Obituary - Deborah Watling, actress and star of Doctor Who in the 1960s

Died: July 21, 2017

DEBORAH Watling, who has died of cancer aged 69, was an actress who became well-known to fans of Doctor Who as Victoria Waterfield, the young Victorian who travelled with the Doctor when he was played by Patrick Troughton in the 1960s.

Known as a screamer – her scream was used to kill a monster on one occasion – Victoria appeared in what are now considered some of the great classics of the series including The Ice Warriors and The Web of Fear, which featured the Yeti. In the 1970s, many of Watling's episodes were wiped from the BBC archives and have been missing ever since, including some from her first story The Evil of the Daleks. Others, including Tomb of the Cybermen, have been recovered.

Watling was spotted for the role following a successful career as a child star. Born in Loughton, Essex, into a theatrical family – her father was the film star Jack Watling, her mother the actress Patricia Hicks – she made her first television appearance when she was 10 in an episode of the ITV series The Adventures of William Tell. She then landed the leading part of Sally Wilson in the 1958 adaptation of HG Wells' The Invisible Man. By the age of 12, she was also appearing on the stage.

Her big break came when she was cast as Alice in a TV play about Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, written by Dennis Potter. Watling was pictured on the front of the Radio Times and it was this that brought her to the attention of the producers of Doctor Who.

She joined the Who cast in 1967 and immediately established a rapport with her co-stars, Troughton as the Doctor and Frazer Hines, playing the Highlander Jamie McCrimmon. Troughton, she said, became like a second father to her and Hines a brother, although famously they loved to wind the young actress up. "Frazer and I became like brother and sister," Watling said. "We had such a great rapport, and even today when we meet up at Doctor Who events things haven’t changed."

Watling's appearances in Doctor Who between 1967 and 1968 are still affectionately remembered by fans, particularly the monster stories such as The Ice Warriors and Tomb of the Cybermen. The latter story was considered totally lost until 1991 when all four episodes were recovered and released on VHS - it is still seen as one of Doctor Who's greatest stories. Watling's last story Fury from the Deep remains missing.

After leaving Doctor Who in 1968, Watling gave up acting for a while to run a boutique before returning to acting, most notably in ITV's Second World War series Danger UXB. She also appeared in an episode of Rising Damp and several films, including That’ll be The Day starring David Essex and Ringo Star and Cliff Richard's final film Take Me High.

Later, Watling returned to her Doctor Who character, playing Victoria in the short film Dimensions In Time, made in 1993 for Children in Need and again in the video Downtime, which featured her father. Watling also recreated Victoria for a number of audio plays for the company Big Finish.

Watling's siblings Giles, Dilys and Nicola all went into acting although Giles Watling was elected as the Conservative MP for Clacton at the last General Election.

Deborah Watling was diagnosed with lung cancer six weeks ago and is survived by her husband Steve.