Utterly agree. BBC haven't been great with Nick's passing yet. I actually retweeted that sentiment yesterday evening.

Was really surprised Nick Courtney got no mention again in last night's BAFTA tributes.

The producers would have known that since Matt Smith was nominated last night that more Doctor Who viewers would have been watching anyway. It would have been a great time to rectify matters since the Series itself hadn't done it. Great Lis Sladen got a mention but why no Nick Courtney?

And it's not as if The Brigadier was his only role either. He's been in many other shows over the years as well.

The Avengers, Minder, Softly Softly, French Fields, Only Fools & Horses, Yes Prime Minister, Sword of Honour, Shelley, Juliet Bravo, The Champions, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), All Creatures Great & Small and Then Churchill Said to Me, film appearances in things like Endless Night, Take a Girl Like You and Roger Moore and Michael Caine's 'Bullseye', extensive theatre and radio work among them. He had been working almost continuously since 1957. He was easily as significant a figure as many others commemorated last night. Who remembers Trevor Bannister? But he was in there!

Bah! Your back!

I remember Trevor. I often saw him in panto in a frock.

I personally didn't know half the people who were in those tributes last night and I would say some of them were less known than Nick Courtney.


Welcome back Tony, I have several of the above named Series on DVD and can hardly miss Nick Courtney in several episodes. The Randall and Hopkirk one starred Roger Delgado as well!!!!

Gosh, Doctor Who fan more familiar with person who was in the series then with other people. How surprising.

I'm sure the 85% of the population who don't watch the series couldn't care less that he wasn't mentioned.

No need for sarcasm, I was merely voicing an opinion.

If you don't care go and be sarcastic elsewhere.

Well said davey.

Mr Lucas, are you free ?

I do think Nick Courtney should have been remembered but I can understand Trevor Bannister being remembered.

It's perhaps sad he was left out but to suggest other actors you don't know who should be left out is just downright wrong. Trevor Bannister starred in years' worth of "Are You Being Served" which was one of the BBC's most popular sitcoms of the 70s/80s. I'm all for us being annoyed about Nick's omission but no need to suggest other actors as less worthy of the tribute.

An impressive list to be sure, but lets be honest he wasn't the 'star' of any of those shows, just a supporting bit part actor making a guest appearence.

As for Trevor Bannister, 'Are You Being Served' was a top rating BBC sitcom for many years.....

Just because someone is a fan of Doctor Who doesn't make them less likely to be a fan of a large body of work.

i could be wrong here, but i don't think the BBC actually produce the BAFTA awards, they just had the rights to broadcast them this year (i think it alternates with itv), so possibly people are getting annoyed with the wrong people regarding the bafta video, as if they didn't actually produce the programme then they wouldn't have been involved in the making of said video. i was disappointed he wasn't mentioned in it, btw.

i still think there is a strong chance that there will be some kind of reference to Nick/The Brig in show this year, the timing was quite difference to Lis's death after all, so in the case of the show itself i am giving them the benefit of the doubt till series is over.

Maybe but some of the episodes he was in he did have a major part.


Exactly!


I think you have a point there. I wasn't suggesting earlier that he had a divine right to be mentioned, just that it would have been nice. Tbh I was actually surprised Lis Sladen got a mention as the BAFTA's have a reputation for snobbery. It surprises me Matt Smith even got nominated!

Actually I might be getting a lot of people wrong here, but I find it quite sad that people would even question that the Brig should be remembered. There would have been no problem to have a clip of both Sarah Jane and him. By the way, I don't even care how many TV appearances an actor had. If they gave pleasure to people and they sadly passed away, wouldn't it be apt to remember them.

I didn't know quite a few actors who passed away and that had been given a mention, I don't care though. Everyone deserves a small tribute. On a Doctor Who forum I would not have thought that anyone would question that that tribute would be due to Nicholas Courtney as well. I was very sad it wasn't there.

So was Doctor Who, and for years the Brig was the most popular recurring character, I don't think anyone's ever said a bad word about Nick. As there is a series showing, a mention from the BBC about one of the people who made it so popular is not exactly much to ask considering they did it (rightly) for Lis.

I contacted BAFTA yesterday expressing my disappointment that Nick had not been mentioned during the tributes, and received the following email within about two hours from a Kemuel Solomon at BAFTA:

Dear Tony

Thank you for your message regarding the absence of Nicholas Courtney from the Obituaries segment in Sunday's television awards broadcast and please accept our apologies for any distress this may have caused.

Nicholas Courtney was on the list of over 170 names considered for inclusion. Every loss is equally important, but the time restriction of the Obituaries section in the broadcast forces us to make a small and necessarily subjective selection, which sadly meant that he could not be included.

You may not be aware that Nicholas Courtney is featured in our online Obituaries area

https://www.bafta.org/archive/in-mem...y,1180,BO.html

which aims to maintain a year round public acknowledgement of those in our industries who have passed away. He was also included in the Memorium section of the souvenir brochure that was given away to all attendees yesterday evening.

We do hope this recognition by BAFTA provides at least some acknowledgement, however small, of Nicholas Courtney's wonderful career.

Best Wishes

Kemuel

Unfortunately, the obituary concentrates solely on Nick as a Doctor Who actor and doesn't mention the rest of his career and achievements at all, but I guess it's something...

It's pretty bad that he's been left out by doctor who's team, but think about the logistics for a moment. If you counted all the people who've been involved in Doctor Who over the years, both on screen and off it, you'd have a huge list and would probably be doing piles of dedications for each episode by now. Even if you limited it to people who've made significant contributions to the series, it would be a long list of names that not many people would recognize (especially if they've only really watched doctor who since it's 2005 revival).

It's rubbish, I know, but that demographic of people who've only watched doctor who episodes since 2005 is a large one and whilst they'll be well aware of who Lis Sladen is, they just won't recognize the Brigadier.

EDIT: I failed to read any of the second page of postings, just to clarify I'm discussing why there wasn't an "in memory of" for nicholas courtney like there was for elisabeth sladen.

There may well be a lot of newer viewers who wouldn't recognize Nick's name, but there are still a lot of people who do remember him in the show who would-and in any case, the whole point of a dedication is for those who do remember. Aside from Lis Sladen, Nick was probably the most significant figure in the show's history outside of the Doctors themselves, to many.

I agree. He was in the show from the 1960's onwards, playing next to most of the doctors! I didn't know much about his other career. If Liz Sladen was important enough to be remembered then Nick Courtney should have been as well. Anyway, regardless of what the BBC say, it wouldn't have been a problem to have both the Brig and Sarah Jane in the same clip. It wouldn't have taken more time

They gave an "in memory of" to former producer Barry Letts, how many new fans have heard of him?

I don't disagree, and I personally think they should have done one for Nick. I was just trying to suggest a reason it didn't happen, wasn't trying to defend the decision.

Better than nowt, but still upsetting. Doctor Who and its fans are no doubt an insignificant minority compared to BAFTA as a whole.

So how many would recognise the name of Barry Letts or Verity Lambert.

Sorry, but the team are just plain ignorant in not acknowledging Nick Courtney. The Brigadier was not just a one off character. He was one of the most iconic in the shows history.

It is not about who would recognise what but about respect and the BBC and the Production team have shown no respect to one of the shows icons.