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On This Day (USA) - 4 June



The Savages: Episode 2 premiered on BBC One in 1966 at 5:34pm BST, watched by 5.60 million viewers.

The Elders are hunting the 'Savages' to extract their life force for themselves, and now the Doctor is about to face the same fate.


Boom Town premiered on BBC One in 2005 at 7:01pm BST, watched by 7.68 million viewers.

The Doctor encounters an enemy he thought long since dead as a plan to build a nuclear power station conceals an alien plot to destroy the world.

Doctor Who Confidential is at 7.45pm on BBC3.


Unsung Heroes and Violent Death premiered on BBC Three in 2005 at 7:45pm BST

This episode goes behind the scenes of Boom Town

Death is never very far away from the Time Lord's fight with evil. Jabe the tree queen and undertaker's assistant Gwyneth are honoured as unsung heroes from the current series who've laid down their lives to aid the Doctor.


A Good Man Goes to War premiered on BBC One in 2011 at 6:40pm BST, watched by 7.51 million viewers.

The Born Identity premiered on BBC Three in 2011 at 7:30pm BST

This episode goes behind the scenes of A Good Man Goes to War

Confidential goes behind the scenes for the epic series finale set on the asteroid, Demons Run.

We discover how the Doctor Who team create the newest baddies, turn a small platoon of clerics into an army and transform an alley in Cardiff into Jack the Ripper's London.

Features a day in the life of a Doctor Who enemy and in-depth interviews with Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston, Frances Barber and lead writer Steven Moffat.


 Birthdays
Julie Gardner will be 55 - 197 credits, including Executive Producer for Rose

Julie Gardner is a Welsh television producer

Her most prominent work has been serving as executive producer on the 2005 revival of Doctor Who and its spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures

Together with Russell T Davies she was responsible for bringing the show back to Saturday night television and making it one of the BBC's hottest properties.

She worked on Doctor Who from 2003 to 2009 before moving to Los Angeles to work at BBC Worldwide.

Gardner was born in Neath, and grew up in the Pont Walby area of Glynneath where her parents ran a local shop. She attended Llangatwg Comprehensive and Neath Port Talbot College where she was an outstanding student of A level English, History and Drama. She read English at the Queen Mary CollegeUniversity of London. She initially worked as a teacher at Rhondda College teaching English GCSE and A-Level, before in the mid-1990s she decided to switch to working in the television industry.

Her first job was as a producer's secretary on the second production block of the acclaimed BBC Two drama serial Our Friends in the North (starring Christopher Eccleston). Subsequently, she became a script reader and then a script editor, before working as a producer on BBC dramas such as Silent Witness and The Mrs Bradley Mysteries.

In 2000, Gardner began working as a Development Producer at London Weekend Television. There, she produced dramas including Me and Mrs. Jones and an updated version of Othello written by Andrew Daviesand starring Eamonn Walker and Christopher Eccleston (in the Iago role). While at LWT, Gardner began working with Welsh writer Russell T Davies on the period drama Casanova.

In 2003, Gardner returned to the BBC as Head of Drama for BBC Wales, bringing Davies' Casanova project with her. Gardner's first assignment from BBC Head of Drama Jane Tranter was to head up the revival ofDoctor Who. Gardner immediately contacted Davies (who had previously expressed an interest in writing and producing Doctor Who) and began working with him on bringing the programme back to British screens. The new series of Doctor Who debuted in March 2005, to critical and popular acclaim.

Gardner was the BBC's representative in the production of the political romantic comedy The Girl in the Caf� (2005), written by Richard Curtis in conjunction with the Make Poverty History campaign. Other network dramas commissioned by Gardner at BBC Wales included the multiple personality disorder drama May 33(2004); domestic abuse-themed one-off Dad (2005); courtroom reconstruction The Chatterley Affair (2006) and the time travel police series Life on Mars (2006�2007), produced independently by Kudos Film & Television.

Gardner and Davies also oversaw two Doctor Who spin-offs: Torchwood, an adult (post-watershed) science fiction drama aired on BBC Three and BBC Two, and The Sarah Jane Adventures, a children's fantasy thriller aired on BBC One and CBBC.

In September 2006 it was announced that Gardner would succeed Jane Tranter as the overall Controller of Drama Commissioning at BBC Television, following Tranter's promotion to the new "Head of Fiction" role. However, Gardner remained in her position at BBC Wales, performing the two jobs simultaneously, until 2009; her roles at BBC Wales and with Doctor Who were then assumed by producer Piers Wenger.

Gardner received credit for an increase in drama being made in Wales; in 2007, Cardiff-born writer Andrew Davies called her "the best thing to happen to Welsh drama. Ever."

In March 2009, it was announced that Gardner was to join the staff of Los Angeles-based BBC Worldwide America, as executive producer in charge of scripted projects.

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


Ralph Salmins will be 60 - credited as The Lorells in Delta and the Bannermen

Ralph Salmins played a member of The Lorells in the Doctor Who serial Delta and the Bannermen.


Bradley Walsh will be 64 - 22 credits, including Graham O'Brien in The Woman Who Fell To Earth

Bradley Walsh  is an English light entertainer, television actor, comedian and former professional footballer. Walsh rose to fame in the mid 1990s after he became a presenter on The National Lottery.

Walsh first came to prominence on television in 1994, after he won a role as one of the presenting team on the National Lottery, broadcast regularly on Saturday and Wednesday evenings on BBC1. After Walsh became a public favourite, he was quickly snapped up by rival TV channel ITV1, who offered him the role as presenter on one of the network's new game shows, Midas Touch. In 1997, Walsh was asked to front the British adaptation of popular US game show, Wheel of Fortune.

In 2004, Walsh was approached by one of the nation's biggest shows, Coronation Street. In May 2006, Walsh won the award for 'Best Dramatic Performance' in his role as Danny at the British Soap Awards. In December 2006, Walsh was written out of the serial, but he was not killed off, at his own request. During his time in Coronation Street, Walsh also appeared as Burglar Billat the Children's Party at the Palace 2006.

During 2008, Walsh also appeared in two episodes of Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, in the second story of series two, The Day of the Clown, as a sinister entity that fed off other people's fear. In his role, he played three parts of the same ego - a sinister American sounding clown called Odd Bob, a mysterious European sounding ringmaster called Elijah Spellman, and the infamous Pied Piper of Hamelin.

On 22nd October 2017 it was announced that Walsh would become a regular in the 2018 series of Doctor Who, playing Graham alongside side the new Doctor, Jodie Whitaker.


David Yip will be 73 - 6 credits, including Veldan in Destiny of the Daleks

David Yip is an English actor.

Yip, of Asian and English descent, was born in Liverpool and trained at East 15 Acting SchoolLondon. He is the son of a Chinese father, a seaman from the Canton area of China, and an English mother from Liverpool.

He is known for playing the lead role of Johnny Ho in the 1981 BBC drama The Chinese Detective, notable for its frontlining of an ethnic British cast. He also played Michael Cho� in the soap opera Brookside between 1989 and 1990. He also had a small part in the 1979 Doctor Who story Destiny of the Daleks and played a factory owner in Casualty.

His film credits include playing Wu Han in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doomand CIA liaison agent Chuck Lee in the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill. Both his characters died early in the films.

He performed the radio play The Inventor of Fireworks, written by Benjamin Yeohfor BBC Radio 3 on 22 January 2004.

David Yip is a practising Nichiren Buddhist and a member of the Soka Gakkai International. He currently lives in North Oxfordshirewith his wife Virginia and his dog Buddy.

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


David Collings (died 2020 aged 79) would be 84 - 6 credits, including Vorus in Revenge of the Cybermen

David Collings is an English actor. He has played various roles on television, including the leading dramatic role in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment in 1964 (with Associated-Rediffusion Television).

Collings has played historical characters such as Percy Grainger in Ken Russell's Song of Summer (1968), John Ruskin in The Love School (1975), a BBC series about the Pre-Raphaelites, and Sir Anthony Babington in Elizabeth R. In 1975 he portrayed William Wilberforce in the The Fight Against Slavery, and starred as William Pitt in Prince Regent in 1979.

He appeared three in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who including Vorus in Revenge of the Cybermen, Poul in The Robots of Death and Mawdryn in the serial Mawdryn Undead. He has also played an alternate Doctor in one of the audio plays by Big Finish Productions in the Doctor Who Unbound series, Full Fathom Five.

Collings returned to the role of Poul, now named Paulus, in the episode Hidden Persuaders of the audio drama series Kaldor City.

On radio he portrayed Legolas in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.

He also appeared as Deva in the final episode of Blake's 7 and as the character of 'Silver' in several of the Sapphire and Steel adventures.

He also appeared in the TV series Danger Man, Mystery and Imagination, UFO and Gideon's Way in which he played an emotionally disturbed man attacking young women in the episode The Prowler.

Collings played the character of Bob Cratchit in the 1970 film musical adaptation of Scrooge.

He did the voice acting for the Japanese television series Journey to the West, released in English-speaking countries as Monkey.

In 2006, Collings was the reader of the critically acclaimed recordings of The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James.

He is also noted for his children's television appearances including the role of Julian Oakapple in Midnight is a Place (1977). In 1989 he played Charn (the villain) in Through The Dragon's Eye and had a recurring role as the headmaster in Press Gang from 1989-1993.

He played the parts of Mortimer the Elder and Matrevis in the summer 2011 production of Edward II at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, which also featured Sam Collings.

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


John Joyce (died 2009 aged 70) would be 85 - credited as Garvin in The Dæmons

Actor who played Gavin in the 1971 story The Daemons.


Ric Felgate (died 1999 aged 66) would be 91 - 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


Bill Wiesener (died 2006 aged 72) would be 91 - credited as Robot in The Mind Robber

Actor who appeared in The Mind Robber


Edward Kelsey (died 2019 aged 88) would be 94 - 3 credits, including Edu in The Creature from the Pit

Edward Kelsey  was a British actor of stage and screen as well as a voiceover artist. He is perhaps best recognised as the voice of Joe Grundy on the long-running BBC radio soap opera The Archers - a role he took over in 1985.

He was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, and became involved in theatricals at school. He studied at local Churcher's College during the war, and then went on to study medicince at the University of London, but dropped out after a couple of years. During National Service with the Royal Air Force he continued with amateur dramatics which led him to win a place at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied speech and teaching drama.

Much of his early career was with the theatre, and then with a multitude of appearances in television programmes, which as well as his appearances in Doctor Who also included series such as The AvengersSoftly, SoftlyThe SaintPublic Eye,Dempsey & MakepeaceZ-CarsJuliet Bravo, Casualty, The Wind in The Willows, The Vicar of Dibley and Tripods.

He voiced the characters of Colonel K and Baron Silas Greenback in Danger Mouse by Cosgrove Hall, and The Thing in Terry Pratchetts's Truckers.He also portrayed Mr Growbag in Aardman's Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit.He can also be heard as the voice behind the descriptive commentary for the blind at the Palace of Westminster.

In 1992 he became an associate member in the Royal Academy of Music, where he had sat on the Examining Board for many years. He was also long-serving member of the audio commitee in Equity. He married Birgit Johansson in 1955, and they had three children, Christopher, Peter and Lisbet.


Lisa Daniely (died 2014 aged 84) would be 95 - credited as Madeleine Issigri in The Space Pirates

Lisa Daniely was a British actress on TV and in occasional films. She played Madeleine Issigri in the 1969 story The Space Pirates.

Daniely made her debut in the 1950 film Lilli Marlene in the title role. In the 1952 film Hindle Wakes she played Jenny Hawthorn. Her most memorable TV role was as Diane Brady, the sister of Peter Brady, in the 1958 TV series version of HG Wells' The Invisible Man.

Other appearances on various TV programmes included The Saint, Danger Man, Strange Report, The Protectors, Van Der Valk and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

In 1996, she portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in the TV film Princess In Love.

In 2007, Daniely provided background commentary to several episodes of The Invisible Man that were released by Network DVD, along with former co-star Deborah Watling.


Geoffrey Palmer (died 2020 aged 93) would be 97 - 3 credits, including Masters in Doctor Who And The Silurians

Geoffrey Palmer is an English actor, best known for his roles in sitcoms such as Butterflies and As Time Goes By.

Palmer was born in London, England, the son of Norah Gwendolen and Frederick Charles Palmer, who was a chartered surveyor. He attended Highgate School, London. 

After serving in the Royal Marines Palmer joining a local amateur dramatics society. He became an assistant stage manager at the Q Theatre, by Kew Bridge, then the Grand Theatre in CroydoN and spent several years touring with a repertory company.

Early television appearances included a variety of roles in Granada Television's The Army Game, two episodes of The Baron and as a property agent in Cathy Come Home, a very highly influential drama documentary shown on British TV in 1966.

Getting a major break in John Osborne's West of Suez at the Royal Court with Ralph Richardson, he then acted in major productions at the Royal Court and the Royal National Theatre and was directed by Laurence Olivier. Many of his television parts were as a stuffy, middle class buffoon, and he is known for deadpan drollery. 

Two sitcom roles brought him major attention in the 1970s: the hapless brother-in-law of Reggie Perrin in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, and the phlegmatic Ben Parkinson in Carla Lane's Butterflies. He starred opposite Judi Dench for over a decade in the BBC situation comedy As Time Goes By (1992-2005). During this time he also appeared with Dench in other productions: the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies where he portrayed Admiral Roebuck, and Mrs. Brown, he played Sir Henry Ponsonby to Dench's Queen Victoria.

His distinctive voice has given him a career in advertising and television voiceovers, most notably the Audi commercials in which he popularised the phrase "Vorsprung durch Technik", and as the narrator for the BBC series, Grumpy Old Men and Grumpy Old Holidays. He narrated the audiobook version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, released in 2005 as a podcast by Penguin Books. He narrates Little England.

In 2007 he teamed up with Silksound Books to record The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith as an online audiobook.

In Doctor Who Geoffrey Palmer was cast in the role of the Captain in Voyage of the Damned, having previously appeared as different characters in the Third Doctor serials Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Mutants.

Palmer married Sally Green in 1963 and they have a son, Charles, who has directed episodes of Doctor Who and daughter Harriet. 

In the New Year's Honours List published 31 December 2004 Palmer was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to drama.


Peter R. Newman (died 1975 aged 48) would be 98 - credited as Writer for The Sensorites

Peter R. Newman was born in Essex. 

In World War II he served as a pilot in Burma. He used his wartime experiences in a  television play, Yesterday's Enemy, which he later turned into a screenplay for Val Guest; the film version was released in 1959 and nominated for four BAFTA's

As a three-act play, it was published by Samuel French in 1960. 

The Sensorites was Newman's only contribution to Doctor Who, and his last credit for British television. He died in 1975 after an accident.

His life was the subject of a DVD extra, Looking For Peter on the DVD release of The Sensorites.


Edward Evans (died 2001 aged 87) would be 110 - credited as Ted Moss in Image of the Fendahl

Edward Evans was a British film and television actor.

During World War II, he served with the British Army in Italy and North Africa, reaching the rank of Captain.

Evans starred as Bob Grove in the popular 1950s soap opera The Grove Family, and played the role of Lionel Petty in Coronation Street during (1965-66). 

He played Ted Moss in the Doctor Who serial Image of the Fendahl.

In a long career he also appeared in Heart of the CountryThe BilShine on Harvey Moon, Suez 1956George & MildredZ CarsMr. BigOne-UpmanshipPoldarkOut of SeasonThe Gathering StormFather BrownBBC Play of the MonthCrown CourtWithin These WallsPlay for TodayWhodunnit?The Fenn Street GangComedy PlayhouseDixon of Dock GreenTill Death Us Do PartThe RegimentTales from the CryptFreewheelersSunday Bloody SundayOut of the UnknownThe Dick Emery ShowDoomwatch10 Rillington PlaceThe Main ChanceSteptoe and SonDad's ArmyConfessionOne More TimeTwo a PennyThirty-Minute TheatrePaul TempleArmchair TheatreSoftly SoftlyThe SaintTill Death Us Do PartThe Company of FiveThe Tyrant KingThe ExpertThe Revenue MenMan in a SuitcaseThe GamblersNo Hiding PlaceHancock'sThe Wednesday PlaySir Arthur Conan DoyleAdam Adamant Lives!The Troubleshooters,, CluffITV Play of the WeekPublic EyeBlind CornerGideon's WayMikeCatch HandThe VillainsCompactFirst NightThe VictoriansSuspenseThe Human JungleThe Plane MakersThe Birth of a Private ManReach for GloryThe River Flows EastGarry HallidayTwo and Two Make SixThe Winter's TaleBarbara in BlackBBC Sunday-Night PlayMaigretJacks and KnavesYou Can't WinAbout ReligionITV Television PlayhouseAlcoa Presents: One Step BeyondOn TrialDeadline MidnightThe Four Just MenThe Trials of Oscar WildeThe Men from Room 13The Vagrant HeartThe Bridal PathThe Naked LadySunday's ChildWilliam TellThe Man UpstairsDuty BoundThe Grove FamilyThe Jack Benny ProgramAssignment Foreign LegionPantomania, or Dick WhittingtonThe Angel Who Pawned Her HarpMan of the MomentIt's a Great DayEscape by NightValley of SongTurn the Key SoftlyGrand National NightDeadly NightshadeCosh BoyAppointment in LondonThe Yellow BalloonTime BombLittle Red MonkeyBBC Sunday-Night TheatreI Believe in YouThe Secret PeopleMr. Denning Drives NorthHindle WakesThe Case of Charles PeaceThe Small VoiceLondon Belongs to Me


 Deaths
Donald Hewlett (died 2011 aged 88) - credited as Hardiman in The Claws of Axos

Donald Hewlett is an English actor best known for his sitcom roles of Colonel Charles Reynolds in It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Lord Meldrum in You Rang, M'Lord?, both written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft. 

Hewlett attended Cambridge University where he was part of the Footlights Revue. During World War II he joined the Royal Navy and was stationed for several years in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands before being posted to Singapore.

His first professional acting job was in repertory theatre at the Oxford Playhouse where he worked alongside Ronnie Barker. His first television acting role was the part of Lincoln Green in 1954's Orders are Orders.

His television appearances included The Ronnie Corbett Show, The Saint, The Avengers and The Dick Emery Show. However, he gained his most prominant role in the 1970s Croft and Perry sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum as Colonel Charles Reynolds. He was later reunited with fellow actor Michael Knowles in another David Croft sitcom, the sci-fi spoof Come Back Mrs. Noah, and later with the more successful You Rang, M'Lord? in 1989 as Lord George Meldrum. 

Other roles included 'Winkworth' in Morris Minor's Marvellous Motors in 1989 and The Adventures of Brigadier Wellington-Bull. His last TV appearance was in The Upper Hand in 1995.

He had a number of film appearances including Spike Milligan's Adolf Hitler - My Part in His Downfall, A Touch of Class, Carry on Behind and The First Great Train Robbery