Nigel Stock

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors
  1. Bill Fraser, Doctor Who #110: Meglos, TV, 1980.      Co-writer John Flanagan created General Grugger for Lee Marvin (!) – and was staggered when new producer John Nathan-Taylor chose Fraser, a sitcom clown. Akin to subbing Marvin with Phil Silvers. Some thought was also given to four Z Cars cops – Brian Blessed, James Ellis, Stratford Johns, Frank Windsor – and the Houston brothers, Donald and Glyn. Plus Stock, Harry Andrews, Bernard Archard, Peter Cushing, Ronald Fraser, Peter Gilmore, TP McKenna, Donald Pleasence, Leonard Sachs, George Sewell, Nigel Stock, John Stratton, Richard Todd and Peter Vaughan … very familiar names on Nathan-Taylor’s casting (dart) board throughout his eclectic and scandalous 80s reign.
  2. John Fraser, Doctor Who #115: Logopolis, TV, 1981.      Age apparently, didn’t matter. The Monitor was 60 but producer John Nathan-Taylor’s usual suspects ranged from Harry Andrews at 77 to Hywel Bennett at…37!   Plus Maurice Denham, 72; Marius Goring, 69; Peter Cushing, 68; Bernard Archard, Michael Gough, 65; Nigel  Stock, 62; Geoffrey Bayldon, 57; William Lucas, 56; Frank Finley, 55; Barry Foster, Frank Windsor, 54; John Fraser, 50; Peter Wyngarde, 48. This as the episode that Brian Epstein would not let The Beatles appear in. But he OKed Top of the Pops footage of Ticket To Ride.
  3. Stratford Johns, Doctor Who #117 : Four To Doomsday, TV, 1981.      The burly cop went agreed to a total make-over – as the frog-like Monarch of Urbanka. Stock, Robert Hardy, Ronald Lacey and Leonard Sachs did not!
  4. Moray Watson, Doctor Who #120: Black Orchid, TV, 1982.      Not a rehash of Sophia Loren’s 1958 Hollywood melo, but an adventure (with cricket!) in 1925 England for for Doc5 Peter Davison. In the frame for Sir Robert Muir were Stock, Robin Bailey, Geoffrey Bayldon, John Carson, William Lucas and Peter Vaughan.
  5. Patrick Stewart, Lifeforce, 1984.
  6. Michael Gothard, Lifeforce, 1984.
  7. Aubrey Morris, Lifeforce, 1984.  
  8. Frank Finlay, Lifeforce, 1984.
  9. Laurence Payne, Doctor Who #140: The Two Doctors, TV, 1985.       Director Peter Moffatt shuffled 16 candidates for the dastardly Dastari, genetically experimenting on the Androgum race. Stock, Payne, Joss Ackland, Bernard Archard, George Baker, James Bree, Michael Craig, Peter Cushing, Anton Diffring, Neil Hallett, Bernard Hepton, Peter Jeffrey, Freddie Jones, Jeremy Kemp, Clifford Rose, John Woodnutt, The two (?) Time Lords were Doc2 Patrick Troughton and Doc 6, the short lived Colin Baker.
  10. William Gaunt, Doctor Who #142: Revelation of the Daleks, 1985.       For the second time, 25 actors were up for a single rôle… in Doctor flaming Who. Preposterous..! An unlikely choice for a mercenary, Gaunt was selected late in the game after an exhausting Orcini search through Joss Ackland, Ray Brooks, James Ellis, John Fraser, Peter Gilmore, Denis Lill, Philip Madoc, Peter Vaughan… Plus survivors of the astonishing army of 203 candidates for just 18 roles in the Lifeforce movie the year before: Stock, Tom Adams, George Baker, John Carson, Frank Finlay, Julian Glover, Michael Gothard, Del Henney, Peter Jeffrey, TP McKenna, Patrick Mower, Clifford Rose, Patrick Stewart, Anthony Valentine, David Warner and Frank Windsor. The difference being Who was science fiction and Lifeforce was science fart. (Stock had finally entered the Whoverse as Professor Hayter in #122: Time-Flight, 1982).

 Birth year: 1919Death year: 1986Other name: Casting Calls:  10