DEBORAH WATLING

22 Jul

(2 January 1948 - 21 July 2017)

The British actress Deborah Watling, who has died from lung cancer at the age of 69, was the daughter of actors Jack Watling and Patricia Hicks. She made her debut at age 11 in the television series William Tell and was then in The Invisible Man and A Life of Bliss. She played the title role in the BBC’s Alice, adapted from Lewis Carroll by Dennis Potter. Much of her career was spent in television, including the part of Victoria, assistant to Patrick Troughton’s Doctor Who, as well as the BBC’s 1960s’ soap The Newcomers. Deborah Watling made a few films including That’ll Be the Day with David Essex and Take Me High with Cliff Richard. Her last appearance was in 2013 in The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, a 50th anniversary special tribute to the longevity of the Time Lord. She was first married to Nick Field and then Steve Turner.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

DEBORAH WATLING

HYWEL BENNETT

JOHN HEARD