Statistics


On This Day (USA) - 6 August



 Birthdays
Ron Jones (died 1993 aged 47) would be 79 - 6 credits, including Director for Frontios

Ron Jones was a British television director.

He directed several Doctor Who stories during the Peter Davison and Colin Baker eras.

Born in Bristol, he joined the BBC as a studio manager in local radio then became an assistant floor manager on television. After a period as a researcher and item director on Blue Peter he worked as a production manager on series such as Bergerac and Secret Army.

On completing the BBC's internal director's course, he was commissioned to direct for Doctor Who and contributed six stories in the 1980s: Black Orchid, Time-Flight, Arc of Infinity, Frontios, Vengeance on Varos and Mindwarp.

He also directed Lindenstraße and episodes of police drama Juliet Bravo.


Barbara Windsor (died 2020 aged 83) would be 87 - credited as Peggy Mitchell in Army of Ghosts / Doomsday

Barbara Windsor is an English actress. Her best-known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

Born in Shoreditch, London in 1937, Windsor was the only child of John Deeks, a costermonger, and his wife, formerly Rose Ellis, a dressmaker. Windsor is of English and Irish ancestry. She passed her 11-plus exams with the highest marks in North London and won a place at Our Lady's Convent in Stamford Hill. Her mother paid for her to have elocution lessons, and she trained at the Aida Foster School in Golders Green, making her stage debut at 13 and her West End debut in 1952 in the chorus of the musical Love From Judy.

Her first film role was in The Belles of St Trinian's in 1954. She joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, coming to prominence in their stage production Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be and Littlewood's film Sparrers Can't Sing in 1963, achieving a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film Actress. She also appeared in the 1964 film comedy Crooks in Cloisters, the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and in the sitcoms The Rag Trade and Wild, Wild Women. In 1980, Windsor appeared as "Saucy Nancy" in the second series of Worzel Gummidge.


 Deaths
Katharine Schofield (died 2002 aged 63) - credited as Sabetha in The Keys of Marinus

Actress who appeared in the 1964 story The Keys of Marnius



William Mervyn (died 1976 aged 64) - credited as Sir Charles Summer in The War Machines

William Mervyn was an English actor best known for his portrayal of the Bishop in the clerical comedy All Gas and Gaiters.

He was in the 1966 Doctor Who story The War Machines. He was married to Anne Margaret Payne Cooke and they had two sons, including Michael Pickwoad who in 2010 became the production designer on Doctor Who.

Mervyn was born in Nairobi, Kenya, but educated in Britain before embarking on a stage career, spending five years in provincial theatre. He made his West End debut in The Guinea Pig at the Criterion Theatre in 1946, before parts in plays such as the comedy Ring Round the Moon, The Mortimer Touch, A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde at the Savoy Theatre in 1953 and Charley's Aunt.

Mervyn's later stage roles included those of O'Trigger in The Rivals, Lord Greenham in the comedy Aren't We All? and Sir Patrick Cullen in The Doctor's Dilemma. One of his first major small screen roles was Sir Hector in the 1962 series Saki. Four years later, he played the Bishop of St. Ogg's in the comedy series All Gas and Gaiters. It was, at that time, breaking with tradition, allowing a laugh at the expense of the established church.

He also played the police chief inspector Charles Rose in the Granada TV series The Odd Man and its spin-offs It's Dark Outside and Mr Rose. He played the Hon. Mr. Justice Campbell in the Granada TV series Crown Court.

Having taken the part of a Chief Inspector in the 1949 Ealing Studios film The Blue Lamp, in which PC George Dixon first appears, he then reappeared in a 1960 Dixon of Dock Green episode "The Hot Seat", several Carry On films in the late 1960s, and also appeared as Mr. Whitty in the Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode "A Disturbing Case" in 1969.

Usually cast as a wealthy upper class gentleman, he also appeared in The Railway Children in 1970 and The Ruling Class in 1972.