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On This Day (USA) - 5 June



The Chase: Flight Through Eternity premiered on BBC One in 1965 at 5:46pm BST, watched by 9.00 million viewers.

The Daleks pursue the TARDIS through time and space. In an attempt to lose the Daleks, the Doctor makes a stop on the top of the Empire State Building and then on a sailing ship.


The Dæmons: Episode Three premiered on BBC One in 1971 at 6:11pm BST, watched by 8.10 million viewers.

The Doctor attempts to help the Brigadier penetrate the heat barrier, but is attacked by the Master's servant in a helicopter. The Master prepares to summon the Daemon Azal.



Vincent and the Doctor premiered on BBC One in 2010 at 6:41pm BST, watched by 6.76 million viewers.

A Brush with Genius premiered on BBC Three in 2010 at 7:30pm BST

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

 Birthdays
Charlie Clements will be 37 - credited as Bradley Branning in Eastenders (Valentines 2008)(Related)

Charlie Clements is an English actor known for the role of Bradley Branning in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from January 2006 to February 2010. He has won several soap and magazine awards for his performance.

Clements was born in Sidcup, Greater London. Before joining EastEnders he was studying for his A-levels (which he finished in 2005, aged 18) and working part-time in a Waitrose supermarket in Bromley.

In addition to being in EastEnders he has appeared in a variety of theatre and film roles and in The Bill. He appeared in a documentary, F*** Off, I'm Ginger, on 29 April 2007.

He is a member of the band Brooks Lives, in which he plays the lead and rhythm guitar, and has been since he was in Year 9, when he got his first Squire Stratocaster.

In 2005 Clements appeared in an episode of the UK police drama The Bill, playing Adrian Bickman, a character with high-functioning autism.

Clements quit EastEnders in 2009, commenting that it was "time to move on and take on some new roles". Although the character died during the EastEnders live 25th anniversary episode on 19 February 2010, Clements is credited at the end of the episode on 22 February 2010. The police wanted to question Bradley regarding the death of Archie Mitchell and was attempting to escape when he was spotted by them. The chase led to the rooftop of the Queen Victoria public house and he died after falling from it. A newspaper later revealed that Clements left the soap because he disliked the attention he got from being in such a high-profile television series, although during an appearance on Loose Women in February 2011 he declared that this was totally untrue and said that he simply wanted to move on. Clements admitted that he was worried that he would struggle to find work after such a high-profile role: "I don't know what I'm going to do, it's scary thinking about life after EastEnders, it takes up so much of your life. I guess it's auditions, auditions, auditions for me. I just hope I get work."

Clements played the part of David Filde in a touring production of The Haunting, a play based on a story by Charles Dickens. He said of the role: "I play a young book-dealer who has been sent to a manor house in the middle of the country to catalogue the books of the late Lord Gray, who was the father of Paul Nicholas's character. Then strange noises start happening and books begin to fly off shelves. From there it's a quest to find out what is going on in the house".

From 23 May to 16 June 2012 Clements played the role of Mick in Meredith Oakes's controversial play "Faith" at the Courtyard Theatre in Hoxton, London. In preparation for this role Clements underwent full military training sessions, and was photographed performing drills and exercises in Central London as a part of the publicity for the show.

On 26 October 2013 Clements appeared in Casualty, playing the role of Jake O'Reilly, who gets into trouble after he and his father find a bag of cash in.

Clements also made a cameo in the CBC's Murdoch Mysteries, appearing in season 8 episode 14, "Toronto's Girl Problem".

In March 2015 Charlie is scheduled to appear onstage in Lone Star as Ray with Lunchtime Theatre London.

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


Gareth Roberts will be 56 - 48 credits, including Writer for Closing Time

Gareth Roberts is a British television screenwriter and novelist.

As well as writing for Doctor Who, he helped create the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. 

 

 

 


Bill Sellars (died 2018 aged 93) would be 99 - credited as Director for The Celestial Toymaker

William Sellars was a British television producer, most active from the 1960s to the 1980s. His entire career was spent working on projects for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Of these, All Creatures Great and Small, which he produced for its entire run, was the biggest success. Conversely, his biggest critical failure was likely Triangle, a soap opera set on board a ferry in the North Sea.

He directed the 1966 Doctor Who story The Celestial Toymaker

Sellars' first significant creative work for the BBC was as a director. From 1962-1965, he was periodically assigned to some of the more daring shows of the time, such as the upscale soap,Compact. For this latter programme, He also directed episodes of United! and 199 Park Lane during this period.

After a three-year period as a contract director, Sellars shifted into the role as producer. His first in this role was as Verity Lambert's successor on The Newcomers. From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, he moved through a quick succession of soap operas, including The Doctors and The Brothers. By 1973, he had entered a five-year period of directing shorter-form dramas. Most of these endeavours were, like The Chinese Puzzle and a portion of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, far afield from his usual work in soap opera.

By 1978, however, he found himself back to regular series work. This time, however, he was handed All Creatures Great and Small. Although he would produce other shows in the downtime from All Creatures � such as the poorly received Triangle and the Creatures-clone, One By One � he would work on Creatures until the close of his active career in 1990. Indeed, it was for Creatures that he received his only two significant awards nominations: a BAFTAnomination for Best Drama Series in 1979, and a Primetime Emmy nomination for Best Children's Series in 1990.

Now the second oldest living former director of Dr Who, he remains one of the few surviving links to the early series and to an incomplete classic serial. After finally retiring he settled in Richmond North Yorkshire where for several years he very successfully managed The Georgian Theater Royal in Richmond, the oldest and most complete Georgian theater in the world during which time he produced and directed many shows for local groups, principally the Richmond Amateur Dramatic Society. 

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


William Symon (died 1997 aged 74) would be 101 - 4 credits, including Film Editor for The Time Warrior

Laurence Payne (died 2009 aged 89) would be 105 - 3 credits, including Dastari in The Two Doctors

Laurence Payne was an English actor and novelist.

Laurence Payne was born in London. He attended Belmont school and Tottenham Grammar school, leaving at 16 to take a clerical job. After training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 1939, he was exempted from war service as a conscientious objector on condition that he went on tour with the Old Vic during the war.

Payne made his professional debut at the Old Vic Theatre in 1939 and remained with the company for several years. He then performed at the Chanticleer and Arts theatres in London, also directing and broadcasting for the first times during this period. At Stratford-on-Avon he played, among other parts, Romeo in Peter Brook's 1947 production.

After more work at London theatres, he played leading roles at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic, and after that rejoined the London Old Vic company. At the Embassy Theatre in London he played Hamlet.

His film credits include: The Trollenberg Terror (aka. The Crawling Eye), Vampire Circus, The Tell-Tale Heart and Ben-Hur. His television credits include: Z-Cars, Moonstrike, The Sandbaggers, Airline, Telephone Soup, and Tales of the Unexpected.

He appears in three Doctor Who serials: The Gunfighters, The Leisure Hive and The Two Doctors, playing a different role in each. 

Perhaps his most famous role was as TV's Sexton Blake (1968-71) on ITV in Britain. It was while filming an episode of Sexton Blake, that he lost the sight in his left eye during rehearsal of a sword fighting scene with actor Basil Henson, following a hard sword blow against the side of his head. Peter Moffatt took him straight away to Moorfields Eye Hospital and Payne was told that if he could lay still for a week without moving his head, his retina would join up again so preserving his sight. Instead of doing this, Payne went back to work, got hit in a fist fight, and so lost his sight in that eye.[citation needed]

After retiring from acting, Payne continued to concentrate on writing crime/detective novels (his first novel having been published in 1961). By 1993, he had published 11 novels.


Ann Tirard (died 2003 aged 86) would be 107 - 2 credits, including The Seeker in The Ribos Operation

Anne Tirard appeared in two Doctor Who stories: as Locusta in The Romans and the Seeker in The Ribos Operation.

Also appeared in Devil's Advocate, In Your Eye, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Acumen, The Witches, Omnibus, Wish Me Luck, The Children of Green Knowe, The Chain, Jury, Moonlighting, Oliver Twist, Bergerac, Memoirs of a Survivor, Enemy at the Door, Schalcken the Painter, Tess, Within These Walls, The Upchat Line, Crossroads, Jane Eyre, Hunter's Walk, Upstairs, Downstairs, The Onedin Line, Armchair Theatre, Perfect Friday, Anne of the Thousand Days, Rogues' Gallery, Mord nach der Oper, The Exiles, The Wednesday Play, BBC Play of the Month, Witchfinder General, Angel Pavement, The Saint, The Frozen Dead, The Power Game, Let's Go Out, Drama 61-67, Thursday Theatre, Victoria Regina, The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling, Maupassant, The Plane Makers, The Sword in the Web, Out of This World, Value for Money, The Avengers, The First Gentleman, Boyd Q.C., The Citadel, The Full Treatment, ITV Play of the Week, Emergency-Ward 10, BBC Sunday-Night Theatre, Mother Courage and Her Children, Violent Playground


Bill Fraser (died 1987 aged 79) would be 116 - 2 credits, including General Grugger in Meglos

Bill Fraser was a Scottish actor on the British stage and screen for many years. In 1986 he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for his stage role in the play When We Are Married.

Early life

Fraser was born in Perth, Scotland and educated at Strathallan School. He began his career as a clerk in a bank before moving on to acting. In the early days when acting work was scarce, Fraser was often penniless, frequently sleeping rough on the Embankment at London. Before World War II he ran the Connaught Theatre in Worthing; when called up he served in a Royal Air Force Special Liaison Unit, reaching the rank of Flight Lieutenant, where he met and became friends with Eric Sykes. Just after the war a chance meeting in a London street led to Fraser's giving Sykes his first work as a writer for radio comedy and the two friends worked together many times over the following years. Fraser is also credited with giving Peter Cushing his first acting job.

Career

Fraser often played irascible or belligerent characters on screen and had many roles as a policeman, soldier or judge. His first television appearance was on The Tony Hancock Show in 1956, after which he became a regular actor on Hancock's Half Hour. He then joined The Army Game as Sgt Claude Snudge, which led to a sequel called Bootsie and Snudge. He also played Snudge in the 1964 series Foreign Affairs. Later comedic roles included parts in the TV dramatisation of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ as well as Ripping Yarns, The Train Now Standing, The Corn is Green and Father, Dear Father.

He also appeared in the comedy films The Amorous Milkman and Doctor at Large; the big-screen version of Love Thy Neighbour; and the Frankie Howerd trilogy Up Pompeii!, Up the Front and Up the Chastity Belt.

He had a recurring role on Rumpole of the Bailey as Judge Roger Bullingham, an unsympathetic judge privately nicknamed "the Mad Bull" by defence barrister Horace Rumpole.

Fraser's straight parts included Boanerges in The Apple Cart and Eddie Waters in Comedians, both for the BBC, and appearances on The Professionals and The Avengers. He also starred in the Doctor Who story Meglos in 1980, and appeared in the spin-off show K-9 and Company the following year. In the early 80s he was in two series of a straight drama on BBC1, Flesh and Blood; his performance in its first episode of an industrialist sitting at the bedside of his dying wife was regarded by many as a tour de force.

He appeared as Mr Micawber in the TV dramatisation of David Copperfield in 1966. He played Serjeant Buzzfuzz in the TV musical Pickwick for the BBC in 1969; and his last role was as Mr Casby in the 1988 screened production of Little Dorrit.

Fraser also appeared in an early advertisement for the Austin Metro. In 1985 he was cast as Bert Baxter in The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.

During those periods when Fraser was not acting, he ran a small sweetshop and tobacconists at Ilford Lane in Ilford, Essex.

Bill Fraser played husband to Googie Withers in the Chichester Theatre production of Maugham's, The Circle. It transferred to the West End and played at the Haymarket, and then toured England. The cast included Susan Hampshire and John McCallum (Googie Withers' husband).

Awards

In 1986 he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for his stage role in the play When We Are Married.

Death

He died from emphysema in Hertfordshire, aged 79, leaving a widow, the actress Pamela Cundell, whom he had married in 1981.

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


 Deaths
Caroline John (died 2012 aged 71) - 13 credits, including Liz Shaw in Spearhead From Space

Caroline John was a British actress who played Liz Shaw, the UNIT scientist employed to aid the Third Doctor in his first season.

After training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, she worked in theatre, touring with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre in King Lear, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Merchant of Venice and as Hero in Franco Zeffirelli's production of Much Ado About Nothing.

In 1970 she was cast as Liz Shaw by Derrick Sherwin. However, incoming producer Barry Letts considered her character was unsuitable as she was too much an equal of the Doctor and decided against renewing her contract. 

John reprised the role of Shaw. though, in the anniversary story The Five Doctors (albeit as a fake Shaw) and also appeared as Liz Shaw in the special episode Dimensions In Time (1993), part of the BBC's annual Children in Need appeal. In the 1990s she appeared in a series of straight-to-video releases including The Stranger: Breach of the Peace, and as Liz Shaw in the P.R.O.B.E. stories written by Mark Gatiss and featuring numerous actors from the Doctor Who world.

John was married to Geoffrey Beevers, who played the renegade Time Lord known as The Master in The Keeper of Traken. Beevers appeared with her in the Big Finish audio drama Dust Breeding. They also both had roles in the political thriller A Very British Coup, although they weren't on screen at the same time. Her brother, Nick John, was also an AFM/Location Manager during her time on the show.

Her most recent screen appearances were in the 2003 rom-com film Love Actually (written and directed by Richard Curtis and featuring Bill Nighy as well as Steven Moffat's Doctor Who and The Curse Of Fatal Death Doctors Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Grant) and on TV in the ITV drama series Vital Signs (with Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in 2006 and the BBC daytime drama Doctors (with Malcolm Tierney and Matthew Chambers) in 2008.


Bruce Purchase (died 2008 aged 69) - 2 credits, including Captain in The Pirate Planet

Bruce Purchase was a New Zealand-born actor known for his roles on stage and television. Born in Thames, New Zealand, he won a scholarship to study acting in England, training at RADA, and went on to become a founding actor-member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre. He also performed regularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

His television credits include: Callan, The First Churchills, A Picture of Katherine Mansfield, Doomwatch, Fall of Eagles, I, Claudius, The New Avengers, Doctor Who (in the serial The Pirate Planet), Blake's 7, the ITV serial Quatermass in 1979 and The Tripods.

In 2007, Purchase became seriously ill while touring with a production of The Last Confession. He died of cancer on 5 June 2008 at his home in Putney, London.

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


Michael Barrington (died 1988 aged 63) - credited as Sir Colin Thackeray in The Seeds of Doom

Michael Barrington was a British actor best known for his television work.

He appeared in the Doctor Who story The Seeds of Doom, as Sir Colin Thackeray.

His most famous role was as the ineffectual Governor Venables in the popular sitcom Porridge alongside Ronnie Barker and Fulton Mackay.

He also appeared on the TV programmes Z-Cars, The Avengers, Private Schulz, Adam Adamant Lives!, and in 

He died of a heart attack aged 63