Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 3 May



The War Games: Episode Three premiered on BBC One in 1969 at 5:15pm BST, watched by 5.10 million viewers.

The Doctor discovers that they are on an alien planet divided into different time zones where human soldiers fight never ending wars.


Revenge of the Cybermen: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1975 at 5:50pm BST, watched by 8.90 million viewers.

The Cybermen who are intent on destroying Voga. The Doctor and two of the Nerva crew become walking bombs which they Cybermen will detonate once they reach their target.


Death Comes To Time (pt 3) premiered on BBC Online in 2002 at 12:00pm BST

The Poison Sky premiered on BBC One in 2008 at 6:19pm BST, watched by 6.53 million viewers.

Sontar-Ha! premiered on BBC Three in 2008 at 7:05pm BST

The Graham Norton Show: Series 7 Episode 4 premiered on BBC One in 2010 at 10:35pm BST

The award-winning host returns with his anarchic talk show. Expect the unexpected as top celebrity guests join in the fun with Graham and his irrepressible audience.

Graham is joined by Hollywood actress and singing star Jennifer Lopez, who talks about her glittering career and latest film The Backup Plan; Doctor Who's new assistant Karen Gillan discusses life in the Tardis; and QI and Jonathan Creek star Alan Davies is in the comedy chair. Plus, there's music from Ben's Brother.


 Birthdays
John Hamill will be 77 - credited as Shrieve in The Ribos Operation

John Hamill is an English actor.

He had previously been a bodybuilder and one of England's most popular "physique models" in the late 1960s before turning to acting, studying at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, and appearing in the stage farce There's a Girl in My Soup.

Hamill’s background as a physiques model, which included cover appearances on several beefcake publications and the occasional 8 mm ‘posing strap’ film, earned him a considerable gay following, which is still visible on the internet today. It would also prove good training for his later nude appearances in David Grant’s sex films and nudity ridden horror titles like Tower of Evil (1972), in which Hamill’s role in synopsized by The Bare Facts Video Guide as “Buns, walking with Penny, then more buns, rolling into the water, dead”.

He left acting in the late eighties, and went on to run a pine furniture shop. His last known TV appearance was in an episode of The Bill in 1989.

He also appeared in the following filmsTrog (1970), No Blade of Grass (1970), Travels with My Aunt (1972) and Hardcore (1977).

Television appearances included: CrossroadsSpace: 1999The Venturers1990Doctor Who (in the serial The Ribos Operation) and The Professionals.

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


Carl Forgione (died 1998 aged 54) would be 80 - 2 credits, including Land in Planet of the Spiders

Carl Forgione was a British actor, best known for his television appearances.

His father was Italian and his mother Scottish, and they had a general store in Southfields, London. Forgione attended Riversdale School in Southfields then Emanuel School in Battersea, where he played cricket in the 1st XI.

He appeared in two Doctor Who serials - Planet of the Spiders in 1974 and Ghost Light in 1989.

Other TV credits included Dixon of Dock GreenBlake's 7Star CopsCoronation Street and The House of Eliott.

Forgione died of cancer in 1998.


 Deaths

Jimmy Gardner (died 2010 aged 85) - 2 credits, including Idmon in Underworld

Jimmy Gardner had two roles in Doctor Who. In 1964 he played the role of Chenchu, the manager of the way station at Tun-Huang, in the fourth story of the series Marco Polo. He returned to the series in 1978 to play the role of Idmon in the fourth Doctor story Underworld. Idmon was a Trog on the planet formed around the P7E, and the father of Idas. He tried to encourage the other Trogs to rebel, but was arrested by the Guards and selected for sacrifice. He was rescued by the Doctor and escaped his planet's destruction on board the R1C.

Gardner had a long eventful life. He was a war hero, a survivor of two shipwrecks and numerous escapades on land, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal after completing some 30 missions as a Halifax rear gunner in No 10 Squadron. After the war he trained as an actor at The Central School and had a long career in television, film and stage. He appeared in many classic TV series including The Forsyte Saga, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars and The Onedin Line. In film he worked on Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and had his most notorious role as Ernie the bus driver in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.


Anthony Ainley (died 2004 aged 71) - 12 credits, including The Master in Logopolis

Anthony Ainley was an English actor best known his role as the Master in Doctor Who.

He was born in Stanmore, Middlesex, the illegitimate son of the actor Henry Ainley(1879-1945) and Clarice Holmes. Known as Tony, he was brought up in the Actors Orphanage alongside his elder brother Timothy, but showed little interest in acting at an early age, with his first career instead being as an insurance clerk. He also showed a keen interest in sports, engaging in rugby and - his major passion in life - cricket.

He adopted his father's surname when his interest in acting grew (perhaps to raise awareness of himself through his that respected name). Having graduated from RADA, he had an early regular role as Det. Sgt Hunter, sidekick to William Mervyn's Chief Inspector Rose in the second series of It's Cold Outside in 1966. Other notable roles include a subaltern in the 1969 film version of Oh! What a Lovely War, Dietz in the 1975 film version of The Land That Time Forgot, Fallowfield in the Tigon film Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), Henry Sidney in Elizabeth R (1971), Clive Hawksworth in Spyder's Web (1972), Rev. Emilius in the BBC's adaptation of The Pallisers (1974), Johnson in the first episode of the BBC programme Secret Army (1977), and Sunley in The Avengers episode "Noon Doomsday" (1968). He was also one of the Hong Kong policemen who discover James Bond's supposed corpse in the opening sequence of You Only Live Twice (1967).

Ainley played the role of the wealthy young peer Lord Charles Gilmour in the ITV series Upstairs, Downstairs (1973).

Reportedly, it was his performance as Rev. Emilius (in The Pallisers) that led to him being offered the role of the Master by John Nathan-Turner, who had worked on The Pallisers seven years before becoming producer of Doctor Who.

Ainley first appeared in The Keeper of Traken alongside Tom Baker - the two got on well as the latter was a friend of his half-brother Richard Ainley(1910-1967, also an actor). Becoming the Master at the end of that story, he went on to reprise the role in some nine further adventures, appearing at least once in every series to 1986, and in the very last story of the series' original run, Survival in 1989. He returned to the role once more to provide the links for the1997 BBC computer game Destiny Of the Doctors.

By the 1980s he had effectively retired from acting, except for his occasional Doctor Who appearance, living on private means. Instead, he continued to engage in his love of cricket right up until his death in 2004.


William Squire (died 1989 aged 72) - credited as The Shadow in The Armageddon Factor

William Squire was a Welsh actor of stage, film and television.

He played the Shadow in the 1979 Doctor Who story The Armageddon Factor.

His best-known role was as the superior of secret agent David Callan in the spy series Callan in the early 1970s.

His varied screen roles included Thomas More in the 1969 film version of Maxwell Anderson's play Anne of the Thousand Days, Sir Daniel Brackley in the 1972 television adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow, the voice of Gandalf in the 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings.


David Garth (died 1988 aged 67) - 2 credits, including Solicitor Grey in The Highlanders

Actor who appeared twice in Doctor Who, playing Solicitor Grey in the Highlanders and the Time Lord in Terror of the Autons.

He was born in Calcutta, India.

He also appeared in General Hospital and Special Branch.