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On This Day (USA) - 18 March



The Macra Terror: Episode 2 premiered on BBC One in 1967 at 5:51pm GMT, watched by 7.90 million viewers.

Despite the Doctor's efforts, Ben has been brainwashed into denying that anything is wrong. Polly tries to escape from Ben but runs straight into the claws of the Macra.


The Sea Devils: Episode Four premiered on BBC One in 1972 at 5:50pm GMT, watched by 7.80 million viewers.

The Doctor attempts to persuade Captain Hart of the danger that the Master represents. Eager to make contact with the Sea Devils, the Doctor journeys deep into the ocean.


 Birthdays

Sophia Myles was 44 - 3 credits, including Reinette in The Girl in the Fireplace

Sophia Myles is an English film and television actress.

Myles was born in London. Her mother, Jane (n�e Allan), works in educational publishing, and her father, Peter R. Myles, is a retired Church Of England vicar inIsleworthWest London. Her maternal grandmother was Russian, and she refers to herself as "half-Welsh, half-Russian". She grew up in Notting Hill, where her father served at the church of St. George the Martyr, and she attended Fox Primary School. At the age of eleven, Myles moved with her family to Isleworth and attended the Green School. Following success at her A-levels, she had been planning to accept a conditional place to study philosophy atCambridge, but chose to pursue an acting career after being spotted by Julian Fellowes in a school play.

Since 1996, Myles has appeared in a number of American and British films and television productions. In 2001, she got a small role alongside Johnny Depp as his on-screen wife, Victoria Abberline, in the thriller film From Hell. She had a supporting role in the 2003 film Underworld and its sequel Underworld: Evolution (in a brief flashback scene). In 2003, she played the schoolgirl lead in the thriller Out of Bounds and she also played Lady Penelope in the Thunderbirds. In 2006, Myles co-starred with actor James Franco in the romantic drama Tristan and Isolde, playing the role of Isolde.

Myles appeared as Madame de Pompadour in a 2006 episode of Doctor Who, "The Girl in the Fireplace"; the episode was nominated for a Nebula Award and won the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

She co-starred opposite Max Minghella, playing his love interest in 2006's quirky comedy film Art School Confidential. Also in 2006, Myles appeared in a BBC TV adaptation ofDracula; she played Lucy Westenra alongside Marc WarrenDavid Suchet and Dan Stevens. As of 2007, she filmed Outlander with James Caviezel and Jack Huston, playing the role of Freya.

She was cast in the CBS supernatural television drama, Moonlight. She has received Best Actress in 2007 for her role in Hallam Foe from the British Independent Film Award committee as well as the BAFTA Scotland Award. Her series, Moonlight, won for Best New Drama in the 2007 People's Choice Awards.

In 2010 Myles joined Spooks� the BBC series about a counter-terrorism unit in MI5�for its ninth series playing Beth Bailey alongside fellow newcomer Max Brown.

 

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

 


Courtney Pine was 60 - credited as Jazz Quartet Member in Silver Nemesis

Courtney Pine CBE is an English jazz musician. At school he studied the clarinet, although he is known primarily for his saxophone playing. Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing the flute, clarinet, bass clarinet and keyboards. On his 2011 album, Europa, he plays almost exclusively bass clarinet.

In 1986 Pine's debut album Journey to the Urge Within became "the first serious jazz album ever to make the British Top 40 (significantly earning a Silver Disc), the last two decades have seen him go on to achieve considerable international acclaim. Prestigiously cracking the American jazz charts along the way, while constantly remaining an inspirational figure to many young, upcoming black British musicians".

His recent music integrates modern British music like drum and bass and UK garage with contemporary jazz styles. He runs his own band and integrates many contemporary musicians in his performances. He also presents Jazz Crusade on BBC Radio 2, the seventh series of which was broadcast during spring 2007.

In 1988 he appeared as himself in a jazz quartet in the Doctor Who serial Silver Nemesis.

Pine was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2000, and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours for services to jazz music.[3] He was also awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Westminster on 6 December 2004. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Southampton on 15 July 2010.

Pine appeared in August 2008 as an advocate for Pierre Boulez, on the BBC World News classical music programme, Visionaries.

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


John Fraser (died 2020 aged 89) would have been 93 - credited as The Monitor in Logopolis

John Fraser is a BAFTA-nominated Scottish actor of cinema, television and theatre.

One of his earliest roles was as Inigo Jollifant in the second film version of J.B. Priestley's The Good Companions. He went on to have starring roles in films such as El Cid, The Trials of Oscar Wilde (playing Lord Alfred Douglas), and Roman Polanski's Repulsion. He is familiar on television, with guest roles in series including Danger Man (1964), Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969), Columbo (1972), Doctor Who (1981) and The Bill (1995).


 Deaths
Michael Attwell (died 2006 aged 63) - 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.


Lewis Greifer (died 2003 aged 87) - credited as Writer for Pyramids of Mars (as Stephen Harris)

Lewis Greifer was a writer for television, film, and radio, bets know to Doctor Who fans as the writer of the initial draft of the 1975 Tom Baker story, Pyramids of Mars. The script had to be radically rewritten by script-editor Robert Holmes, who decided to use the pseudonym Stephen Harris 

After wartime service in the RAF, he pursued a career in journalism and joined the London Evening Standard. He contributed sketches for radio, including The Goon Show amongst others. 

A strong record on television writing in the 1950s and 1960s made his career; and by 1969 he diversified somewhat and devised the panel game show Whodunnit! for the BBC (which was later reformatted and remade by Thames Television as a vehicle for Jon Pertwee).

Lewis Greifer also wrote episodes of The Prisoner, Crossroads.