Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 24 January



Spearhead From Space: Episode 4 premiered on BBC One in 1970 at 5:14pm BST, watched by 8.10 million viewers.

The invasion begins as Auton shop dummies come to life and attack the public. The Doctor and UNIT infiltrate Auto Plastics where the Doctor faces the Nestene consciousness.


The Brain of Morbius: Part Four premiered on BBC One in 1976 at 5:55pm GMT, watched by 10.20 million viewers.

Morbius, housed in a gruesome new body, breathes and moves once more! The Doctor is forced to challenge him to a terrifying mental duel which will lead to death!


Warriors' Gate: Part Four premiered on BBC One in 1981 at 5:09pm GMT, watched by 7.80 million viewers.

Torchwood Declassified Series Two: Episode 2 premiered on BBC2 in 2008 at 7:47pm GMT, watched by 0.84 million viewers.

 Birthdays
Lucy Montgomery was 49 - credited as Professor Johnson in Lost Souls(TW)

Lucy Montgomery is an English comedian,actress and writer, best known for her radio and television work.

 She appeared in the Torchwood story "Lost Souls

While at Cambridge University, Montgomery was a member of Footlights, an amateur theatrical club. Subsequently, she studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Montgomery built her career as one third of Comedy Theatre Company Population 3, along with James Bachman and Barunka O'Shaughnessy, and she appeared as a roving reporter for the comic television programme The Friday Night Project. Other television work has included Bo SelectaThe Mighty Boosh, and The IT Crowd.

Montgomery has been heard in several Radio 4 programmes, including the radio phone-in spoof Down the LineRobin and Wendy's Wet WeekendsThe Way We Live Right NowThe Museum of EverythingThe DepartmentAnother Case of Milton JonesThe Party LineHarry Hill's Ghost of a Christmas PresentThe Pits and Lucy Montgomery's Variety Pack (2010).

In 2005, Montgomery began writing for and performing in the comedy sketch show Tittybangbang on BBC Three. Thesketch comedy series also stars Debbie Chazen and has had three series, from 2005 to late 2007. She was in The Armstrong and Miller Show on BBC One, and Bellamy's People on BBC Two. She has also been on The Law of the Playground and The Wall on BBC Three, and is currently filming her own sketch show pilot for the BBC called The Full Montgomery. She also provides the voice of Destiny in Mongrels.

She voiced for the series Badly Dubbed Porn on Comedy Central.

Biography from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA 


Dr. Michio Kaku was 77 - credited as Self in The Science of Doctor Who(Factual)

Michio Kaku is an American theoretical physicist, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics at the City College of New York, a futurist, and a communicator and popularizer of science. 

e has written several books about physics and related topics, has made frequent appearances on radio, television, and film, and writes extensive online blogs and articles. He has written two New York Times Best Sellers: Physics of the Impossible and Physics of the Future.

Kaku has hosted several TV specials for the BBC, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and the Science Channel.


Robert Sidaway was 82 - 2 credits, including Captain Turner in The Invasion

Robert Sidaway appeared in two Doctor Who stories: as Avon in The Savages and Captain Jimmy Turner in The Invasion.

Other roles include Chuck the Eco DuckJoy DivisionCrossroadsVillainsA Nice Girl Like MeThe AvengersThe Further Adventures of the MusketeersOut of the UnknownEmergency-Ward 10No Hiding PlaceSuspenseIt Happened Like This


John Hollis (died 2005 aged 74) would have been 93 - credited as Sondergaard in The Mutants

John Hollis  was an English actor. He played the role of Lobot in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and the German porter at the chateau in The Dirty Dozen. He appeared in the classic 1978 film Superman as one of the Elders of Krypton, and reprised his role in the 1980 theatrical version of Superman II.

He also played the role of Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the cold open of the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, going uncredited due to the controversy over the film rights and characters of Thunderball. In this sequence, his character was famously lifted from a wheelchair and dropped to his death down a chimney stack by Bond (Roger Moore) after he had attempted to kill Bond by using a remote control link to Bond's MI6 helicopter.

Hollis also took the role of Sondergaard in the Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who in the story The Mutants, and appeared in The Avengers and The Tomorrow People.

John Hollis was a fine and versatile character actor for BBC Radio, his roles notably including Magwitch in Great Expectations, Leonard Bast in Howards EndConan Doyle's Inspector Lestrade andShakespeare's Bardolph. He also took part in some commercial recordings, in parts as various as the March Hare in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the Murderer of the Duke of Clarence inRichard III.

He broadcast his own recollections of a cockney childhood, for the BBC in the 1970s.

Biography from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA


Terence Bayler (died 2016 aged 86) would have been 94 - 2 credits, including Yendom in The Ark

Terence Bayler appeared in two Doctor Who stories.

In 1966 he played Yendom, one of the Monoids' slaves, in the First Doctor story The Ark. In 1969 he returned to the series playing Major Barrington, an officer in the British Army, in the final Second Doctor story, The War Games. Bayler was born in New Zealand, where he first trained as an actor, appearing the 1952 film Broken Barrier, playing a young journalist who falls in love with a Maori woman. 

After moving to the UK he made regular appearances on British Television appearing in Hamlet, Moonstrike, Compact, Maigret, Ivanhoe, The Brothers, Upstairs, Downstairs, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Squad, London's Burning, The Bill and Dangerfield

In 1971 he needed stitches above an eye after he was injured in a sword fight while the shooting Roman Polanski's 1971 film of Shakespeare's Macbeth where he played Macduff. Terence Bayler had a long association with the Monty Python team, appearing in Eric Idle's BBC TV seriesRutland Weekend Television as well as in The RutlesAll You Need Is Cash and in the play Pass The Butler. He appeared in two Terry Gilliam films, Time Bandits and Brazil. He had a small but memorable role in the file The Life of Brian declaring I’m Brian and so’s my wife

In later years he played the Bloody Baron in the Harry Potter films.


 Deaths
Lisa Daniely (died 2014 aged 84) - credited as Madeleine Issigri in The Space Pirates

Lisa Daniely was a British actress on TV and in occasional films. She played Madeleine Issigri in the 1969 story The Space Pirates.

Daniely made her debut in the 1950 film Lilli Marlene in the title role. In the 1952 film Hindle Wakes she played Jenny Hawthorn. Her most memorable TV role was as Diane Brady, the sister of Peter Brady, in the 1958 TV series version of HG Wells' The Invisible Man.

Other appearances on various TV programmes included The Saint, Danger Man, Strange Report, The Protectors, Van Der Valk and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

In 1996, she portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in the TV film Princess In Love.

In 2007, Daniely provided background commentary to several episodes of The Invisible Man that were released by Network DVD, along with former co-star Deborah Watling.


Neil Wilson (died 1975 aged 58) - credited as Sam Seeley in Spearhead From Space

Neil Wilson was an actor born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England, UK.

He was active in the 50's 60's and 70's appearing in Dixon of Dock Green, The Avengers and Doctor in the |House.