Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 25 November



The Ice Warriors: Three premiered on BBC One in 1967 at 5:25pm GMT, watched by 7.40 million viewers.

Varga revives four fellow Ice Warriors from the ice and they begin to excavate their ship. Victoria places herself in jeopardy when she attempts to warn the Brittanicus Base.


The Androids of Tara: Part One premiered on BBC One in 1978 at 6:22pm GMT, watched by 8.50 million viewers.

The Five Doctors premiered on BBC One in 1983 at 7:20pm GMT, watched by 7.70 million viewers.

The Story of Trock premiered on BBC Radio 1 in 2013 at 9:00pm GMT

The Witchfinders premiered on BBC One in 2018 at 6:30pm GMT, watched by 7.21 million viewers.

In 17th-Century Lancashire, the Doctor becomes embroiled in a witch trial. The arrival of King James I only serves to intensify th witch-hunt.


 Birthdays
Philippa Coulthard will be 32 - 20 credits, including Jorjie Turner in Regeneration(K-9)

Philippa Coulthard's breakthrough role is as Jorjie Turner in the Australian series of K9; since then she has had roles in Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms and most recently playing Amber in Lightning Point (aka Alien Surf Girls).


Sophie Hopkins will be 34 - 9 credits, including April in For Tonight We Might Die(Class)
Sophie Hopkins grew up in East Yorkshire, attending York College (City of York) where she studied Performing Arts and Musical Theatre, graduating in 2009 and was awarded Distinction.

She moved to London in 2010 to train with Repertory Theatre company Fourth Monkey. She performed in 2 seasons of plays in London and Edinburgh, playing the title role in 'Antigone' and the lead Mari Gaila in 'Divine Words'.

Since then she has worked for ITV, BBC, The Discovery Channel U.S and is currently concentrating on film and writing.

Dougray Scott will be 59 - credited as Alec Palmer in Hide

Stephen Dougray Scott, better known as Dougray Scott (pronounced DOOG-ray), is a Scottish actor.

Scott was born in Glenrothes, Fife, the son of Elma, a nurse, and Alan Scott, an actor and salesperson. He attended Auchmuty High School. Adopting his stage name from his French grandmother's surname, Dougray, he enrolled in a foundation course in drama before going on to attend the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff from 1984 to 1987; here, he earned the college's Most Promising Drama Student award. In 1988, he moved to London.

Scott began his acting career in national theatre, television, and puppet shows. He appeared in his first role on the television series Soldier Soldier and made his film debut in Twin Town. His first major film roles were as Prince Henry in Ever After and the hero in the film adaptation of the Robert Harris novel Enigma. In 2000, he signed up to play the villain in Mission: Impossible II (hand-picked by star Tom Cruise) but was also due to play Wolverine in the feature film version of X-Men. When Mission: Impossible II went over schedule, Scott was replaced by Hugh Jackman in X-Men.

After the 2002 release of Die Another Day, Scott was a frontrunner to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.Despite the numerous reports that Eon Productions was leaning towards naming Scott as the new Bond in the 007 adventure Casino Royale, the role eventually went to Daniel Craig.In January 2006, he appeared in the miniseries The Ten Commandments as Moses. He also appeared in the NBC series Heist, which aired in March 2006 for five episodes. From 2006 until 2007, he starred in the third season of Desperate Housewives as Teri Hatcher's character's new love interest. In 2007, he played the primary antagonist in the film Hitman, based on the popular video game. He appeared in the title role(s) of a modern re-telling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In May 2009, it was announced that he was to play ex-con Michael O' Connor in the new RTÉ-ITV drama Father & Son.

Scott starred in The Day of the Triffids.The drama was broadcast in December 2009 as part of the BBC 1 Christmas schedule.In 2011, Scott featured in the film Love's Kitchen alongside his wife Claire Forlani, who played his love interest in the film. On the opening weekend in the UK it took just £121 in June 2011.In April 2011, Scott portrayed football manager Matt Busby in the BBC TV drama United, which was centred on the Munich air disaster of 1958, in which Busby was badly injured but survived.Busby's family were reportedly "incensed" by Scott's portrayal, with Busby's son commenting that his father's character "had the appearance of a gangster rather than a football manager" and wore an overcoat and trilby hat instead of a tracksuit, despite Busby famously being the first "tracksuit" manager of the post-World War II era.In 2013, he guest starred as para-psychological researcher/ghost hunter (and War Hero) Alec Palmer in the Doctor Who episode "Hide" alongside Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman and Jessica Raine.

In 2015, Scott signed up to play the main primary villain in Tak3n (hand-picked by star Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Famke Jannsen, and Maggie Grace).

Scott is the father of twins, Eden and Gabriel Trevis Scott (b. 1998), with ex-wife Sarah Trevis, to whom he was married from 2000 to 2006.On 8 June 2007, he married actress Claire Forlani in Italy.Scott is an avid fan of Hibernian Football Club and a celebrity supporter of the British Red Cross.

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


Simon Fisher Becker will be 63 - 3 credits, including Dorium Maldovar in The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang

Simon Fisher-Becker (born RuislipEngland) is a Britishstagetelevision and film actor, specialising in comedy and character parts. His more notable roles include The Fat Friar in theHarry Potter film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and Dorium Maldovar in series 5 and 6 of Doctor Who.

He was born at Paddington General Hospital and raised by his grandparents in Ruislip. He left school after A-levelsand joined the Civil Service, while taking a degree in Business Administration. He then attended Drama College.

He is a committee member of 'Actors and Writers London' (previously Hammersmith Actors and Writers Group --HAWG, of which he was chair from 2001 to 2004, and is a co-founder of the 'Tilt-Yard Theatre Company' which presents new writing and adaptations of established classics.

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


Bruno Tonioli will be 69 - credited as Self in Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor(Factual)

Bruno Tonioli is an Italianchoreographer, dancer and TV personality who appears as a judge on the British television dance competition Strictly Come Dancing and its American adaptation Dancing with the Stars on ABC TV in the US.

Tonioli co-created and appeared on the BBC talent show DanceX and its American adaptation, Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann.


Paul Copley will be 80 - 7 credits, including Clement McDonald in Children Of Earth: Day One(TW)

Paul Mackriell Copley is an English actor and voice-over artist.

Copley was born in Denby Dale, West Riding of Yorkshire, and grew up beside a dairy farm there. His father, Harold, was involved with local amateur dramatic productions, as were the rest of his family. He went to Penistone Grammar School, then the Northern Counties College of Education in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he received an Associate of the Drama Board (ADB) in Drama. He taught English and Drama in Walthamstow, before he joined the Leeds Playhouse Theatre-in-education Company in 1971.

Copley played a small role as Private Wicks in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far. In 1979 he played another small but noticeable role in Zulu Dawn as Cpl Storey in the British Army. He appeared in the controversial ATV drama Death of a Princess in 1980, playing a British witness to the killing of an Arabian princess and her lover. He has played Matthews in Hornblower, Ian in Roughnecks and Jerry in This Life and Peter Quinlan in The Lakes. He has appeared in Queer as Folk as Nathan Maloney's father, Big Finish's July 2002 Doctor Who story Spare Parts and in Shameless as a water sports enthusiast. In 1980 he appeared in critically acclaimed drama Minder playing George Palmer in episode The Old School Tie. He narrates the Channel 4 programme, How Clean is Your House?. He featured in the ITV children's hit show "Best Friends" 5 episodes in 2005–06, playing the grandfather.

He is a noted perennial Radio 4 radio play actor, usually in gritty or romantic plays about hard-working folk set in the north of England. They are often repeated on BBC7. Whenever a genial Yorkshire accent has been cast in the BBC radio drama department, he has often been summoned. He narrated the 1985 Yorkshire Television 9 part serial adaptation of The Pilgrim's Progress entitled Dangerous Journey.

On 13 February 2006, Copley appeared as an angry hostage-taker in an episode of the crime drama Life on Mars. Copley appeared in the TV Soap Coronation Street on 8 August 2007, portraying a character called Ivor Priestley, and in the TV adaptation of The Worst Witch (TV series) by Jill Murphy, as wizard and former-frog, Algernon Rowan-Webb.

In 1976, he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a New Play for his role in John Wilson's For King and Country.

From 1998 to 2003 appeared as Mathews in the Medridian Television series Hornblower

In 2009 he appeared in the third series of BBC One show Torchwood.

In 2010 he appeared in an episode of BBC One show Casualty and Survivors.

In 2011 he appeared as William Mason's father in several episodes of Downton Abbey, and in 2012 played Alan in White Heat.

He is currently narrating for the Channel 5 programme 'The Railway - First Great Western' of which there are 12 episodes.

He married the actress Natasha Pyne in 1972, after performing with her in a Leeds Playhouse production of Frank Wedekind's Lulu, adapted by Peter Barnes, directed by Bill Hays in 1971.

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


Ann Davies (died 2022 aged 87) would be 90 - credited as Jenny in The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Ann Davies played Jenny in the The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

In the documentary Future Memories, Davies claimed that Jenny was under consideration as a replacement companion following the departure of Susan Foreman at the end of the episode. Davies also noted that she became friends and neighbours with actress Jacqueline Hill. This recollection incorrectly suggested that perhaps Davies was, like Pauline Collins, a "companion-that-almost-was".

However, it was only Jenny that was considered as a replacement, not Davies herself. The extensive notes left behind of this period of Doctor Who's history clearly indicate that the character was originally called "Saida" and had been offered first to Pamela Franklin on about 17 August 1964. Lambert had made this offer because BBC1 Controller Donald Baverstock had agreed to renew Doctor Who for thirteen weeks beyond the end of Carole Ann Ford's contract, which lasted until the conclusion of Dalek Invasion.

Almost as soon as he had agreed to the extension, however, Baverstock withdrew the offer as a ploy in the renegotiation of William Hartnell, Hill and William Russell's contracts. In the waning days of August, 1964, Verity Lambert was forced to consider that the whole show might end at the conclusion of the present production block. Indeed, Baverstock flatly told her on 19 August 1964 that "it would be unwise to establish the new girl as a permanent member of the cast in the last episode" of Dalek Invasion and even suggested that if the salary negotiations failed, "a totally new or partly new group of principals" might have to be considered. Lambert therefore reversed herself and ordered Jenny be written as a one-shot guest. The deal with Franklin fell through and the now-smaller role was subsequently offered to Davies.

It therefore seems extremely unlikely that she would have ever believed herself actually in the running for a regular part on the programme, because by the time the part was actually offered her it was firmly that of a secondary guest character.

She was married to Richard Briers from 1956 until his death in 2013.

Biography from the TARDIS Data Core article, licensed under CC-BY-SA


 Deaths
Dinah Sheridan (died 2012 aged 92) - credited as Chancellor Flavia in The Five Doctors

Dinah Sheridan was a popular film actress of the 1940s, whose career culminated in the successful 1953 movie Genevieve. Retiring upon marrying her second husband Sir John Davis, the President of the Rank Organisation, she was later to return to acting after they divorced, which included a role in The Railway Children (which also starred Bernard Cribbins).

As well as Doctor Who, other notable television roles include Angela Latimer in Don't Wait Up (which co-starred Nigel Havers) and Frances Savage in The Winning Streak. She was the subject of This Is Your Lifein 1979.