Whoniversaries 5 August: Wanda Ventham, Matt Jones, Paul Kasey, Brian Minchin, second Cushing film

i) births and deaths

5th August 1935: birth of Wanda Ventham, who played Jean Rock in The Faceless Ones (1967), Thea Ransome and the Fendahl Core in Image of the Fendahl (1977) and Faroon in Time and the Rani (1987), a nice regular spacing of her appearances over the decades. Incidentally, her son, Benedict Cumberbatch, is currently starring in the title role of Steven Moffat’s Sherlock.

5th August 1968: birth of Matt Jones, author of TV stories The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit (Doctor Who, 2006) and Dead Man Walking (Torchwood, 2008), as well as the excellent Bernice Summerfield story Beyond The Sun (novel, 1997; audio play, 1998).

5th August 1973: birth of Paul Kasey, who has played literally dozens of short monsters in New Who and its spinoffs, and has appeared in more New Who episodes than anyone except David Tennant and Billie Piper.

Last but by no means least, 5th August 1978 saw the birth of Brian Minchin, script editor for the first two series of Torchwood and for eight episodes of New Who, assistant producer of Torchwood: Children of Earth last year, and producer of the next series of Sarah Jane Adventures. He is also my first cousin. Happy birthday, Brian!

ii) cinematic anniversary

5th August 1966: general cinema release date of Daleks – Invasion Earth 2150 AD, starring Peter Cushing as human scientist Dr. Who and guest starring Bernard Cribbins as police constable Tom Campbell. It is a rather cut-down version of The Dalek Invasion of Earthhere. We have previously debated the correct anniversary.

One thought on “Whoniversaries 5 August: Wanda Ventham, Matt Jones, Paul Kasey, Brian Minchin, second Cushing film

  1. Similarly to I’m on chrome.

    Originally, the top A looked like it has a black triangle over it, but the other straight lines above letters come out fine. On looking at it when I’m answering the A is fixed.

    The L cedilla and the N cedilla are both just straight lines going down.

Comments are closed.