10 Doctor Who Background Actors Who Got Themselves Noticed

From one UNIT soldier to another now.

As Sergeant Benton, John Levene played a key role in Doctor Who's UNIT family during the 1970s. However, Levene had been appearing in Doctor Who for several years before his big break.

He'd previously played a Cyberman in The Moonbase and a Yeti in The Web of Fear when he was starting out as an actor, and also appeared in the classic BBC police procedural Z-Cars.

It was there where he met legendary Doctor Who director Douglas Camfield, who was taken with Levene's lack of professional training and slight innocence. It was Camfield who then suggested that Levene play Corporal Benton in the serial The Invasion, when the original actor was fired for poor timekeeping.

As Levene was already signed on to play an extra in this serial, he happily agreed to the bigger role, and alongside Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier formed the earliest iteration of UNIT. When Camfield returned to direct Inferno, he further established Levene's Benton as part of the Pertwee era's UNIT family.