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On This Day (USA) - 12 April



The Space Pirates: Episode Six premiered on BBC One in 1969 at 5:14pm BST, watched by 5.30 million viewers.

Onboard the rickety LIZ 79, Milo Clancey and Dom Issigri fall unconscious when Caven switches off the oxygen supply. Caven makes his getaway as the Doctor races to defuse a bomb.


Genesis of the Daleks: Part Six premiered on BBC One in 1975 at 5:31pm BST, watched by 9.10 million viewers.

The Kaled scientific elite move to prevent the development of the Daleks while the Doctor prepares to destroy his old enemies forever. But is it already too late?


Death Comes To Time: No Child Of Earth (pt 3) premiered on BBC Online in 2002 at 12:00pm BST

The Fires of Pompeii premiered on BBC One in 2008 at 6:46pm BST, watched by 9.04 million viewers.

The Italian Job premiered on BBC Three in 2008 at 7:35pm BST

 Birthdays
Andrew Dunn will be 67 - credited as Max in Scream of the Shalka(Misc)

Andrew Dunn is an English actor, best known for the role of Tony in the BBC sitcom Dinnerladies between 1998 and 2000. He later played Roger Stiles in Coronation Street from 2007 to 2008. He was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, but was brought up in North Shields, Northumberland, eight miles (13 km) east of Newcastle upon Tyne, before leaving for London at the age of 20. He trained as a teacher but decided he wanted to act. He later moved to York where he resides to this day.

Andrew has appeared in numerous television series including perhaps his best known role to date, as Tony in Dinnerladies. In addition he has also appeared in The Bill, Holby City, 55 Degrees North, Heartbeat, and Coronation Street in 2003. He had a lead role playing Hardy in the British feature film Between Two Women (2000) and also appeared in the British feature film The Jealous God (2005).

In December 2006 he rejoined the cast of Coronation Street as Roger Stiles, a plumber and new love interest for Janice Battersby. On 29 September 2008 it was announced he was the latest character to be axed from Corrie and he made his final appearance on 8 October 2008.

From 1999 until at least 2006, Dunn played the recurring role of Alastair Campbell in the political satire, Bremner, Bird & Fortune. Andrew reprised his role as Alastair Campbell in the BBC Radio 4 play "The Iraq Dossier", written by David Morley, which was broadcast on 2 March 2013.

Andrew joined old cast members of Dinnerladies in March 2009 to perform a stage version of the hit show.

Andrew received an honorary degree of letters from York St John University on 13 November 2009.

Andrew appeared in the BBC series, Doctors, 24 March 2011. He played Owain Brumpton. In September 2014, Dunn will begin playing the role of Gerald in the touring production of The Full Monty.

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


Emily Joyce will be 55 - credited as Alien Voice in The Girl in the Fireplace

Emily Joyce (born  in WoolwichLondonUnited Kingdom) is an Englishstage and television actress.

She lent her vocal talents to The Girl in the Fireplace.

Joyce is the youngest of three sisters, all of whom are in the entertainment business in the UK. Their mother loved the theatre and took the three girls to shows constantly. Joyce decided to join the National Youth Theatre at the age of fifteen and worked for Vogue magazine for sustenance during this time before going to train at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (BOVTS). At the age of seventeen she formed, and was the lead singer, in the band In Spite of All That. Including the time in drama school, Joyce spent three years as a part of this band.

After drama school, Joyce joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her first television role was in the ITV drama Cracker, where she played the murdereress in a 1995 episode. She also starred in another ITV1 drama series, Grafters, in 1999 and in 2003 played the part of DC Havers's new boss in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.

Joyce appeared in the British comedy series My Hero. She played the character of Janet Dawkins, opposite superhero Thermoman, originally played by Ardal O'Hanlon and followed by James Dreyfus.

In 2003 she appeared in series 2 episode 6 of Ultimate Force, playing the part of Nicky Strong.

In 2007, she appeared in the light-hearted drama Hotel Babylon, playing the part of Estelle. She also played Kate in the comedy drama Little Devil.

In the first half of 2008, she appeared in Happy Now?, a new play by Lucinda Coxon at the National TheatreLondon.

Also in 2008, she appeared in the six-part BBC comedy drama series Mutual Friends as Martin's (Marc Warren) boss Sarah Fletcher.

In 2010, Joyce played the part of Dr Sandra Fleming in Universal Soldier: Regeneration. In the same year she appeared as the Prime Minister's special policy advisor, Claire Sutton, in Anthony Jay's and Jonathan Lynn's stage version of Yes, Prime Minister, which premiered at the Chichester Festival in May 2010 and moved to the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End in September 2010.

In 2011, Joyce appeared in Series 7, Episode 19 of the BBC school-based drama Waterloo Road (TV series) as local superstar DJ Viv O'Donnell.

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


Elspet Gray (died 2013 aged 83) would be 95 - 2 credits, including Chancellor Thalia in Arc of Infinity

Elspeth Gray, Baroness Rix  was a Scottish actress, known for her work on British television in the 1970s and '80s. 

She was best recognised for her roles as one of the main characters, Mrs Palmer in the British TV comedy Solo, alongsideFelicity Kendal, and as Lady Collingford in the British TV series Catweazle.

Gray appeared in many television programmes, her first appearance being in Love in Waiting in 1948. She had several roles in the 1970s including parts in Fawlty Towers and in the 1980s with Doctor Who story Arc of Infinity, World War Two drama Tenko, and as The Queen in the first series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder.

She remained active until the late 1990s appearing in Agatha Christie's Poirot, 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral and most recently has appeared as Hilary in the British TV comedy Dinnerladies.

In 1949, Elspet Gray married actor and later Mencap Chairman & President Brian Rix, who became a life peer in 1992. They had four children - two sons and two daughters. 

Obituary links: Daily Record, ITV News


 Deaths
Sonny Caldinez (died 2022 aged 89) - 5 credits, including Kemel in The Evil of the Daleks

Sonny Caldinez  is aTrinidadian actor, best known for his appearances as various Ice Warriors on Doctor Who. He is noted for his formidable height.

Caldinez has played Ice Warriors in all the classic Doctor Who serials in which they have been involved. His Ice Warrior roles include Turoc from The Ice Warriors, an Ice Warrior in The Seeds of Death, Ssorg in The Curse of Peladon and Sskel in The Monster of Peladon. 

He also appeared as Kemel in The Evil of the Daleks. 

Other television roles include Abdullah on Sexton and Blake and the mulatto on The Return of Sherlock Holmes(episode "Wisteria Lodge").

He has also appeared in small roles in a few films, including Ali G Indahouse, Arabian Adventure,The Man with the Golden Gun, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Fifth Elemen


Andre Maranne (died 2021 aged 95) - credited as Benoit in The Moonbase

AndrĂ© Maranne is an Anglo-French actor who appeared chiefly in English-language roles from the mid 1950s.

Born in Toulouse, France, Maranne's most prominent recurring role was Sergeant Francois Chevalier in six of The Pink Panther films, alongside Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom. Before the Pink Panther, he cameoed in the James Bond movie Thunderball. He also appeared in diverse television programmes as Jason King ("Wanna buy a television series?", 1971), Fawlty Towers (as AndrĂ© in the 1975 "Gourmet Night" episode), Lord Peter Wimsey ("Clouds of Witness", 1972), Yes MinisterAll Creatures Great and Small, and Doctor Who (The Moonbase, 1967).

Maranne was also a co-presenter of four in the French Teaching Programme, "Bonjour Francoise" on the BBC in the Sixties.

He voiced M. Bouc in a BBC Radio 4 transmission of Murder on the Orient Express (1993-1994).

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


Stuart McDonald (died 2021) - 2 credits, including Line Producer for The Time of the Doctor

Stuart McDonald was a director; work includes Parkinson and more recently Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two.


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

Gerald Flood (died 1989 aged 61) - 4 credits, including Voice of Kamelion in Planet of Fire

Gerald Flood  was a British actor of stage and television.

He provided the voice of Kamelion, a short lived companion of Fifth Doctor Peter Davison.

Flood was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire but lived for most of his life in Farnham, Surrey, where he regularly appeared on stage at the Castle Theatre. He first came to national prominence whist starring alongside Patrick Allen and Sam Kydd in the Morocco-based police series, Crane, which ran from 1963 to 1965 on ITV. In this he played the character Colonel Sharif Mahmoud. 

Flood also appeared in a number of television and film roles over the years. These included the ITC series The Champions and Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), The Rat Catchers,  Tom Brown's Schooldays and was also in Bachelor Father. His film credits included Smokescreen (1964), Patton (1970), and Frightmare (1974).

Gerald Flood died from a heart attack aged 61. Toby Flood, the English international rugby union player, is Flood's grandson.