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On This Day (USA) - 8 June



Planet of the Spiders: Part Six premiered on BBC One in 1974 at 5:38pm BST, watched by 8.90 million viewers.

The Doctor takes the blue crystal and returns to Metebelis 3 where he must face the spider ruler, the Great One. But it is an encounter that triggers his second regeneration..


Totally Doctor Who (#1.9) premiered on BBC One in 2006 at 4:59pm BST, watched by 0.68 million viewers.

Totally Doctor Who (#2.9) premiered on BBC One in 2007 at 5:00pm BST, watched by 0.73 million viewers.
Barney Harwood and Kirsten O'Brien look at everything Doctor Who, with exclusive clips and the next instalment of the Doctor Who animation, The Infinite Quest. There's a chat with Tom Palmer, who plays school bully Baines, and two Doctor Who stunt men demonstrate some daredevil stunts in the studio. Also, Team Totally direct extras in a scene from a Doctor Who episode.

 Birthdays
Clem Tibber will be 30 - credited as Milo in School Reunion

Clem Tibber played Milo in the 2006 story School Reunion.

Also appeared in The ForgottenOrribleThe Silver KeyRobin HoodA Plastic Toy DinosaurA Waste of Shame: The Mystery of Shakespeare and His SonnetsChromophobiaDoctorsI Am DavidHolby CitySorted.


Shappi Khorsandi will be 51 - credited as Self in Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor(Factual)

Shappi Khorsandi is an Iranian-born British comedian.


Tim Munro will be 73 - 2 credits, including Ainu in The Creature from the Pit

Tim Munro played Ainu in the Doctor Who story The Creature from the Pit and Sigurd in the Doctor Who story Terminus. His many TV roles include Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (BBC). He has had a long career in theatre, TV, film and radio as an actor and writer. He also performs his own poetry and songs and plays acoustic guitar. His abiding memory of filming Terminus was that there was no expense spared: his fibre glass armour was held together with bootlaces.

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


Colin Baker will be 81 - 172 credits, including The Doctor in The Twin Dilemma

Colin Baker was born in London and brought up in Rochdale. He was educated at St Bede's College, Manchester and originally studied to become a solicitor. At the age of 23, Baker enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

In 1972, Colin Baker played Anatole Kuragin in a BBC serial adaptation of War and Peace. His most famous role in the 1970s was as the villainous Paul Merroney in the drama The Brothers. Baker guest-starred as Bayban the Butcher in a 1980 episode of Blake's 7 and in 1983, he acted in a BBC production of A.J. Cronin's The Citadel. .

Baker made his first appearance in Doctor Who as Commander Maxil in the story Arc of Infinity (1983). The appearance brought him to the attention of producer John Nathan-Turner who was looking for a successor to Fifth Doctor Peter Davison and who cast Baker in the role of the Sixth Doctor.

Baker's reign was interrupted by a long 18 month hiatus which was announced in February 1985, mid-way through transmission of his first full season. During the period off air a radio story Slipback, aired on BBC Radio Four. After the hiatus, the programme returned for its 23rd season in the autumn of 1986 featuring a 14 episode long serial The Trial of a Time Lord. .Later that year Baker was dismissed from the role at the insistence of BBC management, who wanted to refresh the show. 

He was removed from the part after starring in only eleven stories and just under three years in the part. Despite the circumstances of his leaving Baker remains enthusiastic about his time as the Doctor. He is a regular at conventions and fan events and has returned to the role of the 6th Doctor in numerous audio stories and webcasts. 

He played the Doctor again for the second half of the run of the 1989 stage play Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure, as well as in the 1993 charity television special Dimensions in Time. He also played a Doctor-like character in the BBV video series The Stranger, as well as a standalone BBV drama entitled The Airzone Solution, and has reprised the role of the Doctor in a series of audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions. 

Later television work during the 1990s included guest appearances in the BBC's medical drama Casualty, Channel 4's adaptation of A Dance to the Music of Time and as himself as the resident celebrity in 'Dictionary Corner' on the daytime quiz show Countdown, also on Channel 4. He has also appeared in operetta, starring in the Carl Rosa Opera Company's production of H.M.S. Pinafore in the principal comedian's role of Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B. 

In 2010, Baker played the part of Inspector Morse in the new stage play House of Ghosts. Baker has also appeared Candy Jar Books' comedy sci-fi audiobook Kangazang, written by Terry Cooper. Released in August 2010, Colin not only narrated the story but also provided voices for several characters.

After the death of his infant son Jack in 1983, Baker became active in increasing the profile of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. He raised funds for the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, and was a Trustee from 1989 and their Chairman between 1997 and 2005. His second wife is actress Marion Wyatt and the couple reside in Buckinghamshire with their four daughters.


Peter Grimwade (died 1990 aged 47) would be 82 - 13 credits, including Production Assistant for Spearhead From Space

Peter Grimwade was a British television writer and director, best known for his work on the Doctor Who in the early eighties.

Grimwade joined the BBC in the late 1960s. He first worked on Doctor Who as a Production Assistant on Jon Pertwee's first serial, Spearhead from Space (1970). 

In 1977 he got his first chance to direct, being asked to film some model shots for the serial The Robots of Death while the serial's actual director, Michael E. Briant, directed the rest of the serial in the studio. Tom Baker, meanwhile, used Grimwade's name to replace the scripted "Grimwold's Syndrome" illness mentioned in the script.

The serial's Production Unit Manager, George Gallaccio, would later allow him to make his full directorial debut on the episode "Out of Body, Out of Mind" in the series The Omega Factor (1979). Grimwade was also at this time Production Assistant on the BBC's serialised dramatisation of John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979).

Grimwade next directed some episodes of the drama series All Creatures Great and Small (1978) before returning to Doctor Who as a director. After directing the serial Full Circle (1980) Grimwade was given the task of directing Tom Baker's final serial, Logopolis. 

When Peter Davison became the Doctor, Grimwade first directed him in the serial Kinda (1982) and then directed Earthshock, featuring the return of the Cybermen to the show after eight years and the death of the character Adric.

Earthshock would prove to be the last time he was a director on the series. A year later, Grimwade was scheduled to direct the serial The Return (which would ultimately become Resurrection of the Daleks). Industrial action initially prevented the serial from being filmed. 

Prior to this, Grimwade had written two serials - Time-Flight and Mawdryn Undead (1983). Afterwards, Grimwade was asked to write Davison's penultimate story, which would become Planet of Fire. Because the story's requirements were in constant flux, mainly due to uncertaintly over the filming location and cast changes, he eventually became frustrated and allowed script editor Eric Saward to finish the serial.

Outside of Doctor Who, Grimwade wrote and directed The Come-Uppance of Captain Katt for the ITV children's drama series Dramarama. The play was about events behind-the-scenes on a low-budget television science fiction series, which Grimwade openly acknowledged was inspired by his experience working on Doctor Who.

When the BBC gave the publisher W. H. Allen the rights to use Vislor Turlough in the novel Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma, W. H. Allen offered Grimwade a chance to publish an original novel. 

Afterwards, Grimwade left the BBC and mainly worked in producing industrial training videos. He died in 1990 of leukemia.


Derek Newark (died 1998 aged 65) would be 91 - 2 credits, including Greg Sutton in Inferno

Derek Newark was a English actor born in Great Yarmouth.

He appeared in a large number of film and television roles, including The Baron (1967), The Avengers (three episodes in the 1960s), Z Cars (six episodes between 1969 to 1972), Barlow at Large in the recurring role of Det. Insp. Tucker (1974-1975) and various other minor roles. 

He appeared in episodes two to four of the first Doctor Who story An Unearthly Child in 1963. Later he appeared opposite Jon Pertwee in the 1970 story Inferno. 

Newark also played the role of Spooner, an ill-tempered former Red Devil (Britain's elite paratroopers) turned professional wrestler in the series Rising Damp.

In the 1970s he became more involved in the theatre, spending nearly a decade at the Royal National Theatre. His most important roles there were Bottom in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and the world premiere of David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross' where he played Shelley Levene and Malcolm in Alan Ayckbourn's 'Bedroom Farce', which also played in the West End and on Broadway. 

He also a created the role of Roote in Harold Pinter's play 'The Hothouse' which premiered in 1980 in a production directed by Pinter himself. Pinter went on to play the part himself in a later revival. In 1982, he played Martin Bormann in the TV series, based on Albert Speer's 'Inside the Third Reich'.

In the cinema Newark played Jessard in the police drama The Offence (Sidney Lumet 1972).

Derek Newark died of a heart attack, brought on by liver failure, on 11 August 1998 in West London.


Maurice Good (died 2013 aged 80) would be 92 - credited as Phineas Clanton in The Gunfighters

Maurice Good was born in Dublin in 1932.

As well as his role in Doctor Who, he also appeared in No Hiding Place, Dixon of Dock Green, The Avengers and The New Avengers, The Saint, and towards the end of his career in the tv movies Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew in the 1980s. 

He retired to Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada, where he lived with his wife Susan. He also had a son named Stephen.


Peter Russell (died 1995 aged 64) would be 93 - credited as Eldred in The Time Meddler

Peter Russell was an actor who appeared in the 1965 story The Time Meddler.

Also appeared in The BillOasisMaking NewsTales of the UnexpectedCharlieThe Hello Goodbye ManLast of the Summer WinePlay for TodayThe Water BabiesCrown CourtIt Shouldn't Happen to a VetRed Letter DayDays of HopeThe Railway ChildrenSoftly SoftlyBlackmailGideon's WaySwizzlewickThe VillainsITV Play of the WeekZ CarsBoneheadThe Long Way HomeThe Three Princes.


Vere Lorrimer (died 1998 aged 78) would be 104 - credited as Tourist Guide in Silver Nemesis

Vere Lorrimer was a British television producer and director.

His work as director included many BBC dramas including Compact, Dixon of Dock Green, Doomwatchand Blake's 7.


 Deaths
Nick Rutter (died 2019 aged 73) - credited as Gond in The Krotons

Dr Nicholas Rutter was a Professor of Paediatric Medicine at the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham.

He studied at Framlingham College after receiving a scholarship from from
Brandeston Hall. After leaving the College he
studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge and Medicine at St Thomas’s Hospital, London, qualifying as a doctor
in 1970.
After training posts in London, including the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, he went to Nottingham as a registrar in paediatrics. He joined the academic staff at the new medical school there as a lecturer and became a senior lecturer/consultant paediatrician in 1978.

As a paediatrician, he specialised in intensive care of the newborn, paediatric cardiology and general paediatric medicine.
As an academic he researched into the physiology of the full term and premature newborn, in particular the function of the newborn skin. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine (Cambridge) for this work. He was instrumental in developing the undergraduate teaching programme in paediatrics at Nottingham and started a postgraduate course.
In 1994 he was made Professor of Paediatric Medicine. For four years he was Admissions Dean for the Nottingham Medical School. He
is an honorary life member of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine and the Neonatal Society.

He retired in 2005, remaining an Emeritus Professor, and later also achieved an honours degree in Modern Languages with the Open University.


His only dalliance with acting came through living with a member of the production team of Doctor Who when at St Thomas, and played an extra in The Krotons to earn some cash.

Socially he was a bass chorister.

Details thanks to Old Framlinghams and Terry Boniface


Angus MacKay (died 2013 aged 86) - 2 credits, including Cardinal Borusa in The Deadly Assassin

Angus Mackay was an English actor.

He amassed numerous television credits during his career in programmes such as One Foot in the Grave, Only Fools and Horses, Howards' Way, The Professionals, Steptoe and Son (as the salesman for the water bed), The Sweeney, Minder and Z-Cars.

In Doctor Who he was the first actor to play the character Borusa in the story The Deadly Assassin (1976); and was the Headmaster in the story Mawdryn Undead (1983).

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


Roy Skelton (died 2011 aged 79) - 21 credits, including Dalek Voice in The Evil of the Daleks

Roy Skelton was a well known actor and voice artist, who contributed to dozens of Doctor Who episodes across the eras of all seven of the classic series Doctors.

Best known in Doctor Who circles for his Dalek and Cyberman voices, he was also well-known in British television for his voice work on the famous children's series Rainbow, where he famously provided the vocal characterisation of the puppets George and Zippy.

Born in Manchester in July 1931, Skelton's first involvement with Doctor Who came when he provided voices for the Monoids in the 1966 William Hartnell serial The Ark. He returned to the series later that year to provide voices to the first ever Cybermen in Hartnell's finale as the Doctor, The Tenth Planet. It was in 1967 that he first took on the role he became most associated with on Doctor Who, when he voiced the Daleks in Evil of the Daleks, lining up against Second Doctor Patrick Troughton. He then provided Dalek voices right through until their final classic series appearance in 1988 Remembrance of the Daleks, starring Sylvester McCoy. He also made the occasional on-screen appearance, such as briefly playing the body of the Spiridon Wester, whose voice he had provided, when the character became visible on his death in the Jon Pertwee serial Planet of the Daleks in 1973.

Skelton's ability to provide Dalek voices in different registers which he could switch between as recording was in progress enabled a variety of characterisation and conversation to be played in Dalek scenes. This ability to quickly switch between voices also served him well on Rainbow, a series he stayed with from its origins in the early 1970s through to the 1990s, where he was frequently called on to voice quick-fire conversations between his two characters of George and Zippy.

His association with two such long-lasting series fondly remembered by the British public meant that Skelton often appeared in documentaries and interviews, and he even returned to voice Zippy for a surreal guest appearance in a 2008 episode of the BBC One drama series Ashes to Ashes, set in an illusory version of the early 1980s.