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On This Day (USA) - 20 April



Fury From the Deep: Episode 6 premiered on BBC One in 1968 at 5:15pm BST, watched by 6.90 million viewers.

The Weed has complete control of Chief Robson and threatens to conquer Earth. The Doctor searches for a means to defeat the creature and believes the answer may be Victoria…


The Monster of Peladon: Part Five premiered on BBC One in 1974 at 5:30pm BST, watched by 7.50 million viewers.

Commander Azaxyr and his Ice Warriors are revealed as traitors, in league with Galaxy 5. The Doctor intends to turn Aggedor against Azaxyr, but it may already be too late.


Totally Doctor Who (#1.2) premiered on BBC One in 2006 at 4:59pm BST, watched by 0.95 million viewers.
Barney Harwood and Liz Barker present a show celebrating the the latest adventures of the last living Time Lord. David Tennant pays Barney and Liz a visit. The Companion Academy cadets are put to the test on their first task Expect the Unexpected. And more exclusive behind the scenes access as the Doctor comes crashing down to earth in a lift shaft.

Totally Doctor Who (#2.3) premiered on BBC One in 2007 at 5:00pm BST, watched by 0.72 million viewers.
Barney Harwood and Kirsten O'Brien look at everything Doctor Who with exclusive behind the scenes clips, and the next instalment of our exclusive Doctor Who animation. We test head writer Russell T Davies's Doctor Who knowledge and chat to Lenora Crichlow, aka Cheen whilst Team Totally take on a Foley challenge.

Hide premiered on BBC One in 2013 at 6:44pm BST, watched by 6.61 million viewers.

 Birthdays
William Ilkley will be 66 - credited as Tim Bass in The Mark of the Rani

William Ilkley is a British actor.

He played Tim Bass in the Doctor Who story The Mark of the Rani.

William Ilkley trained at Rose Bruford on the B.A. (Hons) Theatre Arts Course and his regional theatre credits include Bolton Octagon, Manchester Royal Exchange, Newcastle Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, Theatre Clwyd, Watford Palace, Harrogate Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, Derby Playhouse, Leicester Haymarket, York Theatre Royal and The West Yorkshire Playhouse.

He has appeared in The RoyalHolby CityEmmerdaleThe Day of the TriffidsCasualty 1909The Boat That RockedIs Anybody There?DoctorCasualtyMidsomer MurdersHeartbeatThin IceFamily AffairsVincentClass of '76The BillThe Jealous GodBetween Two WomenThe Last DetectiveDalziel and PascoeBattlefield BritainEastEndersThunder RoadJudge John DeedHetty Wainthropp InvestigatesBand of GoldWing and a PrayerThe FixCoronation StreetFrontiersPigeon SummerThe Whipping BoyLove and ReasonMagic GrandadPapierowe malzenstwoThe Good GuysTruth or DareRuth Rendell MysteriesChildren's WardSoldier SoldierNight of the FoxShipwreckedShoot to KillScreen TwoAll Creatures Great and SmallHow to Be CoolThe Hound of the BaskervillesDempsey and MakepeaceLast of the Summer WineHowards' WayMitchBootle SaddlesSorrell and SonThe OutsiderNumber 10Harry's Game


Louise Jameson will be 73 - 101 credits, including Leela in The Face of Evil

Louise Jameson is best known for playing Leela alongside Fourth Doctor Tom Baker in the late seventies. 

Away from Doctor Who she is probably best known as Rosa di Marco in Eastenders. She has done nine other series for the BBC including Tom Brown's School Days, Doctor Who,The Omega Factor, Bergerac, Rides, and her personal favourite, Tenko, not to mention guest appearances in Casualty, Wycliffe, The Bill and some classic 'one offs' such as Cider with Rosie and The Game. Series for other companies includes Stick with Me Kid (Disney), The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (YTV) andMollie (Sky).

Her first love however is the theatre and very shortly after finishing her RADA training, where she won the Shakespeare Award for Best Classical Performance, she joined the RSC for three years and played Stratford, London and America in numerous plays including Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, Love's Labour's Lost andThe Taming of the Shrew. Non-Shakespearean roles included Molly in TheMarquis of Keith (with Sir Ian McKellen), Sylvia Plath in Three Women, Kate inPassion Play (Best New Play) and Nadia Polikarpovna in Gorky's Barbarians.

More recently she has worked with the Royal National Theatre as The Woman in Death of a Salesman. Away from the 'Royals' other favourite theatre includes Rosalind in As You Like It (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Old Vic), Miriam Gotchalk in Mephisto and Beatrice inMuch Ado About Nothing (both for Oxford Theatre Company), Roxanne in Sticky Fingers (a musical for the King's Head), Moll in Moll Flanders (also a musical, Yorkshire Playhouse) and Mollie in Sleeping Nightie (Royal Court Upstairs).

Several years ago she started tlc productions ltd., (www.tlcproductions.co.uk) with a view to performing/producing/directing new writing/compilations and to take a sideways look at the classics to which end she produced and directed Wotcha Will, a compilation of the canon dipping into 17 of the plays and premiered Sex Wars with David Warwick and (brilliant guitarist) Simon James. Also Louise performs Love Letters with Colin Baker and most excitingly has premiered her one woman show at Hackney Empire calledFace Value by Helen Goldwyn.

Jameson has also recorded numerous Radio 4 afternoon plays, and some monologue work for Radio 3. She lives in Kent with her two sons Harry and Tom and believes them to be by far the best things she's ever produced.

Official Website


Michael Brandon will be 79 - 2 credits, including General Sanchez in The Stolen Earth / Journey's End

Michael Brandon is an American actor who resides in London and Los Angeles.

Brandon was born in Brooklyn, New York

Brandon starred in the TV series Dempsey and Makepeace and Dinotopia, the movies Quattro mosche di velluto grigio (1971), F.M.(1978), A Vacation In Hell (1979) and A Change of Seasons (1980), and the plays Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? and Jerry Springer - The Opera.

Since moving to the UK, Brandon has worked in TV on such shows as The BillTrial and Retribution, and Dead Man Weds. He also played the title role in the musical Jerry Springer: The Opera for over a year in the National Theatre and after its transfer into the West End. In 2004, he portrayed Nobel Prize winner Arno Penzias in the BBC TV movie Hawking about physicist Stephen Hawking's early career at the University of Cambridge and began narrating the American version of Thomas & Friends and Abe and the Amazing Promise of Veggie Tales. In February 2008 he began his talk radio show on City Talk, a new local radio station in Liverpool

In 2008 he appeared in the Series 4 finale of the BBC's Doctor Who, as General Sanchez, a UNIT officer. Also in 2008 he appeared in the television series Bones, as Roger Frampton, an American millionaire.

Brandon was offered the role as the narrator of the U.S. version of Thomas & Friends after his performance in Jerry Springer the Opera. HiT Entertainment had approached him and they talked for hours and Brandon had stayed on till 2007, when Pierce Brosnan was going to be the next new narrator for the Series. But then he was called back to provide the U.S. narration for series 12 and onwards whenPierce Brosnan didn't return. He now also holds the record for being the second longest running narrator in the series

In the early 1970s Brandon was in a relationship with the actress Kim Novak, from 1976 to 1979, Brandon was married to actressLindsay Wagner (who portrayed Jaime Sommers in the Bionic Woman series). He is currently married to actress Glynis Barber, with whom he co-starred in Dempsey & Makepeace, and the couple remain in the United Kingdom. Brandon and Barber have a son called Alexander Max Brandon, (born November 1992)

In 2011, Brandon guest-starred in an episode of the BBC1 con drama Hustle as Marcus Wendell (series 7, episode 3).

Most recently he was seen in a supporting role in the film Captain America: The First Avenger as a politician who befriends the titular character.

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


Jimmy Winston (died 2020 aged 75) would be 79 - credited as Shura in Day of the Daleks

Jimmy Winston played Shura in the 1972 Doctor Who story Day of the Daleks.

He was the original keyboard player with Small Faces who rehearsed in the large function room above the Ruskin Arms, Manor Park, of which Jimmy's father Bill Langwith was the landlord. 

Steve Marriott and the rest of the band replaced Winston with Ian McLagan. Winston had two older brothers: Frank who worked on the River Thames, and Derek.

Also worked on The SweeneyJusticeThe Ballad of Tam LinUFONo Blade of GrassNever a Cross WordDoctor in the House


Ray Brooks will be 85 - 2 credits, including David in Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.(Aaru)

Ray Brooks is an English television and film actor.

Ray Brooks began as a television actor. He appeared in the long-running soap Coronation Street and played Terry Mills in the series Taxi with Sid James (1963). He then rose to prominence in the UK after starring alongside Michael Crawford and Rita Tushingham in The Knack �and How to Get It. The film, directed by Richard Lester won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1965. Brooks followed up this success starring in the groundbreaking television drama Cathy Come Home.

Through the 1960s he also had small roles in a number of other cult television series including The AvengersDanger Man, and Doomwatch. He played the major role of David Campbell in the Doctor Who film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD.

Major film roles in the 1970s were less numerous; among his roles was a supporting part in comedy Carry On Abroad (1972). In this decade he built a career doing voiceovers for television advertisements. He also released an album of his own songs.

Brooks returned to prominence with the BBC comedy drama Big Deal (1984�1986), where he co-starred with Sharon Duce. After Big Deal ended, Duce and Brooks starred together, as different characters, in the popular Growing Pains(1992) about a pair of middle-aged foster parents.

Brooks was also the narrator of the well known children's animations by David McKeeMr Benn and King Rollo. He was the original 'next stop' announcement voice of the Croydon Tramlink system, before being replaced by Nicholas Owen. In 1987 the BBC chose Brooks as one of the principal character voices for the acclaimed French animated science fiction film Les Maitres du Temps which the BBC had co-produced in 1982.

In 2002 he acted in BBC drama Two Thousand Acres of Sky.

He joined the cast of soap opera EastEnders as Joe Macer in 2005.


 Deaths
Peter Howell (died 2015 aged 95) - credited as Investigator in The Mutants

A regular in 1950s television hospital drama series Emergency – Ward 10, Peter Howell made guest appearances in The Avengers, The Prisoner, and Doctor Who. He played the prison governor in the 1979 film Scum. He played Saruman in the 1981 BBC Radio production of The Lord of the Rings. He also featured in the Yes Minister "Equal Opportunities" (1982) as a committee member. In the long running Radio 4 drama The Archers he had a recurring role as Right Reverend Cyril Hood, Bishop of Felpersham.

Howell played the role of Sir William Lucas in the 1980 BBC Miniseries "Pride & Prejudice" by Jane Austen, a miniseries also featuring Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul.

Howell died on 20 April 2015 after a short illness, aged 95.

 

Details from Wikipedia


Billy Dean (died 2000 aged 78) - 2 credits, including Peladon Guard in The Curse of Peladon

Actor from Liverpool with a long list of credits, most famous for playing Harry Cross in the TV soap opera Brookside

Works include Family Life (1971), Priest (1994) and Kes (1969).

Variously earned a living as a tram driver, pipe fitter, insurance agent, ship's steward, docker and local government officer. First performed as a stand-up comedian.