Every 10 years, Doctor Who explodes onto our screens with a major anniversary special: David Tennant, who played the 12th doctor, is currently marking 60 years of the show by appearing as the 14th doctor.
This tradition began in 1972, when the show's 10th season was marked by a story called The Three Doctors, which, as the title suggests, featured the first three doctors: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee.
When the 20th anniversary came around in 1983, it was celebrated by a 90-minute episode called The Five Doctors, which, as the title suggests, was supposed to feature the first five doctors. It was led by Peter Davison, the fifth doctor, but Tom Baker, the fourth doctor, withdrew late in the production process and so his role was written down to use archive footage.
Then there was the problem of what to do with the first doctor, William Hartnell, who had died in 1975.
But someone had spotted an actor in the Blake’s 7 sci-fi series who looked pretty similar to Hartnell and so he was drafted in to play the first doctor in The Five Doctors.
He was Richard Hurndall, the only doctor from Darlo.
Hurndall – who exulted in the middle name of Gibbon – was born on November 3, 1910, at 33, Southend Avenue, in an impressive-looking three story Edwardian terrace which leads to the Ballatyne Hotel, once the home of industrialist Joseph Pease but now owned by Duncan from Dragon’s Den.
Hurndall attended Claremont Preparatory School in Trinity Road, a short walk across Stanhope Green from Southend Avenue, which still stands with a development of villas now spread across the fledgling doctor’s playing fields.
He then went onto Scarborough College before joining the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts in London, from where he launched his acting career. He started in BBC radio drama but moved into television with roles in The Avengers, The Persuaders and Bergerac. He even appeared in Steptoe and Son where he played a camp antiques dealer who made a move on young Harold.
His reincarnation as Doctor Who in 1983 came at the twilight of his career, and he died aged 73 in London five months after The Five Doctors was broadcast.
- Based on research by Darren Smith on the Darlington As It Looked Facebbok page, with thanks to Ted Lickrish
CLAREMONT was founded as a school for young ladies by Samuel Fothergill, who had been the tutor for John Beaumont Pease’s children in North Lodge in Darlington.
Samuel could trace his family back to Semerwater, the second largest natural lake in Yorkshire near Bainbridge, in Wensleydale, where they had settled around 1600.
Following a preaching visit by George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, in May 1652, that Raydale in upper Wensleydale became an early stronghold for the Quakers – Countersett Meeting House, on the northern edge of Semerwater, was converted in 1710 from a barn where they first met.
The Fothergills were among the earliest converts, and in 1667, John bought Carr End, a large farmhouse at the southern edge of Semerwater – his initials and this date can still be seen etched on the property.
His son, also John, travelled to the American colonies as a Quaker preacher. On his journey, he was chased by a French frigate and attacked by pirates, and when he arrived, he was surrounded by native Americans while holding a service.
He made it safely back to Carr End where, in 1731, tripped over a scythe and horribly slashed his leg. As there were no doctors in the area, he held the wound together while his manservant stitched it up.
Perhaps this incident inspired his son, another John, to become a physician. He did so well that during the reign of George III, he was one of London's leading doctors, earning £10,000 a year. He also worked with Benjamin Franklin and was a renowned botanist.
Another son was Samuel, who was widely regarded as the greatest Quaker preacher of the 18th Century. He toured the world spreading the word, so he must surely have preached at the Countersett meeting house.
The last of the Raydale Fothergills was Dr John. He moved to the Quaker stronghold of Darlington in 1825 to establish a surgery, and in 1841 he sold Carr End.
In 1835, he was elected the first president of the Darlington Temperance Society, a position he held until his death in 1858, after which a water drinking fountain was erected in his honour in the middle of Bondgate. The Fothergill Fountain is now at the entrance to South Park.
Of his four sons, his eldest, another Dr John, took over the practice and built Semercote in Stanhope Road for it. Two others became dentists and built Raydaleside opposite Semercote – both properties named with a nod to the family’s beginnings at Carr End.
The fourth son was Samuel, who started the Claremont School for Young Ladies in Trinity Road – is there any connection between upper Wensleydale and the name “Claremont”?
In 1885, the school was turned into the Darlington Girls’ High School which in 1911 moved to Cleveland Avenue.
After 1911, Claremont became a preparatory school and its most famous pupil must surely have been the only Doctor Who to come from Darlington.
In 1946, the school became part of the Darlington teacher training college, and most recently it was the home of Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College's art and music departments.
Its educational use finished in 2005 when it was converted into nine luxury flats with a further 21 apartments built on its grounds where the stand-in first doctor first learned how to flourish a sonic screwdriver.
“LIKE many, I’m sure,” begins Stuart Masterman in Darlington, “I have been enjoying the Dr Who 60th Anniversary celebrations. My "Doctor" has to be Tom Baker...
"...and I vividly recall when he performed at the Darlington Civic Theatre in a touring production of Educating Rita in September 1982.
“I still have the programme from the show, which my mum and I attended, and a signed flyer advertising the play's run which I obtained later at auction.
“Do others recall seeing him perform?”
Tom Baker is many people’s idea of the quintessential Time Lord, a man of action who used his brains instead of brawn. He played the Doctor in 178 episodes, from 1974 until 1981, travelling the galaxy, and when he touched down at the Civic, tickets sold so fast that an extra matinee performance had to be scheduled.
Posing for a picture beneath the Town Clock, the suddenly bearded star said: “Darlington is a clean and impressable town full of very friendly, good humoured people, and some lovely architecture.”
“DID you know that when Peter Davison was the fifth doctor, in the story Timeflight, broadcast in March 1982, the good Doctor meets Professor Hayter from the University of Darlington,” adds Stuart. “Forty years on and we are still waiting!”
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