On This Day... 29th June

Another day of no new Doctor Who being broadcast, but two more instalments of Totally Doctor Who on the CBBC channel.

The edition today in 2006 featured Fear Her, and had Abisola Agbaje as the studio guest.

The 2007 edition didn't have any special guest. The latest episode of the animated The Infinite Quest was shown and The Sound of Drums was the featured TV episode, with Barney Harwood visiting the set of the Valiant.

Today we wish Maureen O'Brien a happy 79th birthday. She played companion Vicki in 1965, from The Rescue to The Myth Makers. She quickly became a close ally of William Hartnell and was never shy about expressing concern with the quality of scripts. After one particular complaint, producer John Wiles decided to let her go - assuming she wanted to leave. She came home from an expensive holiday to discover that she only had a few more weeks of steady work left.

The experience cast a shadow on her attitude towards the programme for many years, and it was only relatively recently that she re-engaged with it. She has also become a successful crime writer, with a series of books about a North London detective - Inspector Bright.

She shares her birthday with Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins, who appeared as Abigail in A Christmas Carol. She turns 42.

Today we also remember the actor John Abineri, who made several appearances in the programme. The first was as Dutch engineer Van Lutyens in Fury from the Deep in 1968, and his last was as Swampie leader Ranquin in The Power of Kroll a decade later. In between he featured in two Jon Pertwee stories - as General Carrington in The Ambassadors of Death, and as the MSC officer Railton in Death to the Daleks. Outside of Doctor Who he played Herne the Hunter in Robin of Sherwood, and was the butler in a series of popular TV adverts for a certain chocolate, served - appropriately enough - at an Ambassador's Ball.

Abineri died in 2000, aged 72.

We also lost Declan Mulholland today, in 1999 at the age of 66. He was the person who gave The Sea Devils their name, and later played Count Grendel's servant Till in The Androids of Tara.

Helen Griffin, who played Mrs Moore in Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel, also passed away on this date in 2018, aged 60.