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On This Day (USA) - 7 February



Doctor Who And The Silurians: Episode 2 premiered on BBC One in 1970 at 5:16pm BST, watched by 7.30 million viewers.

Investigating the caves, the Doctor is attacked by a dinosaur-like creature. Dr Quinn is hiding a secret that could endanger the lives of everyone.


The Seeds of Doom: Part Two premiered on BBC One in 1976 at 5:31pm GMT, watched by 11.40 million viewers.

The Krynoid is on the loose... Scorby and Keeler have been sent to the base to steal the alien pod and are willing to kill to cover their tracks.


The Keeper of Traken: Part Two premiered on BBC One in 1981 at 5:08pm GMT, watched by 6.10 million viewers.

Torchwood Declassified Series Two: Episode 4 premiered on BBC2 in 2008 at 7:52pm GMT, watched by 1.46 million viewers.

 Birthdays
Bhasker Patel was 68 - credited as Jival Chowdry in Turn Left

Bhasker Patel played Jival Chowdry in the Doctor Who television story Turn Left.

Other work includes Piercing BrightnessAshesTwenty8kThe Artist and the ShopkeeperThe Golden BoyPulpThe Man InsideEmmerdaleShirinThe Boarding School BomberJunkheartsHolby CityAnuvahoodFridayConvictionThe SnatchingMorning EchoThe InfidelJust Cause 2, Pictures of ZainIndigoThe Good Men of LeicesterThe BodyThe End of ItMaking FriendsSpooksHeartlessLaw & Order: UKA Five Finger DiscountMoving OnThank You Mr. PresidentOur Time AloneTenner8CompulsionFairy TalesHolby BlueDon't Stop DreamingTrial & RetributionKaty Brand's Big Ass ShowDalziel and PascoeKidulthoodFunlandThe Call of the ToadEthelbert the TigerWhat's Your Name 41?High HopesDirty Filthy LoveThe Family PortraitThunderbirdsThe BillCasualtyKeen Eddie15 Storeys HighThe Last DetectiveSea of SoulsCanterbury TalesRoger RogerMurder in MindThis Is Dom JolyThe Afternoon PlayState of MindUGetMeAlways and EveryoneNCS ManhuntMy FamilyThe Ultimate Stress Show: Managing StressNorth SquareThe Scarlet PimpernelZehn wahnsinnige TageArabian NightsHappy Birthday ShakespeareRentPure WickednessMy Son the FanaticKüstenwacheTwin TownWavelengthOnly Fools and Horses....Die Nacht hat 17 StundenGame OnGoldenEyeBrothers in TroubleZweiunddreißig Richtungen der WindroseTransatlantisWish You Were HereIt's Not UnusualInspector ShaikhFlightIn der KneipeTwo Oranges and a MangoBeing HumanA Business AffairBirds of a FeatherOver the RainbowScreen TwoDas letzte SiegeCivviesBetween the LinesWild WestImmaculate ConceptionBrooksideRidesBoonChimeraFamily PrideRear Window: The Sultan of ChessThe Paradise ClubSob SistersThe Real Eddy EnglishShona MayDrachenfutterMoving PortraitsPartitionMy Beautiful LaundretteMovingThe Lenny Henry ShowIndiana Jones and the Temple of DoomCrown CourtThe Jewel in the CrownGrange HillPlay for Today


Gareth Hunt (died 2007 aged 65) would have been 82 - credited as Arak in Planet of the Spiders

Gareth Hunt  was an English actor, best remembered for playing the footman Frederick Norton in Upstairs, Downstairs and Mike Gambit in The New Avengers

Alan Leonard Hunt was born in BatterseaLondon in 1942; he was the nephew of actress Martita Hunt. His father was killed in the Second World War when Hunt was two years old, and he was brought up by his mother Doris and stepfather. At the age of 15, he joined the Merchant Navy. After six years, he jumped ship in New Zealand and worked in a car plant for a year before he was caught and served three months in a military prison. Hunt was then deported back to Britain and while taking a BBC design course he held a variety of jobs, including stagehand, road digger, butcher's assistant and door-to-door salesman. Having had an interest in acting since his early years, he subsequently trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Following that, Hunt did rep across the United Kingdom and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre in the early 1970s. Among the many stage productions he appeared in were Twelfth NightOh! What a Lovely War and West Side Story.

Hunt started his television career in 1972, playing a policeman in For the Love of Ada. The same year Hunt appeared in A Family at War and The Organisation. In 1974, he had a role in the Doctor Who story Planet of the Spiders and Bless This House. In 1975 he played Thomas Woolner in The Love School.

In 1974, Gareth Hunt appeared in the Upstairs, Downstairs episode "Missing Believed Killed" as Trooper Norton, batman to James Bellamy. The character was a minor one; however, his performance led producers John Hawkesworth and Alfred Shaughnessy to ask him to come back as a regular for the fifth series in 1975.

Hunt continued playing Frederick Norton, who had by now become the footman, until the eleventh episode of the fifth series, "Alberto". In 1975, Hunt made appearances in The Hanged ManSoftly, Softly and Space: 1999.

In 1976, the year after leaving Upstairs Downstairs, Hunt starred alongside Joanna Lumley and Patrick Macnee in The New Avengers. The show's producers said he was cast because of his part in Upstairs, Downstairs.[4] Hunt played secret agent Mike Gambit and starred in the show until its end after two series in 1977. He portrayed secret agent Charles Bind in Licensed to Love and Kill. After that in the late 1970s and 1980s, Hunt made appearances in Sunday Night Thriller,Minder and Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense. Hunt appeared alongside Julia McKenzie in That Beryl Marston...! in 1981. In 1984 he appeared in the film Bloodbath at the House of Death and in 1988 he played many parts in the Pet Shop Boys' film It Couldn't Happen Here.

Hunt starred in a series of television adverts for the coffee brand Nescafé in the 1980s, with a trademark move: to shake his closed hand then open it, to reveal coffee beans, and smell the aroma.

Gareth Hunt continued to have minor roles in many television programmes in the 1990s and 2000s, with appearances in The New Adventures of Robin HoodHarry and the WrinkliesAbsolute Power (as himself), New TricksPowers andDoctors. From 1992 to 1993 Hunt had a leading role in the sitcom Side by Side, and had a main role in the short-lived soap opera Night and Day in 2001. In 1997, he appeared in the film Fierce Creatures and in 2001 played Ritchie Stringer, a crime boss who was an unlikely suspect in the shooting of Phil Mitchell, in EastEnders. For a brief time he abandoned acting and started a project called Interactive Casting Universal, a computer system that presented actors' details and showreels.

Hunt suffered a heart attack in December 1999 and withdrew from a pantomime in Malvern. In July 2002 he collapsed while performing on stage in Bournemouth. He died of pancreatic cancer, from which he had suffered for two years, on 14 March 2007, at the age of 65, at his home in RedhillSurrey. He had married three times and had a son by each marriage.

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


John Baskcomb (died 2000 aged 84) would have been 108 - credited as Rossini in Terror of the Autons

John Baskcomb was an English character actor who made numerous television and film appearances over a 35 year period.

He was the son of the founder of the Bank of England Opera and Dramatic Society and was educated at Croydon High School for Boys. He then appeared on stage in repertory theatre in Croydon and Henley and in clubs, pantomimes and concert parties.

He made appearances in numerous British television plays and series including; Doctor Who (Terror of the Autons), The Saint, Softly, Softly and Poldark and he played the role of Cardinal Wolsey in The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970). His film roles included Oliver! (uncredited), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (uncredited), Battle of Britain, Dad's Army and Omen III: The Final Conflict.


 Deaths
Robert Ashby (died 2019 aged 79) - credited as Borad in Timelash

Rashid Suhrawardy was born in 1939, the son of Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy - future Prime Minister of Pakistan and the last Chief Minister of United Bengal; his mother was Russian, of Polish descent. He was educated in Oxford and became a renowned actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, adopting the anglicised Robert "Bob" Ashby; however he retained a fierce loyalty to his father's beliefs, defending the Bangladeshi cause in London and considered by many to be a role model for future generations.

As well as playing the Borad in Timelash, he appeared in Kavanagh QC, Gentlemen and Players, Love Potion, and Howards' Way. He also played Nehru opposite Christopher Lee in Jinnah.

He was the boyfriend of Louise Jameson during her time as Leela.


Christopher Barry (died 2014 aged 88) - 10 credits, including Director for The Daleks

Christopher Barry was a British television director best known for his work on Doctor Who

During his distinguished career, he directed the first Dalek story in 1963 as well as the stories that introduced the Second and Fourth Doctors. He also directed The Dæmons - regarded by many as the best story starring the Third Doctor.

Barry's other television credits included Compact (1962), Paul Temple (1970-1971), Z Cars (1971-1978), Poldark (1975), The Onedin Line (1977), All Creatures Great and Small (1978-1980), Juliet Bravo (1980), Dramarama (1983) and science fiction series Out of the Unknown (1965), Moonbase 3 (1973) and The Tripods (1984).

He appeared in a feature covering his life's work on the DVD release of the Doctor Who story The Creature from the Pit, released in May 2010. He also appeared in The Cult of... The Tripods on BBC Four. He was played by Stewart James Barham in the 50th-anniversary drama An Adventure In Space And Time.

Barry died after falling down an escalator at a shopping centre in Banbury. He was admitted to hospital but died the same day. An inquest is due to be held on 5th June 2014.


Stephen Whittaker (died 2003 aged 55) - credited as Craftsman Weams in The Web of Fear

Stephen Whittaker  was a British actor and director. He worked largely in British film and television.

In 2001 he filmed his final project The Rocket Post, a romantic drama set on a remote Scottish island. The film had severe funding problems, and was eventually released in 2006, three years after his death.