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On This Day (USA) - 29 March



The Space Pirates: Episode Four premiered on BBC One in 1969 at 5:17pm BST, watched by 5.80 million viewers.
In the tunnels beneath Ta, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are rescued from their cell by Milo Clancey. They head to the surface with the pirates in hot pursuit.

Genesis of the Daleks: Part Four premiered on BBC One in 1975 at 5:31pm BST, watched by 8.80 million viewers.

When the Kaled dome is destroyed by the Thals' rocket, the war appears to be over and the Thals rejoice at their victory. But then, the Daleks appear and a massacre begins.


Time-Flight: Part Three premiered on BBC One (Not Wales) in 1982 at 6:56pm BST, watched by 8.90 million viewers.

The Twin Dilemma: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1984 at 6:41pm BST, watched by 7.00 million viewers.

Death Comes To Time: No Child Of Earth (pt 1) premiered on BBC Online in 2002 at 12:00pm GMT

 Birthdays
Leslie Meadows will be 77 - 3 credits, including The Creature in Dragonfire

Leslie Meadows played Adlon in Delta and the Bannermen and the Creature in Dragonfire.

Also appeared in Peak PracticeMack the KnifeStar RockLove Thy NeighbourDoomwatchOurs Is a Nice HouseUp the JunctionHalf a Sixpence 


Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (died 2012 aged 76) would be 88 - credited as Incidental Music for The Aztecs

Sir Richard Rodney BennettCBE was an English composer renowned for his film scores and his jazz performance as much as for his challenging concert works. He lived in New York City since 1979.

Richard Rodney Bennett was born at BroadstairsKent. He was a pupil at Leighton Park School, the Quaker school in Reading, studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Howard FergusonLennox Berkeley and Cornelius Cardew. During this time, he attended some of the Darmstadt summer courses, where he was exposed to serialism. He later spent two years in Paris as a student of the prominent serialist Pierre Boulez.

Bennett taught at the Royal Academy of Music between 1963 and 1965, at the Peabody Institute in BaltimoreUnited States from 1970 to 1971, and was later International Chair of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music between 1994 and the year 2000. He received a CBE in 1977, and was knighted in 1998.

As one of Britain�s most respected and versatile musicians, Bennett produced over two hundred works for the concert hall, and fifty scores for film and television, as well as having been a writer and performer of jazz songs for fifty years. Studies with Boulez in the 1950s immersed him in the techniques of the European avant-garde, though he subsequently developed his own distinctive dramato-abstract style. In recent years, he has adopted an increasingly tonal idiom.

He  wrote music for films and television; among his scores are the Doctor Who story The Aztecs (1964) for television, and the feature film Billion Dollar Brain (1967). His scores for Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), and Murder on the Orient Express (1974), each garnered him Academy Award nominations, with Murder on the Orient Express earning him a BAFTA award. Later works include Enchanted April (1992), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), and The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1998). He was also a prolific composer of orchestral works, piano solos, choral works and operas. Despite this eclecticism, Bennett's music rarely involves crossover of styles.

He died on 24th December 2012, 

Obituaries: The Guardian

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


Yolande Palfrey (died 2011 aged 54) would be 67 - credited as Janet in The Trial of a Time Lord (Terror of the Vervoids)

Yolande Palfrey was a British actress who appeared in many BBC programmes including Pennies from Heaven, Measure for Measure, Elizabeth Alone, Wings, Blake's 7 , Crime and Punishment and Nanny.

In Doctor Who she played Janet, a stewardess on the Hyperion III, in the 1986 Sixth Doctor story,  Terror of the Vervoids.

She appeared in The Finishing Line, Love in a Cold Climate for Thames Television, Dragonslayer for The Walt Disney Company and Paramount Pictures, and The Breadwinner for Yorkshire Television.

Stage performances included Murder, Dear Watson at The Mill at Sonning and Great Expectations at the Old Vic.

Yolande Palfrey died of a brain tumour.


Barry Jackson (died 2013 aged 75) would be 86 - 4 credits, including Drax in The Armageddon Factor

Barry Jackson was an English actor, best known to Doctor Who fans for his three roles in the series.

His film roles included: Ryan's Daughter, Barry Lyndon, Aces High, The Raging Moon, Mr. Love and Wimbledon.

TV credits included: A for Andromeda, The Mask of Janus, Adam Adamant Lives!, Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, The Troubleshooters, Doomwatch, Poldark, Oil Strike North, The New Avengers, Secret Army, Blake's 7, The Professionals, Coronation Street, Enemy at the Door, All Creatures Great and Small, Minder, Bergerac, Lovejoy, Casualty, Peak Practice, Silent Witness, Kavanagh QC, The Bill, A Touch of Frost, Holby City, Heartbeat and Midsomer Murders.


Guardian Obituary


Philip Locke (died 2004 aged 76) would be 96 - credited as Bigon in Four To Doomsday

Philip Locke was an English actor who appeared in the 1982 story Four to Doomsday.

He is possibly best known for his role as villainous SPECTRE underling Vargas in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball.

He trained at RADA and played many Shakespearian characters at The Royal Court Theatre.

On television, he appeared in : The Baron, The Avengers, The Saint, The Champions, Department S, Z-Cars, Pennies from Heaven, The Omega Factor, Bergerac, Inspector Morse, Jeeves and Wooster, Minder, Antony and Cleopatra, and Ivanhoe.

A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he also played "Professor Moriarty" on Broadway in Sherlock Holmes in 1974-76 and appeared in Amadeus at the National Theatre.


Frank Seton (died 2007 aged 88) would be 106 - 2 credits, including Sea Devil in The Sea Devils

Frank Seton was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England.

He was an actor, known for A Private Enterprise (1974),Strongroom (1962) and The Trouble with 2B (1972). He died in Rosecare, Cornwall, England.


 Deaths
Shane Rimmer (died 2019 aged 90) - credited as Seth Harper in The Gunfighters

Shane Rimmer is a Canadian actor and voice actor, probably best known as the voice of Scott Tracy in Thunderbirds.

He has mostly performed in supporting roles, frequently in films and television series filmed in the United Kingdom, having relocated to England in the late 1950s, initially performing as a cabaret singer before auditioning for Thunderbirds.[1][2] His appearances include roles in such widely-known films as Dr. Strangelove (1964), Rollerball (1975), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Gandhi(1982), Out of Africa (1985) and Crusoe (1989). More recently he has appeared in Spy Game (2001), and Batman Begins (2005). In the earlier years of his career, there were several uncredited performances, among others for films such as You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Star Wars (1977) and Superman II (1980). With the exception of recurring featured cast members he has appeared in more James Bond films than any other actor.

Rimmer has a long association with Gerry AndersonThunderbirds fans may recognize him as the voice actor behind the character Scott Tracy. He drafted the plotline for the penultimate episode, "Ricochet", which was later turned into a script by Tony Barwick. He also wrote scripts and provided uncredited voices for Captain Scarlet and the MysteronsJoe 90 and The Secret Service, has made appearances in episodes of Anderson's live-action UFO and The Protectors, has provided voices for Space: 1999 and has guest-starred in the episode "Space Brain". In later years he starred in the unscreened pilot Space Police (later made into a series with other actors and titled Space Precinct) and provided the voice for Anderson's stop-motion gumshoe Dick Spanner, P.I..

He also appeared in the 1966 Doctor Who story The Gunfighters, and in Coronation Street as two different characters: Joe Donnelli (1968�1970), who held Stan Ogden hostage in No. 5 before committing suicide, and Malcolm Reid (1988), father of Audrey Roberts' son Stephen.

He has made many guest appearances in British television series for ITV, including in Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected, and ITC's The Persuaders!.

In 1989 Rimmer was reunited with former Gerry Anderson actors Ed Bishop and Matt Zimmerman in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study In Scarlet. Rimmer and Bishop also appeared in the BBC drama-documentary Hiroshima completed not long after Bishop's death in 2005.

 

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

 


John Gill (died 2007 aged 95) - credited as Oak in Fury From the Deep

John Gill played Oak in the Doctor Who story Fury from the Deep.

Also worked on The Land GirlsCrime TravellerRuth Rendell MysteriesThe BillThe Memoirs of Sherlock HolmesMaigretAll Creatures Great and SmallShadow of the NooseCampionThe Heat of the DayExecutive StressA Gentleman's ClubTheatre NightThe Whistle BlowerScreen TwoJuliet BravoThe Adventures of Sherlock HolmesSwallows and Amazons Forever!: Coot Club Remember NelsonThe Life and Times of David Lloyd GeorgeTo Serve Them All My DaysTales of the UnexpectedTessITV PlayhouseTwo's CompanyBorn and BredBacks to the LandAngelsJust WilliamClayhangerChurchill's PeopleDavid CopperfieldMicrobes and MenSpecial BranchSporting ScenesVan der ValkFather Dear FatherZ CarsPublic EyeFather Dear FatherThe Rivals of Sherlock HolmesBBC Play of the MonthZeppelinPaul TempleGazetteMiddlemarchVirgin of the Secret ServiceNicholas NicklebyThe First LadySat'day While SundayTheatre 625Hobson's ChoiceThe FellowsPrivilegeGreat ExpectationsOrlandoKing of the RiverQuick Before They Catch UsThe BaronRedcapSoftly SoftlySwizzlewickNight Must FallDixon of Dock GreenDr. Finlay's CasebookThe SaintRichard the LionheartThe Plane MakersIt Happened Like ThisThis Sporting LifeThe AvengersWilliamBarbara in BlackVice VersaMaigretGalileoYou Can't WinThe World of Tim FrazerA WeddingBarnaby RudgeThe Davy Jones SagaSchlitz Playhouse of StarsBBC Sunday-Night TheatreITV Play of the WeekThe Adventures of the Big ManAt Your Service, Ltd.


John Baskcomb (died 2000 aged 84) - credited as Rossini in Terror of the Autons

John Baskcomb was an English character actor who made numerous television and film appearances over a 35 year period.

He was the son of the founder of the Bank of England Opera and Dramatic Society and was educated at Croydon High School for Boys. He then appeared on stage in repertory theatre in Croydon and Henley and in clubs, pantomimes and concert parties.

He made appearances in numerous British television plays and series including; Doctor Who (Terror of the Autons), The Saint, Softly, Softly and Poldark and he played the role of Cardinal Wolsey in The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970). His film roles included Oliver! (uncredited), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (uncredited), Battle of Britain, Dad's Army and Omen III: The Final Conflict.