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On This Day (USA) - 6 January



The Enemy of the World: Episode 3 premiered on BBC One in 1968 at 5:25pm GMT, watched by 7.10 million viewers.

Jamie and Victoria befriend Fariah, intent on discovering the truth about Salamander. Astrid plans to rescue Denes, but not everything goes according to plan.


The Three Doctors: Episode Two premiered on BBC One in 1973 at 5:51pm GMT, watched by 10.80 million viewers.

Following the advice of the First Doctor, the Third Doctor and Jo have crossed through the black hole to the strange, desolate world of antimatter.


The Power of Kroll: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1979 at 6:27pm GMT, watched by 8.90 million viewers.

Warriors of the Deep: Part Two premiered on BBC One in 1984 at 6:41pm GMT, watched by 7.50 million viewers.

 Birthdays
Rowan Atkinson was 69 - credited as The Doctor in Doctor Who and The Curse Of Fatal Death(Misc)

Rowan Atkinson is a comic actor reknowned for his physical comedy and facial expression. He first started acting whilst studying Electrical Engineering at Oxford, and achieved recognition through the Edinburgh Fringe; it was during this period that he also met up with long-term friend and collaborator Richard Curtis, with whom he worked on films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and for Comic Relief in items such as The Curse of Fatal Death.

The two worked together on the radio show The Atkinson People, which was produced by Gryff Rhys Jones, and then Atkinson became one of the key regulars on television in Not The Nine O'Clock News, produced by another friend, John Lloyd. Then in 1983 he achieved public fame as The Black Adder, followed by three further series. 

Following this, Atkinson achieved international fame through his character Mr Bean, which went on to become two films. The popularity of the character was such that he appeared as part of the London 2013 Olympics during a rendition of Chariots of Fire.

Another collaboration on television, this time with Ben Elton, came in the form of The Thin Blue Line. Atkinson then starred in a number of successful Barclays adverts as a hapless spy, which inspired a new creation in the films Johnny English and Johnny English Reborn. Other films the actor has appeared in include the James Bond film Never Say Never Again, The Tall GuyRat Race, and Hot Shots! Part Deux.

The actor has also appeared in theatre, notably as Fagin in the West End production on Oliver! during 2009.


Sylvia Syms (died 2023 aged 89) would have been 90 - credited as Mrs Pritchard in Ghost Light

Sylvia Syms was a star of British cinema. She appeared in a number of iconic movies including Ice Cold in AlexNo Trees in the Street, Victim, and The Tamarind Seed.

She appeared in Doctor Who in 1989 playing Mrs. Pritchard in the Seventh Doctor story Ghost Light

Sylvia Syms was born in South East London in 1934.  At the age of five World War II broke out and she became one of the thousands of children who were evacuated from London, moving first to Kent and then, in 1940, to Monmouthshire in Wales. She later recalled the trauma of being separated from her mother, who was to die of a brain tumour when Syms was just 12.

At 16, she suffered a nervous breakdown and contemplated suicide but, at the insistence of her stepmother, had psychotherapy which helped her through the crisis.She trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

After graduating she quickly moved into filmmaking earning plaudits with her second role, playing the delinquent daughter of  Anna Neagle in My Teenage Daughter. The following year she had a key supporting role in the kitchen-sink drama Woman in a Dressing Gown, for which she was nominated for the Bafta for best British actress

A couple of years later she was appearing alongside John Mills in the war movie Ice Cold with Alex. She later played thwannabe singer Maisie in Expresso Bongo. By 1960 had worked with Flora Robson, Orson Welles, Stanley Holloway, Lilli Palmer and William Holden.

In 1961 she played the wife of Dirk Bogarde in the film Victim. The movie dealt with homosexual activity, then unlawful in the United Kingdom, and the movie is thought to have helped change the law. In 1963 she played Tony Hancock's wife in The Punch and Judy Man. Another comedy followed with The Big Job alongside Sid James, Dick Emery, and Joan Sims.

She was again nominated for a British Film Academy award for the 1974 film The Tamarind Seed where she starred with Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif. In 2006 she played The Queen Mother in the Stephen Frears film The Queen

From the mid-seventies onwards her main work was on Television appearing in many supporting roles. In 1991 she portrayed Margaret Thatcher in Thatcher: The Final Days for Granada.  She played Marion Riley in the ITV comedy-drama series At Home with the Braithwaites and in 2007 joined EastEnders for a short run playing dressmaker Olive Woodhouse.

Her last role was in the 2019 series Gentleman Jack, where she played Mrs Rawlinson


Bill Strange was 91 - credited as Alien Guard in The War Games

William Strange is an actor, known for Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School, The Pickwick Papers and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre.


Raymond Westwell (died 1982 aged 63) would have been 105 - credited as Prison Governor in The Mind of Evil

Raymond Westwell played the prison governor in the Doctor Who story The Mind of Evil.

Other works include BBC2 PlayhouseKillersBBC Play of the MonthAntony and CleopatraSix Days of JusticeSoftly Softly: Task ForceComedy PlayhouseHunterBellbirdPoint of DepartureBBC Sunday-Night Theatre


 Deaths
William Morgan Sheppard (died 2019 aged 86) - 2 credits, including Canton Delaware in The Wedding of River Song
William Morgan Sheppard was born in London to an Anglo-Irish family. Educated in Ireland he graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 1956-58 before spending 12 years as Associate Artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He appeared on Broadway in 1966 with Marat/Sade and later in 1975 with Sherlock Holmes. He won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for The Homecoming in 1995, at the Matrix Theatre.

Sheppard appeared in several episodes of different series of Star Trek, notably "The Schizoid Man", as well as the feature film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He also had roles as Blank Reg on Max Headroom and Confederate General Isaac Trimble in the filmsGettysburg and Gods and Generals.

He has appeared in two roles on the science fiction series Babylon 5 and played a computer hologram for an A.I. program during the first and second season of seaQuest DSV. He appeared in two episodes of MacGyver as well as appearing in the show Minder.

He appeared in the 1978 TV-film The Nativity and starred alongside John Terry in the 1980 fantasy film Hawk the Slayer. He appeared in the 1992 comedy film There Goes the Neighborhood. He appeared in the 1988 comedy horror film Elvira, Mistress of the Dark as Elvira's Great-Uncle Vincent Talbot who was an evil warlock. Sheppard was cast in the 1996 adventure game Zork Nemesis and in 2000 he voiced the character Ignatius Cheese in the game Escape from Monkey Island. He played the role of Captain Archibald Witwicky in the 2007 live action film Transformers.

In the opening episode of series six of Doctor Who, "The Impossible Astronaut" he plays an older version of the character Canton Everett Delaware III while his son Mark Sheppard portrays the younger version.

John Scott Martin (died 2009 aged 82) - 26 credits, including Dalek Operator in The Chase

John Scott Martin  was an English actor born in Toxteth, Liverpool. He was a Dalek operator in over 50 episodes of the classic series of Doctor Who.

Martin operated Daleks from 1965's The Chase through to 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks. He worked with eight different actors in the title role of Doctor Who from William Hartnell to Sylvester McCoy, and also Richard Hurndall, who took on the role of the First Doctor in The Five Doctors. 

He also operated other Doctor Who monster costumes including the insectoid Zarbi in The Web Planet, and the robotic Mechanoids in The Chase. In the episode Robot Martin made his first on screen appearance, he appeared as a guard in the first episode. Martin also had a cameo in the BBC series The Tripods.

Some of his other television appearances include I, Claudius, Z-Cars, Quatermass and the Pit, Softly, Softly and the comedy Mine All Mine, written by Russell T Davies.

His film credits include a dancing instructor in a brief scene in Alan Parker's film of Pink Floyd's The Wall, and small roles in Ali G Indahouse, Little Shop of Horrors and the Monty Python films Erik the Viking and The Meaning of Life.

He appeared on the West End stage in shows like Kismet, Oliver! and The Streets of London. In the Manchester Opera House production of Fiddler on the Roof featuring Topol in the starring role, he played the Rabbi.

Martin also appeared in the music video for the Catatonia single "Dead from the Waist Down". His daughter, Catriona Martin is also an actress.


Kathleen Heath (died 2004 aged 87) - credited as Woman Tourist in The Chase

Kathleen Heath was an actress with a large number of credits in British TV Drama. 

Roles include parts in Emma, The Ghost Goes Gear and Break in the Sun.