THE actor who was the BBC's first "Dr. Who," William Hartnell, returns tonight to television for the first time since he quit the role four years ago.
"I was ill for eighteen months," he said at his 300-year-old cottage at Mayfield, Sussex. "It was a double affair—pleurisy and a nervous breakdown."
Now Hartnell is back in the acting business—playing a concierge who gives evidence in a murder case in Crime of Passion (ITV, 8.30), writes JACK BELL.
"But," he said. don't say 'Yes' to everything. I turn things down if I don't think they're right.
"I would like to get back to more TV," he added. "but it is difficult because you don't always get the parts you want.
"And, of course, they fight fishy about engaging expensive actors."
He thinks his illness might have been partly a reaction after appearing in a long running weekly series (he was Dr. Who for more than three years).
"I was upset at coming out of Dr. Who. But I didn't agree with what was happening to him. There was too much violence creeping into the series," said Hartnell
Adult
'It's too adult. It's meant for children not grown-tips.
There are lots of things von could learn from it how to start a major war."
He watched the two "transformations" that brought in his successors as Dr Who—Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee.
"I've stopped watching. So have a lot of children—that's what I hear. They keep saying to me 'When are You coming back ?'
"But it's all so different now."
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