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On This Day (USA) - 2 July



The War Machines: Episode 2 premiered on BBC One in 1966 at 6:56pm BST, watched by 4.70 million viewers.

WOTAN has put in motion its plan to dominate the world and has ordered its human subjects to construct deadly war machines in secret locations.


Golden Age premiered on Radio 4 in 2009 at 2:15pm BST

The team travels to Delhi in search of a dangerous energy field that triggers the simultaneous disappearance of hundreds of people. Jack discovers that it centres on an old colonial mansion, once the headquarters of Torchwood India. Shocked to find thatTorchwood India is still going strong - he shut it down over 80 years ago - he's even more surprised to find that its members, including his old flame the Duchess, haven't aged a day.


 Birthdays
Peter Kay will be 51 - 2 credits, including Victor Kennedy in Love & Monsters

Peter  Kay  is an English comedian, writer, actor, director and producer. 

His work includes That Peter Kay Thing (2000), Phoenix Nights (2001), Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere (2004), Britain's Got the Pop Factor... (2008) and other independent productions which have included two sell out tours. Kay has sold over 10 million DVDs, a UK record for a comedian.

He played Victor Kennedy in the 2006 story Love and Monsters.


Neville Simons (died 1987 aged 51) would be 88 - 3 credits, including Astronaut in The Ambassadors of Death

Neville Simons played Frank Michaels in the Doctor Who serial The Ambassadors of Death.

Also worked on Whoops Baghdad!The Tyrant King


 Deaths
Larry Barnes (died 2011 aged 85) - credited as Magic Advisor for The Talons of Weng-Chiang

Larry Barnes was a magician, an escapologist, a balloon sculptor and most famously a paper tearer.

He made his stage debut at the Adelphi in 1941/42 playing a pirate in Peter Pan. He also worked as a stunt man in films, including The Colditz Story (1955). 

After contracting arthritis following an accident on stage, he furthered his interest in magic. He recreated the escapology act of Houdini, releasing himself from a range of ancient handcuffs and a straitjacket in less than a minute.

He was a Pearly King


Elizabeth Spriggs (died 2008 aged 78) - credited as Tabby in Paradise Towers

Elizabeth Spriggs was an English character actress.

She appeared in the 1987 Doctor Who story Paradise Towers

Spriggs  studied at the Royal College of Music and taught speech and drama in Coventry, Warwickshire. She was a regular performer with the RSC under Peter Hall until 1976, playing many important Shakespearean roles, including Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, an acclaimed Gertrude in Hamlet opposite David Warner, Calpurnia in Julius Caesar, Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor and a witty Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. 

On television she was in Frederic Raphael's The Glittering Prizes (1976), played Connie, the head of a battling South London family in the thirteen-part drama Fox (1980) and was the formidable Nan in the ITV comedy series Shine On Harvey Moon (1982–85). She appeared in three plays by Alan Bennett:Afternoon Off (1979), Intensive Care (1982) and Our Winnie (1982). 

In 1990, she gave a memorable performance in the BBC adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and in 1992, was in television versions of Kingsley Amis's The Old Devils and Angus Wilson's Anglo-Saxon Attitudes.


James Saxon (died 2003 aged 48) - credited as Oscar in The Two Doctors

James Saxon was a British character actor. He often played aristocrats or middle class characters. To a generation of children he was best known for his regular role as Roland Rat's inept agent, D'Arcy DeFarcy who would mistakenly refer to his client as Reynard.

Having trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he made a career on screen with leading parts in television series such as the BBC adaptation of Vanity Fair (1987), the ITV comedy Brass (1983), the brief revival of Poldark (1996), Time Riders (1991) and Brush Strokes (1986).

His occasional guest appearances included Jonathan Creek (2001), as a school inspector in Chalk (1997), Murder Most Horrid (1994), Lovejoy (1993), A Touch of Frost (1994), Boon (1990) and Oscar Botcherby in the 1985 Doctor Who story, The Two Doctors, alongside both Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton.

James Saxon’s film appearances were less numerous, though his rich tones brought to life many audio adaptations, including some of the works of P. G. Wodehouse.

He died 2 July 2003 from an aneurysm during his run in The Gondoliers in Chichester.

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


Don Houghton (died 1991 aged 61) - 2 credits, including Writer for Inferno

Don Houghton was a British television screenwriter.

Born in Paris, Houghton started writing for radio in 1951 before moving into film and television in 1958. In the 1970s, he was a primary writer for Hammer Films including for Dracula AD 1972, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires and Shatter. 

His television work includes Doctor Who for which he wrote the serials Inferno (1970) and The Mind of Evil (1971), the fifth Sapphire & Steel television story (known informally as Dr McDee Must Die) co-written with Anthony Read, Emergency Ward 10, Crossroads, Ace of Wands, New Scotland Yard and The Professionals. Houghton created and wrote for the soap opera Take The High Road (1980). 

He has also written three novels: Column of Thieves and Blood Brigade and "Take the High Road: Summers Gloaming".