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On This Day (USA) - 8 May



The Space Museum: The Search premiered on BBC One in 1965 at 6:00pm BST, watched by 8.50 million viewers.

Colony In Space: Episode Five premiered on BBC One in 1971 at 6:13pm BST, watched by 8.80 million viewers.

With Jo held prisoner in his TARDIS, the Master forces the Doctor to take him to the underground city of the primitives. Any sign of treachery from the Doctor and Jo will die.


The Vampires of Venice premiered on BBC One in 2010 at 5:59pm BST, watched by 7.68 million viewers.

Death in Venice premiered on BBC Three in 2010 at 7:00pm BST

Redacted: Angels premiered on BBC Online in 2022 at 8:00pm BST

 Birthdays
Daniel Kaluuya will be 35 - credited as Barclay in Planet of the Dead

Daniel Kaluuya is an English actor, comedian and writer, who is best known for playing Posh Kenneth in the E4 teen-drama Skins. He also appeared in the BBC dark comedy series Psychoville playing Michael Fry (a.k.a. Tealeaf) and Mac in the new BBC Three's horror drama The Fades.

Kaluuya attended St Aloysius College, London. His early roles included Reece in the BBC's controversial drama Shoot the Messenger.

Kaluuya then joined the original cast of Skins as Posh Kenneth and was a contributor on the first two series, as well as being a staff writer, and the head writer of the second series episode "Jal" and third series episode "Thomas". He also presented the Skins Podcast (also called Skinscast).

After Skins Kaluuya appeared as a guest star in many established series such as Silent Witness, the Doctor Who special Planet of the Dead and Lewis. He has also appeared in the sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look twice and the sketch show Harry and Paul. Kaluuya also voiced a character in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Sneakiepeeks.

In 2009 he became a regular cast member in the ITV comedy FM as amateur DJ–Radio Runner "Ades" and also as Michael "Tea Leaf" Fry in dark BBC comedy Psychoville.

At the end of 2009, the Screen International Magazine picked Kaluuya out in their annual report as a 'UK Star of Tomorrow',.

In 2010 Kaluuya played the lead role in Roy WilliamsSucker Punch at the Royal Court Theatre in London for which both the play and Kaluuya won rave reviews and he won both the Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer.

In 2011 Kaluuya was leading man in Daniel Mulloy's Baby, which went on to win the Best Short Film Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival as well as the Best Short Film Award at the British Independent Film Awards. In 2011 Enda Walsh's adaption of his stage play Chatroom was also released with Kaluuya having a main role. He has recently appeared in the Johnny English sequel, Johnny English Reborn, as Agent Tucker. He also played the role of Mac Armstrong in BBC3's supernatural drama The Fades.

Kaluuya played one of the lead characters 'Bing' in Channel Four's drama series Black Mirror, broadcast in December 2011. The episode "15 Million Merits" was set in a claustrophobic and disturbing dystopia, which satirises our obsession with social media, the spectacle and technology.

On 14 July 2009, Daniel and close friend Jason Lewis (who is also an actor/writer), released a video of themselves performing their parody of Boy Better Know's "Too Many Man". The song is titled "Too Many Weave". The video was in YouTube's Most Viewed for the 14th, 15th and 16 July that year.

They are currently working on more parody songs, including "Can I Plant the Trees" and "Put the Tip In".

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


Aneurin Barnard will be 37 - credited as Roger ap Gwilliam in Episode One

Aneurin Barnard is a Welsh actor and musician.

He is known for playing Davey in Hunky Dory, Claude in The Truth About Emanuel, Bobby Willis in Cilla, Tim in Thirteen, King Richard III in The White Queen, William in Dead in a Week (Or Your Money Back), Gibson in Dunkirk, and Boris Pavlikovsky in The Goldfinch.


Christina Cole will be 42 - credited as Lilith in The Shakespeare Code

Christina Cole is an English actress known for portraying Cassie Hughes in the Sky One supernatural television series Hex.

Born in London, Cole is the eldest of three siblings. She trained at the Oxford School of Drama, graduating in 2002.

Cole won the role of Clarissa Payne in What A Girl Wants (2003), starring opposite Colin Firth and Amanda Bynes, while still at drama school. 

Cole’s first lead role was that of Cassie Hughes in Hex. She portrayed Cassie for the whole of the first season of Hex and the first three episodes of the second. After leaving Hex, Cole went on to appear in the critically acclaimed Jane Eyre TV serial, for the BBC, and guest starred as Lilith in the Doctor Who episode "The Shakespeare Code". 

Other roles include a cameo in the James Bond film, Casino Royale (2006) as the receptionist of the Ocean Club hotel in Nassau where Bond checks in, and Diana Mann in the pilot episode of Cane. She has also appeared in Sold, a sitcom broadcast on ITV, playing Mel, The Deaths of Ian Stone (2007), as Jenny Walker, and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008), as Charlotte Warren.

In 2009 Cole played Dr Sarah King in Poirot: Appointment with Death, and was cast in the lead role of Maggie Hill, in a pilot for Fox. She also starred in the films Surviving Evil (2009), alongside Natalie Mendoza and Billy Zane, and Doghouse (2009), with Danny Dyer and Billy Murray. 


Ayesha Antoine will be 43 - 12 credits, including Babs in The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles Volume 2

Ayesha Antoine  is an English actress. She is known for portraying Rachel Baptiste in Holby City, and Poppy Silver in Grange Hill.

Antoine was born in Essex, England. She is of British, Dominican, and Welsh descent. In 1998 Antoine studied Psychology and English at the University of Manchester. After graduating, she returned to London to restart her career.

Antoine began her television career in the 1990s playing Poppy Silver in Grange Hill. At this time she also made her first appearance in Holby City. Other television credits include the role of Kelly Grogan in sitcom pilot Placebo and a husband-beating shoplifter in The Bill.

In 2007 Antoine guest starred as Dee Dee Blasco in the Doctor Who episode "Midnight", an experience she described as: "so much fun…it’s a brilliant show and I loved every minute." She joined the regular cast of Holby City in 2008, playing Staff Nurse Rachel Baptiste.

In 2005 Antoine won the Norman Beaton Fellowship. She was a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company for six months and lent her voice to over twenty five radio dramas including The Lysistrata ProjectHold My BreathWestwayNo.1 Ladies Detective AgencyThe Fountain Overflows and Father & Son.

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


Phyllida Law will be 92 - 2 credits, including Bea Nelson-Stanley in Eye of the Gorgon(SJA)

Phyllida Law is a Scottish actress.

She played Bea Nelson-Stanley in the Sarah Jane Adventures story Eye of the Gorgon and voiced Belldonia in BigFinish's The Bride of Peladon. 

She was married to actor Eric Thompson from 1957 until his death in 1982. Their daughters, Emma and Sophie Thompson, are both actresses. 

Law has worked extensively in television, including appearances in Dixon of Dock Green, Rumpole of the Bailey and the 1972 adaptation of the Lord Peter Wimsey tale The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. She appeared in films such as Peter's Friends (1992), Much Ado About Nothing (1993) and The Winter Guest (1997) (playing Elspeth alongside daughter Emma's Frances).

She was in the original London cast of La Cage aux Folles at the London Palladium in 1986, playing the role of Jacqueline.

In 2004 she guest-starred on Rosemary & Thyme episode titled 'Orpheus in the Undergrowth' as May Beauchamp. In 2007 she guest-starred in two Doctor Who spin-off adventures: as Bea Nelson-Stanley in The Sarah Jane Adventures story "Eye of the Gorgon" and as Beldonia in the audio drama Doctor Who: The Bride of Peladon. Also in 2007 she played Aunt Auriel in the drama Kingdom starring Stephen Fry. In 2008 she appeared as a guest star in Foyle's War.

In November 2009, Law published her first book. Notes to my Mother-In-Law concerns the 17 years Thompson's mother-in-law lived with the family from the mid-1960s until her death.


Douglas Camfield (died 1984 aged 52) would be 93 - 12 credits, including Director for Inferno

Douglas Camfield was an accomplished director for television from the 1960s to the 1980s. He studied at York School of Art and aimed to work for Walt Disney. He was a Lieutenant in the West Yorkshire Regiment, and was training to be in the SAS (but due to an injury he pulled out of the application process). His programme credits include Doctor Who, Z-Cars, Paul Temple, Van der Valk, The Sweeney, Shoestring, The Professionals, Out of the Unknown, The Nightmare Man, the BBC dramatisation of Beau Geste, and Ivanhoe, the 1982 television movie. Camfield was known for his strict professionalism but was well liked personally by many actors, producers, and writers.

Early life

Camfield was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps in 1951 during his National Service. Later the same year he transferred to the West Yorkshire Regiment (Territorial Army). He was promoted Lieutenant in 1952. He left in 1956 for health reasons. It has often been noted by those who worked with him that Camfield always retained an affection for the British Army and brought military standards of organisation to the programmes he subsequently directed.

Doctor Who

He is particularly well known for his work on Doctor Who and was production assistant on its earliest serials, both the pilot and broadcast versions of An Unearthly Child, and Marco Polo. Camfield went on to direct many other stories in its first thirteen years:

 

One of Camfield's notable contributions to the series was the casting of Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who would become one of the most long-running and popular characters in its history.

He submitted a script for the series to producer Philip Hinchcliffe called "The Lost Legion", which involved aliens and the French Foreign Legion (a subject which fascinated him). However the story never made it into production.

Personal life

In later life he suffered from a heart ailment and died of a heart attack. He was married to the actress Sheila Dunn whom he cast in the Doctor Who stories The Daleks' Master Plan, The Invasion, and Inferno. They had a son Joggs, who as of 2012 was working in the music industry. Joggs featured heavily in a DVD tribute documentary "Remembering Douglas Camfield" which was included in the 2013 DVD release of Douglas' Doctor Who serial Terror of the Zygons.

Legacy

In 2013, as part of the fiftieth anniversary celebrations for Doctor Who, the BBC produced a drama depicting the creation and early days of the series. Camfield appears as a character in the drama, An Adventure In Space And Time, portrayed by actor Sam Hoare.

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


John Bennett (died 2005 aged 76) would be 96 - 2 credits, including General Finch in Invasion of the Dinosaurs

John Bennett was an English actor.

He had two major roles in Doctor Who. he played General Finch in the 1974 story Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Li H'sen Chang in the 1977 story The Talons of Weng-Chiang

Born in BeckenhamKent, he was educated at Bradfield College in Berkshire, then trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, followed by a wide Rep experience including Bromley, Bristol Old Vic, Dundee, Edinburgh Festival and Watford before going to London's West End.

Often cast as a villain, he had many roles on television including PorridgeSurvivorsThe AvengersBergeracThe Professionals and four episodes of The Saint.  He is also well remembered as Philip Bosinney in the BBC's 1967 adaptation of The Forsyte Saga, but also appeared in over three hundred TV productions including God's Architect;Blake's 7I, ClaudiusRomeRosemary & ThymeSaracenHoney LaneSpecial BranchSoftly, SoftlyMulberryTales of the Unexpected and Anna Karenina. One of his last televised roles was in an episode of Jonathan Creek.

His film roles included The Fifth Element (1997), Charlotte Gray (2001) and Minority Report (2002). He also played an undercover detective in Victim (1961) (starring Dirk Bogarde), but the role was uncredited.

His theatre roles included Yasha in The Cherry Orchard and Henry Percy (Hotspur) inRichard II both for John Gielgud, Exton in Richard II and Volscian Senator in Coriolanus(Almeida Theatre), Marley's Ghost in A Christmas Carol (Royal Shakespeare Company) and Uncle in Inner Voices (Royal National Theatre), as well as working extensively at theRoyal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. He starred in many West End musicals includingOn Your Toes (Palace), Marilyn (Adelphi), The Sound of Music (Apollo Victoria), The King and I (London Palladium), The Baker's Wife (Phoenix) and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical for his performance as Louis Epstein in Jolson The Musical (Victoria Palace and Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto). His last stage role was as Conrad in Gates of Gold by Frank McGuinness with William Gaunt at the Finborough Theatre, London, in December 2004.

In radio, he had been a member of the BBC Drama Repertory Company, and his broadcast parts included roles in programmes that ranged from Shakespeare to Paul Temple.


 Deaths
Terrence Hardiman (died 2023 aged 86) - 6 credits, including Hawthorne in The Beast Below

Terrence Hardiman was an English actor. He is best known for playing The Demon Headmaster in the children's television series of the same name, and also for Reinhardt in the 1970s drama series Secret Army.

Hardiman was often seen playing authority figures, and played Nazis-era German military personnel (Secret Army and Colditz) and British officers (When the Boat Comes In), police inspectors (Juliet Bravo and Softly, Softly), doctors (Home to RoostThe Royal), barristers (Crown Court and The Brittas Empire), judges (The Bill and The Courtroom), Father Radulfus (Cadfael), and of course a headmaster. He also played Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi.

Major Reinhardt, (Hardiman's role in Secret Army) was the (fictional) head of the Luftwaffe (German Air force) police and as such often provided a foil to Clifford Rose's more brutal S.S. Chief, Kessler. As with many of the characters in Secret Army, Reinhardt was not a one-dimensional baddie, but a rounded character who often questioned his own motives and methods. The actor's portrayal allowed the viewer to sympathise with this character. In 1990 he played a two-dimensional German officer, General Stuckler, in the final series of London Weekend Television's Wish Me Luck.

The Demon Headmaster was a children's television drama series which proved popular with adults as well, and which ran to three series from 1996 to 1998. Hardiman played a truly villainous headmaster in pantomime style, complete with glowing eyes.

He also had a starring role as Charles Pooter in the 1979 television adaptation of George and Weedon Grossmith's Diary of a Nobody, a role which shows his versatility more than the succession of officers he usually portrays.

Hardiman's other recurring role was as Brother Cadfael's boss, Abbot Radulfus, in the television series. Joining him throughout the series as Prior Robert was Michael Culver, who had played his predecessor Major Brandt in Secret Army.

A notable small role Hardiman played was a version of the Sergeant Wilson character from Dad's Army in an episode of time travel comedy Goodnight Sweetheart, called "Don't Get Around Much Any More", in which Nicholas Lyndhurst's character Gary Sparrow goes back in time to a 1940s bank and encounters characters called Mainwaring and Wilson. Hardiman's portrayal was a keenly observed impersonation of John Le Mesurier's own performance, incorporating many of the tics and mannerisms of the original. Hardiman is also famous for his role of Chief Wizard Egbert Hellibore in four episodes of the television series The Worst Witch.

Hardiman appeared in the second series of The Worst Week of My Life, the comedy series starring Ben Miller. Another notable recent role was as a devious Swiss murder victim in an episode of crime mystery series Jonathan Creek.

He has also appeared in the daily soap Doctors on BBC1 at 3 April 2009 and in the Yorkshire drama Heartbeat as John Upton in one episode.

In 2009 he appeared in a 3D film for the BFI called Radio Mania directed by British artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.

Hardiman appeared as Hawthorne in the Doctor Who episode The Beast Below on 10 April 2010.

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