You might have noticed that last weekend was the 50th Anniversary of the start of Doctor Who. There was a 50th Anniversary special with 2 Doctors, David Tennant and Matt Smith, but I wasn't that interested in that. I'll watch it when I get through the part of the series I haven't seen yet. I was more curious about the BBC movie An Adventure In Space And Time. It's a docudrama about the creation of the Doctor Who series. It's was on BBC America and Comcast's On Demand. In fact, On Demand had a huge number of Doctor Who programs, much of which was done for the 50th Anniversary. There was a 25 minute featurette on each Doctor. They were fairly well done and each was followed by a story with that Doc. Amongst the handfull of other documentaries, there's a program on the Companions, one on the Tardis and a science program with British Psychist Brian Cox. He's not the same Brian Cox as the one who plays Sydney Newman in An Adventure In Space And Time.
Here's the cast list and the parts they played:
- David Bradley as William Hartnell, who portrayed the First Doctor
- Jamie Glover as William Russell, who portrayed Ian Chesterton
- Jemma Powell as Jacqueline Hill, who portrayed Barbara Wright
- Claudia Grant as Carole Ann Ford, who portrayed Susan Foreman
- Anna-Lisa Drew as Maureen O'Brien, who portrayed Vicki
- Reece Shearsmith as Patrick Troughton, who portrayed the Second Doctor
- Sophie Holt as Jackie Lane, who portrayed Dodo Chaplet
- Nicholas Briggs as Peter Hawkins, original voice of the Daleks and Cybermen
- Brian Cox as Sydney Newman, co-creator
- Jessica Raine as Verity Lambert, original producer
- Sacha Dhawan as Waris Hussein, original director
- Sarah Winter as Delia Derbyshire, creator of composer Ron Grainer's theme tune recording
- Jeff Rawle as Mervyn Pinfield, associate producer
- Andrew Woodall as Rex Tucker, director
- Ian Hallard as Richard Martin, director
- David Annen as Peter Brachacki, original production designer
- Sam Hoare as Douglas Camfield, director
- Mark Eden as Donald Baverstock, controller of BBC1
- Lesley Manville as Heather Hartnell, wife of William Hartnell
- Cara Jenkins as Judith "Jessica" Carney, granddaughter of William Hartnell
- William Russell as Harry
- Carole Ann Ford as Joyce
- Reece Pockney as Alan
- Charlie Kemp as Arthur
- Roger May as Len
- Kit Connor as Charlie
- Matt Smith as himself
- Jean Marsh (uncredited cameo)
- Anneke Will (uncredited cameo)
Most of the people did a great job with their parts. I was especially impressed with David Bradley as William Hartnell. You might remember him as Filch in the Harry Potter movies but he's got a much more interesting part here. William Hartnell was in his 50's when he started but his health wasn't the best and he started having issues in the second season. He forgot lines, missed queues and generally couldn't function very well. He loved the show and wanted to continue but Sydney Newman, the head of Drama at the BBC, had already made the decision to move on with a new Doctor. The regeneration idea was the way forward. Before we get to that sad ending the movie starts with our main character, the late Verity Lambert. She had worked with Sydney Newman at ITV and he asked her to come work for him at the BBC. He promoted her to producer and dumped Doctor Who in her lap. That's a job and a half for anyone, let alone a woman in the man's world of the BBC. It is 1963 and women are hardly holding positions of authority in the company. It's a touch and go proposition, the first pilot doesn't sit well with Sydney. He orders a few changes and gives them an unheard of second go at it. The show was shot in the tiny studio at Lime Grove. They recreate the location and it sure was a tight squeeze. A lof of what they portrait-ed in the tv movie I had heard the cast and crew members talk about on the dvd making of featurettes and commentaries. It condenses down the story, there's too much to tell in 84 minutes, but they capture some nice moments. It's not a greatly happy story but that's what happened. I liked the look of the production, much of which was shot around the BBC Televison Center. It's a pretty well known building that has had a lot of British tv shot there. It was sold recently and no longer holds the BBC. Oh, well, it's always time to move on somewhere.
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