The son of a paymaster captain in the Royal Navy, Cyril Luckham was educated at RNC Osborne and Dartmouth and briefly followed his father into the service. He was promoted Lieutenant in 1930 and retired the following year, transferring to the Emergency List. Afterwards he trained for the stage with the
Arthur Brough school at Folkestone, making his debut with Brough's company there in
The Admirable Crichton in 1935. For several years he appeared in provincial repertory, notably with the Rapier Players at Bristol's Little Theatre. He had been promoted to Lieutenant-Commander on the retired list in 1938 and was recalled to the Navy when the War broke out. He was invalided out soon afterwards following serious illness and returned to the theatre. Luckham made his West End debut as Torvald Helmer in ''A Doll's House'' at the Arts Theatre in July 1945. For several years afterwards his stage work was largely back in the provinces including the touring company of the Old Vic. Luckham played the
White Guardian in the long running
science fiction television series
Doctor Who. He appeared in
The Ribos Operation, the first serial in
The Key to Time season, and
Enlightenment. In 1965 he played Sir Hugh Archibald-Lake in
The Wednesday Play (BBC)
Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton. In the 1967 BBC serialisation of
The Forsyte Saga, Luckham played Sir Lawrence Mont, father-in-law of Fleur Forsyte. Luckham was a familiar face as a character actor in the 1970s: playing the puppet prime minister in 1971's
dystopian TV drama
The Guardians, in which the British state becomes one policed by the ubiquitous Guardians;
The 7th Duke of Marlborough, in the 1974 Thames mini-series
Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill; Father O'Hara, in ''
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em; the benevolent grandfather, in The Cedar Tree'', (a series that ran on ATV from 1975 to 1979); in the 1975
Wodehouse Playhouse episode, 'A Voice from the Past'; as Mr. Luffy, in an episode of the 1978 TV series based on the
Famous Five books by
Enid Blyton; as the evil psychic, Edward Drexel, in the 1979 supernatural thriller series
The Omega Factor; and, as the equitable schoolboard chairman of 'Bamfylde', in the 1980
Andrew Davies (writer)' adaptation of
To Serve Them All My Days. ==Partial filmography==