i) births and deaths

1 May 1946: birth of Joanna Lumley, who played the Thirteenth Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death (1999).

1 May 1985: death of George Pravda, who played Denes in The Enemy of the World (1967-68), Jaeger in The Mutants (1972) and Castellan Spandrell in The Deadly Assassin (1976).

1 May 2002: death of John Nathan Turner, producer of Old Who from 1980 to 1989 (and of Dimensions in Time in 1993); controversial and colourful, like him or loathe him, nobody can dispute the depth of his influence on the show.

1 May 2008: death of Bernard Archard, who played Bragen in The Power of the Daleks (1966) and Marcus Scarman in Pyramids of Mars (1975).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

1 May 1965: broadcast of “Dimensions of Time”, second episode of the story we now call The Space Museum. Lobos, leader of the Moroks, starts to hunt down the Tardis crew.

1 May 1971: broadcast of fourth episode of Colony in Space. The Doctor and Jo confront first the Guardian of the primitives and then the Adjudicator, who turns out to be the Master.

1 May 2010: broadcast of Flesh and Stone. The clerics start to disappear, but the Doctor manages to tumble the aliens into the mysterious crack, and then has a narrow escape from Amy.