Born: 6th April 1959
Episodes Broadcast: 1983-1984

Mark Strickson was born in Ilmington, Warwickshire and had a very musical childhood. By his mid-teens, Strickson was able to play a number of instruments, which led to his involvement with the National Youth Theatre. This experience piqued his interest in acting, and he decided to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduating, Strickson joined the Mikron Theatre Company, where he began a relationship with actress Julie Brennon; following their marriage, she appeared in Doctor Who as Fire Escape in 1987's Paradise Towers. After touring with Mikron for two years, Strickson started to audition for television, and made his screen debut in a 1982 episode of Strangers. The same year, he appeared in Juliet Bravo and won a recurring role in Angels.

Strickson then put his name forward as a candidate to play the new companion, Turlough, in Doctor Who. At around the same time, he was told that his role in Angels would become more substantial. Forced to choose between the two jobs, Strickson hopped aboard the TARDIS, in part because he was annoyed to learn that the production team on Angels had already assumed that he would be accepting their offer. He made his first appearance as the tortured and duplicitous Turlough in 1983's Mawdryn Undead. To strike a greater visual contrast with Peter Davison, who played the Fifth Doctor, Strickson dyed his naturally blond hair ginger for the part. He spent more than a year on Doctor Who, including an appearance in the twentieth-anniversary special The Five Doctors. But he quickly came to realise that his character would not fulfill its early promise of being more complex and ambiguous than most companions. As such, when Davison announced that he would be leaving Doctor Who at the end of the 1984 season, Strickson decided to bow out as well. Turlough left in Planet Of Fire, but made a cameo appearance during the Doctor's regeneration in the next serial, The Caves Of Androzani. The same year, Strickson and Brennon were married.

Relocation to Australia, Strickson completed an honours degree in zoology at the University of New England

During the rest of the decade, Strickson's appearances included episodes of Bergerac, Flying Lady and Casualty, plus the George C Scott version of A Christmas Carol. He also returned to the stage, including a brief run with his own theatre company, Raw Deal. In 1989, however, Strickson decided that he wanted to do more with his life than act. Relocating to Australia, he completed an honours degree in zoology at the University of New England. Nonetheless, he continued to act occasionally, such as on Rafferty's Rules, Police Rescue and Minder. Strickson also taught theatre studies to help pay for his education. His first marriage having ended in divorce, he wedded ecologist Dr Delny Britton in the mid-Nineties, around the same time that he decided to return to the United Kingdom.

Strickson now set out to produce and direct wildlife programmes. In this capacity, he helped bring “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin to worldwide fame. Strickson also began reprising the role of Turlough for the range of Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish Productions, starting with 1999's Phantasmagoria. Strickson became the Head of Programmes at Oxford Scientific Films in 2001. Three years later, an association with Natural History New Zealand led Strickson to begin a relationship with their manager of production, Lisa Garvin. Divorced for a second time, Strickson moved to New Zealand to marry Garvin. Their son Tom was born in 2009, and they subsequently formed their own production company, 5to9. Strickson would continue to write, direct and produce documentary and reality programming for an international audience.