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On This Day (USA) - 9 August



Real Time: Episode Two premiered on BBC Online in 2002 at 12:00pm BST

 Birthdays
Daniela Denby-Ashe was 46 - credited as Mary in Greeks Bearing Gifts(TW)

Daniela Denby-Ashe is an English actress, best known for playing the character Janey Harper in the sitcom My Family.

Denby-Ashe began studying ballet at age 2 1/2, then at a later stage tap; from the ages of 10 to 16, she attended Corona Theatre School. Her early career included television adverts and the role of playing Saffy's daughter in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous in 1995. Other early appearances included The Bill and the Channel 4 sitcom Desmond's.Her father, Mirosław Pszkit (pronounced "Pshkeet"), is a native of Poland, who reportedly came to Britain at the age of 12. Daniela Denby-Ashe's French mother, Jola, was born in Britain. Denby-Ashe speaks English, French and Polish. When her parents got married, they reportedly used the telephone directory to search for a suitable English-sounding surname, as people could not pronounce "Pszkit." One found "Denby," the other found "Ashe," they couldn't decide which to use, so they used both and double-barrel.

Daniela Denby-Ashe made one of her first appearances in the 1990 video Nursery Rhymes 2 by Pickwick Video Group. She was first seen on television in an advert for KP Skips ("All that fizzin' and meltin'"), which then led her to her big break when, in 1995, she got the role of Sarah Hills in EastEnders. She played this character until 1999.

The following year, she got the role of Janey Harper in a new BBC sitcom called My Family. Denby-Ashe took a break from My Family for the fourth series in 2003, but returned to this role in 2004. The eleventh and final series began airing on BBC One on 17 June 2011.

In 2004, she took the lead female role of Margaret Hale in the BBC drama adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South, and in 2006 played Mary in the Torchwood episode Greeks Bearing Gifts. Her other television roles include Office GossipRescue MeIs Harry on the Boat?, and The Afternoon Play. In 2005, she appeared in the Radio 4 comedy Ring Around the Bath.

Denby-Ashe has also performed at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and Criterion Theatre, London in The Countess and in Motortown at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre.

In 2007, Denby-Ashe starred as Robert Maxwell's secretary in Maxwell, a BBC drama about his life. In December 2008 she appeared in BBC Four's supernatural drama series Crooked House. In April 2009 she appeared in Series 4 of the BBC drama series Waterloo Road as a deceitful supply teacher, Jem Allen. Denby-Ashe also starred in a Midsomer Murders episode which aired on Wednesday 13 October 2010.

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


Eva Alexander was 48 - credited as Nurse in Let's Kill Hitler

Eva Alexander is a British actress and a children's TV presenter. 

She played the nurse in the 2011 Doctor Who story Let's Kill Hitler. 

Until October 2006, she was a continuity presenter on the BBC preschool television channel CBeebies, joining as a replacement for Nicole Davis, who left in February 2006. Alexander left CBeebies Presentation in October 2006.

In 1993 Alexander appeared (under her real name) in Franco Zeffirelli's film Storia di una capinera (aka Sparrow).

Alexander has had a variety of small parts in television dramas such as Waking The DeadThe Brief and Casualty, in addition to a range of theatre and radio work. She also starred in the Children's BBC programme The Mysti Show as Ella, a stubborn teenager who is helped by Mystical Rainbowfrost (aka Mysti), a fairy who can change into a human. She appeared in the 2009 ITV drama Whatever It Takes and in 2010 she appeared once again on CBBC, this time as the character Gill in Hounded. She also appeared in the 2010 film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 as a waitress.


Nicola Stapleton was 50 - credited as Mandy Salter in Dimensions In Time(Misc)

Nicola Stapleton played Mandy Salter in Eastenders 


Sanne Wohlenberg was 56 - 5 credits, including Producer for The Doctor's Wife

Sanne Wohlenberg (sometimes credited as Sanne Craddick) is a television producer. 

She is the first producer of Doctor Who to speak English as a second language. She is the second credited producer — behind American Peter V. Ware — not born a British subject.

Wohlenberg's was the line producer of the 2001 tele-film, Men Only. In 2003, she worked on the television adaptation of Lucky Jim. She also was the initial producer on the continuing drama, Murphy's Law. In 2006, she was BAFTA-nominated for her production of the 2005 serial, Funland, featuring Burn Gorman and Mark Gatiss. She went on to produce the 2007 six-parter, The Whistleblowers, starring Indira Varma and Daniel Ryan, and partially directed by Richard Clark.

Immediately before her work on Doctor Who, she produced two high-profile projects: Lindsay Duncan's performance as Margaret Thatcher in Margaret and Kenneth Branagh's version of Kurt Wallander in series 2 of Wallander.

 She joined Doctor Who as producer for the 2010 Christmas special, A Christmas Carol. 


Helen McIlveen-Wilson was 64 - credited as Sound Recordist for Closing Time

Helen McIlveen-Wilson, was the Sound recordist of the 2011 Doctor Who television story Closing Time.

Also worked on UnforgivenEmmerdaleCasualty 1907HeartbeatTrue Dare Kiss10:96: Training NightBarking!The RoyalPhoenix NightsCoronation StreetSeptember SongStars in Their Eyes


Roberta Tovey was 71 - 2 credits, including Susan in Dr Who and the Daleks(Aaru)

Roberta Tovey played Susan in the Dalek movies produced in the 1960s and starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Who. She was born in Shepherd's Bush, London.

In addition to her two appearances as "the other Susan,"  Tovey is also known for her roles in the films Runaway Railway and High Wind in Jamaica, both produced in 1965, and for a two-year stint as Trudi Corner in the television series "Not in Front of the Children." Most recently, she has appeared as Samantha in the 1987 television series "My Husband and I," and was interviewed for the 1993 documentary "Thirty Years in the TARDIS."

Roberta Tovey also sang the single, "Who's Who," released by Polydor Records to cash in on the popularity of the first Dalek movie.

She is the daughter of George Tovey, who played Ernie Clements in TV: Pyramids of Mars.

Biography from the Tardis Wiki article, licensed under CC-BY-SA


Bernard Holley (died 2021 aged 81) would have been 84 - 6 credits, including Axon Man in The Claws of Axos

Bernard Holley (born in EastcoteMiddlesex) is a British actor, whose career has spanned more than four decades.

Holley attended the Rose Bruford Drama School and Kilburn Grammar School. He made his first professional stage appearance at the Theatre Royal Lincoln.

He first rose to prominence in the long-running UK police drama series Z-Cars as PC Newcombe, a character he would play for four years. He is also well known for his appearances in Doctor Who, first as Peter Haydon in the 1967 story The Tomb of the Cybermen, starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, and later he appeared as the Axon Man in the Jon Pertwee story The Claws of Axos in 1971. Bernard reprised his role as Axos in a new Doctor Who audio drama, The Feast of Axos, opposite Colin Baker which was released on CD in February 2011.

Other regular roles include The Gentle Touch as Detective Inspector Mike Turnbull (1982�84), a character he also played in the follow-up series C.A.T.S. Eyes in 1985. He later played Richard in two seasons of Birds of a Feather in 1998. He also appeared as the Chief Constable in the popular drama series A Touch of Frost, starring David Jason, in 1999 and returned to play the role in 2003.

His recent television appearances include HollyoaksEastEndersDoctors and Holby City. He has also worked consistently on the stage, working in theatres all over the country, including Brighton, Manchester, Edinburgh, Derby, and Norwich. His most recent stage role was in Allan Monkhouse's Mary Broome at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in 2011. He has also voiced hundreds of commercials, including the TV campaign for the Playstation 3 gameLittleBigPlanet and has presented many Corporate Videos.


Denys Hawthorne (died 2009 aged 77) would have been 92 - credited as Rudge in The Trial of a Time Lord (Terror of the Vervoids)

Denys Hawthorne was an actor who appeared in a number of roles in British television and Film.

An Ulsterman by birth, Hawthorne was born into a well-to-do Protestant family. Hawthorne's father was in the linen business in Portadown, County Armagh.  Hawthorne  read law at Queen's University, Belfast, and then settled on a career in the theatre.

He joined the Ulster Group Theatre (UGT), before traveling to London and joining the BBC radio drama repertory. He was a regular player at George Devine's Royal Court in Sloane Square, in London, where he distinguished himself in the theatre of the absurd of Eugène Ionesco, playing the Old Man in The Chairs (1957).

Between 1974 and 1978 he appeared in 46 episodes of the women's prison soap Within These Walls, as prison physician Dr Peter Mayesm  as well as in the banking series Capital City (1989-90) and the BBC drama Dangerfield (1995).

He was awarded the Society of Authors' prize for his dramatisation of Jennifer Johnston's novel How Many Miles to Babylon, and he was a joint recipient in 2002 of an SWPA (Spoken Word Publishers Association) award for his contribution to the recording of Yeats's poetry for Naxos audiobooks.


Alethea Charlton (died 1976 aged 44) would have been 93 - 2 credits, including Edith in The Time Meddler

Alethea Charlton was a British actress from Yorkshire, England.

She played a cavewoman called Hur in the first ever Doctor Who story. She returned playing the character Edith in the serial The Time Meddler in 1965.

Her other TV credits include: Sam, Z Cars, Follyfoot, The Borderers, Doomwatch, Out of the Unknown and Upstairs, Downstairs.


Graham Leaman (died 1985 aged 64) would have been 104 - 5 credits, including Price in Fury From the Deep

Graham Leaman was a British actor. As a disabled actor many of his appearances in television shows involved him in parts that didn't require to walk far, ir at all: in Doctor Who, for instance, two roles were presented as "on monitor" appearances, and with Fury From the Deep his character was seen to be at a control panel (the animation features scenes with a futuristic wheelchair). Other roles included parts in  Upstairs, DownstairsPlay for TodayDead of Night,  DoomwatchThe First ChurchillsThe Power GamA Man for All Seasons, No Hiding PlaceAnna KareninaSuspenseJulius CaesarHancock's Half Hour.


 Deaths
Doreen Mantle (died 2023 aged 97) - credited as Mrs Randall in Eye of the Gorgon(SJA)

Doreen Mantle was a South African-born British actress who was probably best known for her role as Mrs Jean Warboys in One Foot in the Grave (1990-2000).

She played Mrs. Randall in The Sarah Jane Adventures two-part television story Eye of the Gorgon.

She appeared in many British television series from the 1960s to the present, such as The Duchess of Duke Street, The Wild House, Chalk, Casualty, The Bill, Doctors, Holby City and Jonathan Creek. She played lollipop lady Queenie in Jam & Jerusalem (2006-2009).

Mantle has worked extensively on the stage in such productions as My Fair Lady, Keep It in the Family, The Seagull and Hamlet. She also toured Britain in Billy Liar in the role of Florence Boothroyd and performed at the National Theatre in The Voysey Inheritance.