Lennie Mayne

Lennie Mayne (8 November 1927-20 May 1977 ) was an Australian BBC director who directed several Doctor Who television stories. He was an ex-dancer. (INFO: The Curse of Peladon)

He was married to Frances Pidgeon (who played Miss Jackson in The Hand of Fear). Mayne provided the whistling soundtrack for Sarah Jane Smith's last scene in The Hand of Fear because Elisabeth Sladen could not whistle. (DOC: Changing Time)

Along with Christopher Barry and Douglas Camfield, he was one of only three people to direct Doctor Who stories featuring William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.

Mayne was remembered as a very expressive man who made his feelings plain; for example, when first seeing the costume for Alpha Centauri for The Curse of Peladon, he apparently swore, "What the hell is that? A giant green d***?". A cloak was added to try and hide the creature's phallic appearance, but it was known as "the d*** in the cloak" by the production team. He also ordered voice artiste Ysanne Churchman to voice the creature like a gay civil servant.

Mayne died tragically in a boating accident on 20 May 1977, when a dinghy he was using on the English Channel with two other yachtsmen — one of whom was Ian McCulloch — was capsized by a freak wave, and the search-and-rescue team were unable to find him.

Doctor Who stories directed

 * The Curse of Peladon
 * The Three Doctors
 * The Monster of Peladon
 * The Hand of Fear