Arnold Yarrow: Oldest surviving Doctor Who cast member - Bellal - dies aged 104 after long career in showbusiness

Arnold Yarrow was an actor, comedian and writer and appeared in the BBC sci-fi show at the age of 54, in 1974 - as Bellal in the Third Doctor story Death to the Daleks.

According to online Docor Who encyclopaedia Tardis Wiki, Bellal was an Exxilon and leading figure among the Subterranean Exxilons. Following the Exxilon Gambit, he was elected leader of his people.

For the role Yarrow had to be stitched into a costume. In an interview with actor Toby Hadoke on his 100th birthday, Yarrow said: “It was made of separate bits that were all glued together – I was stuck in there for three hours at a time. They were very restricting. I was filled with horror the first time I put it on. There were two tiny pinholes for eyes to look out of and nostrils to breathe through. My vision was extremely limited.”

East End-born Yarrow became an actor in the 1940s and had a long career in entertainment. He is also known for his role as bricklayer Benny Bloom in television soap opera EastEnders, for a couple of years in the late 1980s. Benny had lived in Albert Square during the Second War. He retired to Clacton and returned after his wife Golda died.

Away from Doctor Who and EastEnders, his other television appearances included roles Crane, Ghost Squad, Coronation Street, Dr Finlay's Casebook, The Onedin Line and London's Burning, as well as a part in the 1993 film Son of the Pink Panther.

And as a writer he worked on Crown Court, Warship, Softly, Softly: Task Force and EastEnders , and also published books including TV tie-ins like Softly Softly Casebook and Softly Softly Murder Casebook as well as his own novels Death is a Z and The Grease-Paint Monkey.

He lived in in Herne Bay, Kent.

Doctor Who News says that “at the age of 104 years and 236 days, he is believed to be the longest-lived actor to have ever had a credited role in the series and one of only six actors to have reached the age of 100”. The website believes the oldest surviving Doctor Who actor is now Laurie Webb who is 100