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On This Day (USA) - 26 September



The Graham Norton Show: Series 16 Episode 1 premiered on BBC One in 2014 at 10:35pm BST
The irrepressible host returns with an eclectic mix of guests. Denzel Washington talks about his film update of 1980s TV series The Equalizer, and the new Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi, reveals what it's like to hold the key to the Tardis. Graham also chats to actress Gemma Arterton, who is about to hit the West End in a musical version of the 2010 film Made in Dagenham, and the music is provided by singer/songwriter George Ezra.

Heroes of Sontar: Episode 1 premiered on Radio 4 Extra in 2015 at 6:00pm BST

1/2 The Time Lord takes Tegan to the planet Samur to recuperate


The Witch's Familiar premiered on BBC One in 2015 at 7:45pm BST, watched by 5.71 million viewers.

Trapped on the sinister planet Skaro, the Doctor finds himself a the heart of the evil Dalek Empire. He's all alone as he struggles to resist his greatest temptation - will there be any mercy?


The Witch's Familiar premiered on BBC America in 2015 at 9:00pm EDT, watched by 1.12 million viewers.

Part 2. Trapped and alone in a terrifying Dalek city, the Doctor is at the heart of an evil Empire; no sonic, no TARDIS, nobody to help. With his greatest temptation before him, can the Doctor resist? And will there be mercy?


 Birthdays
Talulah Riley will be 39 - credited as Miss Evangelista in Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead

Talulah Riley is an English actress. She has appeared in films such as Pride and Prejudice, St Trinian's, The Boat That Rocked, St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, and Inception.

Early life

Riley was born in Hertfordshire, the only child of Una Riley, founder of a security systems company and a PR company, and Doug Milburn, formerly head of the National Crime Squad. Her father now works as a screenwriter and has written episodes of Silent Witness, Prime Suspect, and The Bill. Riley attended Cheltenham Ladies College, Berkhamsted Collegiate School, and Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls. While acting in London, she studied for a degree in Natural Sciences at the Open University.

Television

Riley's television credits include episodes of Poirot (2003), Marple (2006), and Doctor Who (2008's "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead"). She also played Lila, a lovestruck writer, in the short-lived E4 series Nearly Famous (2007).

Stage

Riley made her stage debut in The Philadelphia Story at the Old Vic in 2005. Her performance in a 2006 revival of Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke was described as "delightful".

Film

Riley appeared as a disguise used by Tom Hardy's character in Inception (2010). In 2010, The Summer House was released, which starred Riley in the lead role. By the end of the first day of release, it was the number one film on iTunes worldwide and dominated that position for several days. She was also cast in the film White Frog.

Other

She was featured on the March 2010 cover of Esquire.

Personal life

In 2010, Riley married billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk at Dornoch Cathedral. In 2012, it was reported that they were seeking a divorce. She settled for $4.2 million at the time.

In a 60 Minutes interview in 2014, the couple stated that they had reconciled and were living together again, along with Musk's five children from his first marriage to writer Justine Musk. On December 31, 2014, the Associated Press reported that Musk had filed for divorce again. In the December 31, 2014 split and pending divorce Musk agreed to give her $16 million in cash and assets. As of August 2015, however, the couple remain married.

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


Chandra Ruegg will be 40 - credited as Clare Pope in Partners in Crime

Chandra Ruegg played Clare Pope in the 2008 story Partners in Crime.

Also appeared in Art Is...AlbatrossChalet GirlZalikaDriving LessonsThe CrustHolby CityDoctorsFamily AffairsThe Bill


Togo Igawa will be 78 - 2 credits, including Secretary General in The Pyramid At The End Of The World

Togo Igawa  is a Japanese actor who works primarily in British films and television.

He has had roles in major motion pictures such as Revolver, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Last Samurai, and Sunshine. He has also appeared in the Israeli movie A Matter of Size and the Thomas & Friends movies Hero of the Rails and Misty Island Rescue in 2009 and 2010.

 

Igawa provides the voice for the character Professor Moshimo on the cartoon series Robotboy and the voice for the character Hiro, who first appeared in Hero of the Rails, in Thomas and Friends.


Anne Robinson will be 80 - 2 credits, including Voice of Anne Droid in Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways

Anne Josephine Robinson is an English television presenter and journalist, known for her assertive views and acerbic style of presenting. She was one of the presenters on the long-running British series Watchdog from 1993 to 2001, before returning in 2009. She gained fame as the hostess of the BBC game show The Weakest Link from 2000 to 2012, which earned her the nickname "Queen of Mean".

Early life

Born in Crosby, Lancashire, Robinson is of Irish descent. Her father was a school teacher. Her mother, Anne Josephine (née Wilson), who was an alcoholic, was an agricultural businesswoman from Ireland, where she was the manager of a market stall. When she came to England, she married into her husband's family of wholesale chicken dealers, and sold rationed rabbit after the Second World War. She inherited the family market stall in Liverpool and transformed it into one of the largest wholesale poultry dealing businesses in the North of England.

Brought up initially at the family home in Crosby, Robinson attended a private and prestigious Roman Catholic convent boarding school in Hampshire, Farnborough Hill Convent. She was hired as a chicken gutter and saleswoman during the holidays in the family business, before taking office jobs at a law firm. The family spent their summers on holiday in France, often at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes.

Early career

On leaving school, Robinson chose journalism over training for the theatre. After working in a news agency, she arrived in London in 1967 as the first young female trainee on the Daily Mail. Robinson's mother's going-away present to her daughter was an MG sportscar and a fur coat. Robinson secured a permanent position as a result of scooping the details of the story of Brian Epstein's death from being a family friend of the Liverpool solicitor handling the legalities, offering him a ride to Euston railway station when he could not find an available taxi.

Her work became more uncomfortable for her when she met and fell in love with the deputy news editor, Charlie Wilson, and the two got married in 1968 – he subsequently had to sack her as a result of the marriage. Robinson joined The Sunday Times, and in 1970 the couple had a daughter, Emma Wilson, who is now a British radio disc jockey and has also hosted Scaredy Camp, a game show in the USA on the Nickelodeon network. In December 1978, she resigned from The Sunday Times and returned home to Crosby. She then began working for the Liverpool Echo.

First female editor

Robinson returned to Fleet Street in 1980, working as columnist and Assistant Editor of the Daily Mirror from the week that the Falklands War started. She also wrote a column under the pseudonym of the "Wednesday Witch" in which she developed her vitriolic style. During her career as a newspaper journalist, she developed a flair for writing tabloid headlines.

On 14 November 1982, Robinson attended a formal dinner attended by Queen Elizabeth II, at which she noted that Diana, Princess of Wales arrived late. Robinson asked the Mirror‍‍ '​‍s Royal editor James Whitaker to investigate, and after conversations with various sources including Diana's sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale, confirmed Diana was suffering from an eating disorder, named as anorexia in a scoop article on 19 November. As a result, Buckingham Palace Press Secretary Michael Shea rang then Mirror editor Mike Molloy to remove Robinson. Robinson was subsequently removed from the editorial rota, and was advised by Malloy to "do more television blossom, that's what you're good at." Robinson has written a weekly column for a succession of other British newspapers, such as Today, The Sun, The Express, The Times, and The Daily Telegraph.

Television

Robinson began appearing on BBC television in 1982, initially as an occasional panellist on Question Time. From 1986, she began sitting in for regular presenter Barry Took on television viewers show Points of View, taking over permanently in 1988 for 11 years. In 1993, she took over the presentation and writing of the consumer affairs television programme Watchdog.

Robinson is best known in the UK for hosting the game show The Weakest Link, and in the United States the NBC primetime version of its counterpart, called Weakest Link. She originally started with an icy, mysterious appearance and persona, remaining indifferent to funny and friendly moments throughout; however, that toned down much over the years, with her often smiling and on occasion laughing, especially on the celebrity episodes. Her use of insults, caustic remarks and personal questions directed at contestants became famous. Her blunt utterance "You are the weakest link – goodbye!" became a catchphrase soon after the show started in 2000.

Asked by the Duke of Edinburgh to present some Duke of Edinburgh's Awards, she agreed subject to his taking part in the Weakest Link – the Duke declined. In 2005, she made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, admitting she had been an unfit mother. Also in 2005, she appeared on an episode of the revived Doctor Who, entitled "Bad Wolf", voicing a futuristic android version of herself named the "Anne Droid" on a lethal version of The Weakest Link in the year 200,100. Robinson hosted the BBC's outtakes programme Outtake TV until 2009. She currently hosts a satirical news-based chat show on BBC One called What's the Problem? With Anne Robinson, and the BBC's interactive quiz, Test the Nation.

In May 2009, it was announced Robinson would return to present BBC One's long-running consumer show, Watchdog. Robinson finished presenting The Weakest Link in 2012 after spending twelve years as the host of 1,693 shows.

Personal life

In 1973, Robinson lost a custody battle for her only child, Emma, then aged two. Charles Wilson was granted sole custody, care and control of Emma, who subsequently lived with her father until she left home at 16 for boarding school. An admitted alcoholic, Robinson stopped drinking on 12 December 1978 after picking her daughter up from school and driving to a petrol station to buy a bottle of vodka.

Robinson married journalist John Penrose in 1980. On 30 September 2007, the couple announced that they were planning to divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences". In 2001, she published her autobiography, Memoirs of an Unfit Mother, in which she describes her former drinking problem. In 2001, Robinson was diagnosed with skin cancer and had surgery to treat it. Robinson has two grandchildren.

Controversy

In 2001, she was accused of being racist after describing Welsh people as "irritating and annoying" while appearing as a guest on Room 101.

The BBC received 16 complaints after Robinson asked wine connoisseur Olly Smith, who was competing on the celebrity version of The Weakest Link, to feel her breasts, after he described her as a "full-bodied, expensive red". The programme was broadcast Saturday 5 April 2008 on BBC One. Robinson caused controversy on The Weakest Link when she made Blue Peter legend John Noakes cry after asking "What happened to Shep?" Shep had been Noakes's pet both on and off Blue Peter.

Robinson is a vocal supporter of fox hunting and, prior to it being banned in 2004, was a key supporter of the pro-hunt cause. The Guardian claims she has also ridden with the White Horse Foxhunt. In an interview with Radio Times in September 2000, Robinson was asked what her first act as world leader would be, replying "I'd lock up all the hunt saboteurs because they are destructive. They are campaigning about something of which they know nothing." In February 2002, she hosted a spin-off version of The Weakest Link in Cirencester to raise funds for the local White Horse Hunt. The event was picketed by around 100 protesters from the League Against Cruel Sports; around 70 animal rights activists returning from another demonstration joined the picket, culminating in a near riot. The event eventually went ahead after Robinson was escorted into the venue by local police.

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


Leonard Sachs (died 1990 aged 80) would be 115 - 2 credits, including Lord President Borusa in Arc of Infinity

Leonard Sachs was a South African - born British actor, best known for his appearance as the Chairman of the Leeds City Varieties in the long-running television series The Good Old Days

Sachs was born in South Africa in the town of Roodepoort, Transvaal (now Gauteng). He had many television and film roles from the 1930s to the 1980s, including Mowbray in the 1950 version of Richard II, John Wesley in the 1954 film of the same name and Lord Mount Severn in East Lynne from 1976.

He founded an Old Time Music Hall, named the Players' Theatre, in Villiers Street, London.  

Sachs appeared in Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan. 

He married the actress Eleanor Summerfield in 1947. They had two sons, the actor Robin Sachs and Toby Sachs.


Ralph Michael (died 1994 aged 87) would be 117 - credited as Balaton in The Pirate Planet

Ralph Michael was an English actor. He was born in LondonUnited Kingdom.

His film appearances include: A Night to RememberChildren of the DamnedKhartoumGrand PrixThe Assassination Bureau, and Empire of the Sun.

Television credits include: The Adventures of Robin HoodDixon of Dock GreenDanger ManKesslerThe Forsyte SagaMan in a SuitcaseThe AvengersColditzDoctor at LargePublic EyeSutherland's LawSoftly, SoftlyThe ProfessionalsRumpole of the BaileyDoctor Who (in the serial The Pirate Planet), BergeracMiss MarpleDempsey & MakepeaceRockliffe's BabiesHowards' WayA Bit of Fry & Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster.

In Dempsey & Makepeace, Ralph Michael played the part of Lord Winfield, Harriet Makepeace's father, in two episodes, "Armed and Extremely Dangerous" and "Cry God for Harry". They had previously been in the same cast in an episode of Blake's 7 entitled "Assassin".

He was married to the actress Joyce Heron.


 Deaths
Jimmy Winston (died 2020 aged 75) - credited as Shura in Day of the Daleks

Jimmy Winston played Shura in the 1972 Doctor Who story Day of the Daleks.

He was the original keyboard player with Small Faces who rehearsed in the large function room above the Ruskin Arms, Manor Park, of which Jimmy's father Bill Langwith was the landlord. 

Steve Marriott and the rest of the band replaced Winston with Ian McLagan. Winston had two older brothers: Frank who worked on the River Thames, and Derek.

Also worked on The SweeneyJusticeThe Ballad of Tam LinUFONo Blade of GrassNever a Cross WordDoctor in the House


Maggie Stables (died 2014) - 26 credits, including Evelyn Smythe in Real Time(Misc)

Maggie Stables was a British actress who played the part of the companion Evelyn Smythe in a range of audio dramas by Big Finish Productions based on the BBC television series Doctor Who.

Maggie Stables turned to acting as a second career, after retiring from a long-held position as a French teacher. After some experience in musical theatre, in 1991 she acted in a production of Jane Eyre with Nicholas Briggs. This led to Briggs later casting Stables as Ruthley in Big Finish's first Doctor Who play The Sirens of Time, and as Evelyn the following year. 

Stables has appeared in several Big Finish audio roles beyond Evelyn. In addition to Ruthley, Stables appeared in Zagreus as the Great Mother, in Sarah Jane Smith: The TAO Connection as Mrs Lythe, and the Bernice Summerfield audio drama Just War as Ma Doras.

Stables also portrayed Evelyn Smythe in the webcast Doctor Who story Real Time.

Illustrations of Evelyn in the Real Time webcast, as well as on Big Finish audio covers, are modelled on Stables.


Margot Thomas (died 2008 aged 88) - credited as Stall holder in The Romans

Margot Thomas is an actress who played the stall holder in the 1965 story The Romans.

She had a long career in British television appearing in such programmes as Dixon of Dock Green and Dr Finlay's Casebook