Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 20 September



Terror of the Zygons: Part Four premiered on BBC One in 1975 at 5:22pm BST, watched by 7.20 million viewers.

The Doctor is a Zygon captive. Can he avert the terrible threat that faces London?


The Leisure Hive: Part Four premiered on BBC One in 1980 at 6:15pm BST, watched by 4.50 million viewers.

The Trial of a Time Lord (The Mysterious Planet): Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1986 at 5:47pm BST, watched by 3.90 million viewers.

Battlefield: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1989 at 7:35pm BST, watched by 3.60 million viewers.

Time Heist premiered on BBC One in 2014 at 7:33pm BST, watched by 6.99 million viewers.

A shapeshifter and a cyber-augmented gamer help the Time Lord try to break into a bank where a creature that can detect guilt is the ultimate security.


Doctor Who Extra: Time Heist premiered on BBC Red Button in 2014 at 9:10pm BST

 Birthdays
Mina Anwar will be 55 - 18 credits, including Goodthing in Smile

Mina Anwar born in Church, near AccringtonLancashire,England is a British actress.

Anwar appeared in the second, third, fourth and fifth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, in which she played Gita Chandra, the mother of character Rani Chandra.

Anwar was educated at Accrington Moorhead Sports College, and gained an A level in Theatre in Performance at the Accrington and Rossendale College in 1988 before training at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London.

She played Police Constable Maggie Habib in the sitcom The Thin Blue Line which was shown on BBC 2 from 1995 to 1997.

Other roles include the recurring part of Dr. Sandra Malik in The Bill in 2003 (a serious police drama), and she played Sister Zita Khan in Doctors and Nurses and Selena Sharp in Scoop. She also performed as the storyteller in Razzledazzle on the CBeebies channel.

Anwar appeared as Shazza Karib in the Channel 4 drama Shameless, sister of Kash Karib, and new love of Norma Starkey. She is also in the BBC drama show The Invisibles. Anwar also appeared in Coronation Street as the ex wife of Dev Halahan the corner shop owner. She has also made an appearance in No Angels.

She has also starred in The Infidel as the woman in the black burqa. She is currently playing the part of Trudy Rehmann in theNickelodeon series House of Anubis.

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


Professor Jim Al-Khalili OBE will be 62 - 2 credits, including Self in The Science of Doctor Who(Factual)

Jim Al-Khalili is an Iraqi-born British theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. 

He is currently Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey. He has hosted several BBC productions about science and is a frequent commentator about science in other British media. 


David Haig will be 69 - credited as Pangol in The Leisure Hive

David Haig is an Olivier Award-winning English actor and FIPA Award-winning writer. 

He appeared in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral and had a secondary lead in the BBC television sitcom The Thin Blue Line playing Inspector Grim. In 2002 he played the brother of Four Weddings' co-star Hugh Grant in the romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice, alongside Sandra Bullock. In 2007, 

He is one of only two male actors to have performed an Alan Bennett Talking Heads monologue on television, the other being Bennett himself.

Other TV work includes Blake's 7 episode "Rumours of Death" (1980); Campion story "Sweet Danger" (1990); Inspector Morse episode "Dead On Time" (1992); and Cracker. In the 90s he appeared in the successful TV series Soldier Soldier.

Haig has appeared in several stage productions in London's West End, including Hitchcock Blonde at the Royal Court, Life X 3 at the Savoy Theatre, as the character "Osborne" in R. C. Sherriff's play Journey's End at the Comedy Theatre, and as Mr George Banks in Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre for which he received an Olivier Award nomination.

In 2010 he played the role of Jim Hacker in the stage version of Yes, Prime Minister


John Wiles (died 1999 aged 73) would be 99 - 4 credits, including Producer for The Myth Makers

John Wiles was a television writer and producer, now best known for being the second producer of Doctor Who, succeeding Verity Lambert. 

He was credited as producer on four serials between 1965 and 1966, namely The Myth MakersThe Daleks' Master Plan (which lasted for twelve episodes), The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, and The Ark. Only The Ark and three episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan still survive in the BBC's archives. 

Although Wiles had a good working relationship with story editor Donald Tosh, he found that he was unable to make many changes to the format of the programme. Attempts to make the series darker led to clashes with lead actor William Hartnell, who, as the sole remaining member of the original team, saw himself as the guardian of the show's original values. An attempt to give new companion Dodo Chaplet a Cockney accent was vetoed by Wiles' superiors, who ordered that the regulars must speak "BBC English". With Hartnell increasingly in poor health and hostile to Wiles, the latter sought a way to replace the actor. However, this was again opposed by Wiles' superiors. Wiles also disliked the lengthy The Daleks' Master Plan story which had been commissioned by the previous production team and which proved difficult to realise.

One of his few changes that lasted even a short time was to limit nearly all stories to just four episodes. In early 1966 Wiles resigned in frustration over his inability to steer the show in the direction that he wished, and Tosh resigned in sympathy. The tenure of the next producer, Innes Lloyd, coincided with a change in superiors and, consequently, Lloyd was able to both introduce a character with a Cockney accent (Ben Jackson) and replace Hartnell.

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


Christopher Barry (died 2014 aged 88) would be 99 - 10 credits, including Director for The Daleks

Christopher Barry was a British television director best known for his work on Doctor Who

During his distinguished career, he directed the first Dalek story in 1963 as well as the stories that introduced the Second and Fourth Doctors. He also directed The Dæmons - regarded by many as the best story starring the Third Doctor.

Barry's other television credits included Compact (1962), Paul Temple (1970-1971), Z Cars (1971-1978), Poldark (1975), The Onedin Line (1977), All Creatures Great and Small (1978-1980), Juliet Bravo (1980), Dramarama (1983) and science fiction series Out of the Unknown (1965), Moonbase 3 (1973) and The Tripods (1984).

He appeared in a feature covering his life's work on the DVD release of the Doctor Who story The Creature from the Pit, released in May 2010. He also appeared in The Cult of... The Tripods on BBC Four. He was played by Stewart James Barham in the 50th-anniversary drama An Adventure In Space And Time.

Barry died after falling down an escalator at a shopping centre in Banbury. He was admitted to hospital but died the same day. An inquest is due to be held on 5th June 2014.


Jack Kine (died 2005 aged 83) would be 103 - credited as Visual Effects Designer for The Mind Robber

Jack Kine was a visual effects designer for the 1968 Doctor Who television story The Mind Robber. He was also seen, uncredited, as "the Leader" in the second episode of Inferno.

Kline was the co-founder in 1954 of the BBC Visual Effects Department along with Bernard Wilkie, he worked on many landmark productions, inventing techniques that stood the burgeoning industry in good stead for decades to come. 

Their baptism of fire was 'Running Wild' with Morecambe and Wise in 1954, quickly followed by Rudolph Cartier's epic production '1984'. They learnt fast and quickly: on 'Quatermass II' (1955) the amorphous monster was hurriedly put together after Cartier finished one morning session with the announcement that "after lunch we shoot the creature". 

Although shows were predominantly live, some pre-filming was allowed for 'Quatermass and the Pit' (1958/59), for which Kine designed the hideously plausible Martian creatures. 

Their remit covered every genre including comedy (Dad's Army, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), drama (Z-Cars, Maigret) and education (Blue Peter and Tomorrow's World). They weren't backroom boffins, but an integral part of the studio team, establishing a rapport with cast and crew alike. 

The television Visual Effects Department became the biggest of its kind in the world, with a bevy of talented designers blowing things up with aplomb. BBC bureaucracy would not allow joint heads of department, so Kine became the titular chief, assuming a more administrative role, whilst Wilkie continued on the workshop floor. 

Kine worked on the realisation of the original TARDIS as well as the Daleks.


 Deaths
Mary Ridge (died 2000 aged 75) - credited as Director for Terminus

Mary Ridge was a member of BBC television production staff who served as Associate Producer on The Duchess of Duke Street

She directed episodes of The Wednesday PlayBlake's 7Doctor Who(Terminus in 1983), and Z Cars.



Dennis Spooner (died 1986 aged 53) - 10 credits, including Writer for The Reign Of Terror

Dennis Spooner was an English television screenwriter and story editor, known primarily for his programmes about fictional spies and his work children's television in the 1960s. He had long-lasting professional relationships with a number of other British screenwriters and producers - most notably Brian Clemens, Terry Nation, Monty Berman, and Richard Harris - with whom he shaped several programmes. Though a contributor to BBC programmes, his work also made him one of the most prolific writers of televised output from ITC Entertainment.