Richard Franklin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the director see Richard Franklin (director).

Richard Franklin is a British actor.

He has had various roles in different television programmes including Crossroads (January - June 1969, as Joe Townsend) and Emmerdale Farm (1988-89, as Dennis Rigg). However, his most significant role was that of Captain Mike Yates, a member of UNIT, in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1971 to 1974. Franklin has stood for Parliament on several occasions and works today primarily as a theatre director.

He has also guest-starred in a number of Big Finish Productions audio plays including Professor Bernice Summerfield: Dragons' Wrath, Sapphire and Steel: The Surest Poison and I, Davros: Innocence.

His other acting television appearances include: Blake's 7, Dixon of Dock Green, The Saint, The Millicent Martin Show, Little Women, The Pathfinders, Waving to a Train, Catherine Cookson's The Gambling Man (1995) and more recently Heartbeat (1997, as a Doctor). In terms of his political work, this has led to appearances on Campaign Calendar (Yorkshire TV) and an election speech at the Liberal Democrat Conference (broadcast by Sky TV in 1993).

His theatre acting work includes Peter Dews' production of As You Like It, Same Time Next Year (Prince of Wales Theatre), Macbeth (RSC), Rocky Horror Show (as the Narrator), The Spider's Web (UK Tour for Ian Dickens), Romeo and Juliet (UK Tour with Sean Maguire), The Importance of Being Earnest (English Speaking Theatre, Frankfurt) and many pantomimes. On radio he played Harrison Howell in the BBC Radio 2 production of Kiss Me Kate (1996).

Richard also runs his own theatre company Richard Franklin Productions and has in recent years produced an annual production as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He has also been an artistic and associate director of a number of theatres. He currently lives in Brighton and is a drama lecturer at the Academy of Creative Training (ACT) and has directed many shows at Brighton's Marlborough Theatre.

He has maintained his contact with Doctor Who and appears regularly at conventions and contributing to video projects for Reeltime Pictures in their spin-off interview and documentary productions. He recreated Captain Mike Yates for the Twentieth Anniversary special The Five Doctors(1983) with Peter Davison and also the Thirtieth Anniversary 3-D Special for Children In Need Dimensions In Time (1993). Franklin also wrote a novel featuring his Who character, Mike Yates, The Killing Stone, but it has been released only as an audio book, read by the author.