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On This Day (USA) - 16 April



The Celestial Toymaker: The Dancing Floor premiered on BBC One in 1966 at 5:49pm BST, watched by 9.40 million viewers.

The Doctor is taunted by the Toymaker as he plays the Trilogic game, and Steven and Dodo play hunt the thimble in a bid to recover the TARDIS key.


Aliens of London premiered on BBC One in 2005 at 7:00pm BST, watched by 7.63 million viewers.

A spaceship crash-lands in the Thames, closing London off and putting the rest of the world on red alert.

Doctor Who Confidential is 7.45pm on BBC3.


I Get a Sidekick out of You premiered on BBC Three in 2005 at 7:45pm BST

This episode goes behind the scenes of Aliens of London

Even a rogue Time Lord needs a a friend. Rose Tyler , the Doctor's current companion, is just the latest in a long line of feisty, glamorous and ear-splitting sidekicks recalled here, who've added yet another dimension to his exploits.


 Birthdays
Anton Thompson McCormick was 32 - credited as Carl in Revenge of the Slitheen(SJA)

Anton Thompson McCormick played Carl and Korst Gogg Thek Lutiven-Day Slitheen in Revenge of the Slitheen.


Lily Loveless was 34 - credited as Ellie in The Curse of Clyde Langer(SJA)

Lily May Loveless is an English actress, best known for her role as Naomi Campbell in the BAFTA award winning drama Skins.

Loveless made her acting debut in the third series of Skins, playing the sexually confused, outspoken political activist teenager Naomi Campbell. She has compared her character to herself as a more extreme version, and has described the more intense scenes, such as sex scenes, as beneficial experiences that help "push" her as an improving actress.

Loveless was a performer in Psychotic Dance Company, a dance group that specialises in street dance fused with other urban dance styles. Loveless received the 2007 Jack Petchey Achievement Award. In June 2007, she performed with the Psychotic Dance Company at the Tottenham Carnival.

In 2010, she played the character of Chloe in the adaptation of Mark Billingham's Sleepyhead. Following this, Loveless secured many roles, including Anna in The Fades penned by former Skins writer, Jack Thorne (playing the role in both the pilot and the following series); Sadie in Sky Living's supernatural drama, Bedlam alongside Theo James, Charlotte Salt and former Skins co-stars Will Young and Hugo Speer; Bex in BBC children's drama Combat Kids; and an appearance as homeless teenage runaway, Ellie, in the final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. She ended 2011 making her film debut in Nirpal Bhogal's Sket playing the part of Hannah. After its premiere at the London Film Festival, the film was released nationwide on 28 October 2011.

She will soon be seen in Nihat Seven's drama Candle to Water, and the BBC drama, Good Cop, written by Stephen Butchard.

Outside film and television, Loveless recently appeared alongside actor Matthew Lewis in the promo video for A Band of Burier's 'Filth' directed by Blake Claridge.

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


Ricco Ross was 64 - credited as Ringmaster in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

Ricco Ross is an American actor.

Ross was born in Chicago, Il. at Cook County Hospital, is the 5th of 8 children with three additional step sisters and another brother from his father and with his first wife. He begin acting in a local high school production. He continued with this development of a new career going to a local Community College where he majored in Theater, moving forward to Florida Atlantic University (FAU) where he received is BA in Theatre, earning a scholarship to UCLA where his career begain to develop. His first TV role was as an extra on the "Young and the Restless", then a small part on the hit series "Hill Street Blues" opening the door for more TV and Movie Roles. He played Private Frost in Aliens, and also appeared in the films Mission Impossible and Fierce Creatures. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he lived and worked in the United Kingdom, leading to guest appearances on Doctor Who ("The Greatest Show in the Galaxy") and Jeeves and Wooster. Ross also co-starred as Nate in the film "Nate and the Colonel". He also played in Charles Bronsons "Death Wish Three", "Spies Like Us" with Dan Akroyd and Chevy Chase, the "Dirty Dozen Next Mission" with Lee Marvin. "Displaced Person" and many more films.

Ross is appearing in various commercials, as well as television shows shown throughout the United States.

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



Derrick Sherwin (died 2018 aged 82) would have been 88 - 9 credits, including Script Editor for The Dominators

Derrick Sherwin was a British television producer, writer, and actor, best remembered as the story editor (1968-69) and later producer (1969-70) of Doctor Who. 

He was script editor on the stories from The Web of Fear to The Mind Robber, and on the latter tale he wrote the first episode. He also wrote the script for The Invasion, which introduced the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, having adapted the original storyline supplied by Kit Pedler.

In 1968/1969 Sherwin began to take a greater role in the producing side of the series and was the unofficial Assistant Producer for the rest of the series' sixth season, with Terrance Dicks succeeding him as script-editor. On The Space Pirates Sherwin briefly resumed his old role as Dicks was busy writing The War Games. Sherwin then succeeded Peter Bryant as producer of the programme in 1969, overseeing the production of The War Games and Spearhead from Space as well as casting Jon Pertwee in the lead role on the programme. He also made a small on-screen appearance as a car park attendant in Spearhead from Space - he had formerly been an actor and was still a member of the actors' union, and dismissed the actor originally cast in the part for not being able to perform the role adequately.

After Doctor Who, Sherwin was the producer on Paul Temple, The Man Outside (1972), Ski-Boy (1973), and The Perils of Pendragon (1974). Derrick Sherwin now lives in New Zealand and owns Big D Productions.


Godfrey James (died 2019 aged 88) would have been 93 - credited as Tarn in Underworld

Godfrey James is an English actor.

His film appearances include: Witchfinder General, Blood on Satan's Claw, The Oblong Box, The Land That Time Forgot, S�ance on a Wet Afternoon and At the Earth's Core.

Television credits include: The Avengers, Dixon of Dock Green, Department S, Z-Cars, UFO, The Onedin Line, Space: 1999, The Lotus Eaters, The Carnforth Practice, The Sweeney, Doctor Who (in the serial Underworld), Return of the Saint, The Aphrodite Inheritance, The Standard, Minder, The Professionals, Bergerac, The Dark Side of the Sun, The Bill, Dempsey & Makepeace, Emmerdale Farm, A Very Peculiar Practice, and Crime Traveller.


Martin Boddey (died 1975 aged 68) would have been 117 - credited as Walker in The Sea Devils

Martin Boddey  was a British film and television actor.

He played Walker in the 1972 story The Sea Devils.

He was a founder member of the Lord's Taverners charity.


 Deaths
Helen McCrory (died 2021 aged 52) - credited as Rosanna in The Vampires of Venice

Helen McCrory is a British actress. 

She portrayed Cherie Blair in both the 2006 film The Queen and the 2010 film The Special Relationship. She also portrayed Narcissa Malfoy in the final three Harry Potter films. In 2011, she starred in Martin Scorsese's family mystery film Hugo as Mama Jeanne.

McCrory was born in London. Her mother, Anne (n�e Morgans) is Welsh, and her father, Iain McCrory, is a Glasgow-born Scottish diplomat. She is the eldest of three siblings and was educated at Queenswood, a Hertfordshire boarding school, before spending a year living in Italy, and after returning to England, she began studying acting at Drama Centre London.

She appeared in Charles II: The Power and The Passion (2003), as Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, and in supporting roles in such films as Interview with the Vampire (1994), Charlotte Gray (2001), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), and Casanova (2005). In The Queen (2006) she played Cherie Blair, a role she reprised in Peter Morgan's follow up, The Special Relationship.

She appeared in a modernised TV adaptation of Frankenstein's Monster, simply called Frankenstein. Her first pregnancy forced her to pull out of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), in which she had been cast as Bellatrix Lestrange. (She was replaced by Helena Bonham Carter.) However, McCrory later played Bellatrix's sister Narcissa Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, released in July 2009. McCrory also reprised her role in the final movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows � Part 1 and Part 2.

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


Frank Wylie (died 1994 aged 58) - credited as Ruther in Castrovalva

Actor active from 1959-1992

Had roles in The Camerons, Sutherlands Law and The Fortunes of Nigel