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On This Day (USA) - 20 February



The Web Planet: The Zarbi premiered on BBC One in 1965 at 5:40pm GMT, watched by 12.50 million viewers.

Rescued by the Menoptra, Barbara is then captured by the ant-like Zarbi. The Doctor and Ian trace the missing TARDIS to a giant web city and encounter a mysterious intelligence.


The Mind of Evil: Episode Four premiered on BBC One in 1971 at 5:15pm BST, watched by 7.40 million viewers.

The mind parasite within the Keller Machine becomes too powerful for the Master to control. It learns how to move of its own accord and goes on the hunt for new minds.


Torchwood Declassified Series Two: Episode 6 premiered on BBC2 in 2008 at 9:48pm GMT, watched by 1.64 million viewers.

Dead Man Walking premiered on BBC Three in 2008 at 10:01pm GMT, watched by 1.01 million viewers.

Absolute Genius with Dick & Dom: Derbyshire premiered on CBBC in 2013 at 4:00pm GMT

 Birthdays
Anjli Mohindra was 34 - 32 credits, including Captain Riya Nehru in Wicked Sisters

Anjli Mohindra is an English actress from West Bridgford, Nottingham, best known for her role in The Sarah Jane Adventures as Rani Chandra.

Mohindra attended West Bridgford Junior School and the West Bridgford School and played 'Rani Chandra' in The Sarah Jane Adventures on CBBC. Mohindra is a few years older than her character in The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Mohindra spent a few months at a computer software company, where she honed her dramatic skills in the call centre. She has also appeared in an episode of Coronation Street as Shareen, and in an episode of Doctors. She appeared as Jaz in Judith Johnson's Scary Play at the Nottingham Central Junior Television Workshop.

Mohindra played a small part in an episode of teen TV series The Inbetweeners, and also appears briefly as Sophie Martin in episode twelve of Law and Order: UK. Mohindra also appeared briefly as a waitress in a Pizza Hut advertisement. She also appears on Beaver Falls as Saima.

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


Lauren Ambrose was 46 - 7 credits, including Jilly Kitzinger in Rendition(TW)

Lauren Ambrose is an American film, television, and stage actress.

In 2011, Ambrose appeared in seven of the ten episodes of Torchwood: Miracle Day. She played Jilly Kitzinger, "a sweet-talking PR genius with a heart of stone who's just cornered the most important client of her career � and maybe of all time". For her performance as Kitzinger, Ambrose received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress In Television.

Ambrose began her career in New York theater, mainly in Off-Broadway productions. Her early career also included television appearances, most notably playing supporting guest roles on Law & Order, and a feature guest role on the show in the 1998 episode "Damaged" as Valerie Maxwell, a mentally-challenged young woman raped by a group of popular high school students. Her first film role was In & Out (1997), which was followed by a more prominent role in the high school comedy Can't Hardly Wait (1998). She was the ingenue lead, Florence "Chicklet" Forrest, in the cult favorite Psycho Beach Party (2000). Ambrose began her role on Six Feet Under in early 2001. She was nominated for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role Emmy Award twice, following the 2002 and 2003 seasons of the critically acclaimed drama.

In 2006, Ambrose made her Broadway debut in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Awake and Sing!. In 2007, she appeared as Juliet in the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, to great critical acclaim. She appeared as Ophelia in the 2008 performance of Hamlet for Shakespeare in the Park. Ambrose returned to Broadway in Exit the King (by Eugene Ionesco) at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on Broadway, opposite Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon. Ambrose provided the voice of monster KW in Where the Wild Things Are, which was released in 2009.


Hazel Wyn Williams was 69 - credited as Faith Penn in From Out of the Rain(TW)

Hazel Wyn Williams played Faith Penn in Torchwood From Out of the Rain.


Anthony Head was 70 - 38 credits, including Mr Finch in School Reunion
Anthony Head rose to fame in the UK following his role in television advertisements for Nescafe Gold Blend, and is known for his roles as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as Uther Pendragon in Merlin.

Ian Scoones (died 2010 aged 69) would have been 84 - 9 credits, including Visual Effects Designer for The Ambassadors of Death

Ian Scoones was the visual effects designer for several Doctor Who stories in the 1970's

He was assistant to special effects wizard Les Bowie during the 1960's. Worked at Hammer, before joining the BBC in 1970, where he was noted for his work on "Monty Python" and "Doctor Who". In 1980, became special effects supervisor for the "Hammer House of Horror" TV series.


Elroy Josephs (died 1997 aged 57) would have been 85 - credited as Jamaica in The Smugglers

George Waring (died 2010 aged 84) would have been 99 - credited as Arden in The Ice Warriors
George Waring was a British television actor from 1962 to 2000. He also had occasional feature film credits. He was best known for appearing on Coronation Street as Arnold Swain, the bigamist husband of Emily Bishop in 1980.

Rex Tucker (died 1996 aged 83) would have been 111 - credited as Director for The Gunfighters

Amongst his work, he was a driving force during the formative stages of Doctor Who in 1963, acting as a caretaker producer prior to the arrival of Verity Lambert. Tucker's friend, the actor and director Hugh David � whom Tucker had actually approached about playing the leading role in the series � later claimed in interviews that it was Tucker who had named the series Doctor Who, although Tucker himself credited Sydney Newman with this. Tucker was also the director originally assigned to the first serial, An Unearthly Child, and later it had been planned that Tucker would direct more of the programme's introductory season. However, these commitments did not work out, and ultimately he directed only The Gunfighters in 1966. During the last episode, The O.K. Corral, a dispute arose between Tucker and then producer Innes Lloyd over the editing of the episode, leading to Tucker requesting that his credit be excised.

The director is played by Andrew Woodall in the 50th Anniversary drama An Adventure In Space And Time.


Gerald Cross (died 1981 aged 69) would have been 112 - credited as Guardian Voice in The Stones of Blood

Gerald Cross was an English actor. 

Among his credits are Doctor WhoFrancis Durbridge's The World of Tim Frazer and the Miss Marple films Murder, She Said (1961) and Murder Ahoy!(1964).


 Deaths
David de Keyser (died 2021 aged 93) - credited as Atraxi Voice in The Eleventh Hour

David de Keyser  is a British actor.

He voiced the Atraxi in the 2010 Doctor Who story The Eleventh Hour and did the voices for the Cybermen in the video game The Eternity Clock, replacing Nicholas Briggs.

In the mid-sixties de Keyser worked twice with the writer, actor and director Jane Arden. Their first collaboration, The Logic Game (January 1965), was directed by Philip Saville. They acted together again in another Jane Arden script in the film Separation (Jack Bond 1968) which was set in London and featured music by Procol HarumMatthew Fisher and Stanley Myers. The themes of both pieces were marital strife and disintegrating relationships.

De Keyser has also worked on four occasions for the British director John Boorman, twice on screen in Catch Us If You Can (1965) and Leo the Last (1970), and on two further occasions Boorman has used de Keyser's rich, distinctive voice, firstly as the Voice of the Tabernacle in Zardoz (1974), and as the Voice of the Grail in Excalibur (1981).

He starred in the BBC Radio 4 comedy The Attractive Young Rabbi with Tracy-Ann Oberman. He also made an appearance in the UK TV series The Professionals (TV series), in the episode entitled "Servant of Two Masters". He was the narrator for Pathe Pictorial in the 1960s, and has also been a prolific voiceover on television advertisements in the UK, as well as serving as the announcer on the first series of comedy panel game Would I Lie to You?, before being replaced for the second series.


Jon Rollason (died 2016 aged 84) - credited as Harold Chorley in The Web of Fear

Jon Rollason was born in Birmingham, England. His introduction on television came with Children of the New Forest, and then later took on the role of Dr. Martin King in The Avengers. He later played teacher David Robbins in Coronation Street, and also undertook a number of roles in Z-Cars and later Softly, Softly, as well as appearances in  several shows over the course of his career, such as Dangerman, The Baron, Crossroads and Robin's Nest.

He leaves his wife Shirley, children Kate and Saul, and grandchildren.

Derek Waring (died 2007 aged 79) - credited as Shardovan in Castrovalva

Derek Waring started playing DI Neil Goss in 1969, in the police drama Z-Cars and continued in this role for 215 episodes until 1973. Following Z-Cars he played Roland Moody in Moody and Pegg. Later in the 1970s, Waring appeared in programmes such as Murder Most English, Crown Court, The New Avengers, Two's Company and George and Mildred. In 1980, he played Harry Somers in the Scottish soap opera Take the High Road. During the 1980s he appeared on screen in The Enigma Files, Never the Twain and The Professionals. In 1982, he appeared as Shardovan in the third and fourth parts of the Doctor Who serial "Castrovalva".

He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared in many productions including War of the Roses.[3] In the West End he appeared in Cowardy Custard, Suzie Wong and in the late 1980s The Boy Friend, which was his final West End appearance. On Broadway he played Prince Albert in Portrait of a Queen[2] opposite his wife who played Queen Victoria.

His father was the TV pioneer Wing Commander H.J. Barton-Chapple, who had worked with John Logie Baird.


Peter Glaze (died 1983 aged 65) - credited as 3rd Sensorite in The Sensorites

Peter Glaze was an English comedian born in London

He played the villainous City Administrator in the 1964 story The Sensorites 

He hosted Crackerjack with Leslie Crowther in the 1960s and with Michael AspelDon Maclean, and Bernie Clifton in the 1970s. In Crackerjack sketches, he usually played a pompous or upper-class character, who would always get exasperated with his comedy partner Don Maclean during the course of the sketch. He regularly uttered the expression "D'oh!", long before it became associated with cartoon character Homer Simpson.

Glaze was the son of an actor/manager and started in entertainment at the Windmill Theatre. He was The Crazy Gang's understudy and assisted Roy Hudd in a re-creation of one of the Gang's famous routines for a televised Royal Variety Performance in 1982. He also appeared in Whack-O!; in Thank You Sir, Thank You Madam; and in The Sweeney episode Big Spender as Joe Spratt. Glaze was also the character supplying the farm animal noises in the Hancock episode The Bowmans.

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