Rick Yates MP was the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary in the administration of Prime Minister Brian Green in 2009.
Biography
Yates was summoned to a meeting of COBRA on Day Four of the 456 incident to discuss the 456's demands for 10% of the children on Earth. Yates was first asked for sixty children to be sacrificed as a compromise offer. When the 456 rejected it, Yates suggested alphabetical order for the random 10% from Britain. The idea was ridiculed by the Home Secretary Denise Riley, who suggested he favoured this idea because his surname was near the end of the alphabet. Yates said that he had no children. He also spoke in favour of the sacrifice to Green as a response to meet population rises. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Four, TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)
Behind the scenes
- Yates is played by Nicholas Briggs, making his on-screen debut in an official Doctor Who franchise production. Although best known to viewers for providing many of the show's alien voices, including the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Nestene Consciousness and the Judoon since 2005, Briggs is well-known in Doctor Who fandom, playing the Doctor in the fan-made Audio Visuals audio dramas from 1985 to 1991 (which later evolved into Big Finish Productions, of which he has been the executive producer since 2006). He has appeared in, written and directed many of the independent spin-off video productions of the 1990s. He hosted the long-running Myth Makers interview series. His appearance in this episode means that he has worked on both official televised Doctor Who spinoffs, as he also voiced Captain Tybo in TV: Prisoner of the Judoon