Born: 10th February 1939 (as Peter John Purves)
Episodes Broadcast: 1965-1966

Peter Purves was born in New Longton, but also grew up living in other Lancashire communities including Blackpool and Barrow-in-Furness. He went to Alsager Teacher Training College to become an English and Mathematics instructor, but also served as the president of their drama society. Although Purves found employment as a teacher, his focus soon shifted to repertory theatre. In 1962, he married actress Gillian Emmett who, under her stage name Gilly Fraser, would appear in the 1967 Doctor Who story The Faceless Ones. Their son Matthew was born the following year; he would also work on Doctor Who, as an assistant floor manager on 1989's Battlefield, en route to becoming a television director.

Purves moved to London to seek better acting opportunities, and in 1964 he won lead roles in installments of Armchair Theatre and The Villains. He also auditioned to play a Menoptra in The Web Planet, partway through the second season of Doctor Who. Director Richard Martin felt he would be wasted hidden behind the costume of an alien butterfly; a few months later, Martin instead cast Purves as the bumbling Morton Dill in the third episode of The Chase. Purves made such a good impression that he was quickly offered the role of the new companion, Steven Taylor, who was introduced later in the same serial. Purves stayed on Doctor Who for a year, before becoming a casualty of new producer Innes Lloyd's desire to shake things up.

Purves felt that a memento from The Celestial Toymaker was bringing him bad luck

Unfortunately, Purves struggled to find work after leaving Doctor Who, with only a handful of shows like Girl In A Black Bikini to his name. He was dropped by his agent and had to work as a driver and a boom operator to make ends meet. Purves felt that a Doctor Who prop he had kept as a memento -- the Trilogic Game from The Celestial Toymaker -- was bringing him bad luck, so he threw it in the trash. The very next day, he was offered a role on Z Cars. Soon thereafter, Purves was invited to audition as a presenter on the children's magazine show Blue Peter; he wound up staying on the programme for more than a decade. In 1969, Purves' family grew to include adopted daughter Lisa.

In 1976, Purves became involved with the Crufts international dog show. Its telecast was amongst a variety of presenting work that Purves focussed on after leaving Blue Peter in 1978. Other credits included Stopwatch, Record Breakers, Kick Start and the game show Babble. During the late Seventies and early Eighties, he also contributed to the BBC's darts coverage. Pantomime became a significant part of Purves' life; he would direct more than thirty plays, and acted in several as well. It was while appearing in a 1978 tour of Cinderella that Purves began an affair with actress Kathryn Evans. He divorced his first wife in 1982, and married Evans later the same year.

In the mid-Eighties, he co-founded Purves Wickes Video Project Ltd, which specialised in producing corporate training videos. In 1987, Purves appeared in two episodes of EastEnders; this was his first television acting role in two decades... although it perhaps wasn't a huge stretch, as he played a documentary presenter. During the Nineties, Purves began teaching the next generation of presenters with instructional assignments at Elstree and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 2001, an appearance in The Office allowed Purves to send up his own association with training films.

In 2007, Purves joined the roster of Doctor Who companions appearing in audio dramas for Big Finish Productions. Mother Russia, part of The Companion Chronicles line, was the first of many new adventures for Steven Taylor. He subsequently appeared as Steven again in a 2023 episode of Tales Of The TARDIS on BBC iPlayer, which featured an abridged version of The Time Meddler. Purves' autobiography, Here's One I Wrote Earlier, was released by Green Umbrella Publishing in 2009.