Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 17 April



The Crusade: The Warlords premiered on BBC One in 1965 at 5:40pm BST, watched by 9.50 million viewers.

Barbara hides from El Akir in a harem. Ian has been captured by bandits who resort to torture in order to extract money from him. The Doctor and Vicki attempt to escape the palace.


Colony In Space: Episode Two premiered on BBC One in 1971 at 6:12pm BST, watched by 8.50 million viewers.

The Interplanetary Mining Corporation, represented by Captain Dent, arrives on the planet claiming that the colonists have no right to be there.


Victory of the Daleks premiered on BBC One in 2010 at 6:29pm BST, watched by 7.82 million viewers.

War Games premiered on BBC Three in 2010 at 7:15pm BST

Legend Of The Sea Devils premiered on BBC One in 2022 at 7:10pm BST, watched by 3.47 million viewers.

Redacted: SOS premiered on BBC Online in 2022 at 8:00pm BST

 Birthdays
Josie Long was 42 - credited as Self in The Women of Doctor Who(Factual)

Josie Long is a British comedian.


Cavan Scott was 51 - 18 credits, including Writer for Masters of Earth(BF)

Cavan Scott is a freelance author, journalist and editor. He is best known for his work on a variety of spin-offs from the BBC Television series Doctor Who, often in collaboration with co-writer Mark Wright. He was also script editor on the first series of Highlander talking books and co-produced Iris Wildthyme for Big Finish Productions. As of 2014, he produces their Blake's 7 audio series.

He has written a number of books based upon the BBC Television series Countryfile and Planet Dinosaur as well as a range of books based on the children's video game franchises Skylanders and Angry Birds.

Scott conceived and launched Countryfile Magazine in 2007 and has written for over 30 national magazines and newspapers. He regularly appears on local and national radio commentating on rural affairs and has been a judge of various countryside awards including the RSPB Farming for Nature Award and the FARMA Farm Retailer of the Year. More recently he appeared on BBC Breakfast to discuss the casting of Peter Calpaldi as the 12th Doctor Who.

In June 2013, Scott and Wright became Sunday Times Bestselling authors as Who-ology entered the Sunday Times Bestseller list. Scott is now working on a Warhammer 40,000 novella, scripts for The Beano and numerous children's books for Puffin Books.

He also writes serialised children's books for "Fiction Express", the next of which is "Snaffles the Cat Burglar".

He lives near Bristol with his wife Clare and their daughters Chloe and Connie.

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


Imogen Bain (died 2014 aged 55) would have been 65 - credited as Janine in Revenge of the Slitheen(SJA)

Actress who appeared in the Sarah Jane Adventures


Peter Mantle was 74 - credited as Kaled Guard in Genesis of the Daleks

Peter Mantle played a Kaled guard in the Doctor Who story Genesis of the Daleks.

Also appeared in Shadow of the NooseThe Crimson Permanent AssuranceThe Meaning of LifeFoxJackanory PlayhouseThe Boy MerlinWithin These WallsRosie Dixon - Night NurseRooms


David Bradley was 82 - 13 credits, including Dr. Who in The First Doctor Adventures Volume 01(BF)

David Bradley is an English character actor. 

Most widely known for playing Hogwarts caretaker Argus Filch in the Harry Potter film franchise, he is also an established theatre actor with a career that includes a Laurence Olivier Award for a supporting role in a production of King Lear. Other acting credits include the BBC's critically acclaimed television series Our Friends in the North, the HBO series Game of Thrones and the films Hot Fuzz and Captain America: The First Avenger.

In the 2012 episode of  Doctor Who, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, he played Soloman, half pirate/half businessman with a spaceship full of dinosaurs. He previously provided voice work for a story of the Sarah Jane Adventures, Death of the Doctor starring Matt Smith's Doctor. 

Bradley was born in YorkEngland. He became an actor in 1971, performing at Laurence Olivier's National Theatre. He first appeared on television that year in the successful comedyNearest and Dearest playing a police officer. He was awarded a Laurence Olivier Award in 1991 for his supporting actor role in King Lear at the Royal National Theatre. He has appeared in the Royal National Theatre's 1997 production of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, as well as productions of Pinter's The Caretaker at Sheffield Theatres and the Tricycle Theatre in London in 2006-07.

Bradley starred in the BBC comedy series Wild West playing the character of Jake. He played fictional Labour Member of Parliament Eddie Wells in the 1996 award-winning BBC Two serialOur Friends in the North. He also in 1996 appeared as gangster Alf Black in Band Of Gold who had much involvement with Samantha Morton's character Tracy "Naomi" Richards. In 1998 he appeared in the BBC adaptations of William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair and Charles DickensOur Mutual Friend as the miserly Sir Pitt Crawley and the villainous Rouge Riderhood, respectively. Other television appearances include the 2001 series, The Way We Live Now directed by David Yates, who would work with Bradley five years later on the Harry Potter films.

Bradley was also involved in the musical drama serial Blackpool on BBC One, the 2005 BBC television drama Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle, playing the part of the morose coach driver taking an unruly party of pupils on a daytrip to Salisbury Cathedral and the 2006 BBC drama Sweeney Todd, playing the father opposite Ray Winstone, and a small part in a 2006 episode of the series Taggart. Also in 2006 he played a leading character, Tom, in an episode of Midsomer Murders. He also appears as the character Stemroach in the BBC comedy series Ideal and as Electric in the BBC's Thieves Like Us, and in the BBC1 series True Dare Kiss. He also starred in the theatre production Reckless alongside Robson Green, and in the film Lycanthropy, as the owner of the nightclub hosting a gang of werewolf-inspired criminals.

Bradley appeared in Nicholas Nickleby (2002) and had a small role in the 2007 comedy film Hot Fuzz as a farmer that illegally hoards weapons. Bradley played Cohen the Barbarian[2] in a Sky One adaptation of The Colour of Magic byTerry Pratchett.

In 2008 appeared in the role of Spooner in No Man's Land by Harold Pinter in the Gate TheatreDublin, opposite Michael Gambon as Hirst, in a production directed by Rupert Goold, that later transferred to London's West End.

On 4 May 2009 Bradley appeared as an animal rights activist in the popular BBC drama Ashes to Ashes, and appeared again on television in BBC's The Street on 20 July 2009.

Bradley portrayed Will SomersHenry VIII's court fool, in episode No.3.5 of the Showtime series The Tudors (2009).

In 2010 he participated in the Mike Leigh film Another Year, which earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the London Film Critics Circle Awards.

In 2011 Bradley appeared in the HBO series Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series of epic fantasy novels, as the 'Late' Lord Walder Frey.

He serves as the president of Second Thoughts Drama Group, which performs in and around Stratford-upon-Avon

On 17 July 2012 Bradley was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from University of Warwick.

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


Brian Miller was 83 - 7 credits, including Dalek Voice in Resurrection of the Daleks

Brian Miller is a British actor. 

He appeared in the Doctor Who serial Snakedance, provided Dalek voices in Resurrection of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks, and played the role of 'Wiston' in the 2005 stage production of The Trial of Davros. 

He was married to former companion Elisabeth Sladen from 1968 until her death in 2011.

Other television series in which he has appeared include Blake's 7 (in the episode "Horizon"), The Bill, Angels and Casualty. He played Mr Buttle in the Terry Gilliam film Brazil.

Miller and their daughter, Sadie Miller, appeared with Sladen in the range of Sarah Jane Smith audio plays by Big Finish Productions.

Miller appeared alongside his wife in the series three episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, "The Mad Woman in the Attic", as Harry the caretaker, and he has an occasional role in the radio serial The Archers as Jason the builder.


Eve Pearce (died 2023 aged 93) would have been 95 - credited as Estelle Cole in Small Worlds(TW)

Eve Pearce (born in AberdeenScotland) is a Scottish actress. She has performed in many Royal Shakespeare Company productions.


Kevin Lindsay (died 1975 aged 51) would have been 100 - 3 credits, including Cho je in Planet of the Spiders

Kevin Lindsay was an Australian actor, based in Britain.

He appeared as Cho-Je in Planet of the Spiders as well as playing the first Sontaran to be seen in the series in The Time Warrior. Later he played two more members of this species inThe Sontaran Experiment.

He died from a heart condition.


Clyde Pollitt (died 1989 aged 65) would have been 100 - 2 credits, including Chancellor in The Three Doctors

Clyde Pollitt was an actor from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.

Roles include parts in Screen One, The Wars of the Roses, The Gentle Touch, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Clayhanger, Moll Flanders, Churchill's People, Hawkeye, the Pathfinder, Z Cars, Softly Softly: Task Force, Callan, Ivanhoe, The Power Game, Softly Softly, Sherlock Holmes, Crossroads, The Citadel , How Green Was My Valley.



 Deaths
James Copeland (died 2002 aged 83) - credited as Selris in The Krotons

James Copeland played Selris in the Doctor Who serial The Krotons.

Also worked on A Rage in HarlemThe Big ManThe CampbellsBrigadistaA Drop in the OceanMurder Not Proven?The CitadelThe PrivilegeKing's RoyalStrangersMaggieThe Walls of JerichoMackenzieSquare Mile of MurderDoom CastleHigh RoadKidnappedThe Onedin LineThe StandardThe MackinnonsHazlitt in LoveBenny LynchOil Strike NorthFive Red HerringsCrown CourtSutherland's LawThe Donati ConspiracyAre You Being Served?MenaceThe BrothersThe View from Daniel PikeZ CarsAdam SmithSpy TrapOut of the UnknownPlay for TodayComedy PlayhouseSoftly Softly: Task ForceThe Main ChanceThe Private Life of Sherlock HolmesDr. Finlay's CasebookThe BorderersRedgauntletDad's ArmyThe Revenue MenThe Flight of the HeronTorture GardenThis Man CraigThe Big CatchDixon of Dock GreenRansom for a Pretty GirlThe TroubleshootersThe AvengersThe SaintITV Play of the WeekDetectiveFarewell PerformanceKidnappedIt Happened Like ThisThe Dark IslandLooking AboutRob RoyTunes of GloryEmergency-Ward 10Captain Moonlight: Man of MysteryRedgauntletThe 39 StepsBBC Sunday-Night TheatreThe Flying DoctorRockets Galore!The Battle of the River PlateKidnappedYou Lucky PeopleMask of DustThe Seekers


Terry Scully (died 2001 aged 68) - credited as Fewsham in The Seeds of Death

Terry Scully was a British theatre and television actor.

In 1969 he played Fewsham in the second Ice Warrior story The Seeds of Death

After making his name in the theatre, from the 1960s onwards he became more known for TV work. In 1960 he starred in the BBC's production of Age of Kings, playing King Henry VI in several episodes.

Other notable roles for Scully were as Horatio Nelson in the 1968 television series, Triton, and as Bicket in the BBC's 1967 blockbuster adaptation of The Forsyte Saga. He also appeared in Dixon of Dock GreenZ-CarsSoftly, SoftlyCallanPublic EyeThe Venturers, and Angels.

He appeared in theBlake's 7 episode "Dawn of the Gods" and starred as Vic Thatcher in four episodes of the 1970s series Survivors. During his time on that series, Scully suffered a nervous breakdown. As a result, his role was filled by actor Hugh Walters in subsequent episodes.

In 2001 he died of a stroke, aged 68.

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