As highlighted by his IMDb page, Christopher Benjamin's career was vast, stretching to countless appearances in TV, film, theater, and radio across six decades. Even in Doctor Who, he played three distinct characters.
He first appeared in the series as Sir Keith Gold in the Third Doctor story "Inferno". It's an excellent story and Benjamin gave a great performance. New Series fans might be more familiar with his character Colonel Hugh in the Tenth Doctor episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp". The character had a small role in the story, but the reveal of his big secret was comedy gold.
But for Doctor Who fans, the most significant character he played was in the Fourth Doctor serial "The Talons of Weng-Chiang". In this popular story, he played theater impresario Henry Gordon Jago. The Victorian character was as theatrical as the very place he ran, and Christopher Benjamin played the part with the perfect amount of charm and humor.
He also made the character extremely likable and real. One of the story's best moments is Jago admitting to his new friend Professor George Litefoot (played by Trevor Baxter) that he's not as brave as he wants to be. It's a wonderfully emotional and vulnerable moment performed beautifully by both actors. In a single moment, it also helped transform these two characters from strangers brought together on an adventure into good friends.
Jago & Litefoot
These two characters proved to be so memorable that, decades later, Big Finish gave Jago & Litefoot their own audio story. "The Mahogany Murderers" was released as part of The Companion Chronicles range, even though Jago & Litefoot had only appeared once on television. This audio proved so successful that it led to their own spinoff series.
Few could have predicted how successful Jago & Litefoot would become. From 2010 to 2017, thirteen box sets were released. The success of the series was due to three reasons: the consistently excellent stories, the fleshed-out Victorian world, and of course, the performances and chemistry of the two leads. No matter what the story, Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter were an absolute joy to listen to as Jago & Litefoot.
The series only came to an end in 2017 due to the passing of Trevor Baxter. A special release, "Jago & Litefoot Forever", was released as a way of respectfully ending the series. Benjamin occasionally played Henry Gordon Jago in other series, including The Diary of River Song and The Paternoster Gang. But these appearances were understandably rare.
As someone who was a big fan of Jago & LItefoot, the news of Christopher Benjamin's death is deeply saddening to hear. It was a series that brought me as much joy as the greatest Doctor Who stories, and both Benjamin and Baxter were always brilliant to listen to. Whether it's for his TV appearances or his many performances on audio, there is no doubt that Christopher Benjamin will be greatly missed by the fandom.