The fourteenth in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

Production is progressing on the new series due for transmission on BBC Television in the Autumn. With key production personnel in place, attention has moved on to casting the main characters in the show.

July 1963 was mostly cool and changeable as production at Television Centre in west London continued on the new television drama, which by now had a name, Doctor Who. Producing a television drama is a complicated thing, with so many departments needing to work together and so many people all needing to make sure their part of the puzzle would fit into the whole picture. One of the most important parts of the whole is design. Design in Television is vital, especially in science fiction drama where new worlds and future landscapes need to be created. The requirements for the new programme were enormous and producer Verity Lambert thought she was not getting the best out of the BBC design department.

Lambert had been pressing the Design Manager James Bould and Head of Design Richard Levin to allocate a designer to the new series since the end of June, but it was not until Wednesday 10th July that Lambert was finally given a name. The first four episodes would be designed by Peter Brachacki. That day, Lambert and Associate Producer Mervyn Pinfield had a meeting with Brachacki. It was not a total meeting of minds as it was obvious Brachacki was not keen on working on the series. He could spare them half an hour and announced he would be unavailable for the next two weeks.

This was something that worried Lambert, and after reflecting on the situation, on Wednesday 17th July, exactly 50 years ago today, she sent her boss, Donald Wilson, a memo outlining her concerns and expressing a wish that the production should not suffer 'because of a lack of effort from the Design department'. Wilson took up the matter and wrote to the Head of the Design department. Music is another vital element in a television drama and Lambert was determined to try something different on this series. On Friday 12th July she made enquiries about commissioning the French electronic music composers Jacques Lasry and Francois Bascher to provide the title music for the series. Their group, Les Structures, were known for creating music using such techniques as glass rods mounted in steel.

By the middle of July, Script Editor David Whitaker had refined the original concept document, making significant changes to the character structure. Whitaker made clear in his changes that the main cast would be forbidden from interfering with history. The character of the Doctor was now described as 'over sixty' rather than 'about 650' and his granddaughter, Susan, was to be a 'sharp intelligent girl who sometimes makes mistakes because of inexperience'. He made notes on the spaceship that would feature in the programme. The actual scripts for the first 10 episodes, now confirmed at a duration of 25 minutes, were still being worked on by Anthony Coburn. He signed the formal contract on 8th July and would be paid £225 for each episode. The contract made it clear that the concept of Doctor Who and its four main characters would remain the copyright of the BBC and not belong to Coburn. Coburn's fee would be paid in 12 instalments.

The story structure for those first ten episodes was also outlined by Whitaker.

Doctor Who once more features heavily in the BBC Worldwide Annual Report, making clear how important the series is to the corporation and putting part of the fall in headline sales for the company down to the lower number of Doctor Who episodes produced this year.

The report details how the revenue from superbrands such as Doctor Who contribute 27% of BBC Worldwide's headline sales, which are down by 14% on the previous year, partly due to a lower volume of output from Doctor Who.

BBC Worldwide exists to exploit the BBC's commercial assets, raising money which can be returned to the corporation for reinvestment in programmes. Doctor Who has many mentions in this year’s annual report, which details the performance of the BBC's assets around the world.

Doctor Who is one of BBC Worldwide’s biggest brands, sold to over 200 territories around the world. It is named as a key part of the digital business strategy, where sales are up by 22.8% on last year.

The report details how the Series 7 premiere was the most-watched telecast in the history of BBC America, and how in Australia the first-ever cinema night of two episodes from Series 6 was number three at the Australian box office.

Other Doctor Who highlights include

• The Doctor Who Experience which relocated to a long-term residency in Cardiff Bay, following a one-year tenancy at London’s Olympia.
• Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, the first BBC-published game on the Sony PlayStation3
• The Symphonic Spectacular which was held at the Sydney Opera House and had a total ticketed attendance of 16,144.
• The Universal Remote Control has sold 36,000 units since launch.
• Doctor Who Home for Christmas 2012, a collection of Doctor Who homewares, ceramics and stationery, designed and distributed in-house.
• A line-up of Doctor Who collectibles for the 50th Anniversary year, including a celebratory range of Royal Mail stamps.
• Doctor Who coin produced by New Zealand Mint.
• 3.1 million fans on Facebook.

Visitors travelling through Heathrow Airport in London from Tuesday are to be entertained with a range of Doctor Who themed experiences including appearances from Cybermen, TARDIS photobooths, displays of props and memorabilia, and augmented reality hotspots.

The BBC worldwide event, in partnership with Heathrow, is to celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who. Travellers will be able to take pictures of themselves and friends on alien worlds and be menaced by monsters from the comfort of the TARDIS photobooths. Doctor Who passports will be available containing giveaways including a free episode to download, information about Doctor Who activities in terminal over the summer, and a free digital copy of Doctor Who Adventures Magazine.

To mark the launch of the partnership, on July 16 travellers through Terminal 5 will be able to enjoy performances by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, Doctor Who novelist Jenny Colgan, author of the recently released Doctor Who: Dark Horizons will also be signing books for fans.

Amanda Hill, Chief Brands Officer for BBC Worldwide comments. Susan Goldsmith, Operations Director at Heathrow Terminal 5 saidTravellers are invited to share their images of Doctor Who at Heathrow using the hashtag #WhereDoYouWantToGo

BBC Radio 2 has told Doctor Who News it is to produce a documentary entitled Who is the Doctor? to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

The 90-minute programme will be broadcast on Thursday 21st November, just two days before the celebration date. More details when we have them.

Also on Radio 2, former companion to the Sixth Doctor, Bonnie Langford, will be Graham Norton’s guest this Saturday. The actress, who played Mel from 1986 to 1987 is scheduled to appear at around 12.15pm UK time. Questions can be sent to Norton at the usual address graham.norton@bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 2 can be heard worldwide via the BBC website.

The thirteenth in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

The story so far: Pre-production is now under way on the new Saturday evening science fiction series Doctor Who. Conceived by Sydney Newman, the series was expected to air on BBC Television in the late summer. A producer had been appointed, Verity Lambert, but the show was far from being ready. With no completed scripts and no actors yet cast, the new producer was in for a rocky ride.

At the end of June Sydney Newman returned from holiday to discover all was not well with his new show. Like any big organisation the BBC throughout its history has often suffered from an overblown bureaucracy and middle managers determined to protect process over progress, Doctor Who was not immune from such obstacles and on the 27th June 1963, exactly fifty years ago today, Newman was determined to tackle the problem.

In a heated phone call with Joanna Spicer, the Assistant Controller (Planning) Television, Newman listened to some of the complaints. The new series had bypassed the proper BBC procedures and the production had been carrying out auditions without authorisation he heard. Indeed just two days before director Rex Tucker had been interviewing actresses for the role of Susan Foreman. Furthermore, he was told the series would place unacceptable demands on the servicing departments due to its ambitious nature. Scripts weren’t ready and production was way behind schedule.

Newman leapt to the defence of his team. He dictated a memo to Spicer which pulled no punches. It was entitled Doctor Who Hassle.
Newman's memo caused much discussion in the upper echelons of BBC Television. At a meeting with Donald Baverstock, Spicer and her Head of Department decided to rethink the early evening Saturday slot. The original plan was to fill 50 minutes with programming aimed at children. They now reduced this to 30 minutes between 5.20pm and 5.50pm each Saturday. The slot would be initially filled with the cartoon series Deputy Dawg and then Doctor Who. The new series would now need to be made in 30-minute episodes, so to give the production team more time it was decided Doctor Who would now be delayed by eight weeks. The pilot episode would be recorded on Friday 27th September and the series would debut on Saturday 9th November.

The budget for the series was now set at £2,300 per episode. Newman was asked to confirm that the costs of the 'time/space' machine would be met from an additional budget. The team were allocated Lime Grove Studio D. Newman accepted most of these changes but was unhappy about the proposal to increase the running time to 30 minutes. In this he was supported by Ronald Waldman, the General Manager of Television Enterprises, who favoured 25-minute episodes for overseas sales.

One major problem caused by the delay was the fact that Rex Tucker, the assigned director of the first story, would not be available to direct the story as he would be on holiday in Majorca at the time the episodes were in production. It was therefore decided to swap the first two directors around. The first story would now be directed by newcomer Waris Hussein, with Tucker taking on the second. With script editor David Whitaker now on board too, the production was now complete. But they still needed four character actors to play the main roles. Disliking Tucker's suggestions for the roles, Hussein and Lambert began the search in earnest.

The twelfth in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

The story so far: With Doctor Who having been initially conceived and formatted by Sydney Newman, Donald Wilson and CE Webber, along with other staff and writers in the BBC's script department, work on actually getting the series made is now under way. Although some scripts are in development, none of the main characters has yet been cast, and by June 1963 the programme does not even have a producer in place . . .

In the early summer of 1963, the day-to-day management of Doctor Who was in the hands of producer-director Rex Tucker. It was never envisaged that Tucker would be the producer of the series in the long term, but it was at the time planned that he would be the chief director on the programme, to helm the first serial and then several others across the proposed 52-week run.

Tucker's temporary position as producer of Doctor Who, in addition to his directorial duties, reflected something of a state of change in the way BBC dramas were being produced at the time. In the 1950s, it was common for a single producer-director to have overall practical and artistic control over a production, and Tucker himself had a great deal of experience in this producer-director role on a number of children's serials and adaptations of classic literature.

By the early 1960s, and in tandem with Newman's arrival as Head of Drama Group at the BBC, the system was changing for drama series and serials. The main regular members of a production team would be the producer and story editor, with directors being appointed on an ad hoc, serial-by-serial or episode-by-episode basis, much like the writers. But despite the knowledge that he would not be the full-time producer of the series, Tucker took full charge of all areas of production for the fledgling Doctor Who in May and early June 1963 – including ideas of casting.

Tucker was friends with an actor called Hugh David, a 37-year-old Welshman who had recently come to public attention as one of the stars of a Granada Television crime-drama series called Knight Errant Limited. Although David was younger than the "frail old man" envisaged by Newman, Wilson and Webber, at some point by early June 1963 Tucker had offered him the role of the Doctor – quite possibly the first actor ever to be asked to play the part.

David, however, had been uncomfortable with the public recognition that starring as Stephen Drummond in Knight Errant Limited had brought him, and he was reluctant to now become the star of another programme, so turned down Tucker's offer. He eventually decided to wind down his acting career not long after this, and made a move behind the cameras, working as a director. In this capacity, he would go on to direct two Doctor Who stories later in the 1960s, during the Patrick Troughton era – The Highlanders and Fury From the Deep. In later years, David would go on to make the claim that it had been Tucker who came up with the title Doctor Who, although there is no documentary evidence for this, and it is not a claim that Tucker ever made himself.

Despite Tucker's offer to his friend, it is doubtful that David would have ended up playing the Doctor even if he had been keen on the role. Not long after the offer had been made, Doctor Who finally had a full-time producer assigned to take charge of the series, someone who would later state that David would have been too young for the part.

But this producer had not been the first choice for the job.

When Newman was attempting to find a producer for Doctor Who, his first port of call was 26-year-old director Don Taylor, to whom he offered the job at an unknown point, probably in May or June 1963. This offer was something of an olive branch from Newman, as Taylor was a somewhat higher-brow and more classically-cultured figure than the Canadian, and he was horrified by the idea of such an unashamed populist being in charge of the BBC's drama output. In his memoir Days of Vision, published in 1990, Taylor wrote scathingly of Newman, saying that:


Taylor was best-known for working on sophisticated single plays for adult viewers, particularly for his work directing the plays of David Mercer. Newman's Doctor Who offer held no interest for him, and he turned the producer's job down flat. Later in 1963 he resigned from the staff of the BBC in despair at the changes being wrought under Newman, particularly the abolition of the old producer-director system, and he would later claim to have been blacklisted from working for the drama department as a freelance director. Speaking to Doctor Who Magazine in 1993, however, Taylor had a more conciliatory attitude towards Newman and his offer:


Newman next turned to someone who would perhaps have been rather a better fit for Doctor Who – 43-year-old producer-director Shaun Sutton. Sutton had formed a particular reputation for his work on children's serials in the 1950s, and unlike Taylor he had great respect and admiration for Newman. However, like Taylor, he also turned down Newman's offer to become Doctor Who's first producer. This was because he was keen to move on from children's drama and was interested in tackling more adult fare – he had already worked as a director on episodes of the police drama Z-Cars since that series had begun in 1962.

Sutton did, however, later go on to become involved in the production of Doctor Who. In 1966 he became the Head of Serials in the drama department, in which role he was effectively the show's executive producer. He gave approval for William Hartnell to be replaced, and was involved in the decision to cast Troughton as the Second Doctor. He later succeeded Newman as overall Head of Drama at the BBC, a role he went on to occupy until 1981 – longer than anyone else either before or since.

With both Taylor and Sutton having rejected the chance to take charge of the series, and a full-time producer badly needing to be appointed, Newman's thoughts turned back to his time in commercial television, at ABC. While working at the ITV contractor, he had been impressed by the verve and the vigour of a young production assistant in the drama department named Verity Lambert. With nobody else seeming to want to produce Doctor Who, Newman decided to take a chance and offer her the opportunity to follow him to the BBC and become the producer of the new series.

Born in London in November 1935, Lambert had been educated at Roedean School, near Brighton, and at the Sorbonne in Paris. She entered the television industry in 1956, working as a secretary at Granada Television, before moving to ABC Television a few months later. She was initially the secretary for the company's Head of Drama prior to Newman, Dennis Vance, before moving on to become a production secretary and then a production assistant. It was in this latter capacity that she had worked with Newman on dramas such as Armchair Theatre, and she had displayed the capable, positive attitude that had so impressed him. As he later told Doctor Who Magazine:


In 1961, Lambert had taken a break from ABC to work for a year as the personal assistant to noted American television producer David Susskind in New York. She returned to the UK in 1962, determined to become either a producer or a director, but no opportunities for promotion were forthcoming, and she remained as a production assistant at ABC.

Frustrated at this lack of opportunity, she had considered giving up television as a career entirely, until the offer from Newman to come to the BBC and finally earn the promotion she wanted. While she freely admitted to Newman that she knew nothing about children, he remained convinced that she was the right person for the job. If there were misgivings among any of Newman's fellow executives at the Corporation, these were perhaps allayed at least a little by the fact that the previous month the highly-experienced Mervyn Pinfield had been appointed as associate producer of Doctor Who, to advise particularly on technical matters (see previous episode). Tucker would also still be around as the principal director for the series – although this state of affairs would not last for very long after Lambert's appointment, as the pair of them disagreed over many aspects of the programme.

But that was all to come. By Friday 14th June 1963 - exactly 50 years ago today - the 27-year-old Lambert had arrived at her new office in Room 5014 at BBC Television Centre as the Corporation's youngest – and only female – drama producer. One of the first people sent to see her was a young Indian director called Waris Hussein, who around this time had been assigned to direct episodes of Doctor Who. Lambert and Hussein got on well at once, with the pair happy to admit to each other that neither of them knew quite what they had let themselves in for.

For the second month running Doctor Who was the most requested programme on the BBC iPlayer, with the series finale, The Name of the Doctor being accessed 1.90 million times.

Doctor Who also took third place in the list with Nightmare in Silver having 1.73 million requests and fifth place with The Crimson Horror having 1.71 million requests.

The other places in the top ten we taken by five episodes of The Apprentice and two editions of The Voice.

Earlier Doctor Who episodes were still available during the month with Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS adding 0.59 million requests to its April total, while other episodes each added around 0.2 million requests.

The most requested Doctor Who story of the year remains as The Bells of Saint John which has a total of 2.5 million requests and is the sixth most requested programme of the year. The top four places are held by Top Gear with Africa coming in fifth.

NB: The request figures refer to download and streaming requests only and don't necessarily reflect the total number who watched the whole episode. However the BBC does estimate the unique number of viewers watching each episode within a week of transmission via it's Live + 7 figures.

Live+7 Viewing Figures	First Day	Repeats	Timeshift	iPlayer	Live +7
The Bells of Saint John	6.15m - 63%	0.39m - 4%	2.29m - 23%	0.95 - 10%	9.78m
The Rings of Akhaten	5.48m - 63%	0.28m - 3%	1.98m - 23%	0.90 - 10%	8.65m
Cold War	5.57m - 68%	0.18m - 2%	1.67m - 20%	0.76 - 9%	8.28m
Hide	4.97m - 65%	0.27m - 4%	1.63m - 21%	0.77 - 10%	7.64m
Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS	4.86m - 65%	0.28m - 4%	1.54m - 21%	0.79 - 11%	7.47m
The Crimson Horror	4.61m - 61%	0..32m - 4%	1.83m - 24%	0.83 - 11%	7.59m
Nightmare in Silver	4.73m - 61%	0.29m - 4%	1.87m - 24%	0.89 - 11%	7.78m
The Name of the Doctor	5.45m - 63%	0.28m - 3%	1.99m - 23%	0.92 - 11%	8.64m

The figures show Doctor Who is timeshifted far more than most BBC programmes. Around 62% of the audience watch Live or within one day, compared with the BBC average of 87% watching Live. Around 23% of the viewers timeshift using a PVR compared with the BBC average of 6%, while 11% now watch via the iPlayer, compared with the BBC average of 2%.

Earlier this week, Doctor Who was the subject of an opinion poll conducted by YouGov, one of the UK's main opinion polling agencies, frequently quoted by the media in relation to political polling. The survey (results here), conducted on Monday and Tuesday, quizzed 1974 British adults on whether or not they were interested in the series. The 31% who expressed an interest were then asked various questions about their favourite Doctors, their political opinions and what sort of actor they would like to see cast as the Twelfth Doctor.

David Tennant was the favourite Doctor of the survey, by some considerable margin - 43% of those who expressed an interest in the series choosing him as their favourite, with Tom Baker in second place with 16%. Tennant was also the most popular choice with supporters of the four political parties noted in the survey - Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the UK Independence Party.

On the subject of who should be the Twelfth Doctor, YouGov's own summary article on their website points out that over half of those who said they were interested in the series felt that the next Doctor should be played by a male actor. "British" and "character actor" were also traits which were strongly supported by those surveyed by YouGov.

The poll and its results have been picked up in various places online, with articles relating to it from sites such as Wales Today and the New Statesman.

The question over who would take on Doctor Who's visual effects in the future was answered today with the announcement of a new company formed by the same creative team that worked on the show's previous series. Milk's founders are Nick Drew (Managing Director and Executive Producer), with Visual Effects Supervisors Jean-Claude Deguara and Nico Hernandez (also joint Heads of 3D), Sara Bennett (also Head of 2D), and Murray Barber, with Executive Producer and overall CEO of the company being a name and face familiar to fans through Doctor Who Confidential, Will Cohen.

Cohen released a statement about the company's aim:

As mentioned above, Doctor Who will be one of the first customers for the new effects company, with work being undertaken on the 3D 50th Anniversary Special. The company is also working on Steven Moffat's eagerly anticipated third series of Sherlock, and a new BBC One mini-series Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (due to be broadcast in 2014).

A showreel of their previous work can be viewed on the company's website.

The BBC have announced that Matt Smith is to relinquish the role of the Doctor at the end of the year, once filming has completed on the Christmas Special.

In a press release, the actor reflected:

Head writer Steven Moffat said:

Some tributes to Matt's tenure as the Doctor on Twitter include: Nicola Bryant (Peri) - "I'm sad that Matt Smith is leaving. I've loved his Doctor. I wish him and thank him for his time. :)"; Yee Jee Tso (Chang Lee) - "YeeJeeTso for the next Doctor!” Ha! It'd be fun... but I'd never be able to fill those shoes!"; Caitlin Blackwood (Amelia) - "Oh my Gosh. I'm a little upset that Matt smith is leaving doctor who..."; Mark Gatiss (writer) - "Desperately sorry to see Matt Smith go. A truly wonderful Doctor Who, a gifted actor & a lovely man. It's the end. But ( altogether now!)..."; Neil Gaiman (writer) - "thank you, Matt Smith. It was an honour and a delight to write scripts for you: you never did what I expected."; James Moran (writer) - "Anyway. End of an era. Start of a new one. It's why we love the show- laughs, tears, surprises. Also: explosions!"; Gareth Roberts (writer) - "Very sad Matt Smith will depart from Doctor Who. A brilliant actor and a good man."; Nicholas Pegg (actor) - "Matt Smith is a terrific actor, and a lovely, kind, funny, generous, considerate man. Always a pleasure to threaten him with extermination."; Barnaby Edwards (actor) - "Farewell, Matt. You were a joy to work with and a wonder to watch. Thanks for all the good times."; Tom Spilsbury (DWM editor) - "I am very sad to see Matt Smith leave. He has been a brilliant Doctor Who, as well as being a kind and generous man. Thanks from all at DWM."; Edward Russell (brand manager) - "It feels impossible to think that anyone could be as good as Matt. Still, I thought that when David left."


The news will of course generate a lot of media interest, with many of the Sunday newspapers commencing their speculation as to who the next person to play the Doctor will be (with front pages coverage by the Times, Mail and Star). It is also expected that bookmakers will begin offering odds for Smith's replacement imminently!

Lizo Mzimba presented an item on Matt's tenure during BBC One's news bulletin at 10:30pm (available in the UK via the BBC News site), whilst BBC Breakfast is expected to have an item on the news in the morning, with Doctor Who Magazine's editor Tom Spilsbury reporting on Twitter that he will appear on the programme.