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On This Day (USA) - 17 January



Spearhead From Space: Episode 3 premiered on BBC One in 1970 at 5:15pm BST, watched by 8.30 million viewers.

Sam Seeley has found one of the meteorites but the Autons want it back and are closing in. General Scobie visits Auto Plastics, playing into the hands of Channing.


The Brain of Morbius: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1976 at 5:45pm GMT, watched by 10.10 million viewers.

Warriors' Gate: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1981 at 5:11pm GMT, watched by 8.30 million viewers.

As the void begins to shrink around them, Rorvik plans to take desperate measures to escape through the mirror. The Doctor discovers the dark secret of the Tharils' past.


The Paradise Of Death: Episode Five premiered on Radio 4 Extra in 2003 at 6:00pm GMT

 Birthdays
Sharon Duce was 76 - credited as Control in Ghost Light

Sharon Duce (born Sheffield, Yorkshire) is a British actress, .

Her biggest role was alongside Ray Brooks in the BBC comedy drama Big Deal (1984).

She played Control in the 1989 story Ghost Light.

She is the wife of Dominic Guard.


John Alkin was 79 - credited as Lomand in Planet of Fire

John Alkin (born in Rugby, Warwickshire) was a British actor turned spiritual healer.

Alkin is best remembered for 2 roles, namely that of DS Tom Daniels in The Sweeney, and as barrister Barry Deeley in the long running daytime TV Drama Crown Court. He also appeared extensively as a guest star in numerous TV Shows such as Z-Cars, Timeslip, Minder and Doctor Who.

John left acting in the mid eighties to set up a spiritual healing centre with his wife.

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


Malcolm Clarke (died 2003 aged 60) would have been 83 - 7 credits, including Incidental Music for The Sea Devils

Malcolm Clarke was a British composer and a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop for 25 years from 1969 to 1994.

He composed the incidental music for the 1972 Doctor Who serial The Sea Devils; only the second score that the workshop provided for the series. 

The Radiophonic Workshop was not commissioned to produce music again for Doctor Who until 1980. Clarke returned to the series to compose the music for the 1982 serial Earthshock, and continued to work on the series on a regular basis until 1986, composing the music for Enlightenment, Resurrection of the Daleks, The Twin Dilemma, Attack of the Cybermen and Terror of the Vervoids.

His most critically acclaimed work was probably 1976's radio piece August 4th 2026, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury.


John Cater (died 2009 aged 77) would have been 94 - credited as Professor Krimpton in The War Machines

John Cater played Professor Krimpton in the Doctor Who story The War Machines.

Also worked on Bonekickers, The Last Detective, Midsomer Murders, Alien Autopsy, ChuckleVision, Bad Girls, The Bill, The Trial of the King Killers, Room 36, Casualty, The Brief, Doctors and Nurses, Doctors, Down to Earth, Fogbound, Anazapta, Crossroads, Where the Heart Is, The Residents, In a Land of Plenty, The 10th Kingdom, Goodnight, Mister Tom, Silent Witness, Bramwell, Rasputin, Savage Hearts, Harry's Mad, Midnight Movie, 2point4 Children, Love Hurts, Wycliffe and the Cycle of Death, Jeeves and Wooster, The Chief, Maigret, Lipstick on Your Collar, Full Stretch, The Darling Buds of May, Sitting Pretty, Covington Cross, Haggard, Anglo Saxon Attitudes, T-Bag's Christmas Turkey, Prisoner of Honor, Minder, Screen One, Lovejoy, Life After Life, Dunrulin, Ruth Rendell Mysteries, One Foot in the Grave, T-Bag and the Pearls of Wisdom, Bergerac, The Return of Shelley, The Woman in Black, About Face, Shalom Salaam, Ticket to Ride, Inspector Morse, Turn on to T-Bag, Home to Roost, Theatre Night, A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery, Crazy Like a Fox: The Movie, Unnatural Causes, Chance in a Million, eturn to Treasure Island, The December Rose, Jack of Diamonds, Death of an Expert Witness, Number 10, Anyone for Denis?, P.O.S.H, The Setbacks, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Just Liz, The Other 'Arf, Agony, The Jim Davidson Show, Rising Damp, The Glums, The House on Garibaldi Street, The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight, Leave It to Charlie, The Mill on the Floss, News from Nowhere, The Losers, Bernie, The Sweeney, Rosie, The Duchess of Duke Street, The Squirrels, I, Claudius, Nobody's House, Happy Ever After, Centre Play, A Touch of the Casanovas, The Naked Civil Servant, Willow Cabins, Madame Bovary, The Rough with the Smooth, Churchill's People, Thriller, Further Up Pompeii!, Late Call, The Confederacy of Wives, South Riding, New Scotland Yard, Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter, Great Mysteries, Follyfoot, Play for Today, 7 of 1, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, Alcock and Gander, Z Cars, Budgie, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Comedy Playhouse, The Dick Emery Show, The Expert, That's Your Funeral, Roads to Freedom, Dad's Army, The Mating Machine, The Black Tulip, Up Pompeii!, Loot, Canterbury Tales, Department S, Fraud Squad, ITV Playhouse, Rogues' Gallery, ITV Sunday Night Theatre, Softly Softly, Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher, Virgin of the Secret Service, The Revenue Men, The Secret Agent, No Hiding Place, Mr. Rose, Write a Play, The Avengers, Girl in a Black Bikini, The Baron, Thirty-Minute Theatre, Theatre 625, Orlando, ITV Play of the Week, Armchair Theatre, Take a Pair of Private Eyes, Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, The Wednesday Thriller, The Man in Room 17, The Flying Swan, Danger Man, Crane, The Villains, The Plane Makers, Diary of a Young Man, The Hidden Truth, Dial RIX, A Little Big Business, BBC Sunday-Night Play, The Victorians, ITV Television Playhouse, Out of This World, Richard the Lionheart, BBC Sunday-Night Theatre

He was married to Wendy Gifford.


 Deaths
Derek Fowlds (died 2020 aged 82) - credited as Claude in The Elixir of Doom(BF)

Derek Fowlds is an actor, best known for his roles as Bernard Woolley in Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister, Oscar Blaketon in Heartbeat, and to 'older' children of the 1970s as Mr Derek alongside Basil Brush.

His autobiography, A Part Worth Playing, was published by Fantom Publishing in 2016.


Windsor Davies (died 2019 aged 88) - credited as Toby in The Evil of the Daleks

Windsor Davies (born Canning Town, West Ham, London) was a British actor, well known for playing the part of Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the 1970s/1980s British sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

Davies was born to Welsh parents, and he returned to his parents' native Nant-y-Moel when the Second World War began in 1939. He attended Ogmore Grammar School and Bangor Teacher Training College. He then worked as a teacher and did national service before going into acting. 

He played Mog in the classic Welsh film Grand Slam and played the role of sailor Taffy in the first of the BBC-series The Onedin Line (1971).He became well known for playing the part of Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the British sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974-81). One of his catchphrases was "Shut Up!" delivered with an ear drum shattering military scream. The other was the phrase "Oh dear, how sad, never mind", delivered in a dry, ironic manner, and used when others around him had problems. As a spin-off from the series, Davies and co-star, Don Estelle had a number one hit in the UK with a semi-comic version of "Whispering Grass". He played major roles in two later Carry On films, Behind in 1975 and England in 1976. He later re-established himself as a sitcom actor with the role of antique dealer Oliver Smallbridge in Never the Twain, with Donald Sinden.

He is also known for providing the voice of Sergeant Major Zero in Gerry Anderson's Terrahawks television series which broadcast from 1983 to 1986; and appeared in the Doctor Who story The Evil of the Daleks as Toby in 1967. He auditioned to be the voice of the UK's speaking clock in 1984 but lost out to fellow actor Brian Cobby.

Davies has never been short of voice-over work - and his distinctive, deep voice can be heard in such projects as New Zealand's Pink Batts house insulations and confectionery ads for Cadbury's Wispa. In the 1970s, Davies read an edition of Radio Four's Morning Story programme. Davies played a sergeant in the Highland Regiment in Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall with Jim Dale and Spike Milligan. This film was released in 1972.

Windsor Davies starred in two Carry On films, Carry On Behind (1975), playing the part of Butcher Fred Ramsden and then in Carry On England (1976), playing Sergeant Major 'Tiger' Bloomer.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1976.

Davies retired from acting in his 70s and he and his wife lived in France. He is survived by his five children (his wife Eluned died in September 2018).

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


Philip Bond (died 2017 aged 82) - 2 credits, including Ganatus in The Daleks

Philip Bond was a British actor best known for playing Albert Frazer in 24 episodes of the 1970s BBC nautical drama The Onedin Line.

Born in Burton-on-Trent, Bond attended the University of Oxford and studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. In 1957 he played Sir John Marraby in the musical Zuleika, based on the novel Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm. His first television role was in the series ITV Television Playhouse (1958-1961). 

He went on to appear in, among others, The Saint (1963), Redcap (1965), No Hiding Place (1965), Armchair Theatre (1966), Man in a Suitcase (1967-8), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1968), The Champions (1968), The Avengers (1969), Doomwatch (1971), Jason King (1971), The Onedin Line (1971-2), Dial M for Murder (1974), Z-Cars (1969-1975), Warship (1974-6), Crown Court (1977), The Children of the New Forest (1977), The Sandbaggers (1980), Shoestring (1980), Only Fools and Horses (1985), Bergerac (1987), Lovejoy (1993), Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1994), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001), Casualty (2007), and Midsomer Murders (2007).

Bond's film roles included Count Five and Die (1957), Orders to Kill (1958), Foxhole in Cairo (1960), I Want What I Want (1972), and Fever Pitch (1997). 

He was survived by his partner Elizabeth, children Matthew, Samantha and Abigail, and grandchildren Molly, Tom, Nancy, Bill and Ivan.


Andrew Tourell (died 2004 aged 57) - credited as Constable Cummings in Black Orchid

Robert Robertson (died 2001 aged 70) - credited as Collinson in The Ambassadors of Death

Robert Robertson was a Scottish actor and director. He was best known for playing Doctor Stephen Andrews in the television show Taggart.

He was born in St. Andrews, Fife. 

He appeared in 1970 Doctor Who story The Ambassadors of Death. 

He died after suffering a heart attack while reading a Robert Burns poem on stage in Perth.