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On This Day (USA) - 13 March



The Web Planet: Invasion premiered on BBC One in 1965 at 5:40pm GMT, watched by 12.00 million viewers.

Barbara and a few of the Menoptra hide in an ancient temple. The Doctor and Vicki escape the Carsinome and join forces with Barbara's group who are preparing to attack the Animus.


The Claws of Axos: Episode One premiered on BBC One in 1971 at 5:15pm BST, watched by 7.30 million viewers.

Axos lands on Earth. The Axons ask only to be allowed to repair their damaged ship and offer the gift of the miraculous Axonite in return. But the Axons aren't all that they seem.


Torchwood Declassified Series Two: Episode 9 premiered on BBC2 in 2008 at 7:46pm GMT, watched by 0.73 million viewers.

From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love premiered on BBC One in 2009 at 7:25pm GMT

Mastermind: Red Nose Day Special 2009 premiered on BBC One in 2009 at 7:31pm GMT

 Birthdays
Steve McGuire was 43 - credited as Special Guest in Never Mind the Buzzcocks(Related)

Stephen Maguire is a Scottish professional snooker player.



Michael Walker was 83 - 2 credits, including 1st Radar Operator in The Claws of Axos

Michael Walker appeared in two Doctor Who stories: as Harry in The Claws of Axos and Miseus in The Time Monster.

Also worked on JerichoHarry Enfield's Television ProgrammeHowards' WayCold WarriorTerry and JuneThe Onedin LineThe Famous History of the Life of King Henry the EightTargetCrossroadsDead Giveaway


Christopher Gable (died 1998 aged 58) would have been 84 - credited as Sharaz Jek in The Caves of Androzani

Christopher GableCBE was an English ballet dancerchoreographer, and actor.

He played anti-hero Sharaz Jek in the 1984 Doctor Who serial The Caves of Androzani

Born in London, Gable studied at the Royal Ballet School, joining the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet in 1957. He was promoted to soloist in 1959 and a principal in 1961.

Gable's roles included Romeo in the Kenneth MacMillan production of Romeo and JulietMercury in Offenbach's comic operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, a production that was filmed and released on DVD. and Colas in La fille mal gardée. Gable frequently partnered with Lynn Seymour.

Gable suffered from a chronic rheumatoid condition in his feet  and left the Royal Ballet in 1967 to pursue a career in acting. He appeared in a number of television and film productions directed by Ken Russell, including the BBC films Song of Summer (1968) and The Dance of the Seven Veils (1970), The Music Lovers (1970), an adaptation of The Boy Friend (1971), and The Rainbow (1989). Other roles included that of John, valet and friend of Prince Edward, in the Cinderella film musical The Slipper and the Rose, the composer Peter Cornelius in Wagner (1983). He also appeared on stage in the 1974 West End musical The Good Companions.

In 1982, Gable founded the Central School of Ballet with Ann Stannard. Five years later he was appointed Artistic Director of Northern Ballet Theatre. He transformed the small regional troupe into a company of national renown by presenting imaginative new works and staging impressive revivals of old classics. Among the productions mounted during his eleven-year regime were Swan LakeA Christmas CarolThe BrontesThe Amazing Adventure of Don QuixoteDraculaGiselle, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Many of the projects he created later were performed by other dance companies, including the Atlanta Ballet and the Royal New Zealand Ballet. He played Arthur Ainsley in the 1984 tv British mini series A Woman of Substance.

In 1996 Gable was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to British Dance. The following year he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Bradford.

Gable was married to dancer Carole Needham. He died from cancer in Yorkshire at the age of 58.

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


David McKail (died 2021 aged 83) would have been 86 - credited as Sergeant Kyle in The Talons of Weng-Chiang

Actor who has appeared in many British Film and TV productions.

Appeared in the 1977 story The Talons of Weng-Chiang


George Pastell (died 1976 aged 53) would have been 101 - credited as Eric Klieg in The Tomb of the Cybermen

George Pastell was a Cypriot character actor in British films and television programmes. 

He made his film debut in Give Us This Day (1949), under his real name of Nino Pastellides, and went onto carve out a career as villains in film and television. Although Greek, he was often cast by Hammer Film Productions as Eastern characters such as Mehemet Bey in The Mummy (1959); the High Priest of Kali in The Stranglers of Bombay (1960); and Hashmi Bey in The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964).

His exotic looks often saw him cast in spy movies of the sixties such as From Russia with Love (1963); Licensed to Kill (1965); A Man Could Get Killed (1966); That Riviera Touch (1966); andDeadlier Than the Male (1967).

As well as these film roles he could also be seen as the villain in numerous television series of the sixties including Danger ManThe AvengersDoctor WhoThe ChampionsThe Saint; and Department S.


Olaf Pooley (died 2015 aged 101) would have been 110 - credited as Professor Stahlman in Inferno

Olaf Pooley was a British actor and writer born in Parkstone, Poole, Dorset, England.

Pooley wrote and appeared in the film The Corpse (released in the United States as Crucible of Horror), starring Michael Gough, and wrote, directed and appeared in The Johnstown Monster. He also wrote the screenplay for a film version of Bernard Taylor's The Godsend, which was directed by his future wife Gabrielle Beaumont. Pooley's other writing credits include the 1982 TV film Falcon's Gold and being an uncredited writer on the 1985 sci-fi horror movie Lifeforce.

Pooley's TV guest appearances since the 1950s include Dixon of Dock Green, Paul Temple, Jason King, MacGyver and Star Trek: Voyager

He played Professor Stahlman and his parallel Earth counterpart Director Stahlmann in the Doctor Who serial Inferno (1970). 

He played Lars Torvik in the first episode of The Sandbaggers, entitled First Principles (1978).

His other appearances include the 1958 BBC radio play Ambrose In Paris and Sebastian in a 1956 film production of The Tempest. Pooley had a major career in West End theatre appearing in such notable productions such as Noél Coward's Peace In Our Time and Shakespeare's The Tempest and Othello.

He is also notable as being one of a handful of actors to appear in both the Star Trek and Doctor Who franchises. 

Pooley lived in Southern California where he was become a respected artist both in the US and overseas.


Adam Dawson (died 2010 aged 96) would have been 111 - credited as Film Editor for Spearhead From Space

Adam Dawson was film editor for the 1970 Doctor Who story Spearhead from Space.


 Deaths
Peter Day (died 2023 aged 95) - 10 credits, including Visual Effects Designer for The Monster of Peladon

Peter Day was the visual effects designer on many Doctor Who stories, from The Evil of the Daleks to The Sunmakers.

Also worked on Running BlindWingsThe GoodiesSurvivorsGoodies Rule - O.K.?Dad's ArmySome Mothers Do 'Ave 'EmThe Stone TapeOut of the UnknownDoomwatchThursday TheatrePlay for TodayDad's ArmyQuatermass and the Pit


Adrienne Corri (died 2016 aged 85) - credited as Mena in The Leisure Hive

Adrienne Corri  is a Scottish-born actress of Italian parentage.

Despite having significant roles in many films, Adrienne Corri is likely to be remembered for one of her smaller parts, that of Mrs. Alexander, the wife of the writer Frank Alexander, in the 1971Stanley Kubrick dystopian film A Clockwork Orange. Though not the originally cast for this role, she was brought in after the first actress left. Clad in an eye catching bright red pajama suit, she answers the door to the hero of the film, Alex de Large, and in a scene redolent with black humor and violence is forcibly stripped and gang raped, Corri being thrust center stage in a exuberant quasi-theatrical spectacle, as Alex accompanies the stripping with a joyful rendition of 'Singing in the Rain'. Though the scene lasts barely three minutes and Corri's dialog is confined to some initial preliminaries, the nature of the scene and the manner of its presentation make it perhaps the most memorable scene in the entire film. Corri appeared in many excellent films, notably as Valerie in Jean Renoir's The River (1951), as Lara's mother in David Lean's Dr. Zhivago (1965) and in the Otto Preminger thriller Bunny Lake is missing . She also appeared in a number of horror and suspense films from the 1950s until the 1970s including Devil Girl from MarsThe Tell-Tale HeartA Study in Terror and Vampire Circus. She also appeared as Therese Duval in Revenge of the Pink Panther. The range and versatility of her acting is shown by appearances in such diverse productions as the 1969 science fiction movieMoon Zero Two where she played opposite the ever dependable character actor Sam Kyd (Len the barman), and again in 1969, in Twelfth Night, directed by John Sichel, as the Countess Olivia, where she played opposite Alec Guinness (Malvolio).

Her numerous television credits include Angelica in Sword of Freedom (1958), Yolanda in The Invisible Man tv series episode "Crisis in the Desert", a regular role in A Family At War and You're Only Young Twice, a 1971 television play by Jack Trevor Story, as Mena in the Doctor Who story "The Leisure Hive" and guest starred as the mariticidal Liz Newton in the UFO episode "The Square Triangle". In 1979 she returned to Shakespeare when she appeared in the BBC Shakespeare production of Measure for Measure, as the earthy, cheroot smoking keeper of a bawdy house, Mistress Overdone.

She had a major stage career, appearing regularly both in London and in the the provincial theaters. There is a story that, when the audience booed on the first night of John Osborne's The World Of Paul Slickey, Corri responded with her own abuse: she raised two fingers to the audience and shouted "Go fuck yourselves"[1] . Note that Billington only repeats the story, without confirming or providing any evidence of its truth. During the making of Moon Two Zero, she poured a glass of iced water inside James Olson's rubber space suit, in which uncomfortable state he was obliged to wear it for the remained of the day's shooting[2] .

She is the author of The Search for Gainsborough, a book written in diary form detailing her efforts to establish the provenance of a painting she believes to be by Gainsborough. It displays her wit and erudition, and her feisty character shines through the pages, as well as providing the reader with a fund of anecdotes regarding the actress herself. She was acquainted with many of the leading figures in the British theater, including Joe Orton, and he recounts in his dairies how he asked her advice on how best to end his relationship with his lover Kenneth Halliwell[3] . She enjoyed a good relationship with Stanley Kubrick, who joked with her that in the surprise visit sequence in A Clockwork Orange, where the two droogs, Alex and Dim, engage in a stylized display of libidinal excess, swinging her across the shoulders of Dim who marches gaily around the room, while Alex engages in a joyful rendition of 'Singing in the rain', skipping and dancing and swinging his cane until he approaches her, trousers around his ankles to commence the rape, she was cast in the "the Debbie Reynold's part"[4] . After finishing filming A Clockwork Orange, she kept in touch with Stanley Kubrick, who complained to her about the problem he had of losing socks whenever he did the washing, so for Christmas she gave him a pair of bright red socks, a wry comment on his domestic concerns and simultaneously a humorous reference to her now famous scene in A Clockwork Orange, where after Alex had finished snipping off her red pajama suit, she was naked except for a pair of red socks[5] .

Corri has married and divorced twice, to the actors Daniel Massey (1961-1967) and Derek Fowlds.

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


Ronald Fraser (died 1997 aged 66) - credited as Joseph C. in The Happiness Patrol

Ronald Fraser was an English character actor, who appeared in numerous British plays, films and television shows from the 1950s to the 1990s. He was perhaps best known as Basil "Badger" Allenby-Johnson in the 1970s television series The Misfit.

He played Joseph C in the 1986 story The Happiness Patrol.

Ronald Fraser was born in Ashton-under-LyneLancashire, the son of an interior decorator and builder from Scotland. He attended Ashton Grammar School. He was educated in Scotland and did national service as a lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders. While serving in Benghazi in North Africa, he appeared in the comic play French Without Tears by Terence Rattigan. He trained as an actor at RADA until 1953 and soon appeared at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre. He joined the Old Vic repertory company in 1954, making his first London appearance in The Good Sailor, a stage adaptation of Herman Melville's novel, Billy Budd.

In the West End, he appeared in The Long and the Short and the TallThe Ginger ManThe Singular ManAndrocles and the LionThe Showing Up of Blanco PosnetPurple Dust by Seán O'CaseyEntertaining Mr SloaneJoseph Papp's production of The Pirates of Penzance and High Society. He also played Falstaff in a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. His only Broadway show was the flop La Grosse Valise byRobert DhéryGérard Calvi and Harold Rome.

He appeared in nearly 50 films and numerous television roles, mostly comedies