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On This Day (USA) - 10 December



The Power of the Daleks: Episode Six premiered on BBC One in 1966 at 5:51pm GMT, watched by 7.80 million viewers.

As a battle rages between the rebels and the loyal colonists, the Daleks begin their attack. The only chance of survival for the colony rests with the Doctor.


The Sun Makers: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1977 at 6:05pm GMT, watched by 8.90 million viewers.

Crime File: The Master premiered on BBC One in 1993 at 7:30pm GMT, watched by 3.30 million viewers.

Random Shoes premiered on BBC Three in 2006 at 10:00pm GMT, watched by 1.08 million viewers.

Hit-and-run victim Eugene wakes to find himself dead and invisible.


The Power of the Daleks: Episode Four (animation) premiered on BBC America in 2016 at 11:00pm EST

Scientist Lesterson is driven insane when he discovers that the Daleks are reproducing themselves and preparing to seize control of the Earth colony.


 Birthdays
Keith Jayne will be 64 - credited as Will Chandler in The Awakening

Keith Jayne  is a British actor, known for playing young men in several classic BBC series in the 1970's.

He played Will Chandler in the Doctor Who serial The Awakening, leading John Nathan-Turner to briefly consider making Keith a series regular. 

A slow growth rate, due to a pituitary gland problem, made Keith a target of bullies at grammar school. To escape them, he enrolled with The Barbara Speake Stage School.

Early roles were in Rumpole of the BaileyAngels (TV series) and a variety of Children's Film Foundation productions. In 1974, Keith appeared as Wilfred Schoenfeld in the Upstairs Downstairs episode 'The Beastly Hun.'

However, his big break happened in 1979 when he was cast as Tom Arnold, a cabin boy, in The Onedin Line.

This was followed by the lead role in Thames Television�s, BAFTA award nominated, adaptation of Stig of The Dump - which �is probably the part I am most remembered for.�[1]

Keith appeared in all 54 episodes of Central TV's kid�s drama, Murphy�s Mob - as Boxer Reed in Murphy�s Mob.

Typecasting (often as a yokel) persuaded Keith to study for a certificate in Finance and Investment. This coincided with a dark period his life when his earlier health problems came back to haunt him. �As a result of the growth hormone treatment I received as a child, I received a letter from the NHS saying I may have contracted CJD.

Having run a financial services business for the last 22 years, Keith is planning on a return to acting. Looking for an agent he has already made a brief return to television, as a guest in the Blast From The Past section of The Justin Lee Collins Show.



Keith James (died 1996 aged 58) would be 87 - credited as Patterson in Inferno

Keith James was a British actor active in the 1970's and 1980's.

Roles included parts in Dick Turpin, Bernie and Mike Yarwood in persons.


Tony Lambden (died 2006 aged 72) would be 91 - credited as Court Messenger in The Romans

Tony Lambden  played a Court Messenger in the Doctor Who story The Romans. 

He was also an extra in the Doctor Who stories The Keys of Marinus, The Reign of Terror and The Dalek Invasion of Earth.


Anthony Coburn (died 1977 aged 49) would be 97 - 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


Harry Fowler (died 2012 aged 85) would be 98 - credited as Harry in Remembrance of the Daleks

Harry Fowler, MBE was an English actor in film and TV. Over a career lasting more than sixty years he made nearly 200 appearances on screen.

Fowler was born in Lam­beth, south Lon­don, on Decem­ber 10, 1926.

Fowler made his on-screen debut as Ern in the 1942 film Those Kids from Town, a propaganda piece about wartime evacuee children from London. This role was given to him after film company executives heard him speaking on the radio about his experiences in wartime London. After a screen test at Elstree studios, Fowler was given the part to star alongside George Cole

His early juvenile roles included Hue and Cry (1947), usually considered the first of the Ealing Comedies. Fowler later married Joan Dowling, one of his co-stars in the Ealing film. Dowling committed suicide in 1954.

During the Second World War he had been an aircraftman in the RAF, and played a cheerful cockney character with the same job in the film Angels One Five (1952),[3] a portrayal he used in other contexts, often with a humorous slant, mostly especially during his year in The Army Game (1959–60) TV series.

His familiar voice was regularly used for TV commercials. He was awarded an MBE in 1970, as part of Harold Wilson's Resignation Honours. In 1975, Fowler took the part of Eric Lee Fung, described as "a Chinese cockney spiv", in The Melting Pot, a sitcom written by Spike Milligan and Neil Shand. 


Sylvia Coleridge (died 1986 aged 76) would be 115 - credited as Amelia Ducat in The Seeds of Doom

Sylvia Coleridge was a British stage, radio and television actress.

She appeared in the 1975 story The Seeds of Doom.

Coleridge was born in DarjeelingBritish India, now present-day India.

Her acting credits include: Out of the UnknownThe AvengersPaul TempleThe Lotus Eaters,Ace of WandsThe Tomorrow PeopleZ CarsPublic EyeSutherland's LawDixon of Dock GreenThe Onedin LineSurvivorsArmchair Thriller (in the serial Quiet as a Nun), Blake's 7ShoestringThe Flipside of Dominick HideAngels,Rumpole of the Bailey and Bleak House.

She died in LondonEngland and was interred in the East London Cemetery.


 Deaths
Barbara Windsor (died 2020 aged 83) - credited as Peggy Mitchell in Army of Ghosts / Doomsday

Barbara Windsor is an English actress. Her best-known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

Born in Shoreditch, London in 1937, Windsor was the only child of John Deeks, a costermonger, and his wife, formerly Rose Ellis, a dressmaker. Windsor is of English and Irish ancestry. She passed her 11-plus exams with the highest marks in North London and won a place at Our Lady's Convent in Stamford Hill. Her mother paid for her to have elocution lessons, and she trained at the Aida Foster School in Golders Green, making her stage debut at 13 and her West End debut in 1952 in the chorus of the musical Love From Judy.

Her first film role was in The Belles of St Trinian's in 1954. She joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, coming to prominence in their stage production Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be and Littlewood's film Sparrers Can't Sing in 1963, achieving a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film Actress. She also appeared in the 1964 film comedy Crooks in Cloisters, the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and in the sitcoms The Rag Trade and Wild, Wild Women. In 1980, Windsor appeared as "Saucy Nancy" in the second series of Worzel Gummidge.