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On This Day (USA) - 2 May



The Keys of Marinus: The Snows of Terror premiered on BBC One in 1964 at 5:29pm BST, watched by 10.40 million viewers.

The Ambassadors of Death: Episode 7 premiered on BBC One in 1970 at 5:15pm BST, watched by 6.40 million viewers.

General Carrington is behind the kidnapping of the ambassadors and intends to turn the world against the aliens by revealing their true identity to the world in a TV broadcast.


Shada (Online): Part One premiered on BBC Online in 2003 at 12:00pm BST

Eye of the Gorgon: Part Two premiered on SyFy (East Coast Feed) in 2008 at 8:00pm EDT

Warriors of Kudlak: Part One premiered on SyFy (East Coast Feed) in 2008 at 8:30pm EDT

 Birthdays
Skye Bennett will be 29 - 2 credits, including Little Girl in Fragments(TW)

Skye Bennett is an English actress, best known for her role as Sarah in the 2008 film Dark Floors, as well as for her role as Martha in The Pillars of the Earth.

Bennett was born in London, England to American parents, attending the prestigious Jackie Palmer Stage School in 2004. 

Skye Bennett began acting at the age 10 in Shadow Man, a 2006 Steven Seagal film. She has since then appeared in The Good NightBoy AIt's AliveDark Floors and Against the Dark.

Bennett appeared as Mina in the film adaptation of the David Almond Carnegie Medal and Whitbread Children's Award winning book Skellig, which was released in the UK in 2009. She has numerous other television and radio performances, including Holby City, the 2007 television movie Ballet ShoesDoctors and as the mysterious, tarot card reading little girl in series two of Torchwood. She appeared as young Martha in the TV adaptation of Ken Follet's historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth.

Bennett's theatrical debut at age 13 was as Nadia in the Peter Flannery's translation of Burnt by the Sun at the National Theatre, London, in March 2009.
Bennett was also cast in Mark Haddon's new play "Polar Bears" at London's Donmar Warehouse in Spring 2010.


Hunter M. Via will be 48 - credited as Film Editor for The New World(TW)

Hunter M. Via  is an American film and television editor

After graduating from Full Sail University with a film degree, Via entered the film industry working as an editor. He edited several early projects by fellow Full Sail graduate, Darren Lynn Bousman before landing a job as an assistant editor on the FX original series The Shield in 2002. Beginning in 2004, Via took on the role of editor and ended up cutting seventeen episodes of the series through 2007

In 2007, Via edited his first studio feature film, Frank Darabont's The Mist. Via went on to work on several other television shows and film, including Sons of Anarchy,Mother's DayThe Craigslist Killer, and Torchwood. Via edited three episodes of the popular AMC series The Walking Dead and received the61st Annual ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited One-Hour Series for Commercial Television For his work on the pilot episode.

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


Finlay Robertson will be 49 - 2 credits, including Larry Nightingale in Blink

Actor who appeared in the 2007 story Blink


Dan Watts will be 49 - 9 credits, including Incidental Music for Prisoner of the Judoon(SJA)

Dan Watts composes incidental music for The Sarah Jane Adventures and Sarah Jane's Alien Files.

Dan sometimes collaborates with his brother, composer Sam Watts.


Esther Freud will be 61 - credited as Threst in Attack of the Cybermen

Esther Freud  is a British novelist.

Born in London, Freud is the daughter of painter Lucian Freud and Bernadine Coverley and is a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. She travelled extensively with her mother as a child, and returned to London at the age of sixteen to train as an actress at The Drama Centre. 

She has worked in television and theatre as both actress and writer. Her first credited television appearance, though inauspicious, was as a terrifed diner in The Bill in 1984, running frantically out of a Chinese restaurant after it had received a bombscare. A year later she appeared as an alien in the Doctor Who serial Attack of the Cybermen.

Her novels include the semi-autobiographical Hideous Kinky, which was adapted into a film starring Kate Winslet. She is also the author of The Wild, Gaglow, The Sea House. She also wrote the foreword for The Summer Book by Tove Jansson.

Freud was named as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' by Granta magazine in 1993. Her novels have been translated into thirteen languages. She is also the co-founder (with Kitty Aldridge) of the women's theatre company Norfolk Broads.

In 2009, she donated the short story Rice Cakes and Starbucks to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Water' collection.


David Suchet CBE will be 78 - credited as The Landlord in Knock Knock
David Suchet is best known for playing Agatha Christie's Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, in the ITV drama series. He played Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British serial The Way We Live Now, a role which won him the Broadcasting Press Guild and Royal Television Society best actor awards. 

In 2003 he played Cardinal Wolsey in the two-part ITV drama Henry VIII and in 2006, he played the role of the fallen press baron Robert Maxwell in Maxwell. 

David Suchet has had an extensive theatre career and has recently been starring as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Vaudeville Theatre in London.

Paul Darrow (died 2019 aged 78) would be 83 - 3 credits, including Captain Hawkins in Doctor Who And The Silurians

Paul Darrow is an English actor best known for his portrayal of Kerr Avon in all but one episode of the BBC science fiction television series Blake's 7. 

He appeared twice on Doctor Who, playing Captain Hawkins in the serial Doctor Who and the Silurians and Maylin Tekker in the serial Timelash.

Darrow was born in Surrey, England, and attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School before studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Darrow's other TV appearances include: Emergency Ward 10, The Saint, Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Within These Walls, as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1975 BBC series The Legend of Robin Hood, as Mr. Tallboy in the 1973 TV adaptation of Dorothy L. Sayers' Murder Must Advertise, as Thomas Doughty in the TV film Drake's Venture, Dombey and Son, Maelstrom, Making News, Pie in the Sky, Hollyoaks and Little Britain. He spoke the voiceover for Biblical quotations in Richard Dawkins's The Root of All Evil?.

Darrow has acted  unofficial spokesperson, for Blakes 7, both in the UK and during the late 80s, in the U.S. In the mid to late 1990s, he purchased the rights to Blake's 7 and attempted to produce a big-budget follow-up miniseries, Blake's 7: A Rebellion Reborn. According to Darrow, it would have begun 25 years after the ending of the original series and might have included an aged Avon passing the torch to a new generation.

Darrow records voiceovers and straplines for Jack FM, a radio station based in Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, Jack FM Hertfordshire,106 Jack FM Bristol and 106 Jack FM Southampton. He also provides the voice of the character Grand Moff Tarkin in the computer game Star Wars: Empire at War. He also voiced the character of Zarok in a PlayStation game titled Medievil. 


Ray Barrett (died 2009 aged 82) would be 97 - credited as Bennett/Koquillion in The Rescue

Ray Barrett was an Australian actor. He was one of the more popular leading men on British television in the 1960s, where he was best known for his appearances in The Troubleshooters (1965 to 1971). Back in Australia he was a leading man in many TV series over the years.

Barrett was born in Brisbane, Queensland. He was educated at Brisbane State High School. He was fascinated by radio from an early age and won an on-air talent competition in 1939. At the age of 12 he won an eisteddfod that was broadcast on 4BH radio, with a musical monologue about a dog named 'Paddy'. This was to set him on a different path from his dream of boat-building. Many acting jobs on Australian radio followed but he left Brisbane for Sydney in 1954 and then travelled further from Australia to England in 1957.

He was given character and tough guy roles from an unusually young age. In Britain he played one of the lead roles in the British TV series Emergency - Ward 10 and later played one of the main characters, hard-nosed oilman Peter Thornton, in the long-running BBC series about the oil industry, The Troubleshooters. He was also the voice of a number of characters in Gerry Anderson marionette series: he voiced Commander Shore and Titan in Stingray and later was John Tracy, the Hood and many of the extra characters in Thunderbirds. He appeared as a murderer in the Doctor Who serial "The Rescue" in 1965.

It was only in the following decades that he emerged to big-screen stardom in his native country, earning roles as a central character in many TV series. Barrett was the prime minister (who was assassinated) in Burn the Butterflies and a tough miner in Golden Soak. He also had secondary roles in many others, including Something in the Air. He appeared in such films as Don's Party and won the 2005 Australian Film Institute Longford Life Achievement Award. His last appearance was in Australia in 2008.

Barrett appeared in a film about the release of the Leyland P76 in 1973 with Noel Ferrier, Walter Sullivan, Katy Wild and Nick Tate (The Carmakers).


Peggy Mount (died 2001 aged 86) would be 109 - credited as Stallslady in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

Peggy Mount OBE was an English actress of stage and screen. She was perhaps best known for playing battleaxe characters and for her distinctive voice.

Mount was born in Leigh-on-SeaEssex. Her love of acting had begun with the dramatic society of the Wesleyan chapel which she attended in Essex. She first worked as a secretary and took lessons from a drama tutor, Phyllis Reader, in her spare time.

She progressed through amateur theatre and wartime concert party productions, and in 1944 played her first straight part, in Hindle Wakes at the Hippodrome, Keighley, before joining the Harry Hanson Court Players for three years, then working in repertory theatre in ColchesterPrestonDundeeWolverhampton and Liverpool.

Mount shot to fame in London's West End playing the battleaxe mother-in-law Emma Hornett in Sailor Beware in 1955, having originated the role at Worthing Rep. She made her film début in the screen version of Sailor Beware! a year later.

However, Peggy Mount is best known for her many television comedy programmes. In 1958 Mount appeared as a landlady in The Adventures Of Mr. Pastry before landing to her official first television role was in The Larkins the same year, an early ITV comedy series featuring David Kossoff and herself as a Cockney couple, Alf and Ada Larkins, and their family.

The same time as the show, Mount appeared in another sitcom called Winning Widows in 1961-62, opposite Avice Landon as two widows who both had three husbands each then becoming widows.

She followed that from 1966 to 1968 with George and the Dragon, alongside Sid James and John Le Mesurier. From 1971 to 1972 she starred in Lollipop Loves Mr Mole with Hugh Lloyd and Pat Coombs. Between 1977 and 1981 she then starred in the Yorkshire Television sitcom You’re Only Young Twice, as the forthright Flora Petty who often bullied her friend Cissie Lupin (played by Pat Coombs).

Her other films included The Naked Truth alongside Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers in 1957 and Ladies Who Do alongside Harry H CorbettJon Pertwee and Robert Morley in 1963. She also played Mrs Bumble in the 1968 film of the musical Oliver!

However, Mount's career flourished most on stage. In 1960 she went to London's Old Vic as the Nurse to Judi Dench's Juliet, also appearing there in the play All Things Bright and Beautiful. In the West End she was another dreadful battleaxe in J B Priestley's When We Are Married in 1970.

For the next four years she toured, notably as Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals. At Birmingham Rep in 1977 she was a memorable Mother Courage and appeared in the Ben Travers farces Plunder and Rookery Nook.

In the 1980s she worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon and the Barbican Centre, and made her final stage appearance in 1996 at the Chichester Festival Theatre in Uncle Vanya with Trevor EveImogen Stubbs and Frances Barber.

Mount later appeared on television in programmes such as Doctor Who (in "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" in 1988),The Tomorrow People (in which she played the cameo role of Mrs Butterworth in the second episode of the 1994 story "The Monsoon Man") and Inspector Morse ("Fat Chance"). Mount also appeared in the 1991 T-Bag Christmas special, "T-Bag's Christmas Turkey". She was awarded an OBE in 1995.

She appeared in several Radio Plays for the BBC. In 1985 Peggy performed as the medium Madame Arcati in Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, on Radio 4.

In her later years she lost her sight and suffered a series of strokes, forcing her to retire. She died at Denville Hall, the actors' retirement home in North London. She never married and had no children.

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


 Deaths
Max Arthur OBE (died 2019 aged 80) - credited as Zuko in Planet of Fire

Max Arthur played Zuko in the 1984 Doctor Who story Planet of Fire.

Also worked on Timon of AthensAll's Well That Ends WellGrange Hill

 

He was an acclaimed military historian 


Moray Watson (died 2017 aged 88) - credited as Sir Robert Muir in Black Orchid

Moray Watson (born in SunningdaleBerkshire) is an English actor.

He appeared as Sir Robert Muir in the 1982 Doctor Who story Black Orchid;

Watson's father was killed in Belgium in World War II. He was educated at Eton College and made his first appearance on stage whilst still a student at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art at a matinee performance in memory of Ellen Terry at Hythe, Kent. After appearances in repertory, he appeared on the West End stage, including The Doctor's Dilemma and inThe Rivals by Sheridan both at the Haymarket Theatre.

In 1963, he went to New York City to appear in The Private Ear and The Public Eye.

He played the part of the Art Editor in the BBC series Compact for some years.

He appeared in several films, including Operation Crossbow and The Grass Is Greener, in which he played opposite Robert Mitchum and Cary Grant.

He has a series of television credits to his name, most notably as Brigadier Arthur Maiford, M.C. (ret.) (but always known to the Larkins as "The General") in The Darling Buds of May (1991�1993); and George Frobisher in Rumpole of the Bailey (1978�1992).

He had a small role in Yes Minister. He also appeared in the 1974 version of The Pallisers as Barrington Erle and in the Albert Campion mystery The Death of a Late Pig as the Chief Constable. He also played a Chief constable in the 1977 BBC series Murder Most English and Mr Bennet in the 1980 BBC series Pride and Prejudice.


Ernest Mothle (died 2011 aged 69) - credited as Jazz Quartet Member in Silver Nemesis

Ernest Mothle was a jazz bass player from South Africa.

He was born in Tshwane, Pretoria in 1941. When he attended St. Marin's School in Sophiatown, Johannesburg he played as part of the Father Huddlestone Band alongside Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa. Then, in 1959 he founded Dominoes with Francis and Cornelius Kekana and Gabriel Tladi, in which he played bass. By 1969 he had joined Henry Sithole in the Heshoo Beshoo Group, and recorded the album Armitage Road. He also collaborated with Gibson Kente for his musical works Manana, The Jazz Prophet, Life and Sikhalo and Phiriwith.

In 1972 he moved to London, and in 1974 played with the Julian Bahulas band Jabula, and recorded Ommadawn with Mike Oldfield. He also played with Jim Dvorak in the group Joy for the album Cadillac in 1978. Other performances included bands of Dudu Pukwana, Trevor Watts Drum Orchestra and Moire Music. From 1981 he was a member of Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath and accompanied her to the Moers Festival in 1981 and 1988, and the Jazz Festival Willisau also in 1988. He also toured regularly in Germany during 1986 with the Jazz against Apartheid project. Other collaboration included several recordings of Working Week, Nothing Can Stop Us, and Talks Laughing Stock.

He performed on a number of occasions with Courtney Pine, including Halfway to Paradise and as part of the quartet Ace and the Doctor listen to in Silver Nemesis. Other jazz legends included Errol Clark, Sonny Stitt, Archie Shepp and Jimmy Witherspoon. He also appeared with Jonas Gwangwa at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Concert held at Wembley Stadium

He returned to South Africa in 1995 and taught as a music teacher at the Tshwane University of Technology. In 2004 he appeared in the documentary Acoustic Africa, and in 2007 he played with his quartet at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.

Mothle died in 2011 from the effects of diabetes.


Bernard Wilkie (died 2002 aged 82) - 6 credits, including Visual Effects Designer for Planet of the Spiders

Bernard Wilkie was the visual effects designer on six Doctor Who stories during the Second and Third Doctor's eras. 

His initial training was as a draughtsman and an engineer at the air ministry. He served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Having gained experience during the war of lighting stage shows, as well as creating props and scenery, he joined the BBC in 1948, working with the corporation's research department for six years. In 1954 he co-founded, with Jack Kine, the BBC Visual Effects Department, the first TV special effects unit in the world. Wilkie continued with the BBC for another 24 years, during which the Visual Effects Department continued to expand in size and expertise, working on numerous shows of all descriptions. 

He enjoyed imparting his knowledge and experience, which included writing a book, The Technique of Special Effects in Television, which gained worldwide influence and notoriety in the field, and his appearance on an episode of "Pebble Mill" (1973) in December 1973, during which he introduced viewers to some of the various masks, props and effects his department had been responsible for.

He also worked on a number of other notable BBC series, including Out of the UnknownNot So Much a Programme, More a Way of LifeStory ParadeJane EyreThe MonstersGreat CaptainsBeauty and the BeastHands Across the SkyBBC Sunday-Night PlayThe Three PrincesThe History of Mr PollyQuatermass and the PitHuntingtowerQuatermass IIThe Quatermass Experiment

After leaving the BBC, he moved into writing for German television, where he worked as a comedy scriptwriter and director. After that, he returned to writing for British television. His worldwide reputation as a pioneer of visual effects earned him continued work towards the end of his life, contributing articles to magazines and giving talks. 


Alan Vicars (died 1998) - 4 credits, including Aztec Warrior in The Aztecs

Extra in the 1964 story The Aztecs and several other early stories

Also worked on The First Part of King Henry VIThe Winter's TaleHancock's Half Hour