LUCY FLEMING (JENNY Richards) joins the cast of the new James Bond audio adventures being released in October 2026 by Big Finish.
Adapted from Charlie Higson’s novel of the same name, the full cast Young Bond: SilverFin explores the upbringing of the teenage James Bond.
On his first day at his new school, James Bond is about to make his very first enemy, and is soon plunged into a deadly adventure that will take him from the playing fields of Eton to the murky waters of Loch Silverfin…
A monstrous secret lurks beneath its icy surface… a secret that threatens to plunge the world into a new era of warfare.
— Big Finish
Lucy Fleming (who is the niece of Ian Fleming, the originator of James Bond) appears in the role of Madame Ouspenskaya.
The cast also includes Miriam Margolyes, Tim McInnerny, Miranda Raison, William Hope and Paterson Joseph (who played the role of Greg Preston in the 2008-10 BBC ‘reimagining’ of Survivors) – who voices the character of the Nazi scientist Dr Perseus Friend.
CHERYL HALL, WHO appeared in two episodes of the third series of Survivors in the role of Mavis, died last month on 9 August 2026 at the age of 76.
The character of Mavis was introduced in “Law of the Jungle”, as a unwilling member of Brod’s community who’s been compelled to move to his compound, along with so many other of her friends and neighbours.
Until the arrival of Jenny Richards, Mavis had been pressured into the role of “chambermaid” to the impotent, raging Brod.
Following Brod’s death, Mavis joins the return to the Walters’ family farm. The Walters remain in place, in the company of Agnes, Jenny and Hubert, while Charles heads off to search for the missing Tom Walter.
That search leads to the life-and-death adventure of “Mad Dog”, and culminates in Tom’s reunion with his family on the Highley Station platform at the conclusion of “Bridgehead”.
Hers was a relatively small role across the two episodes, but Hall did well with the material provided to her—particularly in ensuring that Mavis did not come across as a powerless “victim” of Brod’s predatory ways.
In fact, the agency that Mavis is given in Martin Worth’s script, means that she’s able to cut Brod down to size—to the point of complete humiliation—like no-one else in the settlement.
By the time that Cheryl Hall joined the cast of Survivors in 1977, she had already established a varied stage and screen career.
That same year, she took on the role for which she would become best known—that of Shirley, the long-suffering partner of Tooting would-be revolutionary Wolfie Smith in the BBC sitcom Citizen Smith (1977-80). Keen to extend her acting reach, Hall left at the end of the second series “reportedly frustrated at her character’s lack of comic dialogue.”
Born in London in 1950, Hall had attended the Corona Theatre School. As well as establishing herself as a stage actor, she had built up a growing list of TV credits by the mid-1970s, with minor roles in the serious dramas Special Branch (1969) and Callan (1970 and 1972) as well as in comedies On the Buses (1971), Sykes (1972), Bless this House (1974) and Lucky Feller (1975-76).
Shortlisted for the role of Doctor Who assistant that was eventually awarded to Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Hall later appeared in a guest starring role in the Doctor Who serial “Carnival of Monsters”.
Film credits were rarer, with one of Hall’s most memorable appearances coming in No Sex Please – We’re British (1973).
Hall continued an active and diverse acting career up until the early 1990s, when she turned her attention to politics—becoming leader of the Labour opposition group on Kent county council.
In later retirement, she spent much of her time in Greece.
IAN McCULLOCH (GREG Preston) will appear at the Horror Realm convention being held in Pittsburgh, USA on 26-28 February 2027.
Horror Realm describes itself as “a convention run by fans for fans of zombies and the horror genre.”
Also appearing at the 2027 event are Lawrence Monson (Friday the 13th IV: The Final Chapter), Diane Franklin (Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Better Off Dead) and William Forysthe (The Devils Rejects, Halloween 2007).
Further guests are still to be announced, along with details of the panels and the autograph and photo schedule.
Joining Horror Realm for the first time will be Ian McCulloch. Ian is well known for his roles in films such as Zombie, Zombie Holocaust and Alien Contamination. Ian is another guest joining us that has been working in film and television since the 1960s, and is still acting today. Please give a warm welcome to Ian and come out and meet him next February 26th to the 28th
— Horror Realm
Horror Realm 27 26-28 February 2027 DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Green Tree 500 Mansfield Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15205 USA
DENIS LILL (CHARLES Vaughan) will feature in a new retrospective documentary celebrating the much-loved BBC TV sitcom Only Fools and Horses, in which Lill appeared in the role of Alan Parry, father of Rodney’s partner Cassandra.
The new two-part, two-hour Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive explores the forty-five year history of the show and will feature unused footage, studio rushes, location recording and bloopers, together with new interviews with cast and crew members and members of the Only Fools and Horses fan community.
This brand new exciting series features an incredible mix of never before broadcast scenes, studio rushes, newly discovered outtakes and location recordings. Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive also features new interviews with cast members, Sir David Jason, Tessa Peake Jones, Gwyneth Strong, Sue Holderness, Steven Woodcock and Denis Lill, as well as director Tony Dow, editor Chris Wadsworth, comedy archive specialist Richard Latto, Lovely Jubblycoauthor Mike Jones and Only Fools and Horses Appreciation Society chairman Perry Aghajanoff.
ERIC DEACON, WHO appears in two episodes of the third series of Survivors, will join the list of guests at a ‘September signing spectacular’ being hosted by Fantom Events.
Deacon appeared in “Law of the Jungle” and “Bridgehead” in the role of Steve Walter, one of Edith Walter’s three sons, who—together with his brother Owen (Keith Varnier)—were restless members of Brod’s hunter settlement.
Advance tickets are available, and—for those unable to attend in-person—signed photos can be pre-ordered.
LUCY FLEMING (JENNY Richards) reflects on her experience working on Survivors in a profile feature in today’s Sunday Telegraph (26 April 2026).
As part of a longer consideration of her career on stage, on screen and on radio, Fleming recalls working on Survivors in the 1970s. Amongst other reflections, she notes that Survivors:
had a good cast: Ian McCulloch, Denis Lill, Carolyn Seymour… We filmed in the mud and the wind and the rain, mostly through the winter. The scripts, I think, varied in the second and third series. But one was getting recognised, which was interesting… I could ride, I was always asking to get on horseback, but it wasn’t until later that I was allowed to.
The main hooks for the piece is Fleming’s work on The Archers radio serial, her shared responsibility for the management and licensing of Ian Fleming’s estate, and her relationship with her mother Celia Johnson.
IAN McCULLOCH (GREG Preston) will appear at the Weird Worcester convention in July 2026, at which he’ll be joined by other cast members from the celebrated 1979 Italian horror movie Zombie Flesh Eaters.
Returning for a second year, Weird Worcester offers “a celebration of the frightful, the bizarre and the fantastic” from the world of cult film.
McCulloch will be joined by Al Cliver (‘Brian Hull’, in the actor’s first UK convention appearance) and Ottaviano Dell’acqua (stuntman, actor and accomplished zombie performer), in a session reflecting on the first of McCulloch’s three Italian-made horrors.
Ian McCulloch will also take part in three themed photoshoot sessions (tickets for which can be prepaid in advance) — one solo session; one with fellow cast members from Zombie Flesh Eaters; and one with Luigi Cozzi, the writer and director of the alien horror Contamination (1980), which McCulloch also starred in.
Weird Worcester is BACK after a critically acclaimed first event. Hosted once again by boutique home video label Treasured Films, we are thrilled to be welcoming another top tier roster of cult film veterans to Worcester! It takes place in the Midlands, at the Worcester Arena, overlooking the River Severn.
A grassroots led event, come join fellow cinephiles and collectors for this weekend only event, celebrating all things cult films! Our second year will see us welcome more luminaries of Italian genre cinema along with guests from other areas of legendary cult filmdom!
Meet our special guests, have merchandise or autographs signed, get photos, dress in cosplay, partake in Q&As, browse the dealer tables! Licensed bar and food available!
Carlisle Cult Cinema Club has uploaded a video of the Zombie Flesh Eaters panel at the Weird Worcester 2 convention to the club’s YouTube channel. (The creators acknowledge that the audio of their recording is less than ideal.)
DENIS LILL (CHARLES Vaughan) will join a large ensemble of cast and crew members from Only Fools and Horses at a sold-out convention in Milton Keynes in May.
Lill featured in the long-running sitcom in the recurring supporting role of Cassandra’s father, Alan Parry.
Organised by the Only Fools and Horses Appreciation Society, the 2026 convention adopts the theme ‘Only Fools Mafia’, bringing together ‘Miami’ and ‘London’ panels. Lill joins the ‘Miami Mafia’ on Saturday 9 May.
Two other Only Fools alumni with Survivors connections will also appear at the event — Hazel McBride (Alice, Bridgehead) and Roy Marsden (The Captain, Long Live the King).
Only Fools Mafia DoubleTree by Hilton Milton Keynes, Stadium Way W, Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK1 1ST 9-10 May 2026 Ticket waiting list: Craigwood@onlyfools.net
NEWLY RELEASED ARCHIVAL footage of the hugely respected British character actor Morris Perry–who memorably appears as the misanthrope Doctor Richard Fenton in the third series Survivors episode Mad Dog–shows him as a representative of Islington council in London, persuasively making the case for the widespread introduction of parking ‘bollards’ on the borough’s streets.
The segment, shot on location on 16mm film in the Spring or Summer of 1976, was recorded as a news feature for the weeknight BBC early evening current affairs show Nationwide (1969-83).
It became viewable online earlier this week–for the first time since its transmission–as part of the project to release more material from the BBC’s archives onto the corporation’s official BBC Archive YouTube channel.
The installation of ‘bollards’ of various designs across Islington–to prevent drivers from parking their vehicles half-on-the-road and half-on-the-pavement on already busy streets–had proved a controversial local party political issue in the mid-1970s, despite the benefits it brought to pedestrians.
Debates in the Islington press about the development proved sufficient to attract the interest of Nationwide‘s news editors–who contacted the council.
So what’s the connection between a Survivors actor and ‘bollards’ being installed on the streets of London?
In addition to his prolific and varied stage and screen career, Morris Perry was also a political actor. Elected as a Labour councillor in Islington in the 1970s, he was soon a natural fit to chair the borough’s Arts & Recreation Committee.
The limited council records available online also suggest that Perry became chairman of Islington’s Planning Committee for a time. He would, of course, have been entirely unfazed at the idea of representing the council on camera, when the borough was looking for an effective public face.
The short Nationwide feature mixes ‘vox pops’ with local residents with the opinions of two local council officials.
In contrast to the unfocused complaints of the (poorly prepared) opposition councillor, Perry is an articulate and unruffled defender of the bollards’ utility.
While Perry’s natural fluency is instantly recognisable, for fans of his acting career, this news segment is an unexpected context in which to find him.
Within months of this Nationwide appearance, Perry would travel to the Derbyshire Peak District to record the classic Survivors episode Mad Dog, alongside Denis Lill (Charles Vaughan).
A NEWLY PUBLISHED special edition in Doctor Who Magazine‘s just-launched Legends series celebrates the work of Survivors creator Terry Nation.
As would be expected, the principal thread of the 84-page, full-colour magazine is on Terry Nation’s contributions to the world of Doctor Who.
However, there are some interesting snippets along the way for the Survivors aficionado.
As well as a few familiar BBC publicity shots and screencaptures, Nation’s work on Survivors is discussed briefly in extracts from a previously unpublished interview with him by Simon Shaw from 1991.
There is also a short discussion of Nation’s work as the Survivors show creator and series one script writer as part of a broader appraisal of his work across the 1970s.
Especially interesting is a new interview with Nation’s daughter Rebecca and son Joel, who reflect on the experience of growing up with their scriptwriting father.
Rebecca recalls their home life at Lynsted Park in the early 1970s, when Terry Nation was taken with the idea of testing out the pleasures and pitfalls of self-sufficiency. A process that reflected his growing preoccupation with the themes of survival and human adaptability that would culminate in his work on Survivors.
This experiment in low-tech husbandry and hands-on animal care was not one that his wife Kate particularly warmed to, but it was clearly an opportunity that their children took some pleasure from.
But it is the world of Doctor Who that this first issue of DWM‘s ‘Legends’ principally focuses upon.
“Terry Nation is the first member of what is essentially Doctor Who Magazine‘s hall of fame,” DWM editor Marcus Hearn explains. “We think a tribute to Nation is long overdue, because he’s probably the show’s most influential and underrated writer. Everyone knows he gave us the Daleks, but he doesn’t get the credit he deserves for being the first person to unleash the full potential of Doctor Who.”
“He devised the format for the most successful stories, and it’s still the blueprint, more than 60 years later,” Hearn says.
Doctor Who: Legends – Terry Nation is available to buy in-store and online for £9.99, and will be available in digital format from pocketmags.
