Thursday, 16 December 2010

Happy Birthday Nicholas Courtney - forever "The Brigadier" from Doctor Who

Happy Birthday Nicholas Courtney

forever "Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart"

 Five Rounds of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow!" ... Rapid! 

In tribute to one of the great actors and characters to ever appear in the Doctor Who TV series, here are a few words by and about Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to celebrate Nicholas Courtney's 81st birthday today ...
"Nicholas Courtney, a man as important to Doctor Who as the Sonic Screwdriver."
David Maddox on SFSite.com (2001)

"I think I established him early on. I tried to get, in the scripts, the humour out of the man. Not that I played him for laughs, I didn't, but the fact that he got so many things wrong sometimes, like imagining that some planet was chroba - I wrote that line myself, actually. I wanted to get the humour in."
Nicholas Courtney on DenOfGeek.com (2008)

"Well, when I was established, they used to let me write the odd funny line, delivered seriously of course. In The Three Doctors, when Unit HQ ended up on a sandy alien planet, I said, 'No, I'm pretty sure that's Cromer.' ... 'Chap with wings, five rounds rapid' wasn't one of mine, sadly."
Nicholas Courtney on RadioTimes.com (2008)

The Silurians (1970) - "The Brigadier is seriously scary as the efficient trained killer he's paid to be. When we think about how they down-graded him later, reaching Colonel Blimp level in the Sylvester years, it makes us want to kick someone."
Androzani.com

"Lethbridge-Stewart, head of the Army's killing aliens division with a staff of around half a dozen, a pristine moustache and a forever-befuddled grasp on the Doctor's space-time antics."
TVCream.co.uk

"Fiercely patriotic, the Brigadier never encountered an alien that he didn't attempt to shoot or blow up."
BBC.co.uk/DoctorWho

"I loved the UNIT of the seventies with the Brigadier, Mike Yates, and Sergeant Benton, but they were always a little too family to be believable as a military organisation, especially a top-secret one."
Carl Malmstrom on PageFillers.com (1997)

"The Brig's a great character and he's still going strong. When I look back on my career, I think I might have done more classical work, but I jolly well don't mind. A friend who's done a lot of that said, 'Yes, but look, you're rich.' Which is kind of true. I've done OK because of all the royalties from sales of Doctor Who abroad. They've helped my pension enormously. Thanks to the DVDs and Big Finish, the Brig's still alive. Whether he's kicking or not, I don't know."
Nicholas Courtney on RadioTimes.com (2008)







 
The Life & Times of Nicholas Courtney
Still Getting Away With It


Available on AMAZON UK

or AMAZON USA



There are more quotes about The Brig and UNIT - and the Dr Who TV series in general - to be found in Volume One of The Quotable Doctor Who.
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1 comment:

  1. Lovely tribute to the Brigadier and so well deserved.

    ReplyDelete