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On This Day (USA) - 13 October



City of Death: Part Three premiered on BBC One in 1979 at 6:04pm BST, watched by 15.40 million viewers.

School Reunion premiered on SyFy (East Coast Feed) in 2006 at 8:00pm EDT

 Birthdays
Stephen Gallagher will be 70 - 2 credits, including Writer for Warriors' Gate

Stephen Gallagher (born  in SalfordGreater Manchester) is an English writer.

He has written several novels and television scripts, including  Doctor Who — for which he wrote two serials,Warriors' Gate (1981) and Terminus (1983) — as well as for the series Rosemary & Thyme and Bugs, for two seasons of which he was script consultant along with Brian Clemens. He adapted his own novel Chimera for ITV and directed the adaptation of Oktober as well as writing the feature-length episode The Kingdom of Bones for the BBC series Murder Rooms.

He also developed and wrote a science-based series for ITVEleventh Hour, starring Patrick Stewart as a government science investigator and advisor. The program was rumoured to be ITV's answer to the new series of Doctor Who, but was more in the tradition of the hard-science thriller. Gallagher's series format was acquired for a US television remake by the CSI trio of CBS, Jerry Bruckheimer TV and directorDanny Cannon. The series aired on CBS and starred Rufus Sewell and Marley Shelton.

Life Line, broadcast in 2007, was a two-part a supernatural mystery starring Ray StevensonJoanne Whalley and Jemima Rooper.

Stephen Gallagher was lead writer and story supervisor on NBC's 13-part series Crusoe, screened in 2008/2009, and contributed two episodes to the US version of Eleventh Hour including Medea, the season finale. In 2009 He served as Co-Executive Producer on Bruckheimer's crime show The Forgotten, starring Christian Slater.

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


Steve Emerson will be 90 - 5 credits, including Stunt Man in The Claws of Axos

Steve Emerson played a Guard in the Doctor Who story The Macra Terror. He had several other small roles in the series.


Cyril Shaps (died 2003 aged 79) would be 101 - 4 credits, including Lennox in The Ambassadors of Death

Cyril Shaps  was an English actor who appeared in Doctor Who in several roles in the serials The Tomb of the CybermenThe Ambassadors of DeathPlanet of the Spiders and The Androids of Tara).

Shaps was born in HighburyLondon; he was of Polish ancestry and his father was a tailor. He was a child broadcaster, providing voices for radio commercials at the age of 12. After grammar school and Army service he trained at RADA and then worked for two years as an announcer, producer and scriptwriter for Radio Netherlands. His short stature and round face then led to a steady flow of character roles in film and television for nearly five decades.

Shaps's films included bit parts in a wide range of high-profile international films, including the Academy Award Best Picture winnerLawrence of Arabia (1962), with Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif (as the officer's club bartender), To Sir, with Love (1967, as neighbour Mr. Pinkus), and the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977, as Dr. Bechmann). One of his showier turns came in 1994, in The Madness of King George, portraying Dr. Pepys, a royal physician obsessed with the colour of His Majesty's stool. In 2002, at the age of 79, he made his final theatrical film appearances, as a pew opener in The Importance of Being Earnest, and had a larger role as concentration camp victim Mr. Grun in another Best Picture Oscar winner, The Pianist (2002).

Television work ranged from science fiction, including multiple appearances on Doctor Who, to classic literature in the BBC serials of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit (1994) and Our Mutual Friend (1998) to detective shows with appearances in Lovejoy (1993), The Saint (1966), and as Emperor Franz Joseph in Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991). He appeared in two Jim Henson Company television films, Gulliver's Travels (1996, as an elderly madman in Bedlam) and Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story(2001, as "Bent Little Man," the peddler who sells beans to the original Jack). To Supercar fans he is well known, for he provided the voice of Professor Rudolf Popkiss in the second series.

His television appearances include Quatermass IIDanger ManThe Mask of JanusThe SpiesDixon of Dock GreenZ-CarsThe SaintOut of the UnknownAlexander the GreatestThe Rat CatchersMan in a SuitcaseRandall and Hopkirk (Deceased),Department SThe Liver BirdsWhen the Boat Comes InSome Mothers Do 'Ave 'EmThe Onedin LineThe Persuaders!Porridge,The SweeneyWilde AllianceThe Young OnesThe BillDark SeasonLovejoyMidsomer Murders and Doctors.

He also supplied the voice of Mr. Gruber in The Adventures of Paddington Bear and Great Grandfather Frost in one episode of Animated Tales of the World.

His work for radio included a spell with the BBC Drama Repertory Company in the early 1950s. Broadcast parts (his characters were often old men and/or priests) included Firs in The Cherry Orchard, Justice Shallow in Henry the Fourth, Friar Lawrence in Romeo & Juliet, Polonius in Hamlet and Canon Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest.

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


 Deaths
John Barrard (died 2013) - credited as Shopkeeper in The Reign Of Terror

John Barrard played the Shopkeeper in the Doctor Who television story The Reign of Terror.

Also worked on Swinging with the FinkelsThe 10th ManDoctorsAs Time Goes BySunburnThe BillDadDie Katze von KensingtonMr. BeanPaul Merton: The SeriesKeeping Up AppearancesMinderSean's ShowJeeves and WoosterOne Foot in the GraveWar and RemembranceAfter HenryChristabelBusterTerry and JuneNever the TwainWe'll Think of SomethingSanta ClausKing DavidEllis IslandThe Old Men at the ZooAffairs of the HeartThe Black AdderLast of the Summer WineMetal MickeyWhoops ApocalypseEmery Presents: Legacy of MurderOliver TwistDiamondsPlay for TodayThe ProfessionalsDick TurpinLeave It to CharlieHouse of CaradusThe Wilde AllianceLondon Belongs to MeA Roof Over My HeadSurvivorsThe SweeneyThe CrezzSecond VerdictThe Growing Pains of PC PenroseCentre PlayCoronation StreetBowlerFollyfootThe ProtectorsThe Fenn Street GangAlcock and GanderThe Train Now StandingBudgieTales from the CryptThe ITV PlayThree in a BedThe Trouble with LilianThe Ten CommandmentsDoctor at LargePaul TempleHere Come the Double Deckers!If It Moves, File ItOurs Is a Nice HouseW. Somerset MaughamCrossplotDetectiveThe Mind of Mr. J.G. ReederCallanThe AvengersDon't Raise the Bridge, Lower the RiverPublic EyeBoy Meets GirlThe White RabbitThirty-Minute TheatreThe TroubleshootersTrappedThe Man in Room 17Pardon the ExpressionTheatre 625Softly SoftlyLondonersDr. Finlay's CasebookMikeCrossroads


Ian Stuart Black (died 1997 aged 82) - 4 credits, including Writer for The Savages

Ian Stuart Black was a novelist, playwright and screenwriter.

Both his 1959 novel In the Wake of a Stranger and his 1962 novel about the Cyprus emergency The High Bright Sun were made into films, Black writing the screenplays in each case.

He also wrote scripts for several British television programmes from the 1950s to the 1970s, including The Invisible Man and Sir Francis Drake (for which he was also story editor), as well as Danger Man (on which he served as associate producer) and Star Maidens.

He wrote three stories for Doctor Who and novelised all three stories for Target Books.

His final credit was for a half-hour supernatural drama called House of Glass, which was made by Television South in 1991.


Beryl Reid (died 1996 aged 77) - credited as Briggs in Earthshock

Beryl ReidOBE  was a British actress of stage and screen.

Born in Hereford, England, Reid was the daughter of Scottish parents and grew up in Manchester where she attended Withington and LevenshulmeHigh Schools.

Leaving school at 16, she made her debut in 1936 as a music hall performer at the Floral Hall, Bridlington. Before and during World War II, she took part in variety shows and pantomimes. She had no formal training but later appeared at the Royal National Theatre in London as a comedy actress. Her first big success came in the BBC radio show Educating Archie as naughty schoolgirl Monica and later as the Brummie, "Marlene".

Her many film and television roles as a character actor were usually well-received. She reprised her Tony Award-winning performance of a lesbian soap operastar in The Killing of Sister George for the screen version and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama. The former tour of the play was not a success, people in shops refused to serve her and other performers due to the gay characters in the play.

In both Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People Reid played Connie Sachs. For Smiley's People she won a BAFTA for Best Actress on Television. She also wrote an autobiography, So Much Love, which was well received. She played the part of an elderly feminist and political subversive in the 1987 television drama, The Beiderbecke Tapes.

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