How Much Money Doctor Who's Biggest Stars Got Paid
Is Doctor Who as lucrative a gig as you think? Let's break it all down.
Everyone appearing in Doctor Who receives a fee, from the Doctors and companions, to the people in the monster costumes. The question is, how much?
As you might expect, it’s not the easiest information to come by. The BBC is under no obligation to reveal how much it pays its staff, or how much its programmes cost to make. However, the corporation is required to declare the salaries of its highest earners – but this policy only came into effect relatively recently.
Other answers can be found elsewhere. Classic series cast members quite often disclose how much they earned in interviews, and reports occasionally surface regarding the new series actors. And while any such claims should be taken with a pinch of salt (actors misremember, and journalists aren’t always accurate), it isn't necessarily false information.
So, how much do you get for running down all those corridors? Here's how much money some of Doctor Who's biggest stars got paid...
12. William Hartnell
The First Doctor was something of an enigma when he landed on television screens in November 1963. We didn’t know who he was, whether he was human or alien, or the name of his home planet. That would all come later.
As he tells Ian and Barbara, “I don’t discuss my private life with strangers”. Quite right Doctor!
The same was true of the man who portrayed him, whose starting salary was never disclosed. However, according to the 1994 First Doctor Handbook, William Hartnell was earning £315 per episode by the end of his run. That's nearly £5,000 in today’s money.
It’s not an exact science as a First Doctor season could contain anywhere between 39 and 45 episodes, but on average, Hartnell’s fee for a season would've been around £13,000, or somewhere in the region of £200,000 in 2024. Since each season lasted roughly a year, his annual salary would've been about the same.
Not a bad start for the show’s first leading man – and, as we’ll see, not too far off his modern-day counterparts.