Chap with wings...

Good news for fans of early Doctor Who: BBC 4 is to screen a classic Third Doctor story later this month.

Fan favourite The Daemons screens from Sunday 21 October at 7.00pm, with the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and trusty assistant Jo Grant up against evils unearthed by an archaeological dig at Devil's End -- and the Master. (Of course it's strange that this isn't being shown on BBC3, since the first episode predicted predicted the existence of that channel 30 years early!)

Quite apart from quotes like the Doctor's "Everything that happens in life has a scientific explanation -- if you look for it..." and UNIT Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart's "Chap with the wings there -- five rounds rapid!", this episode is perhaps one of the best featuring the UNIT 'family' up against the deliciously nasty Master played to perfection by Roger Delgado.

The story was shot in Aldbourne, Wiltshire in 1971. Its Blue Boar pub became the Cloven Hoof for the story and the destruction of its church proved such an effective visuyal effect for the time that some believed the village chuch had genuinely been destroyed during filming.

The Daemons has been the subject of a Reeltime documentary and the Daemons have appeared in many other Doctor Who spin-offs such as the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip.