Tom Adams

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

 

 

    1. Gareth Thomas, Blake’s 7, TV, 1978-1981.    The handsome Londoner who The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World in two ’60s actioners, was seen for Roj Blake, head of what Terry Nation (also the creator of Doctor Who’s Daleks) pitched as The Dirty Dozen In Space… His rivals included Alun Armstrong, Warren Clarke, Maurice Colbourne, Brian Croucher (he played Travis for six episodes), Paul Darrow (who became the icy Avon), Peter Egan, Martin Jarvis, Christian Roberts and Donald Sumpter. Welshman Thomas quit after 28 of the 52 chapters when the BBC wouldn’t let him direct. He never did direct for TV – never watched himself on the box, either.
    2. Patrick Stewart, Lifeforce, 1984.  
    3. Michael Gothard, Lifeforce, 1984.
    4. Nicholas Ball, Lifeforce, 1984.
    5. Peter Firth, Lifeforce, 1984.
    6. Chris Sullivan, Lifeforce, 1984.
    7. John Hallam, Lifeforce, 1984.
    8. William Gaunt, Doctor Who #142: Revelation of the Daleks, TV, 1985.    For the second time, 25 actors were up for a single rôle… in a 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 Lifeforce the year before: Adams, George Baker, John Carson, Frank Finlay, Julian Glover, Michael Gothard, Del Henney, Peter Jeffrey, TP McKenna, Patrick Mower, Clifford Rose, Patrick Stewart, Nigel Stock, Anthony Valentine, David Warner, Frank Windsor. The difference being Who was science fictipbn, Lifeforce was science fart.  
    9. Tom Chadbon, Doctor Who #143: The Trial of a Time Lord, TV, 1986.    The franchise was as much on trial as Doc6 Colin Baker in the season-long investigation. Sixteen actors were flagpoled for Merdeen… Adams, Keith Barron, Brian Blessed, Hywel Bennett, Andrew Burt, Kenneth Colley, Peter Gilmore, Michael Gothard, Gareth Hunt, Paul Jerricho, Clive Merrison, Paul Shelley, Anthony Valentine, David Warner, James Warwick.  
    10.  Simon Williams, Doctor Who #148: Remembrance of the Daleks, TV, 1988.    Despite the importance of the show – the 25th anniversary season opener –   eleven actors passed on Group Captain Gilmore. Adams, Nicholas Ball, Tom Chadbon, Michael Cochrane, Lewis Collins, Del Henney, Ian Ogilvy, Tim Pigott-Smith, Neil Stacy, Simon Ward and James Warwick. Enter: Williams, aka James Bellamy in Upstairs, Downstairs, the Downton Abbey of its day – TV, 1971-1975. Adams had made his only Whoverse visit as Commander Vorshak in #130: Warriors of the Deep, 1983.  

 Birth year: 1938Death year: 2014Other name: Casting Calls:  10