Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 18 May



The Wheel In Space: Episode 4 premiered on BBC One in 1968 at 6:00pm BST, watched by 8.60 million viewers.

The station is in danger of being destroyed by the approaching meteor storm. The Cybermen are smuggled aboard the Wheel and begin to take control of the crew.


Planet of the Spiders: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1974 at 5:40pm BST, watched by 8.80 million viewers.

Following Lupton, Sarah is transported to Metebelis 3 where she is captured by the human villagers. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to follow Sarah, but the spiders are waiting.


Totally Doctor Who (#1.6) premiered on BBC One in 2006 at 4:59pm BST, watched by 0.75 million viewers.

The Name of the Doctor premiered on BBC One in 2013 at 6:59pm BST, watched by 7.45 million viewers.

 Birthdays
Toyah Willcox will be 66 - credited as Self in The Women of Doctor Who(Factual)

Toyah Willcox is an English singer and actress. In a career spanning more than thirty years. 

Willcox has had 8 Top 40 singles, released over 20 albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays and ten feature films, and voiced and presented numerous television shows. Between 1977 and 1983 she fronted her band Toyah, before embarking on a solo career in the mid-1980s. Her biggest hits include "It's a Mystery", "Thunder in the Mountains" and "I Want to Be Free".


Miriam Margolyes will be 83 - credited as Meep (Voice) in The Star Beast

Miriam Margolyes is a British-Australian actress.

She received a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993) and portrayed Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series (2002–2011). 


Miriam Margolyes OBE will be 83 - credited as Voice of Leaf Bluthereen in The Gift(SJA)

Miriam Margolyes, OBE is an English-Australian character actress and voice artist. Her earliest roles were in theatre and after several supporting roles in film and television she won a BAFTA Award for her role in The Age of Innocence (1993) and went on to play the role of Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series. For many years she has divided her time between Britain and Australia and she has starred in a number of critically acclaimed shows, including I'll Eat You Last. Her latest show The Importance of Being Miriam is to debut in March 2015.

Margolyes was born in Oxford, England, the daughter of Ruth (née Walters; 1905–1974), a property investor and developer, and Joseph Margolyes (1899–1996), a physician from Glasgow. She grew up in a Jewish family; her ancstors immigrated to England from Belarus. She attended Oxford High School from 1945 until 1959, and later Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read English. There, she began acting in her twenties, and also appeared in productions of the comedy troupe the Cambridge Footlights.

With her distinctive voice, Margolyes first gained recognition for her work as a voice artist. She recorded a soft-porn audio called Sexy Sonia: Leaves from my Schoolgirl Notebook. She performed most of the supporting female characters in the dubbed Japanese action TV series Monkey. She also worked with the theatre company Gay Sweatshop and provided voiceovers in the Japanese TV series The Water Margin (credited as Mirium Margolyes).

Margolyes' first major role in a film was as Elephant Ethel in Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977). In the 1980s, she made appearances in Blackadder opposite Rowan Atkinson: these roles include the Spanish Infanta in The Black Adder, Lady Whiteadder in Blackadder II and Queen Victoria in Blackadder's Christmas Carol. In 1986 she played a major supporting role in the BBC drama The Life and Loves of a She-Devil. She won the 1989 LA Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Flora Finching in the 1988 film Little Dorrit. On American television, she headlined the short-lived 1992 CBS sitcom Frannie's Turn. In 1994 she won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs Mingott in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993).

Margolyes came to the notice of younger audiences when she starred as Aunt Sponge in James and the Giant Peach (1996); she also provided the voice of the Glowworm in the same film. During the same time she played the Nurse in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996). Around this time, she voiced the rabbit character in the animated commercials for Cadbury's Caramel bars and provided the voice of Fly the dog in the Australian family film Babe (1995). She played Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002.

She was one of the original cast of the London production of the musical Wicked in 2006, playing Madame Morrible opposite Idina Menzel, a role she also played on Broadway in 2008.

In 2009, she appeared in a new production of Endgame by Samuel Beckett at the Duchess Theatre in London's West End.

Margolyes reprised her role as Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 in 2011.

In 2014 she voiced Nana in the Disney Junior animated series for preschoolers Nina Needs to Go!

Margolyes is a supporter of Sense (the National Deafblind and Rubella Association) and was the host at the first Sense Creative Writing Awards, held at the Charles Dickens Museum in London in December 2006, where she read a number of works written by talented deafblind people.

In 2011, Margolyes recorded a narrative for the album The Devil's Brides by klezmer musician-ethnographer Yale Strom. It was announced in January 2014 that Margolyes was to record the narration for "Magic in the Skies" – the summer season of firework displays held at Land's End.

Margolyes has been with her partner Heather for more than 40 years. She mentioned her relationships with women on several occasions when she appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in September 2008. On becoming an Australian citizen, on Australia Day 2013, Margolyes referred to herself as a "dyke" live on national television and in front of the then prime minister Julia Gillard.

She is a campaigner for a respite care charity, Crossroads.

She appeared on the British television quiz University Challenge in 1963, whilst at Cambridge University. As part of a BBC documentary University Challenge: The Story so Far she claimed that during her appearance, she swore after getting a question wrong, although the actual word was bleeped out of the recording.

Margolyes is a lifelong admirer of the works of Charles Dickens and has performed all over the world a one-woman show, Dickens' Women, in which she plays 23 characters from Dickens' novels.

Margolyes is a Palestinian human rights activist, having been a member of the British-based ENOUGH! coalition that seeks to end the "Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank." She is also a signatory of Jews for Justice for Palestinians.

Margolyes divides her time between homes in London, Tuscany and Robertson, New South Wales.

Author and comedian David Walliams says he used Margoyles as a model for the title character in his children's book Awful Auntie after a rude exchange with the actress during a stage production. He stresses however that he has nothing against Margoyles and is a fan of her work.

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


Ray Lonnen (died 2014 aged 74) would be 84 - credited as Gardiner in Frontier In Space

Ray Lonnen (born in Bournemouth, Hampshire now Dorset) is an English stage and television actor. His most prominent roles include Willie Caine in the cold-war spy drama series The Sandbaggers (1978-80), and also as Harry Brown in the television mini-series Harry's Game (1982).

Lonnen's early television appearances include The Power Game (1966), The Fellows (1967), and Honey Lane (1968). He then had a semi-regular role in the British crime drama series Z Cars between 1972-77, and also appeared the 1973 Doctor Who story Frontier In Space.

Lonnen played one of the leads in the 1978 ITV espionage series The Sandbaggers, in which he played Willie Caine (aka "Sandbagger 1"). The Sandbaggers ran for three series until 1980. Lonnen's next lead role was in the 1982 ITV mini-series Harry's Game, based on the novel by Gerald Seymour. In this, Lonnen played Harry Brown, a British agent sent to Northern Ireland to smoke out an IRA assassin who had slain a cabinet minister. In 1984, Lonnen went on to star in yet another spy-themed drama series, The Brief, in which he played a British barrister who travels to Germany to represent a British soldier accused of spying and treason. Aside from his lead roles, Lonnen also continued to appear in guest roles throughout the 1980s, including episodes of The Gentle Touch, Hammer House of Horror, Tales of the Unexpected, Lovejoy and the French film Mangeuses d'Hommes.

In 1990, Lonnen played Detective Inspector Alex Vale in the ITV detective drama series Yellowthread Street, which was set in Hong Kong. Based on the novels by William Leonard Marshall, the series ran for 13 episodes.

Throughout the 1990s, Lonnen continued to make guest appearances in various television series and even voiced several characters in the children's animated series Budgie the Little Helicopter.

In 2001, he had a recurring role in the ITV police series The Bill. He also appeared in several episodes of the Canadian sci-fi series Starhunter as well as a recurring role in the short-lived revival of the ITV soap-opera Crossroads.

Since the 1960s, Lonnen has performed in a variety of stage roles, including drama, comedy and musicals. His stage credits include Under Milk Wood (as the Narrator), In Praise of Love, Run for Your Wife, Having a Ball, Wonderful Town, Make Me An Offer, Lock Up Your Daughters, Wonderland, Bells Are Ringing, How the Other Half Loves, The Anniversary, A Touch of Danger, Murder by the Book, Same Time Next Year, Misery, Worm's Eye View, Rebecca, Jeffrey Archer's The Perfect Murder and he has played Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls. He also played Clark Gable in a play about the making of the 1961 film The Misfits, he toured South-East Asia in a production of Catch Me If You Can, and also toured New Zealand in the play Rose.

He was married to the actress Tara Ward.

He died in 2014 after a three year battle against cancer.

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


John Abineri (died 2000 aged 72) would be 96 - 4 credits, including Carrington in The Ambassadors of Death

John Abineri was an English actor.

Born in London, he attended the Old Vic drama school.

His extensive television performances included a regular role in Survivors (as Hubert Goss) and four performances on Doctor Who - in Fury from the Deep, Death to the Daleks, The Power of Kroll, and, most notably, as the misguided General Carrington in The Ambassadors of Death. He also appeared in the Blake's 7 episode Hostage, taking over the role of Ushton after the sudden death of the actor Duncan Lamont, his co-star in the aforementioned Death to the Daleks.

He also appeared as Herne the Hunter in HTV's Robin of Sherwood.

He received an Emmy nomination for his performance as Chingachgook in the TV adaptation of Last Of The Mohicans (1971) and Hawkeye, The Pathfinder (1973). He also played the butler in the original Ferrero Rocher Ambassador's reception advert.

He was the father of actors Sebastian and Daniel Abineri.

wikipedia


Walter Fitzgerald (died 1976 aged 80) would be 128 - credited as Senex in The Dominators

Walter Fitzgerald was an English character actor.

Born in the Keyham district of PlymouthDevon. He married his first wife Rosalie Constance Grey in 1924. His 2nd marriage was to Angela Kirk in 1938 and they had 3 sons (Jonathan, Timothy and Charles) and 1 daughter (Julia). Toured with Sir John Martin-Harvey, Sir Seymour Hicks. He was understudy to Sir Gerald du Maurier 1928-29. Fitzgerald appeared in films from the 1930s, often in 'official' roles (policemen, doctors, lawyers). He appeared on British television in the 1950s and 1960s before his retirement. 

A former stockbroker, British actor Walter Fitzgerald was in his late 20s when he began his theatrical training at RADA. Fitzgerald made his professional stage bow in 1922 and his first film appearance in 1930. His best-remembered film roles include Simon Fury in Blanche Fury (1946), Dr. Fenton in The Fallen Idol (1948) and Squire Trelawny in Treasure Island (1950). Walter Fitzgerald made his penultimate film appearance in the opening scenes of H.M.S. Defiant (1962), as the admiral who listens to—and then disregards—ship's captain Alec Guinness' complaints about maritime cruelty.

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


 Deaths

Alec Wheal (died 2016 aged 81) - 47 credits, including Senior Cameraman for The King's Demons

Alec Wheal worked as a camera operator on more episodes of classic Doctor Who than anyone else. His work covered the period from 1971 through to the end of the series in 1989.

Alec Wheal joined the BBC in 1955. He had a prolific career working on some of the most memorable and best loved series from the golden age of British television, including The Tripods, Just Good Friends, Last of the Summer Wine, and Eastenders.

After leaving the BBC he worked for the British Parlimentary Channel.


Oswald Hafenrichter (died 1973 aged 74) - credited as Film Editor for Dr Who and the Daleks(Aaru)

Oswald Hafenrichter was a Yugoslavian-born film editor began his career with a series of German films in the early 1930s and some Italian films in the mid-1940s.

He moved to England at the end of World War II, initially living in Hampstead where he married his wife Edith (Burbeck) in 1948, before later moving in Chiswick. He worked on some prestige British films of the time including An Ideal Husband in 1947. He also worked on classic films for Carol Reed, The Fallen Idol in 1949 and The Third Man the following year, for which he received an Academy Award nomination.

Hafenrichter then alternated between Italy and England for the rest of his career, ending his career in the 1970s editing a series of Hammer horror films. He continued to live in Chiswick until his death.

He was the editor of the 1966 feature film Dr. Who and the Daleks.