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On This Day (USA) - 2 March



The Web of Fear: Episode 5 premiered on BBC One in 1968 at 5:24pm BST, watched by 8.00 million viewers.

Using Travers's body, the Great Intelligence demands that the Doctor allows his mind to be drained. Victoria is taken hostage and the Doctor has just 20 minutes to decide her fate.


Death to the Daleks: Part Two premiered on BBC One in 1974 at 5:29pm GMT, watched by 9.50 million viewers.

The Daleks' weaponry is rendered useless by the power drain and they are forced to make a truce with the Doctor and the members of the expedition from Earth.


Black Orchid: Part Two premiered on BBC One (Not Wales) in 1982 at 7:04pm GMT, watched by 10.10 million viewers.

Enlightenment: Part Two premiered on BBC One in 1983 at 6:45pm GMT, watched by 7.20 million viewers.

Planet of Fire: Part Four premiered on BBC One in 1984 at 6:41pm GMT, watched by 7.00 million viewers.

The Two Doctors: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1985 at 5:23pm GMT, watched by 6.90 million viewers.

Starring Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton
A three-part story by Robert Holmes
With the two Doctors held by Dastari, a question of food arises
CEEFAX SUBTITLES


 Birthdays
Jocelyn Jee Esien was 45 - 3 credits, including Carla Langer in The Mark of the Berserker(SJA)

Jocelyn Jee Esien attended Raine's Foundation School, and initially studied law before giving up to study drama, graduating from Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She came to prominence in the BBC hidden camera show 3 Non Blondes, having also appeared in other television series such as The Fast Show and The Bill. In 2006 she wrote and starred in her own comedy sketch show called Little Miss Jocelyn, a second series of which aired in January 2008. This show marks the first time in the history of television � in either the US or the UK � that a black woman has been given her own solo comedy sketch show.

In 2000, Esien won the Best Newcomer award at the Black International Comedy Awards, and she won a New Talent Award in the Women in Film and Television Awards 2006.


Alexander Armstrong was 54 - 35 credits, including Mr Smith in The Stolen Earth / Journey's End

Alexander Armstrong is is a British comedian, actor and television presenter.

He co-starred in four series of Armstrong and Miller from 1997 to 2001 alongside his university contemporary Ben Miller. He played David Cameron in the satirical fictional documentary The Trial of Tony Blair and a sex-addicted guest in Hotel Babylon in 2007. He appeared in the 2007 Christmas Special of the classic BBC sitcom To the Manor Born playing Adam fforbes-Hamilton, the nephew of Audrey DeVere. He has provided the voice of Mr Smith, an alien computer, in The Sarah Jane Adventures since the series began in 2007, and also in Doctor Who's 2011 Christmas Special, The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.

He currently hosts the BBC daily Quiz show Pointless. In September 2014 it was announced that he would become the new voice of the eponymous Dangermouse in a new series of 52 episodes for CBBC, taking on the role originally voiced by Sir David Jason.


Michael Troughton was 69 - 7 credits, including Professor Albert in Last Christmas

Michael Troughton is an English actor, writer and teacher, and is the son of second Doctor Patrick Troughton and younger brother of David Troughton.

Perhaps his best known role on television is as Sir Piers Fletcher-Dervish, foil to Ric Mayall's Alan B'Stard in The New Statesman. He also appeared as Melish in Minder, and in a number of dramatic roles throughout the 20th Century including A Moment in Time, Blake's 7, The Member for Chelsea, Woof!, Get Well Soon, Retrace, and Micawber.

During the 2000s he took a break from acting to care for his wife, Caroline, during which he graduated with a science degree from the Open University and took up a teaching role at St John Leman School in Beccles, later becoming Head of Drama at Woodbridge School. After his wife passed away in 2012, he returned to acting, appearing in the ITV series Breathless and in the 2014 series of Jonathan Creek.

Unlike his brother, Michael had never appeared in Doctor Who until the 2014 Christmas Special; however, he played the character Quendril in the Big Finish audio The Lost Stories: Lords of the Red Planet, and in 2011 released a biography of his father.


George Layton was 81 - 4 credits, including Technician Penn in The Space Pirates

George Layton is an English actor, director, screenwriter and author. He was educated at Belle Vue Boys' Grammar School in Bradford and later studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts where he won the Emile Littler award. He went on to leading parts at Coventry and Nottingham and appeared on Broadway in Chips with Everything. He also appeared in an Australian production called Funny Peculiar.

He is best known for two television roles: that of Junior Dr Paul Collier in the comedy series Doctor in the House and its first two sequels Doctor at Large and Doctor in Charge, and that of Bombardier 'Solly' Solomons in the first two series of It Ain't Half Hot Mum.


Hugh Walters (died 2015 aged 75) would have been 85 - 3 credits, including Commentator Runcible in The Deadly Assassin

As well as appearing in three Doctor Who stories during its classic era, Hugh Walters also played the character of Vic Thatcher in the 1970s version of the BBC TV series Survivors, which was created by Terry Nation and produced by Terence Dudley.


Henry Stamper (died 2009 aged 71) would have been 87 - credited as Anton in The Enemy of the World

HARRY Stamper was an Edinburgh-born actor whose unique skill was his uncanny mastery of regional dialects, his repertoire extending far beyond his native Scotland.

Stamper, whose most successful work was performed in the 1970s, was master of almost the entire range of British dialects, be they Manchester north or Manchester south, Liverpool posh or Liverpool Irish, all delivered with a golden voice that accurately coloured every vowel and consonant.

It was a lifetime obsession. He would dismantle every dialect and intellectualise its structure and might, for example, offer friends informed discourses on the many minute variations of the word "hut" in various parts of Britain.

With Stamper, mimicry wasn't so much an art as a science, and it was a science he had mastered as few others in recent Scottish theatre

On one occasion he performed 56 separate voices in a single radio play, They Came to Britain, an achievement that earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

During his most productive era he played usually small television roles in such classics as Dr Who, The Avengers, Z cars, The Saint, Softly Softly and The Wednesday Play.

He also performed in an even greater number of radio plays, which many saw as his forte, for although he was good looking his greatest talent lay in his voice, and radio was his best medium.

Perhaps his most notable stage appearance was at the 1977 Edinburgh Festival fringe, when he did a portrayal of Hugh MacDiarmid so accurate that even the usually thrawn MacDiarmid grudgingly admitted he had felt he was watching a younger version of himself. The play won Stamper a Fringe first, a greatly increased fan base and a lasting closeness to MacDiarmid.

He also wrote screenplays and produced a series of CDs of his own short stories.

Stamper's background was financially poor though culturally rich.

His father, a Geordie soldier, left his wife, Mary, and their four sons when Harry was still a baby and for the first 12 years of his life the family were to live in a single end in Hutchison, with Mary working as a nanny in Morningside and other wealthier parts of the city.

In the evenings Mary would sometimes settle her lively brood by doing hilarious impersonations of her employers and diverse others she had encountered during her day, and the young Harry was entranced and soon mimicking the mimic.

At night Mary would sleep on a couch in the front room while her four sons shared two beds, though they would all be up early doing paper rounds and any casual jobs available to make ends meet. Stamper's many tasks included working as a butcher's boy and several paper rounds.

Soon Stamper was apprenticed to a furniture maker, Martin's, in George Street, but he wasn't content and his passion lay with his hobby as a performer in amateur dramatic groups around town, for he had inherited his mother's skill as an impersonator.

Finally he got his break. A more senior member of one of his drama clubs had been asked to audition for Radio Scotland and had asked Stamper to "chum" him along and sit in the waiting room to give him courage. An assistant producer mistook the waiting Stamper for a youngster who had been called for another audition and he seized his chance, pretended he was the other candidate and landed the part.

His subsequent career was largely one of intensely focused effort on various small roles, the drudgery made tolerable by intermittent glory. He travelled the world in search of theatre work, particularly to Canada, and when he wasn't acting would fill in doing causal jobs or lecturing in drama.

Such a lifestyle wasn't easy for one so hugely talented and passionate about his calling and he sometimes sought solace through drink.

On such occasions a darker side would sometimes emerge, though many attributed this to his understandable frustration.

His private life was less fraught. He enjoyed supportive and stable relationships within his family and in 1968 became happily married to Helen Redmond, daughter of the renowned film actor Liam, though they divorced amicably around ten years later.

In middle age he was to partner Betty Huntly Wright in a successful relationship which ended only at her death in 1991, a loss from which he never fully recovered.

Stamper's latter days were not his best. He would become profoundly depressed and several of his latter stage performance were more expansive than the plays' authors might have wished.

Details from the Scotsman Obituary by Maxwell Macleod, 18 Feb 2009


Stephen Thorne (died 2019 aged 84) would have been 89 - 9 credits, including Omega in The Three Doctors

Stephen Thorne was a British actor of radio, film, stage and television.

He trained at the RADA (where he also met his future wife Barbara Sykes) and after a time in weekly rep. he played several seasons with the Old Vic Company and the RSC in Stratford and London including a tour to Russia. He has worked extensively in radio with over 2000 broadcasts for the BBC including Uncle Mort in theRadio 4 comedy series by Peter Tinniswood. His television credits include Z CarsCrossroads and Doctor Who

In Doctor Who he has played three major villains (Omega, Azal and Eldrad), as well as an Ogron. On radio he appeared in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings playing the voice of Treebeard, and also in their adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! in which he portrayed Fred Colon (and also Death). He is also renowned for audio book narration.

Other television work included Death of an Expert WitnessDavid Copperfield and Last of the Summer Wine. His was the voice of Aslan in the animated version of The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe IMDB. (Thorne reprised the character on the BBC radio adaptation of the same name.) He has given many poetry readings on radio, television and tape and in venues from Westminster Abbey to various pubs.

He recorded over 300 un-abridged audiobooks which have earned critical acclaim in both the UK and the USA. Awards include a Talkies Award 1996 for Enigma by Robert Harris and several Golden Earphones Awards from Audiofile Magazine

He is survived by his wife Barbara and their two sons, Simon and Crispian.


Bernard Price (died 2000 aged 74) would have been 99 - credited as (extra) in The Talons of Weng-Chiang

 Deaths
Anthony Lang (died 1992) - 4 credits, including Egyptian Slave in The Daleks' Master Plan

Anthony Lang played a number of minor roles in television series, which as well as Doctor Who included Dad's Army. He also played Noel Bastable in 1953's The Story of the Treasure Seekers and Roger Holliday in 1954's Happy Holidays.


John Bryans (died 1989) - credited as Torvin in The Creature from the Pit

As well as The Creature From The Pit, John Bryans appeared as the recurring character Bercol in the first two series of Blake's 7 (and also as torturer Shrinker in series three).