Gareth Hunt Gareth Hunt , birth name Alan Leonard Hunt , ( 7 February 1942 - 14 March 2007 ) played Arak in " Planet of the Spiders " . Outside this guest role on " Doctor Who " , he is best remembered for playing the footman Frederick Norton in " Upstairs , Downstairs " and Mike Gambit in . Early life . Alan Leonard Hunt was born in Battersea , London in 1942 ; he was the nephew of actress . His father was killed in World War II when Hunt was two years old , and he was brought up his mother Doris and stepfather . At the age of fifteen , he joined the Merchant Navy . After six years , he jumped ship in New Zealand and worked in a car plant for a year before he was caught . He served three months in a military prison . Hunt was deported back to Britain . Before doing a BBC design course , he had held a variety of jobs , including being a stagehand , road digger , butchers assistant and door - to - door salesman . Having had an interest in acting since his early years , he trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art . Hunt did rep across the United Kingdom and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre in the early 1970s . Among the many stage productions he appeared in were " Twelfth Night " , " Oh ! What a Lovely War " and " West Side Story " . Hunt started his television career in 1972 , playing a police man in " For the Love of Ada " . The same year he appeared in " A Family at War " and " The Organisation " . In 1974 , he had a role in the " Doctor Who " story " Planet of the Spiders " and " Bless This House " . Television fame . In 1974 , Gareth Hunt appeared in the " Upstairs , Downstairs " episode " Missing Believed Killed " as Frederick Norton , batman to James Bellamy . The character was a minor one , but his performance led producers John Hawkesworth and Alfred Shaughnessy to ask him to come back as a regular for the fifth series in 1975 . Hunt continued playing Frederick Norton , who had by now become the footman , until the eleventh episode of the fifth series . In 1975 , Hunt made an appearance in " " . In 1976 , the year after leaving " Upstairs Downstairs " , Hunt starred alongside Joanna Lumley and in " The New Avengers " . The show ' s producers said he was cast because of his part in " Upstairs , Downstairs " . Hunt played secret agent Mike Gambit and starred in the show until its end after two series in 1977 . ( The series was a revival of " The Avengers " , which had been created by Sydney Newman before he co - created " Doctor Who " ) . In the late 1970s and 1980s , Hunt made appearances in " Sunday Night Thriller " , " Minder " and " Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense " . In 1984 he appeared in the horror film spoof " Bloodbath at the House of Death " and in 1988 he played many parts in the Pet Shop Boys ' film " It Couldn ' t Happen Here " . Hunt was well known in the United Kingdom for starring in a series of television adverts for the coffee brand Nescafé in the 1980s , with a trademark move ; he shook his clenched hand , then opened it to reveal coffee beans . Later years . Gareth Hunt continued to have minor roles in many television programmes in the 1990s and 2000s , with appearances in " The New Adventures of Robin Hood " , " Harry and the Wrinklies " , " Absolute Power " ( as himself ) , " New Tricks " and " Doctors " . From 1992 to 1993 he had a leading role in the sitcom " Side by Side " and a main role in the short - lived soap opera " Night and Day " in 2001 . In 1997 , he appeared in the film " Fierce Creatures " and in 2001 played Ritchie Stringer , a crime boss who was an unlikely suspect in the shooting of Phil Mitchell , in " EastEnders " . For a brief time he abandoned acting and started a project called Interactive Casting Universal , a computer system that presented actors ' details and showreels . Hunt suffered a heart attack in December 1999 and withdrew from a pantomime in Malvern . In July 2002 he collapsed while performing on stage in Bournemouth . Gareth Hunt died on 14 March 2007 , at the age of 65 , at his home in Redhill , Surrey , of pancreatic cancer , from which he had suffered for two years . He had married three times , and had a son by each marriage . As " model " for Fourth Doctor action figure . Besides his guest appearance in " Planet of the Spiders " , Gareth Hunt also had an unintended impact on " Doctor Who " merchandising , according to the second edition of " Howe ' s Transcendental Toybox " ( Telos , 2003 , p . 465 ) . The production of a 1977 Fourth Doctor action figure by Denys Fisher was impacted when the head mould for the doll , modelled after Tom Baker , was damaged . As a last - minute replacement , the mould used to create a Mike Gambit doll for a " New Avengers " line of action figures , modelled after Hunt and bearing a striking similarity to Tom Baker , was used . The second edition of " Transcendental Toybox " features this action figure on its cover .