoes" | Doctor Who - Short Trips: The Centenarian |
| 2007 | "The Report" | Doctor Who - Short Trips: Snapshots |
| "Do You Dream in Colour" | Doctor Who - Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas | |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Doctor Who: Regeneration | With Philip Segal |
| 2004 | The Art of The Lord of the Rings | |
| 2006 | Doctor Who: The Inside Story | |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | The Chronicles of Dorian Gray: The Picture of Loretta Delphine [11] | |
In April 2022, Gary Russell was given the inaugural Terrance Dicks Award For Writers by the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. [62]
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on science fiction properties. These include Doctor Who, the characters Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog from 2000 AD, Blake's 7, Dark Shadows, Dracula, Terrahawks, Sapphire & Steel, Sherlock Holmes, Stargate, The Avengers, The Prisoner, Timeslip, and Torchwood.
Stephen Russell Davies, better known as Russell T Davies, is a Welsh screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for being the original showrunner and head writer of the 2005 revival of the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who, from 2005 to 2010 and again from 2023. His other notable works include creating the series Queer as Folk (1999–2000), Bob & Rose (2001), The Second Coming (2003), Casanova (2005), Doctor Who spin-offs Torchwood (2006–2011) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011), Cucumber (2015), A Very English Scandal (2018), Years and Years (2019), It's a Sin (2021) and Nolly (2023).
UNIT is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Operating under the auspices of the United Nations and initially led by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, its purpose is to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to Earth. Several UNIT personnel played a major role in the original Doctor Who series, and it was a regular feature from The Invasion (1968) until The Seeds of Doom (1976).
Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield, or simply Benny, is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures. The New Adventures were authorised novels carrying on from where the Doctor Who television series had left off, and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel Love and War in 1992.
Terrance William Dicks was an English author and television screenwriter, script editor and producer. In television, he had a long association with the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, working as a writer and also serving as the programme's script editor from 1968 to 1974. The Doctor Who News Page described him as "arguably the most prolific contributor to Doctor Who". He later became a script editor and producer of classic serials for the BBC.
Sarah Jane Smith is a fictional character played by Elisabeth Sladen in the long-running BBC Television science fiction series Doctor Who and two of its spin-offs. Sarah Jane is a dogged investigative journalist who first encounters alien time traveller the Doctor while trying to break a story on a top secret research facility, and subsequently becomes his travelling companion on a series of adventures spanning the breadth of space and time. After travelling with The Doctor in four seasons of the show they suddenly part ways, and after this she continues to investigate strange goings-on back on Earth. Over time, Sarah Jane establishes herself as a committed defender of Earth from alien invasions and other threats, occasionally reuniting with The Doctor in the course of her own adventures, all the while continuing to work as a freelance investigative journalist.
The Tenth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant in three series as well as nine specials. The character has also appeared in other Doctor Who spin-offs. In 2023, Tennant returned to the role, this time as the fourteenth incarnation of the Doctor.
Nicholas Briggs is an English actor, writer, director, sound designer and composer. He is associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs, particularly as the voice of the Daleks and the Cybermen in the 21st century series.
Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. The character first appears in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" and subsequently features in the remaining episodes of the first series (2005) as a companion to the series' protagonist, the Doctor. Subsequent to this, Jack became the central character in the adult-themed Torchwood, which aired from 2006 to 2011. Barrowman reprised the role for appearances in Doctor Who in its third, fourth, and twelfth series, as well as specials "The End of Time", and "Revolution of the Daleks".
Gareth John Pritchard Roberts is a British television screenwriter, novelist and columnist best known for his work related to the science-fiction television series Doctor Who. He has also worked on various comedy series and soap operas.
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. A spin-off of the 2005 revival of Doctor Who, it aired from 2006 to 2011. The show shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from BBC Three to BBC Two to BBC One, and acquiring American financing in its fourth series when it became a co-production of BBC One and Starz. Torchwood is aimed at adults and older teenagers, in contrast to Doctor Who's target audience of both adults and children. As well as science fiction, the show explores a number of themes, including existentialism, LGBTQ+ sexuality, and human corruptibility.
Nicholas Pegg is a British actor, director and writer.
Dr Owen James Harper is a fictional character played by Burn Gorman, and a regular in the BBC television series Torchwood, a spin-off from the long-running series Doctor Who. The character last appeared onscreen in the Series 2 finale, "Exit Wounds".
The Sarah Jane Adventures is a British science fiction television programme that was produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies, and starring Elisabeth Sladen. The programme is a spin-off of the long-running BBC science fiction programme Doctor Who and is aimed at a younger audience than Doctor Who. It focuses on the adventures of Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist who, as a young woman, had numerous adventures across time and space with the Doctor. Following Sladen's death in 2011, the BBC confirmed that the show would not return for a sixth series.
Scott Handcock is an English writer, director and producer who has been involved in a number of audio plays for Big Finish Productions. After sixteen years with the company, it was announced in 2022 that Handcock would leave his role at Big Finish and join television production company Bad Wolf as the script editor for the British science fiction TV series Doctor Who, beginning with the show's fourteenth series.
"Utopia" is the eleventh episode of the third series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 16 June 2007. It is the first of three episodes that form a linked narrative, followed by "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords". The episode serves to re-introduce the Master, a Time Lord villain of the show's original run who last appeared in the 1996 television movie Doctor Who.
Daniel Anthony is an English actor. He is known for his regular roles as Clyde Langer in the Doctor Who spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011) and as Jamie Collier in the medical drama Casualty (2013–2014).
Joseph Lidster is an English playwright and screenwriter, best known for his work on the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Torchwood is a sci-fi audio series produced by Big Finish Productions based on the British television programme of the same name. Like the TV series, the dramas follow the exploits of the operatives who work for the Torchwood Institute, a fictional secret organisation that defends Earth against extraterrestrial threats.
I've just done my first non-fiction book, Oh No It's A Completely Unofficial Simpsons Guide for Virgin, co-authored with Gareth Roberts which has, to be frank, been more of a nightmare than it needed to be [the book was published as I Can't Believe It's An Unofficial Simpsons Guide, with Gary and Gareth writing under the pseudonyms Warren Martyn & Adrian Wood].
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