The actor Tom Chadbon, who has died aged 80, was a deft character player, blessed with a versatile voice – his naturally light, delicate, melodious vocal register acquired steel and depth when required – and an almost cherubic physiognomy that could toughen on command. He became well known to television viewers in 1977 as Derek Paynton, the boyfriend, then husband, of Sandra (played by Nerys Hughes) in the long-running Carla Lane sitcom The Liver Birds (1969-79) and between 2008 and 2011 enjoyed a recurring stint on the BBC series Casualty as the hospital’s director of clinical care, Henry Williams.
He will also be remembered as the inept but dogged detective Duggan in the 1979 Doctor Who story City of Death, helping (and sometimes hindering) Tom Baker’s attempts to thwart an alien scheme to steal the Mona Lisa. A comically imaginative caper, filmed partly on location in Paris and co-written by Douglas Adams, City of Death is a high-water mark for Doctor Who and remains the series’ most watched story: the final episode notched up an impressive 16 million viewers. In a perfectly judged performance, Chadbon was both doughty sidekick and comic foil – playing Duggan dead straight (bar the odd well-timed double take when needed) and being hilarious as a consequence.
