George Cranleigh

George Cranleigh was an explorer and botanist in the early 20th century.

A scion of an aristocratic Oxfordshire family, he was the son of Lady Cranleigh and the elder brother of Charles Cranleigh. He was engaged to Ann Talbot, and was also the author of the book Black Orchid.

Biography
In 1924, George vanished while he was on an expedition to the Amazon searching for the black orchid and was presumed dead, so his engagement was cancelled.

In fact, he had been captured by the Kojabe tribe, who considered the black orchid sacred and themselves its guardians. They tortured and mutilated George, including cutting out his tongue, for attempting to steal the orchid. He was discovered and rescued by a friendly tribe led by Latoni, who returned him home. However, the ordeal had left George disfigured and deranged.

Lady Cranleigh locked George in a secret section of the house for two years to keep him safe from the outside world, where he was cared for by Latoni and one of the Cranleighs' servants, Digby.

George was still in love with Ann. On 11 June 1925, he stalked her round the house and murdered Digby as well as another servant named James. George captured the Fifth Doctor's companion Nyssa, mistaking her for Ann, and took her to the roof. The Doctor and Charles followed him up there, where he soon realised that it was not Ann and returned Nyssa to the Doctor. However, when Charles attempted to embrace his lost brother, a frightened George recoiled from him, overbalanced, and fell from the roof to his death. (TV: Black Orchid)

Behind the scenes

 * To preserve the mystery of his character's identity, Gareth Milne was credited as "The Unknown" for part one and in Radio Times before being revealed as "George Cranleigh" for part two.
 * Michael Cochrane, who played George's younger brother Charles, was the subject of the painting of George on display in the living room at Cranleigh Hall and which also appeared on the inside cover of George's book Black Orchid.