Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 25 May



The Wheel In Space: Episode 5 premiered on BBC One in 1968 at 5:16pm BST, watched by 6.80 million viewers.

The Cybermen reveal their plans to invade Earth, using the Wheel as a guiding beacon. The Doctor sends Jamie and Zoe on a dangerous spacewalk to the Silver Carrier.


Planet of the Spiders: Part Four premiered on BBC One in 1974 at 5:31pm BST, watched by 8.20 million viewers.

With the Doctor in a coma, his only hope of survival lies with a device inside the TARDIS. Sarah is captured by the spiders and is held prisoner in their larder.


Totally Doctor Who (#1.7) premiered on BBC One in 2006 at 4:59pm BST, watched by 0.77 million viewers.

Totally Doctor Who (#2.7) premiered on BBC One in 2007 at 4:59pm BST, watched by 0.82 million viewers.
Barney Harwood and Liz Barker present a show celebrating the the latest adventures of the last living Time Lord. They look at anything and everything that Doctor Who has inspired children to create and do - from TARDIS-shaped garden sheds to new alien designs, from DIY special effects to new versions of the theme music. There's also the Companion Academy, in which eight young hopefuls who think they've got what it takes to travel with a Time Lord are recruited.

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (Series 12 Episode 9) premiered on BBC One in 2007 at 10:35pm BST

A mix of music and celebrity chat with Jonathan Ross. Guests include Doctor Who assistant Freema Agyeman, TV presenter Justin Lee Collins and rock madman Ozzy Osbourne, who also plays his new single I Don't Want to Stop.


 Birthdays
Jamie Foreman will be 66 - credited as Eddie Connolly in The Idiot's Lantern

Jamie Foreman is an English actor best known for his roles as Duke in Layer Cake (2004) and Bill Sykes in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist (2005). 

He played Eddie Connolly in the 2006 story The Idiot's Lantern.

He played oppositeRay Winstone and Kathy Burke in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth (1997) and also featured in Elizabeth (1998), Gangster No. 1 (2000) and Sleepy Hollow (1999). He appeared in the 2006 Doctor Who episode "The Idiot's Lantern". He also featured as a racist taxi driver in The Football Factory (2004). Foreman also played Basta in the film Inkheart (2008). He also appeared in one episode of Law and Order: UK in 2009.

He is the son of Freddie Foreman, a former South London gangster and associate of the Kray twins.

His recent work for BBC Radio includes the title role in Wes Bell, directed by Matthew Broughton, and the six part series Hazelbeach by David Stafford and Caroline Stafford. He also played a small role in I'll Sleep When I'm Dead.


Corinne Hollingworth will be 72 - 3 credits, including Production Manager for The Caves of Androzani

Corinne Hollingworth is a British television producer and executive, best known for her contributions to British soap operas, including BBC's EastEnders and five's Family Affairs. 

Hollingworth has gained a reputation for winning huge drama audiences by concentrating on human interest storylines.


Eric Deacon will be 74 - credited as Mykros in Timelash

Eric Deacon (born in Oxford) is a British actor perhaps best known for his role in the 1985 film A Zed & Two Noughts, directed by Peter Greenaway, in which he acted alongside his brother Brian.

He trained as an actor at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and in repertory theatre. His other film roles include Yesterday's Hero.

He has been very active on television with credits including: Z-CarsSurvivorsSecret ArmyMinderDoctor Who (in the serial Timelash), C.A.T.S. EyesDempsey & MakepeaceThe BillPrime Suspect,LovejoyCasualtyDoctors and London's Burning.

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


Sir Ian McKellen will be 85 - 2 credits, including Voice of the Snowman in The Snowmen (as Ian McKellen)

Sir Ian McKellen is an award winning actor, appearing in some of the most successful film franchises of recent years, X Men and The Lord of the Rings. Other notable roles include playing the eponymous lead in Richard III, Six Degrees of Separation, Apt Pupil, and The Da Vinci Code amongst many others. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1999 for Gods and Monsters, and in 2002 for The Fellowship of the Ring, and for the BAFTA for both Fellowship and Return of the King, and for Richard III.

His theatre career is also very extensive, and has appeared in a number of Royal Shakespeare Company performances, including lead roles in Macbeth and Othello, and more recently in King Lear. In 2009 he appeared in the popular revival of Waiting for Godot opposite Patrick Stewart.

For television, he recently played Number 2 in the remake of The Prisoner, and in 2005 he fulfilled a lifetime ambition to play a character in long-running soap Coronation Street.

On 16th March 2002 he was a guest-host on Saturday Night Live, where he played "the best Doctor Who impersonator in town" in a Comic Book sketch; he later was to play aged actor Freddie in Vicious (alongside Sir Derek Jacobi as Stuart), one of whose roles was as a villain in Doctor Who. In 2012 he provided an uncredited performance in Doctor Who itself, as the voice of the Great Intelligence in The Snowmen.

A long-term campaigner for equal rights for non-heterosexual relationships, McKellen was a co-founder of Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the UK. He receiveda CBE in 1979 and was knighted in 1991 for services to the performing arts; he was made a Companion of Honour in 2008 for services to drama.


Peggy Dixon (died 2005 aged 84) would be 103 - credited as Dancer in The Masque of Mandragora

Peggy Dixon played a Dancer in the Doctor Who story The Masque of Mandragora.


Wilfred Carter (died 1998 aged 89) would be 116 - credited as Sir Reginald Styles in Day of the Daleks

 Deaths

Terence de Marney (died 1971 aged 63) - credited as Churchwarden in The Smugglers

de Marney's career in the theatre began in 1923 and continued almost without interruption, taking in film, radio and television parts. He toured with Mrs. Patrick Campbell in The Last of Mrs. Cheyne. In 1930 he played Gustave in The Lady of the Camellias, and toured South Africa as Raleigh in Journey's End. In 1934 he played Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet at the Open Air Theatre, and Giovanni in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore at the Arts.

Thrillers tended to be his stock in trade, appearing in a revival of Sutton Vane's Outward Bound during the 1930s, as well as Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, Dear Murderer, as well as a revival of Gerald Du Maurier's Trilby in later years. He also appeared on radio as the Count of Monte Cristo, and was the first actor to portray Leslie Charteris' Simon Templar on radio, when The Saint debuted on Radio Athlone in 1940 for six episodes.

In 1931 he became director of the Connaught Theatre, Worthing, and in 1932, with his brother, the actor Derrick De Marney, he founded the Independent Theatre Club at the Kingsway Theatre, where he directed Emil Ludwig's Versailles and an adaptation of Schnitzler's novel Fraulein Else. He also directed Louis Golding's Magnolia Street Story and Master Crook, originally called Cosh Boy. With his brother he alternated as Slim Callaghan in Meet Slim Callaghan at the Garrick Theatre and carried on the same role in the play's sequel Slim Carves, which he produced and directed.

He also made his film debut in 1931, and went on to appear in a number of quota quickies of the period, including mystery horror films The Unholy Quest (1934) and The Mystery of the Marie Celeste (1935), the latter opposite Bela Lugosi. These roles in the macabre would continue throughout his career and took in films such as The Pharaoh's Curse (1957), Boris Karloff vehicle Die, Monster, Die (1965) and The Hand of Night (1966).

After starring in 'B' movies like Duel Alibi (1948), and No Way Back (1949), he uprooted to Hollywood, where he appeared in a number of famous television series such as Bonanza, Wagon Train, Maverick, and The Twilight Zone. He was a series regular on Johnny Ringo. As well as small roles in films such as The Ten Commandments (1956), and Spartacus (1960). He returned to Britain in the 1960s and continued to appear in television series such as Maigret, Dr. Finlay's Casebook, Doctor Who, and Z-Cars. His last film appearance was in The Strange Affair (1968).

He died in 1971 following an accident on the London Underground.