British actor Colin Baker, known for his roles in the TV series ‘The Brothers’ and ‘Doctor Who,’ started his acting career in 1970 with single-episode appearances in TV series such as ‘Happy Ever After,’ ‘The Adventures of Don Quick,’ and ‘Roads to Freedom,’ ‘No—That’s Me Over Here.’
In 1971, Baker appeared in the TV series ‘The Silver Sword,’ ‘Public Eye,’ and played the important role of ‘Count Steinbock’ in the series ‘Cousin Bette.’ Next, he played ‘Kuragin’ in the TV dramatization of Tolstoy’s epic story ‘War & Peace’ (1972), followed by ‘The Moonstone’ (1972), ‘Villains’ (1972), and ‘Harriet’s Back in Town’ (1973). He appeared as ‘German Crown Prince Willie’ in the historical-drama series ‘Fall of Eagles’ (1974).
In 1974, Baker was cast as ‘banker Paul Marroney’ in the BBC TV series ‘The Brothers’ (1974-1976). This role earned him a lot of recognition. He next appeared in the series ‘Blakes 7’ (1980), ‘Juliet Bravo’ (1982), a TV-adaption of A.J. Cronin’s novel ‘The Citadel’ (1983).
Baker made his film debut in ‘Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective’ (1981). He appeared in a 1983 episode of the sci-fi series ‘Doctor Who’ and starred in the role of ‘Sixth Doctor’ in the long-running series from 1984-1986. He later appeared as ‘Sixth Doctor’ in charity special ‘Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time’ (1993) and also recorded several ‘Doctor Who: Sixth Doctor’ audio plays.
Thereafter, Baker portrayed the central character of ‘The Stranger’ in a series of BBV video films, including ‘Summoned by Shadows’ (1991), ‘More than a Messiah’ (1992), ‘In Memory Alone’ (1993), ‘The Terror Game’ (1994), ‘Eye of the Beholder’ (1995), and others. He played the lead in the BBV sci-fi thriller ‘The Airzone Solution’ (1993).
Further, Baker played guest roles in the TV series ‘Casualty,’ ‘Harry’s Mad,’ ‘The Famous Five,’ ‘Jonathan Creek,’ ‘The Knock,’ ‘Dangerfield,’ ‘Doctor,’ ‘Sunburn,’ ‘Kingdom,’ ‘Hustle,’ ‘Emmerdale’ amongst others. He also appeared in the 2013 TV film ‘The Five(ish) Doctor Reboot,’ a comedy spoof of ‘Doctor Who.’
Baker’s other notable film appearances include the drama-film ‘The Harpist’ (1999), the horror-film ‘The Asylum’ (2000), ‘A Christmas Carol’ (2015), ‘The Ghosts of Borley Rectory’ (2021), and as narrator for ‘A Dozen Summers’ (2015) and ‘Arrows of Time’ (2017).
Children in Need was a BBC television program meant to raise charity for needy children. Every BBC local and national radio and TV station was involved in this.
