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On This Day (USA) - 21 September



The Mind Robber: Episode 2 premiered on BBC One in 1968 at 5:18pm BST, watched by 6.50 million viewers.

Arriving in the Land of Fiction, the Doctor searches for his companions in a forest of words. Clockwork soldiers are on the prowl and fictional characters come to life.


Time and the Rani: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1987 at 7:35pm BST, watched by 4.30 million viewers.

Utopia premiered on SyFy (East Coast Feed) in 2007 at 8:00pm EDT

Alan Carr: Chatty Man: Series 9 Episode 2 premiered on Channel 4 in 2012 at 10:00pm BST
Matt Smith joins Alan to talk about the new series of Doctor Who. Jack Whitehall, Charlotte Ritchie, Greg McHugh, Joe Thomas and Kimberley Nixon from Fresh Meat give Alan the lowdown on the second series of their hit sitcom.

Kelly Osbourne talks about E!'s Fashion Police, which she stars in alongside Joan Rivers, Paralympic 100m champion Jonnie Peacock is in the studio, and Example performs his single, Say Nothing.

 Birthdays
Sue Vertue will be 64 - credited as Producer for Doctor Who and The Curse Of Fatal Death(Misc)

Susan "Sue" Nicola Vertue is an English television producer, mainly of comedy shows, including Mr. Bean and Coupling. She is the daughter of producer Beryl Vertue.

Vertue worked for Tiger Aspect, a production company run by Peter Bennett-Jones, where she produced episodes of Mr. Bean, The Vicar of Dibley and Gimme Gimme Gimme.

Vertue met writer Steven Moffat at the Edinburgh Television Festival in 1996. A relationship blossomed and they left their respective production companies to join Hartswood Films, run by Beryl Vertue, Sue's mother. When Vertue asked Moffat to write a sitcom for Hartswood, he decided to base it around the evolution of their own relationship. The series became Coupling, which was first broadcast on BBC2 in 2000. The main two characters in the show were even named Steve and Susan, played by Jack Davenport and Sarah Alexander.

In 1999 Vertue produced Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, a four-episode special of Doctor Who, written by Steven Moffat, for the Red Nose Day charity telethon.

Her other work includes Carrie and Barry, Supernova, Fear, Stress & Anger, The Cup and Sherlock

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


Tariq Anwar will be 79 - 3 credits, including Film Editor for The Face of Evil

Tariq Anwar is an Indian-born film editor whose credits include Center StageThe Good ShepherdSylviaOppenheimer, and American Beauty, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and won two BAFTA Awards. He has also been nominated for Academy Award in 2011 for editing The King's Speech. He is now based in the United States and England. He is the father of actress Gabrielle Anwar.

He was film editor on two Doctor Who stories.

Anwar was born in DelhiBritish India and was raised in Lahore and Bombay. His mother, Edith Reich, was an Austrian Jew, and his father was Indian film actor and director Rafiq Anwar. He moved with his mother to London after his parents divorced.


Nigel Stock (died 1986 aged 66) would be 105 - credited as Professor Hayter in Time-Flight

Nigel Stock was a British actor of stage, screen, radio and television, who played major character roles in many films and television dramas.

Stock was born in Malta, the son of an Army captain. He grew up in India before attending St Paul's School, London and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he earned the Leverhulme Exhibition, Northcliffe Scholarship, and the Principal's Medal.

He made his stage debut in 1931, and during his career achieved numerous classical and contemporary credits at various distinguished theatres, including the Old Vic and on Broadway, with productions of The Winter's TaleMacbeth,She Stoops to ConquerUncle Vanya. His start in films came with uncredited bit parts in The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1938) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). In 1937 he made his first credited film appearance in Lancashire Luck.

His acting career was interrupted by wartime service between 1939 and 1945 with the London Irish Rifles and the Assam Regiment of the Indian Army in BurmaChina and Kohima. He was honourably discharged with the rank of Major, having twice been mentioned in despatches.

His film appearances included popular releases such as Brighton Rock (1947), The Dam Busters (1955), The Great Escape (1963), The Lion in Winter and The Lost Continent (both 1968), and Russian Roulette (1975).

Between 1964 and 1968, Nigel Stock became a household name in the UK for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in a series of Sherlock Holmes dramas for BBC television. Later in life, he portrayed the mentor of Sherlock Holmes in Young Sherlock Holmes. His other numerous television credits included Danger Man (1965), The Avengers (1964 & 1966), The Prisoner (1967), Owen MD (1971�73), Quiller (1975), Van der Valk (1977), Doctor Who (1982), Yes Minister (1982),Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) and for the BBC A Tale of Two Cities 1980 television series as well as The Pickwick Papers (1985) as Mr. Pickwick.

Stock and his third wife, Richenda Carey, had just appeared together on stage in the world premiere of Mumbo Jumbo in May 1986, when he died in London of a heart attack, aged 66.

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


 Deaths
Geoffrey Burgon (died 2010 aged 69) - 2 credits, including Incidental Music for Terror of the Zygons

Geoffrey Burgon was a British composer notable for his television and film themes.

He provided the Incidental Music for Terror of the Zygons and The Seeds of Doom. 

Burgon was born in Hampshire in 1941, and taught himself the trumpet in order to join a jazz band at school (Pewley Grammar School, Guildford). He entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with the intention of becoming a professional trumpet player. However, under the direction of his mentor, composer Peter Wishart, he found that he was more interested in composition. Burgon initially supported himself and his family as a freelance jazz trumpeter. At the age of 30 he sold his instruments, except one, and devoted himself to composition. He lived through a lengthy period of poverty before critical success eventually brought financial reward.

The critical success of his Requiem at the Three Choirs Festival in 1976 sealed his reputation as a composer and led to many commissions from major organisations. Continuing the tradition established by Benjamin Britten, Burgon’s fluent and effortless language was particularly well suited to the voice and he had a long-standing collaboration with counter-tenor James Bowman. Burgon also had considerable success writing for film and television and twice received both BAFTA and Ivor Novello Awards. His style was essentially conservative, influenced by Benjamin Britten and medieval music rather than modern styles.

He married Janice Elizabeth Garwood in 1963 and had a son and a daughter. The marriage was later dissolved. In 1992 he married Jacqueline Krofchak (professional name Kroft), a Canadian pianist and singer; they had a son, Daniel. He was a keen cricketer and had written detective novels in his spare time. 


Bernard Davies (died 2010 aged 86) - credited as German soldier in The War Games

Bernard Davies played a German soldier in the Doctor Who story The War Games.

Davies' first brush with fame came in 1958 when he won what was then the biggest prize awarded on British TV, £5,580 on the short-lived Granada quiz show, Twenty One.

Besides his various minor roles on film and TV, Davies was noted for his writings on Sherlock Holmes. He was Chairman of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and also the co-founder and president of the Dracula Society. He was made a Freeman of the City of London in 1986.

Biography from the Tardis Wiki article, licensed under CC-BY-SA


Tony Lambden (died 2006 aged 72) - credited as Court Messenger in The Romans

Tony Lambden  played a Court Messenger in the Doctor Who story The Romans. 

He was also an extra in the Doctor Who stories The Keys of Marinus, The Reign of Terror and The Dalek Invasion of Earth.