Bonus material for the forthcoming DVD release of The Tenth Planet – the final First Doctor adventure – has been confirmed by BBC Worldwide. The serial stars William Hartnell as The Doctor, Anneke Wills and Michael Craze as his companions Polly and Ben, and marks two notable firsts for the series – the very first change of one Doctor to another, and the début of the Cybermen!

Among the many extras for this release is a rare on-screen interview with William Hartnell, footage of which was discovered a few years ago by researcher Richard Bignell. Until now, no on-screen interview with the actor was known to exist.

Richard tells DWM, “in January 2009, I was doing some research for an article I was putting together for my magazine Nothing at the End of the Lane, looking at William Hartnell’s rather disastrous appearance in Puss in Boots touring pantomime that he appeared in shortly after completing work on The Tenth Planet. I’d gone through the local newspapers for the four different areas that the pantomime had played and found some useful information as well as written interviews with Hartnell, so I thought it would make sense if I also took a look at the daily programme log at the BBC’s Written Archive Centre, to check whether any of the televised regional news programmes had covered the tour. I found that they had.

“The BBC’s Look East programme had interviewed William Hartnell during the first week of the tour in Ipswich (shownon Tuesday 27 December 1966), while Points West had also spoken to the actor during the production’s final week in Taunton, Somerset (shown Tuesday 17 January 1967). As these were previously unknown interviews with Hartnell, it was obviously going to be worthwhile to follow them up to see if there was any possibility of the material surviving. Contact with the archive holding the Look East holdings drew a sad blank, but when I emailed the BBC’s Bristol News Library that held the material for Points West, I got a reply back from one of the ladies there within 20 minutes telling me that they’d found the filmed interview, it was now sitting on her desk and what did they want me to do with it, so we immediately got it sent over to London to be transferred for future use.”

Other extras for the release are an animated reconstruction of Episode 4 (which is currently missing from the BBC’s archives); a commentary track featuring companion actor Anneke Wills along with supporting cast and crew; documentaries Frozen Out, Doctor Who Stories – Anneke Wills, Boys! Boys! Boys!, The Golden Age and Companion Piece; the Blue Peter Tenth Anniversary feature; the original VHS reconstruction of Episode 4 (using telesnaps and 8mm film footage); plus production subtitles, photo gallery and PDF Radio Times listings.

The Tenth Planet is released on 14 October, priced £20.42