Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 7 August



 Birthdays
Eugene Washington will be 50 - credited as Mr Wagner in School Reunion

Eugene Washington is a British actor 

In 2010 he played the title role in Shakespeare's Othello in a 9 month world tour in a joint venture for American Drama Group Europe (ADGE) and TNT Theatre. He played the part of Henry Angell in Agatha Christie's The Unexpected Guest

Washington's screen credits include Law & Order: UK, Casualty, and an appearance in the 2006 season of Doctor Who in "School Reunion", playing a creepy alien teacher named Mr Wagner. 

He has also appeared in Doctors, Judge John Deed and had a lead guest role as Captain Rogan in Star Hyke in an episode entitled Lucy In The Sky.


Cathy Murphy will be 57 - credited as Mum in The Christmas Invasion

Cathy Murphy  is a British actress who played a Mother in the 2005 Doctor Who television story The Christmas Invasion.

She played the role of Lorna in 1991, a love interest of Mark Fowler in soap opera EastEnders. In 2005 she returned to play the recurring role of Trisha Taylor. She had earlier played the ongoing role of Cheryl Barker in serial Family Affairs She played Tilly Watkins in The House of Elliot.

In 2010 she returned to EastEnders for the third time, this time playing Julie Perkins, who is an old friend of long-running character Billy Mitchell.


Shobna Gulati will be 58 - 3 credits, including Najia Khan in Arachnids In The UK

Shobna Gulati is a British actress, presenter, writer and dancer.

Gulati is a soap star, best known for playing Anita in Victoria Wood's dinnerladies, Sunita Alahan in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street from 2001 to 2006, and Farah Khurana in River City from 2017 to 2018.

From 13 March, 2013 to 30 May, 2014, Gulati appeared as a panellist on the lunchtime chatshow Loose Women.

Gulati is also one of very few actors to have appeared on both Coronation Street and its rival series EastEnders in 2010.


Wayne Knight will be 69 - 3 credits, including Brian Friedkin in Rendition(TW)

Wayne Knight is an American actor, comedian, and voice actor  best known for his role as Newman in the TV sitcom Seinfeld

His other prominent roles include Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park, Stan Podolak in Space Jam, Al McWhiggin in Toy Story 2Tantor in TarzanDon Orville in 3rd Rock from the SunZack Mallozzi in Rat Race, Mr. Blik in Catscratch, and Haskell Lutz in The Exes.


Alexei Sayle will be 72 - 3 credits, including D. J. in Revelation of the Daleks

Alexei Sayle is a British stand-up comedian, actor and author. He was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early 1980s. 

He played the DJ in the 1985 story, Revelation of the Daleks. 

Sayle was the leading performer at The Comic Strip. He appeared on The Comic Strip Album (1981) and recorded Cak! (1982). He also appeared in the stage show, film and comedy album of The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (1981-82). 

In 1988, Sayle played the role of Trinculo in Shakespeare's The Tempest, directed by Jonathan Miller at The Old Vic theatre in London.

On Television he appeared on Central Independent Television's late-night alternative cabaret show O.T.T. (1982).  He played various roles in the situation comedy The Young Ones (1982�1984). 

In 1989, Sayle was awarded an International Emmy for Stuff. 

Sayle has appeared in the film Gorky Park, 1983 and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He appeared in the 1992 Carry On film, Carry On Columbus 

Sayle has released five comedy singles. The most successful of these was "'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?" which achieved Top 20 chart success in the UK upon re-release in 1984.


Chloe Ashcroft will be 82 - credited as Professor Laird in Resurrection of the Daleks

Chloe Ashcroft (born 7 August 1942) was a presenter on several BBC children's TV programmes, including Play SchoolPlay AwayHokey-Cokey and Pie in the Sky

She appeared in the Doctor Who story Resurrection of the Daleks playing Professor Laird. She is also a teacher and now lives in Gloucestershire with her husband, the actor David Hargreaves.


Kenneth Kendall (died 2012 aged 88) would be 100 - credited as Television Newsreader in The War Machines

Kenneth Kendall was a British broadcaster. 

He worked for many years as a newsreader for the BBC where he was a contemporary of fellow newsreaders Richard Baker and Robert Dougall. 

He is also remembered as the host of the Channel 4 game show Treasure Hunt which ran between 1982 and 1989.

Obituaries: BBC NewsIndependentTelegraph


Dudley Foster (died 1973 aged 48) would be 100 - credited as Caven in The Space Pirates

Dudley Foster was an English actor..

He appeared in such series as Danger Man, The Saint, The Avengers, Steptoe and Son and Doctor Who (The Space Pirates), often in villainous roles; in Z Cars, he played a police detective. He occasionally appeared in films.

In 1970 he provided the voice-over for an edition of the BBC documentary series Chronicle: "The Great Iron Ship", about the salvage and return from the Falkland Islands of the Isambard Kingdom Brunel ship SS Great Britain.

His early death was the result of suicide.


Jocelyn Birdsall (died 1993 aged 81) would be 112 - credited as Hlynia in The Web Planet

Actress who played Hlynia in the 1965 story The Web Planet.


 Deaths
Michael Kerrigan (died 2014 aged 61) - 3 credits, including Director for Battlefield

Michael Kerrigan  is a British television director noted for directing the The Famous Five TV series and No. 73. 

He directed the Doctor Who serial Battlefield in 1989. 2008 he returned to the world of Doctor Who  to direct four episodes of the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures in 2008.

Michael spent many years on the staff of TVS, and his first credit was 'Programme Associate' on first Maidstone edition of 'No. 73'.


Ric Felgate (died 1999 aged 66) - 3 credits, including Van Lyden in The Ambassadors of Death

Ric Felgate appeared in several Doctor Who stories: as Roy Stone in The War Machines, Brent in The Seeds of Death and Charles Van Lyden in The Ambassadors of Death


Dursley McLinden (died 1995 aged 30) - credited as Sgt Mike Smith in Remembrance of the Daleks

Dursley McLinden was a Manx actor whose career was mostly focused on the London stage in musicals such as The Phantom of the Opera, Gigi, and Follies

McLinden was born and grew up in Douglas, Isle of Man, and at the age of eight, at Douglas High School, he played the Dame in Dick Whittington. He came to London when he was 16 to train at the Mountview Theatre School and first toured America and Sweden in productions of The Threepenny Opera and Macbeth. 

Shortly afterwards he won a role in Derek Nimmo's production of The Man Most Likely To . . ., touring the Middle and Far East. His work in repertory included Crucifer of Blood in Ipswich, To Kill a Mocking Bird and Damn Yankees in Birmingham, and Robert and Elizabeth at the Chichester Festival Theatre. He appeared in the West End in Lerner and Loewe's Gigi at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, and in Stephen Sondheim's Follies at the Shaftesbury Theatre.  

In 1988 he was diagnosed with AIDS. Over the next seven years he became one of the moving spirits behind West End Cares, the theatrical wing of the Aids charity Crusaid. He was particularly the inspiration behind cabaret nights at Smith's restaurant in Covent Garden 

McLinden, who was also an accomplished conjuror, continued working as an actor up until a few weeks before his death. His last performance was in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's, on the night before his 30th birthday.


Norman Atkyns (died 1980 aged 71) - 2 credits, including Guardian in Colony In Space

Australian actor who played the Guardian in the 1971 story Colony in Space and a Rear Admiral in 1972 story The Sea Devils.