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On This Day (USA) - 16 January



The Romans: The Slave Traders premiered on BBC One in 1965 at 5:40pm GMT, watched by 13.00 million viewers.

After relaxing at a Roman villa the Doctor is mistaken for a murdered lyre player and targeted by an assassin. Meanwhile, Ian and Barbara are captured by slave traders.


Terror of the Autons: Episode Three premiered on BBC One in 1971 at 5:15pm BST, watched by 8.10 million viewers.

The Doctor and the Brigadier trace the Master to the plastics factory but they are too late. The only clue to the Master's plans is a single plastic daffodil


The Paradise Of Death: Episode Four premiered on Radio 4 Extra in 2003 at 6:00pm GMT

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang premiered on BBC2 in 2008 at 9:02pm GMT, watched by 4.22 million viewers.

Pointless premiered on BBC One in 2015 at 5:15pm GMT, watched by 4.11 million viewers.

Quiz in which contestants try to score as few points as possible by plumbing the depths of their general knowledge to come up with the answers no-one else can think of. Presented by Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman.


Doctor Who: Earth Conquest: The World Tour premiered on BBC Three in 2015 at 7:00pm GMT
Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman embark on a global tour to key cities around the world.

 Birthdays
Michael Attwell (died 2006 aged 63) would have been 81 - 2 credits, including Isbur, the Ice Warrior in The Ice Warriors

Michael Attwell  was an English actor who had two roles in Doctor Who, playing an Ice Warrior in the 1967 story The Ice Warriors and later appearing as Bates in the 1986 story Attack of the Cybermen.

He is possibly best known for his role as Kenny Beale in the television soap opera EastEnders.

In 1979 and 1980 he played Razor Eddie a.k.a. Edward Winston Malone in two series of the comedy-drama Turtle's Progress. The character had originally been created for the ITV drama serial The Hanged Man, where he was played by Gareth Hunt.

In 1985 he played Bill Sikes in the BBC's Sunday afternoon classic serial Oliver Twist.

His other TV credits include The First Churchills, Only Fools and Horses, Minder, Bergerac, Wycliffe, Inspector Morse, Bugs, Silent Witness, Pie in the Sky, Casualty, The Bill, Hotel Babylon, and Are You Being Served?.

e appeared in the 1987 film Buster, based on the life of the Great Train Robber Buster Edwards.

As well as acting, between 1981 and 1993 Attwell also had a considerable career as a political cartoonist for several British national newspapers including The Sun, Sunday People and the News of the World. A self-taught artist, Attwell signed himself as Zoke, an amalgam of the names of his children Zoe and Jake.

His life and work was honoured at the British Academy Television Awards in 2006.



Peter Forbes-Robertson (died 1995 aged 68) would have been 97 - 3 credits, including Guard in The Power of the Daleks

Peter Forbes-Robertson appeared in several Doctor Who stories: as a Guard in The Power of the Daleks, a Time Lord in Colony in Space, and the Chief Sea Devil in The Sea Devils.


Gordon Sterne (died 2017 aged 94) would have been 101 - credited as Heldorf in The Ambassadors of Death

Gordon Sterne played Heldorf in the 1970 Doctor Who story The Ambassadors of Death.

Also appeared in The TudorsPenny's Sweet DemiseScreaming Blue MurderLittle BritainLaws of AttractionIn Memory ofFour PlayMelissaKavanagh QCGulliver's TravelsJeeves and WoosterLondon EmbassyHighlanderJohn and Yoko: A Love StoryOrion's BeltThe Razor's EdgeReilly: Ace of SpiesPanoramaRating NotmanBBC2 PlayhouseThe Many Wives of PatrickThe New AvengersSecond VerdictZwei Finger einer HandAnne of AvonleaSex PlayIntimate StrangersThe President's Last TapeThe ProtectorsThe Gangster Show: The Resistible Rise of Arturo UiUFOBrettThe TroubleshootersPaul TempleA Promise of BedCrossroadsThe Adding MachineThe Most Dangerous Man in the WorldThe Assassination BureauMan in a SuitcaseThe PrisonerThe VultureThe SaintSergeant CorkZero OneEspionageThe V.I.P.sJezebel ex UKSuspenseThe Fur CollarOut of This WorldStrangleholdAlcoa Presents: One Step BeyondTaste of FearInternational DetectiveThe MillionairessMan from InterpolHancock's Half HourSink the Bismarck!The Four Just MenNo Hiding PlaceBBC Sunday-Night TheatrePrivate InvestigatorLibelThe Child and the KillerMurder at Site 3Great Van RobberyRendezvousBattle of the V-1Armchair TheatreWhite Hunter , O.S.S.I Spy


Margot Thomas (died 2008 aged 88) would have been 104 - credited as Stall holder in The Romans

Margot Thomas is an actress who played the stall holder in the 1965 story The Romans.

She had a long career in British television appearing in such programmes as Dixon of Dock Green and Dr Finlay's Casebook


 Deaths

Peter Butterworth (died 1979 aged 59) - 2 credits, including The Meddling Monk in The Time Meddler

Peter Butterworth  was an English comedy actor and comedian, best known for his appearances in the Carry On series of films. He appeared in seven early episodes of Doctor Who in 1965 as the 'The Meddling Monk' who is noted as being the first recurring Doctor Who villain. He was married to the actress and impressionist Janet Brown.

Before his acting career started, Butterworth served as alieutenant commander in the Royal Navy during theSecond World War. He was captured in the Netherlands in 1940 and later escaped through a tunnel from Dulag luft, near Frankfurt, in June 1941, where he covered 27 miles (43 km) over three days before a member of the Hitler Youth captured him. Afterwards he joked that he could never work with children again. Two other attempts to escape were made during his time there but he never got beyond the campgrounds.

Whilst at Stalag Luft III  he met Talbot Rothwell, who later went on to write many of the Carry On films. Rothwell and Butterworth formed a duet and sang in the camp shows, where booing and catcalls covered the sounds of an escape tunnel being dug by other prisoners. Butterworth was one of the vaulters covering for the escapers during the escape portrayed by the book and film The Wooden Horse. Butterworth later auditioned for the film in 1949 but "didn't look convincingly heroic or athletic enough" according to the makers of the film. To compensate for this the director Jack Lee, named the character played by Leo Genn "Peter", after Butterworth.

Butterworth came to notice after appearing in pantomime around the UK and made his first film appearance in 1948. His first role was in the Val Guest film William comes to town. Guest and Butterworth would become close friends and the two would work on a further seven films together during their careers. His first major success was on Television in the Terry-Thomas sketch show How do you view? in which he played the chauffeur "Lockitt". Butterworth also presented successful programmes aimed at children in the 1950s including Whirligig and Butterworth Time. He continued to take minor parts in films and would go onto appear alongside actors including Sean ConneryDavid Niven andDouglas Fairbanks Jr during his career.

Butterworth's association with the Carry On series started in 1965 in Carry on Cowboy where he played the part of "Doc". He was put in touch with the creator of the series, Peter Rogers, by his friend Talbot Rothwell, the writer of Carry On Cowboy and who had written the previous four films. Out of the fourteen actors who were considered to be the "Carry On team", he was the sixth most prolific performer in the series, making sixteen film appearances, two Christmas specials, the television series in 1975 and the west end theatre productions which also toured the country, alongside Sidney JamesBarbara Windsor, and Kenneth Connor.

Butterworth appeared in two of the most famous films in the series Carry on Screaming in 1966 andCarry on up the Khyber in 1968. It was the latter which established Butterworth as an important member of the Carry on cast of actors. Playing the part of Brother Belcher, a missionary working on behalf of a campaign to save fallen women, he first appears in the film giving a sermon in the market place and becomes somewhat distracted by a pretty native woman who lures him into a back room of a nearby building. The encounter is then caught by Captain Keane and Sergeant Major McNutt (Roy Castle andTerry Scott). Brother Belcher is then blackmailed into helping them overthrow The Khasi of Kalabar (played by Kenneth Williams).

Butterworth returned to playing bigger parts within the Carry On films in 1972. In Carry On Abroad, he played 'Pepe' the manager of an unfinished hotel, who greets his unexpected guests in the guise of the builder, the porter, the receptionist and telephone operator. He spends the first half of the film furiously trying to placate and accommodate them and the last half desperately trying to save the building from a flood, and whilst all this is going on, put up with his nagging wife Hattie Jacques.

Butterworth remained with the series until the final film, Carry On Emmannuelle in 1978.

Having appeared in many of Val Guest's films during the beginning of his career, he also made three appearances in the films of Richard Lester. He appeared in Lester's film version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in (1966). Ten years later he appeared consecutively in The Ritz[13]and Robin and Marian (1976) alongside Sean ConneryRichard Harris, and Audrey Hepburn.[14] He had an uncredited cameo part in the film version of the musical Oliver! as a shopkeeper in court, and made a special appearance in an episode of Dad's Army called The Face on the Poster. In 1975 he was the subject of an episode of This Is Your Life whereby Eamonn Andrews surprised him while he was shopping in SelfridgesLondon. Friends who took part in the show included Terry ScottTalbot Rothwell,Jimmy Jewell John Casson and Rupert Davies. Butterworth's wife and their two children, Tyler and Emma were also at the recording. When the Carry on films finished in 1978, Butterworth began to concentrate on straight roles, taking a small part in the feature film The First Great Train Robbery with Sean Connery,[15] and the Alan Bennett play "Afternoon Off" both from 1978. Both productions were released posthumously in 1979 on February 2 and 3 respectively.

He married the actress and impressionist Janet Brown in 1947 at St. Mary's Church, Bryanaston Square,Marylebone after being introduced to one another by Rothwell. Brown later became famous for her impersonations of Margaret Thatcher on TV during the 70s and 80s. Their son Tyler Butterworth is an actor and is married to the actress Janet Dibley. They also had a daughter, Emma (1962�1996), who died aged 34.

In 1979, whilst The First Great Train Robbery was on general release, Butterworth was starring as Widow Twankey in the pantomime Aladdin at the Coventry Theatre. When the show had finished, he went back to his hotel following the evening's performance. His failure to return for the following day's matinee show caused alarm, and he was found dead in his room from a heart attack. Out of respect, the remainder of the pantomime's run was cancelled. Butterworth was buried in Danehill Cemetery, in East Sussex. Following his death, the producer of the Carry On Films, Peter Rogers, called Butterworth "A thoroughly nice bloke and a dear friend".