William Hartnell

Acting

William Hartnell

Born — Died

1908-01-08 — 1975-04-23

Place of birth

Saint Pancras, London, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

68 titles

William Henry Hartnell (8 January 1908 – 23 April 1975), also known as Billy Hartnell or Bill Hartnell, was an English actor. Hartnell played the first incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, from 1963 to 1966. He was also known for his roles as Sergeant Grimshaw, the title character of the first Carry On film, Carry On Sergeant in 1958, and Company Sergeant Major Percy Bullimore in the sitcom The Army Game from 1957 until 1958, and again in 1960. Hartnell entered the theatre in 1925 working under Frank Benson as a general stagehand. He appeared in numerous Shakespearian plays, including The Merchant of Venice (1926), Julius Caesar (1926), As You Like It (1926), Hamlet (1926), The Tempest …

Known for

Doctor Who poster
7.9

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Doctor Who

1963

No Hiding Place poster
4.8

No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart.

No Hiding Place

1959

The Army Game poster
7.0

Follows the exploits of Hut 29, a dysfunctional group of soldiers and their National Service conscription into the British Army during the post war years.

The Army Game

1957

Tales of the Tardis poster
5.8

Classic Doctor Who duos are reunited as they board a very special TARDIS on a nostalgic voyage through space and time.

Tales of the Tardis

2023

Odd Man Out poster
7.3

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.

Odd Man Out

1947

Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor poster
8.2

In 2013, something terrible is awakening in London's National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor's own dangerous past comes back to haunt him.

Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor

2013

Film credits

2020s · 5 titles

Talking Doctor Who poster
6.0

As part of the sixtieth anniversary celebrations of Doctor Who, David Tennant time-travels back through the BBC archives to tell the story of the Doctor’s classic era.

Talking Doctor Who

2023

Doctor Who: Wish World & The Reality War poster
5.1

Belinda Chandra has been kidnapped by robots, faced a terrifying god and a creature of pure evil on her travels with the Doctor. With the TARDIS still unable to get her home to Earth, Belinda must fight for her life as the Doctor faces an almighty threat to reality itself…

Doctor Who: Wish World & The Reality War

2025

Doctor Who at the Proms poster
7.4

Doctor Who fan favourite Catherine Tate presents a concert of music, monsters and mayhem featuring soundtracks from the iconic series, a specially shot feature for the Fifteenth Doctor and a host of scary aliens as they thrill a packed audience at London's Royal Albert Hall. In a concert like no other in time and space, the much-loved music, performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, is accompanied by specially edited sequences from the series.

Doctor Who at the Proms

2024

Doctor Who: The Daleks in Colour poster
6.6

The very first crew of the TARDIS land in a petrified forest on an alien planet. Determined to explore, the Doctor leads his companions into the metal city, where they discover danger at every corner and what will become his deadliest enemy... the mutant Daleks. It's time to encounter the Daleks once again, but this time in a way you've never seen them before. Originally transmitted in December 1963 to February 1964, the seven original episodes of the first Dalek story have received a cosmic makeover, dazzlingly colourised and woven together into a 75-minute blockbuster with brand-new sound and a brand-new score created by Mark Ayres. The Daleks has been gloriously updated, whilst ensuring the original story remains as thrilling as it was in 1963.

Doctor Who: The Daleks in Colour

2023

Doctor Who: Galaxy 4 poster
8.0

The TARDIS lands on a planet on the verge of total annihilation as it drifts too close to the three suns which its orbits.

Doctor Who: Galaxy 4

2021

2010s · 5 titles

Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor poster
8.2

In 2013, something terrible is awakening in London's National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor's own dangerous past comes back to haunt him.

Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor

2013

Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time poster
8.0

As the Twelfth Doctor nears regeneration, he stumbles on his first incarnation, also refusing to change. It takes a captain, a glass avatar and a familiar face to convince the Doctors the universe still needs them.

Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time

2017

An Adventure in Space and Time poster
7.7

Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles while wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.

An Adventure in Space and Time

2013

Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song poster
8.0

It’s Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas Carols and Comedy Antlers. But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy. King Hydroflax is furious, and his giant Robot bodyguard is out-of-control and coming for them all! Will Nardole survive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is? All will be revealed on a starliner full of galactic super-villains and a destination the Doctor has been avoiding for a very long time.

Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song

2015

Doctor Who at the Proms poster
8.0

Doctor Who returns to the Proms to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the popular BBC series. As well as showcasing Murray Gold’s music from the past eight years, the concert also journeys back to the early days of Doctor Who and the groundbreaking work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Featuring special guests from the series, big screens and a host of monsters ready to invade the Royal Albert Hall, this is not the year to be exterminated!

Doctor Who at the Proms

2013

2000s · 5 titles

1980s · 4 titles

1970s · 2 titles

1960s · 25 titles

Doctor Who: The Ark poster
6.8

The Doctor and his companions Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet arrive some ten million years into the future, on board a generation starship which is carrying the last of humanity away from an Earth that is about to fall into the Sun. However, the cold that Dodo has could prove devastating to these future humans and their servants, the Monoids.

Doctor Who: The Ark

1966

Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan poster
7.9

In the year 4000, the Daleks conspire to conquer the Solar System. Their scheme involves treachery at the highest levels and a weapon capable of destroying the very fabric of time. Only the Doctor and his friends can prevent catastrophe — and there is no guarantee they will escape with their lives...

Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan

1965

Doctor Who: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve poster
7.2

The TARDIS materialises in Paris in the year 1572 and the Doctor decides to visit the famous apothecary Charles Preslin. Steven, meanwhile, is befriended by a group of Huguenots from the household of the Protestant Admiral de Coligny. Having rescued a young serving girl, Anne Chaplet, from some pursuing guards, the Huguenots gain their first inkling of a heinous plan being hatched at the command of the Catholic Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici.

Doctor Who: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve

1966

Doctor Who: The Daleks poster
7.3

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Susan, Barbara, and Ian to the planet Skaro where they meet two indigenous races — the Daleks, malicious mutant creatures encased in armoured travel machines, and the Thals, beautiful humanoids with pacifist principles. They convince the Thals of the need to fight for their own survival.

Doctor Who: The Daleks

1964

Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus poster
6.2

The TARDIS arrives on the planet Marinus on an island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid. The travellers are forced by the elderly Arbitan to retrieve four of the five operating keys to a machine called the Conscience of Marinus, of which he is the keeper. These have been hidden in different locations around the planet to prevent them falling into the hands of the evil Yartek and his Voord warriors, who plan to seize the machine and use its originally benevolent mind-influencing power for their own sinister purposes.

Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus

1964

Doctor Who: The Sensorites poster
5.8

The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan arrive in the TARDIS on board a spaceship. Their initial concern is for the ship's human crew, who are suffering from telepathic interference from the Sensorites, but Susan communicates with the Sensorites and finds the aliens fear an attack by the humans and are just defending themselves. Travelling to the Sense Sphere (the Sensorites' planet) the Doctor seeks to cure an illness to which the Sensorites and Ian have succumbed, but finds it has been caused by deliberate poisoning. The political manoeuvring of the Sensorite City Administrator poses another threat to the TARDIS crew as he seeks to discredit and implicate them.

Doctor Who: The Sensorites

1964

Doctor Who: The War Machines poster
7.4

The TARDIS arrives in London in 1966 and the First Doctor and Dodo visit the Post Office Tower. There they meet Professor Brett, whose revolutionary new computer WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue) can actually think for itself and is shortly to be linked up to other major computers around the world — a project overseen by civil servant Sir Charles Summer.

Doctor Who: The War Machines

1966

This Sporting Life poster
7.0

In early 1960s Northern England, Frank Machin is mean, tough and ambitious enough to become an immediate star in the rugby league team run by local employer Weaver.

This Sporting Life

1963

Doctor Who: The Aztecs poster
7.5

The TARDIS materialises inside an Aztec tomb. Outside it, the Doctor and his companions soon discover that Mexico in the 15th century is a bloodthirsty and dangerous place... And with Barbara mistaken for a reincarnation of an ancient high priest called Yetaxa, the history teacher thinks that she can put an end to the barbaric human sacrifices once and for all. But can she rewrite history without disastrous consequences?

Doctor Who: The Aztecs

1964

Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror poster
6.7

The TARDIS materialises not far from Paris in 1794 — one of the bloodiest years following the French Revolution of 1789. The travellers become involved with an escape chain rescuing prisoners from the guillotine and get caught up in the machinations of an English undercover spy, James Stirling.

Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror

1964

Doctor Who: The Time Meddler poster
7.5

In England, 1066, the Doctor confronts a mysterious Monk who is attempting to change history.

Doctor Who: The Time Meddler

1965

The World Ten Times Over poster
7.4

Early 1960s realist drama following a day in the lives of two London flatmates. Sylvia Syms and June Ritchie star as Billa and Ginnie, two singletons sharing a London flat who both work as night club hostesses in the same Soho club. Tensions arise when Ginnie becomes romantically entangled with rich married businessman Bob Shelbourne (Edward Judd), causing Billa to become jealous of their relationship.

The World Ten Times Over

1963

Doctor Who: The Chase poster
6.9

The Doctor and his companions are pursued through time and space by the Daleks on the desert planet Aridius and beyond.

Doctor Who: The Chase

1965

Doctor Who: The Rescue poster
6.9

On the planet Dido, the Doctor, Ian and Barbara meet two survivors from a crashed spaceship who are terrorised by the monster Koquillion.

Doctor Who: The Rescue

1965

Doctor Who: Planet of Giants poster
7.4

When the TARDIS malfunctions, it and its travellers land on Earth at the size of insects. They uncover a murderous plot involving a new insecticide, but how can they stop the crime in their miniaturised condition?

Doctor Who: Planet of Giants

1964

Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet poster
7.9

The Doctor's TARDIS lands at the Snowcap space tracking station in Antarctica in December 1986. A routine space mission starts going wrong. When the base personnel's suspicions are roused, the Doctor informs them that the space capsule is being affected by the gravitational pull of another planet — a tenth planet in the Solar system.

Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet

1966

Tomorrow at Ten poster
6.0

A British policeman (John Gregson) tries to find a rich man's (Alec Clunes) son before a kidnapper's (Robert Shaw) time bomb blows.

Tomorrow at Ten

1963

Doctor Who: The Romans poster
8.0

The TARDIS crew take up residence near Rome in 64AD, where Ian and Barbara are kidnapped by slave traders, and the Doctor's imitation of Maximus Pettulian sees him taken to the court of Emperor Nero where he inadvertently plays a part in deciding the course of history...

Doctor Who: The Romans

1965

Heavens Above! poster
6.6

A clerical error leads to the appointment of a left-leaning small-town priest to a rich village, where he immediately horrifies his snobby parishioners by appointing a dustman and a black man as vicar's wardens and throwing open the vicarage to the sprawling, disreputable Smith family, who have just been evicted from their caravan site. He converts the dowager aristocrat to works of absurd charity but he soon has the town and much of the country in uproar.

Heavens Above!

1963

Doctor Who: The Smugglers poster
5.8

The TARDIS arrives on the coast of seventeenth century Cornwall — much to the astonishment of Polly and Ben. Pirates led by Captain Samuel Pike and his henchman Cherub are searching for a hidden treasure, while a smuggling ring masterminded by the local squire is trying to off-load contraband.

Doctor Who: The Smugglers

1966

Doctor Who: Marco Polo poster
7.4

The TARDIS crew lands in the Himalayas of Cathay in 1289, their ship badly damaged, and are picked up by Marco Polo's caravan on its way along the fabled Silk Road to see the Emperor Kublai Khan. The story concerns the Doctor and his companions' attempts to thwart the machinations of Tegana, who attempts to sabotage the caravan along its travels through the Pamir Plateau and across the treacherous Gobi Desert, and ultimately to assassinate Kublai Khan in Peking, at the height of his imperial power.

Doctor Who: Marco Polo

1964

Doctor Who: The Web Planet poster
5.9

On the planet Vortis, the Doctor and his companions aid the butterfly-like Menoptra in their battle against the parasitic Animus and its mind-controlled minions, the ant-like Zarbi.

Doctor Who: The Web Planet

1965

And the Same to You poster
5.9

Dickie Dreadnought is the boxing-mad nephew of pious clergyman Reverend Sydney Mullet. To mollify his disapproving uncle, Dickie embarks on an elaborate plan to keep his budding boxing career a secret, with he and his tough-talking promoter Wally Burton both pretending to be devout 'men of the cloth'.

And the Same to You

1960

Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker poster
5.7

The travellers arrive in a strange domain presided over by the Celestial Toymaker — an enigmatic, immortal entity who forces them to play a series of games, failure at which will render them his playthings for all eternity.

Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker

1966

Doctor Who: The Myth Makers poster
7.2

When the TARDIS arrives on the plains of Asia Minor not far from the besieged city of Troy, the Doctor is hailed by Achilles as the mighty god Zeus and taken to the Greek camp. He meets Agamemnon and Odysseus. Forced to admit he is a mere mortal — albeit a traveller in space and time — he is given two days to devise a scheme to capture Troy. Steven and Vicki, meanwhile, have been taken prisoner by the Trojans. Vicki, believed to possess supernatural powers, is given two days to banish the Greeks to prove she is not a spy.

Doctor Who: The Myth Makers

1965

1950s · 10 titles

The Mouse That Roared poster
6.4

The Duchy of Grand Fenwick decides that the only way to get out of their economic woes is to declare war on the United States, lose and accept foreign aid. They send an invasion force (in chain mail, armed with bows and arrows) to New York and they arrive during a nuclear drill that has cleared the streets.

The Mouse That Roared

1959

Hell Drivers poster
6.7

An ex-con trying to go clean ends up working for a crooked trucking company owner who encourages competion amongst his drivers.

Hell Drivers

1957

Footsteps in the Fog poster
7.0

A Victorian-era murder mystery about a parlour maid who discovers that her employer may have killed his first wife.

Footsteps in the Fog

1955

The Ringer poster
6.1

An underhand solicitor receives threatening notes, and the police are called in to protect him.

The Ringer

1952

Carry On Sergeant poster
6.4

Sergeant Grimshawe wants to retire in the flush of success by winning the Star Squad prize with his very last platoon of newly called-up National Servicemen. But a motley bunch they turn out to be, and it's up to Grimshawe to put the no-hopers through their paces.

Carry On Sergeant

1958

Shake Hands with the Devil poster
6.5

In 1921 Dublin, the IRA battles the "Black & Tans," special British forces given to harsh measures. Irish-American medical student Kerry O'Shea hopes to stay aloof, but saving a wounded friend gets him outlawed, and inexorably drawn into the rebel organization by his former professor Sean Lenihan, who has "shaken hands with the devil" and begun to think of fighting as an end in itself. Complications arise when Kerry falls for a beautiful English hostage, and the British offer a peace treaty that is not enough to satisfy Lenihan.

Shake Hands with the Devil

1959

Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst poster
7.3

While sailing lawfully up the Yangste in 1949, the British warship Amethyst found its return to the open sea blocked by Communist Chinese shore batteries that unexpectedly opened fire. In charge, Lietenant Commander Kerans was not however prepared for his crew and his ship to remain as a hostage for the Chinese to use as an international pawn.

Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst

1957

The Pickwick Papers poster
7.0

The Pickwick Club sends Mr. Pickwick and a group of friends to travel across England and to report back on the interesting things they find...

The Pickwick Papers

1952

Private's Progress poster
6.6

Stanley Windrush has to interrupt his university education when he is called up towards the end of the war. He quickly proves himself not to be officer material, but befriends wily Private Percival Cox who knows exactly how all the scams work in the confused world of the British Army. And Stanley's brigadier War Office uncle seems to be up to something more than a bit shady too - and they are both soon working for him, behind the enemy lines.

Private's Progress

1956

The Magic Box poster
6.5

Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once young and handsome William Green. He changed his name to include his first wife's for the photographic portrait work he excelled at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.

The Magic Box

1952

Series credits

Doctor Who poster
7.9

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Doctor Who

1963

No Hiding Place poster
4.8

No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart.

No Hiding Place

1959

The Army Game poster
7.0

Follows the exploits of Hut 29, a dysfunctional group of soldiers and their National Service conscription into the British Army during the post war years.

The Army Game

1957

Tales of the Tardis poster
5.8

Classic Doctor Who duos are reunited as they board a very special TARDIS on a nostalgic voyage through space and time.

Tales of the Tardis

2023

Ghost Squad poster
6.0

Ghost Squad, known as G.S.5 for its third series, was a crime drama series about an elite division of Scotland Yard that ran between 1961 and 1964. Each episode the Ghost Squad would investigate cases that fell outside the scope of normal police work. Despite the show and characters being fictional, an actual division did exist within the Metropolitan Police Service at the time. Inspiration for the series was taken from a book of the same name, written by John Gosling — a retired police officer and former member of the team. Although the real-life squad only operated in London, the fictionalised team travelled internationally; however — as was typical of the time — most foreign locations were actually a combination of stock footage and sets at Independent Artists Studio at Beaconsfield and Elstree Studios. Music was by Philip Green. The show was produced by ITC Entertainment, along with Rank Organisation TV and ATV. It was the first ITC show filmed to fit the one hour time-slot — setting the trend for the majority of ITC's future output. Another common ITC trait was to feature an American, in this case Michael Quinn, in a leading role so as to increase the chances of international sales. At 6' 3", Quinn often towered over his co-workers. This was especially noticeable in the first series title sequence showing him walking through a crowd walking in the opposite direction. He frequently smoked in the show as did many others. The second series had a different title sequence and Neil Hallett sometimes replaced Quinn. Hallett looked more like a spy while Quinn looked a bit like a playboy. Quinn was replaced by Australian actor, Ray Barrett in the third series. Ray Austin played Billy Clay in and was also Stunt Director on all series bringing the action to life. Austin went on to become a renowned TV director in Hollywood and the UK.

Ghost Squad

1961

Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited poster
6.4

As the Doctor's newest companion, Clara Oswald, steps into the TARDIS, take a look back at previous companions that have won over The Doctor's hearts in Doctor Who: The Companions. Along the way, companions past and present talk about how the show has changed their lives, and how they've never quite managed to leave the TARDIS behind.

Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited

2013

Doctor Who: Galaxy 4 poster
6.0

On an arid planet, the TARDIS trio encounter the Drahvins and the Rills; two species stranded on a planet doomed to explode. Both need the Doctor's help, but the Drahvin leader, Maaga, wants only her people to make it out alive.

Doctor Who: Galaxy 4

2021

Doctor Who: Lost in Time poster
NR

A digitally restored collection of rare 1960s Doctor Who episodes, from stories which no longer exist in their entirety. They offer a unique glimpse at classic adventures which are now lost in time ...

Doctor Who: Lost in Time

1965