
The drama
An Adventure in Space and Time, which tells the story of the creation of
Doctor Who in 1963 in fictionalised form, received a standing ovation from the audience following its première at the
British Film Institute's
BFI Southbank venue on Tuesday evening.
An Adventure, produced by the BBC as part of the celebrations to mark
Doctor Who's 50th anniversary this month, will receive its television début on BBC Two on
Thursday 21st November at 9pm, before being shown in the US and Canada the following day, and in Australia on the 24th.
Tuesday's screening was the latest in the BFI's own series of anniversary events, which have previously seen each Doctor celebrated with a screening of one of their stories. The screening of
An Adventure in Space and Time proved immensely popular with fans, some of whom had waited for eight hours in the queue for returns in order to gain their seats. The screening was introduced by speeches from its writer and executive producer
Mark Gatiss, from the BFI's Television Programmer
Marcus Prince and from
Clare Hudson, the Head of BBC Cymru Wales productions, which made
An Adventure in Space and Time.
Among the audience were director
Waris Hussein, who appears as a character in the drama played by
Sacha Dhawan; former companion actors
Carole Ann Ford (also a character in the programme)
Louise Jameson,
Anneke Wills (who also appears briefly in the drama),
Sophie Aldred and
Matthew Waterhouse, and 1970s producer
Philip Hinchcliffe. Taking part in the panel discussion following the screening, conducted by journalist and
Doctor Who fan
Matthew Sweet, were Gatiss, stars Dhawan and
David Bradley (who portrays
William Hartnell), director
Terry McDonough and Hartnell's real-life granddaughter
Jessica Carney, the latter of whom was clearly very moved by the drama.
A spoiler-free review of
An Adventure in Space and Time is now available in our reviews section,
here. For our
An Unearthly Series features, telling the real story behind the creation of
Doctor Who fifty years to the day since each major event occurred,
click here.