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On This Day (USA) - 28 April



Planet of the Daleks: Episode Four premiered on BBC One in 1973 at 5:51pm BST, watched by 8.30 million viewers.

The Doctor and the Thals escape from the Dalek city and the Doctor is delighted to find Jo is alive. But the Daleks are preparing deadly bacteria to kill all life on the planet.


Father's Day premiered on SyFy (East Coast Feed) in 2006 at 9:00pm EDT

Evolution of the Daleks premiered on BBC One in 2007 at 6:44pm BST, watched by 6.97 million viewers.

Making Manhattan premiered on BBC Three in 2007 at 7:30pm BST

Front Row: Mark Gatiss (Target Novelisations) premiered on Radio 4 in 2016 at 7:15pm BST

Mark Gatiss, the writer, actor and Doctor Who fan, gives his response to the re-issue of seven Doctor Who novelisations from the original range by Target Books, and visits the Cartoon Museum's display of original artwork for the books' covers.


 Birthdays
Ben Loyd-Holmes will be 43 - 3 credits, including Operative in Children Of Earth: Day One(TW)

Ben Loyd-Holmes is a British actor, probably best known for his role as Private Mcintosh in Band Of Brothers.

Growing up with family in the business meant that Ben was on set from a very young age and his passion for the industry quickly grew. His father is a successful 1st Assistant Director and Second Unit Director. Ben drew from his father's experience as well as from other actors he admired, to support his training and development.

Since 2006 Ben has been acting full time. Ben has worked on several high profile projects, including parts in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom MenaceLove Actually and Gladiator.

In 2008 Ben began writing and producing, first with the series Black Book which was followed by his first feature film, the critically acclaimed The Hike which premiered in Leicester Square on went on general release for Halloween 2011. Ben was nominated at the Film Guild Awards for Best Actor for his role as Ethan in The Hike.



Ilona Rogers will be 82 - credited as Carol in The Sensorites

Ilona Rodgers  is a British actress and television presenter who has lived and worked in several countries.

In 1964 she played the role of Carol in The Sensorites

Other television roles included guest appearances in The Saint andThe Avengers.

Rodgers lived in New Zealand from 1973, appearing in Close to Home. She lived in Australia between 1978 and 1985. She appeared in nine episodes of the Australian television drama Prisoner in 1983. Her character, Zara Moonbeam, was a medium who claimed to have clairvoyant powers. In the story she was coerced by Nola McKenzie (Carole Skinner) into impersonating Bea Smith's (Val Lehman) deceased daughter Debbie while suggesting to Bea that it was Debbie's ghost. Nola hoped it would drive Bea to suicide. However Bea figured out she was being tricked and got her revenge.

Other Australian appearances included the drama programs The SullivansSons and Daughters (as Patricia Hamilton's sister, Margaret Dunne) and the miniseries The Anzacs.

After relocating to New Zealand her work included the soap opera Shortland Street and presenting duties on a light entertainment and advertorial program called Good Morning. From 1987 to 1990 she appeared in a television drama series Gloss as magazine doyenne Maxine Redfern. The series was about a fictional publishing empire run by the Redfern family. Another acting credit was on "The Billy T James Show" (1990) as Thelma.

Stage work has included the one-woman play Shirley ValentineBy Degrees written by Roger Hall andThree Tall Women by Edward Albee.

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



 Deaths
Barry Howard (died 2016 aged 78) - credited as Oliver Barnes in The End of Time

Barry Howard was an English actor who was best known for his role as Barry Stuart-Hargreaves in the long-running BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi!

Howard appeared in  Doctor Who in the 2009 two-part Christmas special The End of Time, as driver of the mini-bus containing the old age pensioners' group seeking the Doctor.

Howard appeared in Terry and June, You Rang, M'Lord?, The House of Windsor and Dad, in addition to Hi-de-Hi!.

In 2004, Barry played the character of Geoffrey in the short film Open Casket. In November 2009 he appeared in an episode of the BBC comedy Beautiful People.

He died in his hometown of Poole after battling from blood cancer.


Anthony Coburn (died 1977 aged 49) - 2 credits, including Writer for An Unearthly Child

Anthony Coburn was an Australian television writer and producer, who spent much of his professional career living and working in the United Kingdom. He moved to the UK around 1950, where he joined the staff of BBC Television. While working as a staff writer for the BBC in 1963 and living in Herne Bay, Kent that he became involved in the early development of the science-fiction series Doctor Who.

He liaised closely with the series' first story editor, David Whitaker, on establishing the format and characters of the show, which had been initiated by various BBC drama executives before being handed on to the new production team. It is believed to have been Coburn's idea for the Doctor's travelling companion, Susan, to be his granddaughter, as he was disturbed by the possible sexual connotations of an old man travelling with an unrelated teenager.

Coburn wrote four full serials for the programme, An Unearthly Child, The Robots (also known as The Masters of Luxor) and two other unnamed scripts. Only An Unearthly Child was produced and it was the first ever Doctor Who serial to be made, despite both Coburn and the production team's misgivings about its prehistoric settings. The Robots was continually delayed and put back in production order, and then finally rejected — following this, Coburn severed his links with the show.

He was the co-creator of Warship with Ian Mackintosh, a popular British television drama series that centred on the Royal Navy. The programme was aired by the BBC between 1973 and 1977. A book was also published in 1973 to coincide with the series.

Coburn died in 1977 of a heart attack while producing the second series of the BBC 'period' drama Poldark.

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