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On This Day (USA) - 27 March



The Crusade: The Lion premiered on BBC One in 1965 at 5:42pm BST, watched by 10.50 million viewers.

When the TARDIS lands in 12th Century Palestine, Barbara is captured by the Saracens. The Doctor, Ian and Vicki assist in saving King Richard. Ian is eager to go after Barbara.


The Claws of Axos: Episode Three premiered on BBC One in 1971 at 5:15pm BST, watched by 6.40 million viewers.

The Axons reveal their true nature and attempt to obtain the secret of time travel. Meanwhile, the Master, forced to work for UNIT, concocts a plan to strike back at Axos.



 Birthdays
Clive Rowe was 60 - credited as Morvin Van Hoff in Voyage of the Damned

Cive Rowe is a British actor, probably best known for his role as "Duke" in BBC Children's drama The Story of Tracy Beaker. 

Rowe grew up in Shaw, Lancashire, in the parish of East Crompton and attended St. James Primary School. He is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

He has appeared on television in Dalziel and Pascoe and The Bill, and appeared on the BBC1 drama All The Small Things, portraying "Clifford Beale", a homeless caretaker, more commonly known as "Shrek". He is known as being a gentle character with a good voice and loved by most.[peacock term] picture of Clive Rowe

His film roles include that of "Sammy" in Lars Von Trier's controversial Manderlay.

Rowe won the 1997 Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical for his role as "Nicely Nicely Johnson" in the National Theatre revival of Guys and Dolls. He was also nominated for an Olivier Award for his role in 2008’s Mother Goose at the Hackney Empire. He was called one of the best Dames in the business when he appeared on BBC One's Breakfast News on 10 December 2009. He starred in the pantomime Aladdin at the Hackney Empire from November 2009 to January 2010 and in Jack and the Beanstalk from November 2010.

He appeared as "Judas Iscariot" opposite Dave Willetts' "Jesus" in a touring version of Jesus Christ Superstar. He also voiced "Audrey 2" in the UK tour of Little Shop of Horrors. He frequently plays the Dame in the annual Christmas pantomime at the Hackney Empire.

In the summer of 2009 he appeared as the Jester "Feste" in Edward Dick's Regent's Park Open Air Theatre's production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.


Adrian Rawlins was 66 - 2 credits, including Dr Ryder in Planet of the Ood

Adrian Rawlins is an English actor who is probably best known for playing Arthur Kidd in The Woman in Black (1989) and James Potter in the Harry Potter films.

Rawlins was born in Stoke-on-TrentStaffordshire the son of Mavis (née Leese) and Edward Rawlins. Rawlins was educated at Stanfield Technical High School in Stoke-on-Trent and the Stoke VI Form College. He then went on to train in art then subsequently acting at Crewe and Alsager College, now Manchester Met.

Rawlins has appeared in several films including Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, and also has a minor role in the Harry Potter film series as Harry Potter's father James Potter. Onstage, he has appeared in Her Naked Skin (2008, National Theatre). He played Richard Collingsworth in the 1989 TV serial The Ginger Tree, opposite Samantha Bond. He also starred in The Woman in Black which was made for television and aired at Christmas 1989.

He played Ryder in the 2008 story Planet of the Ood.


Julian Glover was 89 - 2 credits, including Richard the Lionheart in The Crusade

Julian Glover is a British actor.

He has had two major roles in Doctor Who. Alongside William Hartnell he played King Richard III in the 1965 story The Crusade.  he returned to the series in 1979 to play Count Scarlioni in the Douglas Adams written story, City of Death.

Glover has appeared in many British television shows, including The AvengersThe SaintStrange Report and Blake's 7. He appeared in 1967's Quatermass and the Pit, a Hammer Films adaptation of Nigel Kneale's 1950s BBC television original.

Glover also appeared opposite Roger Moore in the episode of The Saint titled "Invitation to Danger."

He made some of his most notable appearances during the 1980s as the Imperial General Maximilian Veers in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the ruthless Greek villain Aris Kristatos in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981), and the deceptive American Nazi Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). During the 1980s, he played the leading role in the BBC television drama series, By the Sword Divided.

He voiced the giant spider Aragog in the 2002 film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Glover has been associated with the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf since the 1980s, delivering various forms of staged interpretation


Patrick Newell (died 1988 aged 56) would have been 92 - credited as Colonel Faraday in The Android Invasion

Actor who appeared in the 1975 story The Android Invasion

Patrick Newell's most famous acting role was as the spymaster "Mother" in the telefantasy series The Avengers - an ITV show that was created by Sydney Newman, the co-creator of Doctor Who.



Tony Imi (died 2010 aged 82) would have been 97 - credited as Film Cameraman for The Faceless Ones

Tony Imi BSC  was a British motion picture and television cinematographer. 

He was born in London, England. Imi had worked continuously as a cinametographer since the late 1960s.

He was Film Cameraman for the Doctor Who story The Faceless Ones.

Also worked on A Brunette KissBridge Over BluePerfect LifeFour SeasonsTrappedStarting OverThe Shell SeekersCandles on Bay StreetThree - IIISchool for SeductionThe Blackwater LightshipLighthouse HillChaos and CadaversSilent CryVictoria & AlbertGoodbye Charlie BrightThe Testimony of Taliesin JonesRancid AluminiumLighthouseSplat!Aimée & JaguarOnly LoveDowntimeHer Desperate ChoiceThe AbductionDalvaThe Sunshine BoysThe Haunting of Helen WalkerScarlettShoppingFor the Love of My Child: The Anissa Ayala StoryMurder So SweetChild of RageAgainst Her Will: An Incident in BaltimoreCarolina SkeletonsOur SonsThe Last to GoDeadly IdentityCoins in the FountainWings of the ApacheThe Old Man and the SeaWiredOptionsBabycakesBusterAmerican RouletteEmpire StateQueenieThe Return of Sherlock HolmesOceans of FireThe Return of Sherlock HolmesThe Last Days of Frank and Jesse JamesEnemy MineReunion at FairboroughNot Quite ParadiseA Christmas CarolSakharovPope John Paul IISavage IslandsPrincess DaisyThe Life and Adventures of Nicholas NicklebyLittle Gloria... Happy at LastDreams Don't DieInside the Third ReichMy Body, My ChildNight CrossingFor Ladies OnlyA Tale of Two CitiesThe Sea WolvesDeath PenaltyThat's Carry OnSteiner - Das Eiserne Kreuz, 2. TeilNorth Sea HijackBrass TargetThe ProfessionalsInternational VelvetThe Slipper and the Rose: The Story of CinderellaThe Likely LadsEdward the SeventhThe FirefightersRobin Hood JuniorPercy's ProgressThe Zoo RobberyElephant BoyAnyone for Sex?I Am a DancerThe Trouble with 2BDulcimaThe Body, The Raging MoonUniversal SoldierJunket 89Inadmissible EvidenceReaching OutThe Wednesday PlaySchool for SeductionHouse of Mortal SinOlimpiada en MéxicoBBC Play of the MonthThe Wednesday PlayAdam Adamant Lives!The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling


Bernard Wilkie (died 2002 aged 82) would have been 104 - 6 credits, including Visual Effects Designer for Planet of the Spiders

Bernard Wilkie was the visual effects designer on six Doctor Who stories during the Second and Third Doctor's eras. 

His initial training was as a draughtsman and an engineer at the air ministry. He served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Having gained experience during the war of lighting stage shows, as well as creating props and scenery, he joined the BBC in 1948, working with the corporation's research department for six years. In 1954 he co-founded, with Jack Kine, the BBC Visual Effects Department, the first TV special effects unit in the world. Wilkie continued with the BBC for another 24 years, during which the Visual Effects Department continued to expand in size and expertise, working on numerous shows of all descriptions. 

He enjoyed imparting his knowledge and experience, which included writing a book, The Technique of Special Effects in Television, which gained worldwide influence and notoriety in the field, and his appearance on an episode of "Pebble Mill" (1973) in December 1973, during which he introduced viewers to some of the various masks, props and effects his department had been responsible for.

He also worked on a number of other notable BBC series, including Out of the UnknownNot So Much a Programme, More a Way of LifeStory ParadeJane EyreThe MonstersGreat CaptainsBeauty and the BeastHands Across the SkyBBC Sunday-Night PlayThe Three PrincesThe History of Mr PollyQuatermass and the PitHuntingtowerQuatermass IIThe Quatermass Experiment

After leaving the BBC, he moved into writing for German television, where he worked as a comedy scriptwriter and director. After that, he returned to writing for British television. His worldwide reputation as a pioneer of visual effects earned him continued work towards the end of his life, contributing articles to magazines and giving talks. 


Henry McCarthy (died 1993 aged 86) would have been 118 - credited as Dr Beavis in Spearhead From Space

Henry McCarthy was an actor active in the 60's and 70's.

He played Dr. Beavis in the Doctor Who story Spearhead from Space.


 Deaths
Richard Beale (died 2017 aged 96) - 4 credits, including Bat Masterson in The Gunfighters

Richard Beale was born in 1920. His early career encompassed being in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and then working in his father's print business before the lure of being an actor called.

Early film work included A Night to Remember and Sink the Bismarck! As well as Doctor Who, but he went on to be more familiar for television work, including Compact, Dr Finlay's Casebook, Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, War and Peace, The Life and Times of David Lloyd George, The Tripods, plus a year in Eastenders during the early 1990s and later shows like Casualty, The BillAfterlife and Teachers. He also appeared in three different versions of the Treasure Island tale (BBC 1987, ITV 1986 and a TV Movie in 1990).

In 2015 his memoirs of being in the Navy, One Man's War, was published.

Derek Martinus (died 2014 aged 82) - 6 credits, including Director for Spearhead From Space

Derek Martinus was a BBC drama Director, responsible for 26 episodes of classic Doctor Who. He was born in Ilford, Essex in 1931, he attended Brentwood School, later winning a scholarship to study drama at Yale. At the age of 22 he directed a summer season in Connecticut before returning to England and the repertory theatre in 1956.

His early acting career included playing Orsino in Twelfth Night in 1957 alongside John Franklyn-Robbins and John Ringham. He joined the Arena Theatre company from Newcastle in 1958, which led to him directing his first play a year later, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. He also appeared in a minor role in the very first Carry On film, Carry on Sergeant, which starred the first Doctor William Hartnell and who Martinus was to direct in the actor's final story, The Tenth Planet. in 1966.

In 1965 he was appointed as associate director at the Salisbury Playhouse, and then moved into television whichled to him directing several episodes of Z-Cars as well as a number of BBC2's literary adaptations and BBC1's Sunday Classics. As well as The Tenth Planet, he also directed a number of Doctor Who stories through the latter 1960s, introducing several classic monsters to the series, such as Cyberman, Ice Warriors and the Autons - Spearhead From Space was to be his last, but also was the first story to feature Jon Pertwee, the first story to be made in colour, and the only classic story to be shot totally on film. In later years he directed episodes of series such as Blake's 7, Angels, and Crown Court.

A huge fan of Swedish theatre, he met his future wife Eivor in 1959 and they collaborated on a number of projects, such as a Scandinavian tour of Shakespeare in Love in 1978, and he directed the series Vargen.

In later years he regularly directed for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama before Alzeimer's took over.

He died in London in March, survived by his wife and two daughters.


Peter Diamond (died 2004 aged 74) - 10 credits, including Fight Arranger for The Space Museum

Peter Diamond was an English actor who as a regular contributor to Doctor Who in the 1960s, as a fight arranger and actor.

He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and his appearances total over 1,000 credits in the industry as a stuntman, co-ordinator or fight arranger.

He appeared as the Tusken Raider who attacked Luke Skywalker in the firstStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope film. He also contributed to the sequels Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

His film credits include several Carry On films, Never Let GoFrom Russia with LoveDracula: Prince of DarknessAn American Werewolf in LondonRaiders of the Lost Ark, and Highlander, where he played the immortal Iman Fasil.

Peter Diamond's numerous TV credits include The SaintThe AvengersPaul TempleLast of the Summer WineHeartbeat, andLondon's Burning.

He was stunt coordinator/swordmaster on the 1990 TV series Zorro and acted in three episodes, two as Sir Edmund Kendall who taught Diego de la Vega (Zorro) to swordfight, and directed eight episodes. This series was filmed in Madrid, Spain for the U.S. ABC Family channel.


Derek Francis (died 1984 aged 60) - credited as Nero in The Romans

Derek Francis was an English comedy and character actor.

He was a regular in the Carry On film players, appearing in six of the films in the 1960s and 1970s. He appeared in Roger Corman's last film of his Edgar Allan Poe series The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). He also took roles in several BBC adaptations of Charles Dickens novels. His last role was in the 1984 version of A Christmas Carol.

Other roles included parts in the most established television series of the period: Rising DampThe ProfessionalsThe SweeneyThe New AvengersDanger ManJason KingUp Pompeii!Wild, Wild WomenCoronation Street, and Z-Cars. He also appeared as the Emperor Nero, a comic turn in the early Doctor Who story entitled The Romans oppositeWilliam Hartnell.

Among his stage roles was the title character in Cymbeline for the Old Vic in 1957.

He died of a heart attack in Wimbledon, London.


Jeanne Doree (died 1984 aged 90) - credited as Slave Worker in Day of the Daleks