Actor and voice artiste Peter Tuddenham has died at the age of 88 after a short illness.
His vocal talents were used in Doctor Who for The Ark in Space, The Masque of Mandragora and Time and the Rani, but he will also be well-known to cult TV fans for providing the voices of Zen, Orac and Slave in Blake's 7, which was created by Terry Nation.
In addition, Tuddenham was in the Kaldor City audio spin-offs Occam's Razor and Death's Head, which were Doctor Who/Blake's 7 crossovers produced by Magic Bullet.
Tuddenham's voice of Orac was perfect for the character. Combining arrogance, impatience with its human owners, along with sarcasm and a surprisingly sharp sense of humor (for a computer), Tuddenham made Orac an utterly believable character, even though the prop for Orac was nothing more than a clear Plexiglass box of blinking lights.
We mourn with you: Orac was always the most interesting character on Blakes 7 (hey, it was before I reached puberty!). But shouldn't your photo be draped in black?
Bob
Everyone loves a smart arse computer ;).
I was a bit young the first time 'Blake 7' graced Australia's ABC. I've watched it since and its great. Was and still are mad keen on Dr Who.
My older sister and friend used a cassette player to tape the audio directly off the TV and transcribe it. They were all a bit obsessed with Avon, and who could blame them?
She had a tshirt with the words "Ding Dong, Avon Calling" with a picture of Avon shooting a Alien who answered the door. Classic stuff.
Dr Who/Blake 7 crossovers!? Boggles the mind.
That's sad. I always loved his voice - or voices.
Odd how B7's most interesting characters were generally computers or psychopaths.
No thoughts on Hogness, the first President of the Institute of Medicine? I see his obit in the paper today.