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On This Day (USA) - 17 July



The Time Meddler: A Battle of Wits premiered on BBC One in 1965 at 5:40pm BST, watched by 7.70 million viewers.

Steven and Vicki discover an atomic bazooka. It seems that the Monk has plans for the Viking invaders. Returning to the Monastery, Steven and Vicki make an amazing discovery.


 Birthdays
Konnie Huq will be 49 - credited as Herself in Invasion of the Bane(SJA)

KonnieHuq is a British television presenter, who is best known for being the longest-serving female presenter of Blue Peter, having presented it from 1 December 1997 until 23 January 2008.

She is the third longest-serving Blue Peter presenter of all time.


Dave Chapman will be 73 - 51 credits, including Video Effects for The King's Demons

Dave Chapman has worked on a variety of shows, including The Omega Factor, The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Fools on the Hill, The Demon Headmaster and Jonathan Creek.


Catherine Schell will be 80 - credited as Countess in City of Death

Born in Budapest, Hungary, 

Her father, the Baron Paul Schell von Bauschlott, was a well-respected diplomat until the Nazis confiscated their estates during WWII, while her mother was Countess Katharina Maria Etelka Georgina Elisabeth Teleki de Sz�k. 

Her family was living in poverty until 1948 when they sought asylum in Vienna and Salzburg as the communist regime began to take hold in Hungary. In 1950, her family emigrated to the States and Baron von Schell Bauschlott renounced his title in order for his family to gain citizenship. Catherine entered a convent school in New York's Staten Island area. 

In 1957, her father joined Radio Free Europe, taking the family to Munich where she developed an interest for acting and trained at the prestigious Falconberg School. Her inauspicious debut (sometimes billed as Catherine von Schell) was in the German film Lana - K�nigin der Amazonen (1964). While filming Amsterdam Affair (1970), she met and married actor William Marlowe, subsequently moving to London. 

She went on to appear in Moon Zero Two (1969), the James Bond feature On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Callan (1974) and The Black Windmill (1974), but is best known at that time for the slapstick comedy The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), which marked Peter Sellers' cinematic revisiting of his "Inspector Clouseau" character. Extremely visible on TV with frequent work in such series as "The Persuaders!" (1971), "The Adventurer" (1972) and the cult sci-fi series "Space: 1999" (1975) starring Barbara Bain and Martin Landau playing the role of "Maya", an alien, for which she is best known. 

Her marriage to actor Marlowe had run its course by 1977, and she met director Bill Hays that same year, who had two children from a previous marriage. They married in 1982, together working on a TV production of A Month in the Country (1985) (TV). Her career began to wane by the time she did the film Wish Me Luck (1995) in 1990 and she retired shortly thereafter, running a small guest hotel in France. 

Catherine is often mistakenly thought of as a sister of actors Maximilian Schell, Maria Schell, Immy Schell and Carl Schell, but she is not. One of her two brothers, Paul von Schell, is, however, the widower of actress Hildegard Knef.


Tim Brooke-Taylor (died 2020 aged 79) would be 84 - credited as Mims in The Zygon Who Fell to Earth(BF)

Gary Downie (died 2006 aged 65) would be 84 - 12 credits, including Assistant Floor Manager for Underworld

Gary Downie was a production manager on many 1980's episodes of  Doctor Who, and partner the then producer John Nathan-Turner

His own analysis of the role of a production manager can be found on the BBC DVD release of The Two Doctors.

Downie also worked on I, Claudius, All Creatures Great and Small and Star Cops.

Downie was the author of the early eighties book 'The Doctor Who Cookbook'. Many Doctor Who celebrities donated recipes to the volume including Ian Marter and Lalla Ward.

Together with Nathan-Turner, Ian Fraser, and Fiona Hughes, he formed Teynham Productions, a theatrical group specializing in pantomime.

In Richard Marson's 2013 book The Life and Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner  Marson alleges Downie sexually assaulted him, and details other accusations of inappropriate behavior by Nathan-Turner and Downie, during the former's period as the series' producer.

Downie died on 19 January 2006 after a long battle with cancer. 


Martin Muncaster will be 90 - credited as Tannoy Voice in Terminus

Martin Muncaster was the Tannoy voice in the 1983 Doctor Who story Terminus.

Also worked on CleanskinThe Stars Don't Twinkle in Outer SpaceJesterCrimetimeThe BillFrench and SaundersYes, Prime MinisterThe Man Outside


Hugh David (died 1987 aged 62) would be 99 - 2 credits, including Director for The Highlanders

Hugh David was an actor turned television director. 

His directorial credits include Compact, Z-Cars, The Pallisers and Doctor Who, for which he directed two stories in the Patrick Troughton era.

 While still an actor in the early 1960s, he had turned down the role of the First Doctor, when it was offered to him by his friend, the producer Rex Tucker. David later stated that as he had recently starred in the Granada Television series Knight Errant and disliked the high public profile it brought him, he was not keen to take on another leading role. 

Works included Sophia and Constance, Grange Hill, Une maison, une histoire, Of Mycenae and Men, Blue Peter Special Assignment, The Clifton House Mystery, Everyman, Centre Play, Rooms, The Velvet Glove, Luke's Kingdom, Dominic, Boy Dominic, Beryl's Lot, The Pallisers, Cranford, Clouds of Witness, Thirty-Minute Theatre, Wives and Daughters, Masterpiece Theatre, Trial, Jude the Obscure, Doomwatch, Z Cars, Christ Recrucified, The Expert, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Further Adventures of the Musketeers, 199 Park Lane, Compact, Zero One, Suspense, Richard the Lionheart, Tarnished Heroes, Knight Errant Limited, ITV Television Playhouse, A Matter of Degree, Armchair Theatre, How Green Was My Valley, BBC Sunday-Night Theatre, A Quiet Man, Television Playwright, The Invisible Armies, The Supreme Secret, Dixon of Dock Green, The Buccaneers, Reach for the Sky

He was married to Wendy Williams.at the time that The Ark In Space was filmed.