William Russell, actor remembered as Doctor Who’s original action hero and Sir Lancelot – obituary

• William Russell, who has died aged 99, was one of the original cast of Doctor Who, playing the science teacher Ian Chesterton, companion to William Hartnell’s Time Lord, in the first two seasons (1963-65); he had made his name in the 1950s ITV series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and later, in the 1990s, was Rita Fairclough’s smooth-talking husband Ted in Coronation Street, while on film he had small roles in The Man Who Never Was (1956), The Great Escape (1963) and Superman (1978).