Bernard Whittam

Bernard Whittam was a constable created by the Doctor's TARDIS' chameleon circuit as part of its disguise after it materialised in Totter's Lane in 1963.

Bernard lived unaware of this fact for five years. Unknowingly, Bernard also created a father and a mother for himself, as well as Emma Clarke, his partner. (AUDIO: The Last Day at Work)

Behind the scenes

The metafictionally-loaded implication of the character's existence is that he is the policeman from An Unearthly Child seen walking past Foreman's Yard in the very first shot of the very first episode of Doctor Who.

The metafictionally-loaded implication of the character's existence is that he is the policeman from An Unearthly Child seen walking past Foreman's Yard in the very first shot of the very first episode of Doctor Who, and was indeed the very first character of the franchise. Previously, the character of Reg Cranfield was intended to be the same. However, neither are explicitly stated to be such, and the two accounts are not easily reconcilable due to the different names, and the fact that appears to be an actual human being whose father is deceased. It is just about possible to reconcile them with just enough creativity; for instance, one could assume the false backstory given to him by the TARDIS initially involved a deceased father, and was realistic enough for the Shroud to feed upon, and the TARDIS rebooted his memories to throw off the attacking Shroud. However, given that any such explanation would naturally involve speculation - indeed, even accepting they are the same is technically speculation from an-universe perspective -even if obvious from a behind-the-scene one, this wiki will continue to treat all three as if they were unambiguously completely spectate characters.