WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

The first season of the 1980s sci-fi series Buck Rogers In The 25th Century continues on Forces TV (10pm, Freeview 96). Here, we look at what the cast have been up to since…

1) Felix Silla/Mel Blanc (Twiki) The man inside Twiki was also once Cousin Itt on The Addams

Family TV series, and the circus-trained Silla went on to play an Ewok in Return Of The Jedi and a penguin in Batman Returns. The voice (‘biddy biddy biddy’) came from Mel Blanc (also Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and so many more), who worked right up to his death in 1989.

2) Erin Gray (Colonel Wilma Deering)

Her big post-Buck role was US sitcom

Silver Spoons (1982-87). Gray now runs her own firm, Heroes

For Hire – booking stars for appearances – and is a teacher of tai chi, in which she is a fervent believer: ‘I wish everybody did tai chi.’ 3) Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers) In 2007, the documentary Action Hero Makeover followed Gil’s recovery from a life-saving gastric bypass, as his weight dived by 145lbs. In the same year he was reunited with Erin Gray for the TV movie Nuclear Hurricane – and again, in 2009, for the web prequel Buck Rogers Begins, in which they played Buck’s parents. 4) Wilfrid Hyde-White

(Dr Goodfellow) The My Fair Lady star – he played Colonel Hugh Pickering – worked in TV and film until 1983. He died in 1991, aged 87.