Lizbeth Hayhoe
Professor Elizabeth "Lizbeth" Hayhoe was a fellow of Somerville College and an employee of Torchwood One, placed in charge of Room 13 by Reginald Rigsby.
Biography
Early life
Elizabeth Hayhoe, better known as Lizbeth, enjoyed riding horses when she was young. Her first horse was Glynarthen, who was injured when she took a tumble during a steeplechase. Whilst her mother argued with the judges that she at least deserved a rosette for effort, she cradled Glynarthen's neck whilst the vet shot him. Although she wanted to look at him when he died, the sound of the gun made her close her eyes. (AUDIO: Parasite)
World War II
During World War II, Lizbeth was tasked with pretending to run a farm whilst actually hiding a cache of extraterrestrial weapons in Wookey Hole Caves, assisted by land girls billeted near G.I.s. The girls often had sex with the soldiers and became pregnant, resulting in Lizbeth spending many a night at the cottage hospital as they gave birth. She was impressed at how they would still be digging up turnips whilst in their eighth month. (AUDIO: Parasite)
In the early 1940s, Lizbeth arranged for Jill Anderson to be sent to catalogue the Torchwood Archive's artefacts hidden in a Welsh coal mine. (AUDIO: Curios)
Lizbeth was sent by Torchwood One to visit Project Hermod to gain intelligence on its latest weapons. There, she discovered that Project Hermod had infected living children with alien fungi. Disgusted by what she found, she burnt the place to the ground. This caused Reginald Rigsby, leader of Torchwood One, to demote her to Room 13. (AUDIO: Parasite)
Post-war
Lizbeth met Norton Folgate for the first time whilst preparing the Skylon for the Festival of Britain. She was once certain that a suspicious shipment contained alien technology but it transpired that it actually contained stockings, an incident which Norton would not let her forget. (AUDIO: Parasite)
In June 1953, Lizbeth lead a mission to round up and store those whose faces had been stolen by the Wire, an alien parasite that had attempted to invade Earth in the leadup to the coronation of Elizabeth II. (AUDIO: Parasite, TV: The Idiot's Lantern)
Shortly after, Lizbeth was joined in Room 13 by Norton, who had been stationed there after his failed attempt at a takeover of Torchwood. (AUDIO: Goodbye Piccadilly) Together, Lizbeth and Norton were victims of memory manipulation at the hands of Adam. Adam used his powers to manipulate the memories of the Torchwood employees, temporarily depose Rigsby and attempt an interstellar war with the Kernaz.
Lizbeth and Norton realised something was wrong but their investigation was continually set back by Adam editing their memories. On the day of war, Lizbeth and Norton deactivated Torchwood's weapons and exposed Adam, handing him over to the Kernaz who banished him to the Void for the destruction of their homeworld. (AUDIO: Madam, I'm)
Death
In the mid-1950s, Project Hermod used gangsters to smuggle packages into Torchwood itself containing the alien fungi previously thought destroyed by Lizbeth herself. This fungi quickly spread through the smog of Soho, controlling the minds of taxi drivers and policemen, in effect paralysing London from invading attacks. When the fungi took control of Torchwood, the remaining staff, including Lizbeth, closed themselves away. However, this was ineffective and both Lizbeth and Rigsby perished. After her death, Norton, Andy Davidson and new recruit Gideon Lyme defeated the fungi and started to rebuild Torchwood. (AUDIO: Parasite)
Personality
Lizbeth was an intelligent woman and, according to Norton, one of the finest minds at Torchwood. She believed that she was unpopular in the organisation and decided to endure her punishment at Room 13 long enough to get a pension and a cottage in Hebden Bridge. A lesbian with a habit of seducing ex-Wrens, she hoped to settle down with "a bitter old bull dyke called Marjorie" and argue with her in their old age.
She enjoyed crumpets, bacon rolls, tea, cocoa and coffee, although she did not like it made with chicory. She had a habit of falling asleep in cars and was a heavy sleeper, managing to sleep through gunfire, a tank and a lynching. She spoke some German and did not smoke until her visit to Project Hermod, after which she took to smoking a pipe.
Rigsby told Lizbeth that she was a "tough old bird" and that she was talented and clever but not especially smart. He saw her as an incubator, taking people in and improving them so that he could take them from her. She was greatly admired at Torchwood and her team members never wanted to leave her. (AUDIO: Parasite)
Appearance
Lizbeth arrived at work in a hat and coat. When Norton told her that she had one of the finest minds at Torchwood, he added that it was in "one of the most ugly bodies". (AUDIO: Parasite)
Behind the scenes
Dervla Kirwan said that the stage directions described Lizbeth as having a moustache, making it a role that she would never get on television. (BFX: Parasite)
