Roger Bunce (died 29 August 2021[1]) was a camera operator for Doctor Who. He joined the BBC in 1965, as the Corporation expanded with the creation of BBC 2. He specialised in special effects camerawork. In the 1960s he experimented with luminous overlay - a forerunner of Colour Separation Overlay (Chroma Key) on show such as The Evil of the Daleks. In the 1970s he was a pioneer of CSO, using it on productions such as Doctor Who and the Silurians and more extensively on Underworld. In the 1980s he specialised in Scene Sync technology. Indeed, he wrote and illustrated the BBC manual on CSO camerawork 'Keep it in Perspective'. From the nineties he helped develop CGI camerawork.
During his time at the BBC he worked with all of the Doctors of the classic era. He also worked on other science fiction programmes including Blake's 7, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Star Cops, as well as Blue Peter, EastEnders, Top of the Pops, The Young Ones, and Victoria Wood's As Seen on TV. In addition to camera work Bunce was a Director and Writer on Jackanory, he also wrote a radio play for BBC Radio 4. In 1977 he submitted a script idea to Doctor Who production team. John Nathan-Turner liked the concept but wrote to Bunce explaining that he thought the ideas could not be realised on the show's tight budget.
He shared his memories of his Doctor Who career on the 69th and 104 editions of Big Finish's charity podcast series Toby Hadoke's Who's Round, as well as Fantom Films' YouTube series The Unsung Heroes of Doctor Who and the documentary The Scene Sync Story.
His final contribution to Doctor Who was the audio commentary on Episode 2 of The Web of Fear, which is included on the 2021 DVD and Blu-ray release and released less than two weeks before his death. The BFI premier of the animated version of The Evil of the Daleks was dedicated to his memory.
Credits[]
Doctor Who[]
- The Massacre
- The Evil of the Daleks
- The Tomb of the Cybermen
- The Web of Fear
- The Space Pirates
- Doctor Who and the Silurians
- Inferno
- Robot
- Pyramids of Mars
- Underworld
- Timelash
- Revelation of the Daleks
- Paradise Towers
- The Greatest Show in the Galaxy