Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 8 November



Pyramids of Mars: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1975 at 5:46pm GMT, watched by 9.40 million viewers.

As part of a plan to release Sutekh, the mummies are building a rocket to fire at the pyramid on Mars. The Doctor is resolved to destroy the rocket but is Sutekh's will too strong?


Full Circle: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1980 at 5:42pm GMT, watched by 5.90 million viewers.

The Trial of a Time Lord (Terror of the Vervoids): Part Ten premiered on BBC One in 1986 at 5:45pm GMT, watched by 4.60 million viewers.

The Curse of Fenric: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1989 at 7:34pm GMT, watched by 4.00 million viewers.

Lost in Time: Episode One premiered on CBBC in 2010 at 5:17pm GMT, watched by 0.98 million viewers.

Sarah Jane's Alien Files: Episode 5 premiered on CBBC in 2010 at 5:45pm GMT
Sarah Jane Smith and the gang open the Alien Files - the ultimate guide to everything you could possibly need to know when facing hostile aliens. Clyde has the lowdown on the all-controlling Berserkers and the alien truth behind the world's most famous painting - the Mona Lisa.

Celebrity Antiques Road Trip (8 Nov 13) premiered on BBC2 in 2013 at 7:00pm GMT, watched by 1.43 million viewers.
Former Doctor Who stars Colin Baker and Peter Purves take part in the challenge, with Will Axon and James Braxton offering expert advice as they travel around Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

Sound of Cinema: The Fourth Dimension premiered on BBC Radio 3 in 2014 at 4:00pm GMT
Matthew Sweet profiles scores for films inspired by notions of time, space and travel prompted by Christopher Nolan's new film "Interstellar".

The programme includes music by Bill McGuffie from "Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD"; by David Arnold from "Stargate"; by Alan Silvestri from "Back to the Future"; Miklos Rozsa from "Time After Time"; John Barry from "Somewhere In Time"; Nathan Johnson from "Looper"; and by Michael Andrews from "Donnie Darko". The classic score of the week is Russell Garcia's score for the 1960 version of "The Time Machine".

Death in Heaven premiered on BBC One in 2014 at 8:02pm GMT, watched by 7.60 million viewers.

Missy is still causing trouble and some of the Doctor's oldest foes are terrorising London.


Doctor Who Extra: Death In Heaven premiered on BBC Red Button in 2014 at 8:55pm GMT

Death in Heaven premiered on BBC America in 2014 at 9:00pm EST, watched by 1.10 million viewers.

With Cybermen on the streets of London, old friends unite against old enemies and the Doctor takes to the air in a startling new role. Can the mighty UNIT contain Missy? As the Doctor faces his greatest challenge, sacrifices must be made.


 Birthdays
Richard Curtis will be 68 - 3 credits, including Writer for Vincent and the Doctor

Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born English screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. He is also the co-founder of the British charity Comic Relief with Lenny Henry.

His first work in the Doctor Who franchise was as the executive producer of the official BBC parody, Doctor Who and The Curse Of Fatal Death

Steven Moffat once credited Curtis with inviting him to write the spoof, Moffat's first televised work for Doctor Who, and suggested that he was "returning the favour" by commissioning Curtis to write the 2010 story Vincent and the Doctor.


Nerys Hughes will be 83 - 5 credits, including Todd in Kinda

Nerys Hughes , is a Welsh actress, best known for playing Sandra Hutchinson in the  BBC TV series The Liver Birds which ran from 1969 to 1978.

Born in Rhyl, (then in Flintshire, now in Denbighshire), She studied drama at Rose Bruford College. 

She played the eponymous lead in The District Nurse, a series which was written for her, and won the Variety Club Television Actress of the Year Award.

In the theatre she has appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the English Stage Company at the Royal Court and The Theatre of Comedy.

She guest starred in the Doctor Who story Kinda (1982) as the scientist Todd, alongside notable actors Peter Davison, Richard Todd and Simon Rouse. She also appeared in the Torchwood episode, Something Borrowed as Brenda Williams. 

She is also known for her role as Glenda in The Queen's Nose (1998-2000). Half Man Half Biscuit immortalised her in the song "I Hate Nerys Hughes (From The Heart)" from the album Back in the D.H.S.S..

She is married to cameraman, director and producer Pat Turley (whose best man was Peter Purves); they have a son Ben (also a cameraman) and daughter Mari-Claire (an actress).


Meg Wynn-Owen (died 2022 aged 82) would be 85 - credited as Old Isabella in A Christmas Carol

Meg Wynn Owen is a Welsh actress, who is best known for her role as Hazel Bellamy in the television series Upstairs, Downstairs.

She appeared in the 2010 Christmas Special, A Christmas Carol.

She has also appeared in the films Gosford Park, Love Actually, Pride & Prejudice, and Irina Palm.

She has worked with Nicola Pagett (who also appeared in Upstairs, Downstairs) in A Woman of Substance.

She was married to William Wright (1967- 1987).

 


Malcolm Taylor (died 2012 aged 74) would be 87 - credited as Walters in The Ice Warriors

Actor who appeared in the 1967 story The Ice Warriors.

After a career as an actor who moved into Directing, working on programmes such as EastEnders.


Lennie Mayne (died 1977 aged 49) would be 97 - 4 credits, including Director for The Monster of Peladon

Lennie Mayne was born in Sydney, Australia, his Welsh mother and Yorkshire father having emigrated there some years earlier. Initially training as an electrician, he switched to ballet dancing and choreography; then in 1953 he immigrated to London, where he successfully auditioned as a dancer for Guys and Dolls. He later moved into directing, working on many BBC series and serials in the 1960s and 1970s, including The First LadyThe Troubleshooters,DoomwatchWarshipThe BrothersSoftly, Softly: Taskforce and The Onedin Line.

He was married to the actress Frances Pidgeon, who was cast as a lady-in-waiting in The Monster of Peladon before portraying Miss Jackson in The Hand Of Fear. His own involvement with Doctor Who came through his friendship with fellow Australian Dudley Simpson, who he knew from his days in the ballet.

He was a keen fisherman (and regularly fished with friend Bernard Cribbins), and also an excellent sailor (something which he introduced and shared with fellow director Andrew Morgan): one of his favourite shows to work on was the nautical-themed The Onedin Line.

He was unfortunately lost at sea in a boating accident and presumed drowned in 1977.


Ken Dodd (died 2018 aged 90) would be 97 - credited as Tollmaster in Delta and the Bannermen

Sir Ken Dodd OBE  was a British comedian and singer-songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or "fluff dom" and buck teeth or "denchers", his favourite cleaner, the feather duster (or "tickling stick") and his greeting of "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off "Lots and Lots of Happiness!". He works mainly in the music hall tradition, although, in the past, has occasionally appeared in drama, including as Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on stage in Liverpool in 1971; on television in the cameo role of 'The Tollmaster' in the 1987 Doctor Who story Delta and the Bannermen; and as Yorick (in silent flashback) in Kenneth Branagh's film version of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 1996. In the 1960s his fame was such that he rivalled The Beatles as a household name.

Dodd's stand-up comedy style is fast and relies on the rapid delivery of one-liner jokes. He has claimed that his comic influences include other Liverpool comedians like Arthur Askey, Robb Wilton, Tommy Handley and the "cheeky chappy" from Brighton Max Miller. He intersperses the comedy with occasional songs, both serious and humorous, in an incongruously fine light baritone voice.

Dodd has had many recording hits, charting on nineteen occasions in the UK Top 40, including his first single "Love Is Like a Violin" (1960), produced on Decca Records by Alex Wharton, which charted at number 8 (UK), and his song "Tears" (Columbia), which topped the UK charts for five weeks in 1965, selling over a million copies. At the time it was the UK's biggest selling single by a solo artist, and remains one of the UK's biggest selling singles of all time. Dodd was selected to perform the song on A Jubilee Of Music on BBC One on December 31, 1976, a celebration of the key pop successes of Queen Elizabeth II's first twenty-five years as UK monarch.

Dodd is renowned for the length of his performances, and during the 1960s he earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's longest ever joke-telling session: 1,500 jokes in three and a half hours (7.14 jokes per minute), undertaken at a Liverpool theatre, where audiences were observed to enter the show in shifts. More recently, Ken Dodd appeared at the Royal Variety Performance in 2006 in front of Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, where he reprised some of his famous jokes, including those about tax accountants as well as singing his famous song "Happiness".

He was knighted in the 2017 Honours list.

The entertainer died at home in Knotty Ash on 11th March, having married his long term partner of 40 years, Anne Jones, the previous Friday.

His publicist Robert Holmes said:

To my mind, he was one of the last music hall greats. He passed away in the home that he was born in over 90 years ago. He's never lived anywhere else. It's absolutely amazing.

 

 

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


 Deaths
Roger Hammond (died 2012 aged 76) - 4 credits, including Doctor Runciman in Mawdryn Undead

Roger Hammond was an English character actor who had appeared in many films and television series.

He appeared in two Doctor Who stories: as Francis Bacon in  The Chase and Dr. Runciman in  Mawdryn Undead. 

He also portrayed Harold Withers in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio story BFA: The Eternal Summer.

Hammond's credits includes the Prince of Wales in The Duchess of Duke Street, Valence in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, and Cecil in A Good Woman. Hammond has also been cast as a clergyman several times, including as the Archbishop in Ian McKellen's Richard III, the Bishop de Cambrai in The Princes in the Tower, and as the Chief Augur in the HBO television drama Rome.