David Whitaker wrote 35 episodes of Crossroads

I’ve just received my copy of Doctor Who Chronicles — 1970, from the makers of Doctor Who Magazine. It features, on pp. 28-31 “Cross purposes”, my article on the back and forth of personnel between the production teams of Doctor Who and the ATV soap opera Crossroads, me arguing that the 1970 reboot of Doctor Who owes as much to the soap as it does to the oft-cited Quatermass. 

Several writers worked on both Doctor Who and Crossroads at different times, including Barbara Clegg, Terrance Dicks, David Ellis, Paul Erickson, Brian Hayles, Don Houghton, Malcolm Hulke, Peter Ling, Derrick Sherwin and my bae David Whitaker. I trace who did what when, and the direction of travel back and forth between the two series.

But this new article originates in me being wrong. Here is the full story, with a wealth of new information about David Whitaker.

On page 332 of my biography David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure with Television, I quote a Sunday Times story by ‘Atticus’ (Michael Bateman) from 8 March 1970, criticising actions by David Whitaker ‘who used to write for Crossroads.’ I respond to this: ‘David had written episodes of the soap opera Compact, not Crossroads.’ In fact, I now know David wrote for both.

A number of things led me to the wrong conclusion in my book. First, I had access to various CVs and potted biographies of David from over the years, which tend to emphasise the great variety of film and TV he worked on. None of them mention Crossroads yet they include many things that didn’t make it to the screen or for which he didn't receive on-screen credit. 

For example, a report in the Australian TV Week from 18 May 1974, which interviewed David, claimed he’d written ‘a number of episodes of The Saint, The Avengers and Danger Man’. He’d had a meeting about potential work on The Saint and may have pitched an episode of Danger Man… But he doesn't have a credit on any of these shows and there's no evidence that he was ever commissioned to write full scripts for them. It seems that David, not uniquely in the industry, exaggerated a little to bulk out his CV. I thought if he had worked on Crossroads, or even gone for a meeting with the production team, he would have included it on a CV. 

I was able to verify that David is not credited as writer on any surviving episodes of Crossroads. When researching at Birmingham Central Library, I leafed through old copies of listings magazine TV Times but the random selection of Crossroads episodes I found did not credit the writer (or director or producer). This was, as we'll see, an oversight on my part.

IMDB, as yet, does not credit David for any episodes of Crossroads but I already knew it was missing many screen credits I could trace from other sources. I ran David's name through The Kaleidoscope British Independent Television Drama Research Guide 1955-2010 edited by Simon Coward, Richard Down and Christopher Perry (2010) and various online archives but his name didn’t come up in relation to Crossroads. 

In addition, one of the people I interviewed for my book told me that they didn’t think David wrote for Crossroads as it was a programme they watched and they would have spotted his name. In all, it seemed fair to surmise that ‘Atticus’ in the Sunday Times had muddled things up: David Whitaker worked with writers Hazel Adair and Peter Ling on developing their BBC soap opera Compact and is credited as writer on seven episodes of that; but he didn’t then work on their ATV soap Crossroads.

Then, late last year, Doctor Who Magazine #610 boasted an extended interview with former producer Philip Hinchcliffe, in which writer Benjamin Cook noted that Hinchcliffe had written for Crossroads. In a footnote on page 26, Ben said that “David Whittaker” — two Ts — had also written for the soap. 

I ran some online searches to see if I could corroborate this and ended up finding a photograph of the cast and crew of Crossroads (image 12588028vh) that has been added to Shutterstock since I wrote my book. Second from the left in the bottom row is David Whitaker. Which, flipping heck, is pretty conclusive evidence that he worked on the series.

The caption with the photograph tells us who some of the other people are: 

“Crossroads: Behind the scenes cast and crew picture circa early 1970s - featuring, including Rollo Gamble (TV Director, 1st R, back row), Jack Barton (TV Director and Producer, 3rd L back row), Tish Hope, as played by Joy Andrews (5th L, middle row), Noele Gordon as Meg Richardson, Ann George, as Amy Turtle, Susan Hanson, as Diane (2nd R middle row), David Whitaker (TV Script Writer - former BBC TV series Doctor Who writer, 2nd L btm row), Reg Watson (Producer, seated centre on chair), and others”

I think Hazel Adair and Peter Ling are in the front row, Ling in glasses and moustache at Reg Watson’s knee. Second left on the back row, stood between Rollo Gamble and Jack Barton, may be fellow director Alan Coleman. (Three of the people in this photograph figured in Russell T Davies' 2023 drama Nolly, namely Noele Gordon played by Helena Bonham Carter, Susan Hanson played by Chloe Harris and director Jack Barton played by Con O'Neill.)

I was especially taken by the sight of Rollo Gamble in the top-right corner, as he played Squire Winstanley in 1971 Doctor Who story The Daemons. It was this that inspired my new article for DWM.

The photograph seems to show cast and crew on the roof of Bradford House, on Bradford Street in Digbeth, which ATV rented for rehearsals. As my friend David Jennings astutely notes, the skyline matches the view in pictures taken in 2007, and the view would have been very different from the original ATV Centre in Aston or the new complex on Broad Street, which opened in 1970. Since Cleo Sylvestre, who joined the cast in an episode first broadcast on 27 January 1970,  doesn’t feature among the cast in this photograph, I think it must have been taken in 1969.

Having found this photograph, I got in touch with Benjamin Cook to ask what sources he’d drawn from. He pointed me back towards the Kaleidoscope guide, which lists 24 episodes of Crossroads written by David Whittaker — two Ts — between 22 July 1969 and 27 February 1970. But there were also numerous gaps where no writer was credited at all, leaving the tantalising prospect that Whitaker had written more.

The Kaleidoscope guide lists episodes of Crossroads on the basis of their first transmission on the ATV network (as some other ITV regions showed Crossroads days or even months behind). I double-checked against copies of TV Times for the Midlands region (the one served by ATV) at Birmingham Central Library and found David credited for eight episodes covering that same period, 22 July 1969 to 27 February 1970.

But the reason for the discrepancy swiftly became clear. At the time, Crossroads was broadcast four times a week, Tuesday to Friday, and the listings in TV Times usually credits writer, director and producer only on the Tuesday. The implication is that the same writer and director were assigned blocks of four episodes at a time — a week’s worth. David was therefore credited on eight blocks of four episodes, or 32 in total. It was consistent work, one block per calendar month between July and February. And nothing either side.

The TV Times listings usually include a line of dialogue from the episode in question, instead of precis or recap (which might spoil the plot). This gives some flavour of the drama. What's more, the lines of dialogue seem to be from the opening moments of each episode. That meant I could relatively easily match the listings printed in TV Times with the soundtrack of an otherwise missing episode - part of a cache of 1960s episodes of Crossroads on the Internet Archive - and show it was one written by David.

* UPDATE 12 March 2025. David Jennings has been in touch to add to the total. The TV Times for the week of 27 September 1969 lists Peter Ling as writer of Crossroads on Tuesday, 30 September. But then David is credited for Wednesday, 1 October. There's no writer credit for Thursday or Friday, but the assumption is he oversaw that whole block of episodes bar the first one. 

David Whitaker's 32 episodes of Crossroads are as follows, with quotations, cast and crew details as per the ATV region TV Times:

1. 
   Episode 1116, 6.35 pm, Tuesday, 22 July 1969 (the day after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left the surface of the Moon)


   
   “Amy: Any more surprises and I’ll jump out of my skin.”

   
   Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); David Davenport (Malcolm Ryder); Michael McStay (Steve Mitchell); Pamela Duncan (Mrs Cordelia Fitts); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); William Avenall (Mr Lovejoy); Gillian Betts (Josefina Rafael); Susan Travers (Elena Brandt); Eva Wishaw (Tessa Wyvern); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Ralph Lawton (Sgt Yorke); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Jack Haig (Archie Gibbs).
   
   WRITER DAVID WHITAKER: DIRECTOR ROLLO GAMBLE PRODUCER REG WATSON
   
   Full listing for this episode in the Anglia-region version of TV Times (because I couldn't get a very legible picture from the bound edition of the Midlands version!):
   

   
   
   
2. Episode 1117, 6.35 pm, Wednesday 23 July 1969
   
   Jill: “I know. You’re so innocent and misunderstood. But can’t you see how much trouble you’re causing?”
   
   Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); David Davenport (Malcolm Ryder); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Eva Wishaw (Tessa Wyvern); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Susan Travers (Elena Brandt); Pamela Duncan (Mrs Cordelia Fitts); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Michael McStay (Steve Mitchell); Bay White (Mrs Arden); Gillian Betts (Josefina Rafael); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); John Bradbury (Musician).
   
   DIRECTOR JACK BARTON

   
   
3. Episode 1118, 6.35 pm, Thursday, 24 July 1969
   
   Malcolm: “Burn the dinner! Chuck it in the dustbin!”
   
   Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); David Davenport (Malcolm Ryder); Michael McStay (Steve Mitchell); Eva Wishaw (Tessa Wyvern); Gillian Betts (Josefina Rafael); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Pamela Duncan (Mrs Cordelia Fitts); Jack Haig (Archie Gibbs); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Ralph Lawton (Sgt Yorke).
   
   
4. Episode 1119, 6.35 pm, Friday 25 July 1969
   
   Same quotation and listing given as for Thursday.

   
   
5. 
   Episode 1132, 6.35 pm Tuesday 19 August 1969
   
   Diane: “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
   
   Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Doris Wellings (Mrs Grimble); Ted Morris (Willie Mayne); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Colin Spaull (Jacko Gregg); David Davenport (Malcolm Ryder); Philip Garston-Jones (Commercial traveller); Ann George (Amy Turtle).
   
   SCRIPT BY DAVID WHITAKER: SCRIPT EDITOR MALCOLM HULKE: DIRECTOR JACK BARTON: PRODUCER REG WATON

   
   
6. Episode 1133, 6.35 pm, Wednesday 20 August 1969
   
   Mr Lovejoy: “Am I such a tyrant?”
   
   Cast: Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Susan Hanson (Diana [sic] Lawton); Doris Wellings (Mrs Grimble); Ted Morris (Willie Mayne); Ralph Lawton (Sgt Yorke); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Gillian Betts (Josefina Rafael); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Philip Garston-Jones (Commercial traveller); Eve Whishaw (Tessa Wyvern).
NB no credit for Noele Gordon.

   
   
7. Episode 1134, 6.35pm, Thursday 21 August 1969
   
   Joesfina: “Now, now, Mrs Hope—you’re match-making.”
   
   No cast given.

   
   
8. Episode 1135, 6.35 pm, Friday 22 August 1969
   
   Diane: “Wouldn’t it be better to tell Mrs Richardson about the gambling?”

   
   No cast given.

   
   
9. Episode 1148, 6.35 pm, Tuesday 16 September 1969
   
   Booth: “I have strict rules.”
   
   Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg); Hilary Wontner (Sir Geoffrey); Ann George (Amy Turtle); David Lawton (Mr Booth); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Gillian Betts (Josefina Rafael); Jon Kelly (Frank Adam); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); Paul Large (Paul Tatum); Jane Rossington (Jill).
   
   WRITER DAVID WHITAKER: DIRECTOR ALAN COLEMAN: PRODUCER REG WATSON.

   
   
10. Episode 1149, 6.35 pm, Wednesday 17 September 1969
    
    Amy: “It gives you confidence to have a revolver in the palm of your hand.”
    
    No cast given.

    
    
11. Episode 1150, 6.35 pm, Thursday, 18 September 1969
    
    Meg: “Why didn’t Malcolm confide in me?”

    Sir Geoffrey: “I’m offering you a lifeline. You must take it.”
    
    No cast given.

    
    
12. Episode 1151, 6.35pm, Friday 19 September 1969
    
    Meg: “Are you certain he doesn’t need any stitches?”
    
    No cast given.
The audio of this episode survives.
    
    (Episode 1156, 6.35 pm, Tuesday 30 September 1969 credited in TV Times to writer Peter Ling)
    
    
13. 
    Episode 1157, 6.35 pm, Wednesday 1 October 1969
    
    Nick: “I hope you’re wrong about Mrs Grey.”
    
    Cast: Roger Squires (Harold Brackett); Isabella Rye (Mary-Lou Patterson); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Brian Kent (Dick Jarvis); Gaby Vargas (Vivienne Miller); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Eva Whishaw (Tessa Wyvern); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Patricia Greene (Mrs Grey)
    
    WRITER DAVID WHITAKER : DIRECTOR JACK BARTON : PRODUCER REG WATSON
    
    
    
    
    
14. Episode 1158, 6.35 pm, Thursday 2 October 1969
    
    No cast or details given.
    
    
15. Episode 1159, 6.35 pm, Friday 3 October 1969
    
     “He’s dead... He’s dead!”
    
    Cast: Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Elisabeth Croft (Miss Tatum); Brian Kent (Dick Jarvis); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Eva Wishaw (Tessa Wyvern); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Isabelle Rye (Mary Lou Patterson); Jack Haig (Archie Gibbs); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); Gaby Vargas (Vivienne Miller); Patricia Greene (Mrs Grey)
    
    
16. Episode 1172, 6.35 pm, Tuesday 28 October 1969
    
    Mrs Grey: “That’s why I’m here.”
    Malcolm: “Because of me.”
    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); David Davenport (Malcolm Ryder); Patricia Greene (Mrs Grey); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Michael Anthony (Col. St Clair); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Denis Gilmore (Terry Lawton).

    
    SCRIPT DAVID WHITAKER: DIRECTOR ALAN COLEMAN: PRODUCER REG WATSON
    
    
    
    
    
17. Episode 1173, 6.35pm, Wednesday 29 October 1969
    
    Jill: “Thick quickly, Uncle Dick, because I mean what I say.”

    
    No cast given.

    
    
18. Episode 1174, 6.35pm, Thursday 30 October 1969
    
    Diane: “Why don’t you order champagne?”
    Terry: “A beer’s not going to break us is it?”
    
    Cast: Elisabeth Croft (Miss Tatum); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); John Henderson (Mr Meddows); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Beatrice Shaw (Mrs Seymour); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Brian Kent (Dick Jarvis); Denis Gilmore (Terry Lawton); Brian Hankins (Derek Maynard); David Davenport (Malcolm Ryder).
    
    
19. Episode 1175, 6.35pm, Friday 31 October 1969
    
    Gypsy: “Shall I read what the cards say for you, Lady?”
    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); David Davenport (Malcolm Ryder); Brian Hankins (Derek Maynard); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Patricia Greene (Mrs Grey); Malja Woolf (Gypsy); Beatrice Shaw (Mrs Seymour); Denis Gilmore (Terry Lawton); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); John Henderson (Mr Meddows); Elisabeth Croft (Miss Tatum).
    
    
20. Episode 1188, 6.35 pm Tuesday 25 November 1969
(Crossroads now in colour)
    
    No quotation
    
    Cast: Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); John Gatrell (Commander Boone); Denis Gilmore (Terry Lawton); Sally-Jane Spencer (Caroline Boone); David Davenport (Malcolm Ryder); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); Elisabeth Croft (Miss Tatum); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Eva Wishaw (Tessa Wyvern); David Sherwood (Danny Conroy); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson).
    
    SCRIPT BY DAVID WHITAKER: DIRECTOR ROLLO GAMBLE: PRODUCER REG WATSON.

    
    
21. Episode 1189, 6.35 pm, Wednesday, 26 November 1969
    
    Terry: “The Commander? He didn’t land me this one?”
    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Eva Whishaw (Tessa Wyvern); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Gillian Betts (Josefina Rafael); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Denis Gilmore (Terry Lawton); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); David Sherwood (Danny Conroy); David Davenport (Malcolm Ryder); Patricia Greene (Mrs Grey); Jack Haig (Archie Gibbs).
    
    WRITER DAVID WHITAKER: DIRECTOR ROLLO GAMBLE: PRODUCER REG WATSON
    

22. Episode 1190, 6.35 pm, Thursday, 27 November 1969
    
    Archie: “Do you want to make £100?”
    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Jack Haig (Archie Gibbs); David Sherwood (Danny Conroy); Eva Whishaw (Tessa Wyvern); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); David Davenport (Malcolm Ryder); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Brian Hankins (Derek Maynard); Jean Aubrey (Kathy Knight); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); Patricia Greene (Mrs Grey).

    
    
23. Episode 1191, 6.35 pm, Friday, 28 November 1969
    
    Amy: “Oh yes… here, he’s not leading you astray is he?”
    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Jack Haig (Archie Gibbs); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Gillian Betts (Josefina Rafael); David Davenport (Malcolm Ryder); Elisabeth Croft (Miss Tatum); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); Brian Hankins (Derek Maynard); Jean Aubrey (Kathy Knight); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Eva Whishaw (Tessa Wyvern); Patricia Greene (Mrs Grey).

    
    
24. Episode 1209, 6.35 pm, Tuesday, 30 December 1969
    
    Mr Lovejoy: “Your way is not the only way.”
    Mr Booth: “Your way is certainly not the right way.”
    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Jacqueline Stanbury (Joanne Peterson); Roger Tonge (Sandy Richardson); David Lawton (Mr Booth); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); David Sherwood (Danny Conroy); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); Nadine Hanwell (Marilyn Hope); Nicola Davies (Angela Davy); Beatrice Kane (Miss Davey).


    
    WRITER DAVID WHITAKER: DIRECTOR ALAN COLEMAN: PRODUCER REG WATSON

    
    
25. Episode 1210, 6.35 pm, Wednesday, 31 December 1969
    
    Eve: “Do you remember I told you Michael was out of the country?”

    Mrs Hope: “Yes.”

    Eve: “Diane met him at the El Dorado.”
    
    Cast: Roger Tonge (Sandy Richardson); Jacqueline Stanbury (Joanne Peterson); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Nadine Hanwell (Marilyn Hope); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Toni Sinclair (Eve Baker); David Sherwood (Danny Conroy); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Jane Rossington (Jill Richardson); Nicola Davies (Angela Davy).

    
    
26. Episode 1211, 6.35 pm, Thursday, 1 January 1970
    
    Mr Booth: “Mr Lovejoy’s quite an elderly gentleman, isn’t he?”
    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Claire Davenport (Miss Worbeck); Jacqueline Stanbury (Joanne Peterson); David Lawton (Mr Booth); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); Roger Tonge (Sandy Richardson); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Toni Sinclair (Eve Baker); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); Nadine Hanwell (Marilyn Hope); Nicola Davies (Angela Davy); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker).

    
    
27. Episode 1212, 6.35 pm, Friday 2 January 1970
    
    Michael: “Take a look in the mirror sweetheart, and give yourself a shock.”
    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Toni Sinclair (Eve Baker); Paul Greaves (Michael Phillips); Roger Tonge (Sandy Richardson); Jacqueline Stanbury (Joanne Peterson); Claire Davenport (Miss Worbeck); Nadine Hanwell (Marilyn Hope); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope).

    
    
28. Episode 1225, 6.35 pm, Tuesday 27 January 1970
    
    Eve: “How much will you pay me to tell my story to your paper?”
    
    Cast: Toni Sinclair (Eve Baker); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Michael Mundell (Marcus Allison); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Nadine Hanwell (Marilyn Hope); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Doreen Keogh (Mrs Candour); Cleo Sylvestre (Melanie Harper).
    
    WRITER DAVID WHITAKER: DIRECTOR ROLLO GAMBLE: PRODUCER REG WATSON.

    
    This was a notable episode, featuring the introduction of new regular character Melanie Harper, played by Cleo Sylvestre (who had also had a role in David’s 1965 Doctor Who story The Crusade). Sylvestre later recalled:
    
    “Enoch Powell had been making those terrible ‘Rivers of Blood’ speeches, which resulted in a lot of racial tension up and down the country, especially in cities like Birmingham. Reg [Watson, producer of Crossroads] must have picked up on this, and decided to create one of the first regular black characters in a British soap… Melanie Harper was Meg’s adopted daughter who, until then, had never been mentioned. Melanie arrived from France, where she had been studying, and viewers just accepted her. It was great. It was wonderful.
    
     “At the very end of an episode, I walked into the motel with a suitcase and rung the reception desk bell. The receptionist came out and I said 'Can I speak to Mrs Richardson, please?’ and she said ‘Yes. Who shall I say is asking for her?’ I replied, ‘Tell her it’s her daughter.’ And then the music came up. What a cliffhanger! This was the first time Meg’s other daughter had been mentioned.” - Cleo Sylvestre, interviewed by Stephen Bourne as part of ‘Soap Queens’ at the NFT, 2001
     

29. Episode 1226, 6.35 pm, Wednesday, 28 January 1970
    
    Peter: “The Bishop wants to see me as soon as possible.”
    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Cleo Sylvestre (Melanie Harper); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Toni Sinclair (Eve Baker); Doreen Keogh (Mrs Candour); David Sherwood (Danny Conroy); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Michael Mundell (Marcus Allison); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); Nadine Hanwell (Marilyn Hope).
    

30. Episode 1227, 6.35 pm Thursday, 29 January 1970
    
    Meg: “I’ve had some news about Malcolm, Mrs Grey—you’re the only one I can talk to.”

    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); Nadine Hanwell (Marilyn Hope); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Toni Sinclair (Eve Baker); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Doreen Keogh (Mrs Candour); Cleo Sylvestre (Melanie Harper); Ann George (Amy Turtle); David Sherwood (Danny Conroy); William Sherwood (The Bishop); Patricia Greene (Mrs Grey).
    
    
31. Episode 1228, 6.35 pm, Friday, 30 January 1970
    
    Mrs Hope: “Angela, either you do come, or I’ll say what I have to say to your aunt… and to the police.”

    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Toni Sinclair (Eve Baker); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); ; Cleo Sylvestre (Melanie Harper); David Sherwood (Danny Conroy); Michael Mundell (Marcus Allison); Nicola Davies (Angela Davy); Patricia Greene (Mrs Grey); Doreen Keogh (Mrs Candour); Neville Hughes (Peter Hope); Nadine Hanwell (Marilyn Hope); Beatrice Kane (Miss Davy).

    
    
32. Episode 1241, 6.35 pm Tuesday, 24 February 1970
    
    Eve: “He’s still critically ill. I could have helped him you know. He begged me—and I refused.”
    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Kevin Frazer (Rex Drayton); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Cleo Sylvestre (Melanie Harper); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Jon Kelley (Frank Adam); Toni Sinclair (Eve Baker).
    
    WRITER DAVID WHITAKER: DIRECTOR JACK BARTON: PRODUCER REG WATSON

    
    
33. Episode 1242, 6.35 pm, Wednesday, 25 February 1970
    
    Meg: “There’s only one way to get some sanity into this motel and that is to set fire to everyone and start all over again.”
    
    Cast: Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Cleo Sylvestre (Melanie Harper); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); David Sherwood (Danny Conroy); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); Jon Kelley (Frank Adam); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); Toni Sinclair (Eve Baker); David Lawton (Mr Booth); Kevin Frazer (Rex Drayton).

    
    
34. Episode 1243, 6.35 pm, Thursday 26 February 1970
    
    Nurse: “You really shouldn’t have come back, Miss Baker. I did say we’d get in touch with you if there was any change.”
    
    Cast: Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Toni Sinclair (Eve Baker); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren); William Avenell (Mr Lovejoy); David Sherwood (Danny Conroy); Ann George (Amy Turtle); Lee Clark (Delivery boy);  Kevin Frazer (Rex Drayton); Cleo Sylvestre (Melanie Harper); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Sarah Child (Nurse).
    

35. Episode 1244, 6.35 pm, Friday 27 February 1970
    
    Melanie: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Diane: “When I woke up in the middle of the night you were missing.”


    
    Cast: Cleo Sylvestre (Melanie Harper); Susan Hanson (Diane Lawton); Peter Brookes (Vince Parker); David Sherwood (Danny Conroy); Jon Kelley (Frank Adam); Toni Sinclair (Eve Baker); Joy Andrews (Mrs Hope); Ann George (Amy Turtle); David Lawton (Mr Booth); Deidre Costello (Rita Mayne); Peter Boyes (Nick Van Doren).

When Atticus wrote the Sunday Times piece published on 8 March, David Whitaker had stopped working for Crossroads only very recently. We don't know the circumstances under which he left the programme but around this time other people who employed David received poison-pen letters about him. Did such letters reach ATV and hasten his departure? If so, is there something knowing, even crowing, about the Sunday Times saying that he “used to write for Crossroads”? 

Whatever the case, David Whitaker left just before the arrival of a new writer on Crossroads. Philip Hinchcliffe's first episode aired on ATV on 21 April 1970.

Holiday Sketches exhibition at Senate House

Exciting news! The clever Dr has curated an exhibition which opens this Saturday, 1 February, and runs until 14 March, at Senate House in London.

Holiday Sketches: Two Female Artists and an Archaeologist Husband go on Holiday, 1863, is about the trip made to Rhodes (as well as Athens, Ephesos and Istanbul) by artist Ann Mary Severn Newton and the teenaged Gertrude Jekyll, in the company of Mary's husband Charles. He was an archaeologist, the trip related to his work for the British Museum. 

You can find the exhibition on the 3rd floor of Senate House, University of London - just as you come out of the lifts, by the library of the Institute of Classical Studies. If you can't make it (and even if you can), the Dr has also produced an accompanying fanzine. 

For more of this sort of thing, she previously wrote the book, From the Harpy Tomb to the Wonders of Ephesus - British Archaeologists in the Ottoman Empire 1840-1880 (Bloomsbury, 2008) and continues to dig into all this, especially the life of Mary. You can keep up with her researches on her blog.

David Whitaker postscript / Terry Nation party

You can now download for free the four-page postscript to my biography of David Whitaker, detailing some of the things I've learned since the book was published last November.

The postscript is included in The Who Shop's exclusive paperback editions of the book, and will be added to future versions of the standard paperback at some point.

To accompany the release of the postscript yesterday, I posted a thread to both X (formerly Twitter) and BluSky, and here it is in full:

Terry Nation and pals at Lynsted Park, source

Writer and Dalek creator Terry Nation was born on 8 August 1930. OTD in 1964, he hosted a big birthday party at his newly acquired home, Lynsted Park — an Elizabethan mansion in Kent.

You can watch footage of Nation interviewed at home by Alan Whicker in 1967 on the BBC website. But my interest is in that party.

This party haunts my imagination, symbolic of Nation becoming a big showbiz success story after years of toil in light entertainment.

But, like most of these things, the more I’ve looked into it, the richer and stranger the story gets.

I wonder about the logistics. Did Nation provide everyone’s drinks? Was good laid on as well? Given Lynsted Park was quite remote, was there a lot of drink-driving back to London?

But also, who was at this party? While in the Doctor Who production office, Nation sent an invite to actress Carole Ann Ford. (The office kept a copy: Nation to Ford, 31 July 1963, WAC T5/648/2 General)

Nation was at the time hard at work writing The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the serial that would see Ford leave Doctor Who after a year playing the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan.

On the DVD / Blu-ray commentary for The End of Tomorrow (the fourth episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth), Ford and her colleagues recall Nation’s lavish birthday bash.

In fact, Ford remembered that Nation’s grand new house was in a bit of a state. In particular, she recalled that the swimming pool couldn’t be used; it was full of rubbish. 

Co-star William Russell said Nation told him that he hadn’t bought the house because he was suddenly rich from inventing the Daleks (whose debut story had concluded earlier that year).

Instead, Nation said he’d taken out an ‘enormous mortgage’ as a spur to keep busy writing. It was a means to success, rather than a marker of success having been accomplished.

Who else was at the party? Given that Ford and Russell were there, Nation probably invited Doctor Who’s other stars — William Hartnell and Jacqueline Hill.

Hill’s husband Alvin Rakoff told me he remembered going to Lynsted Park but wasn’t sure if it was for this particular party.

Producer Verity Lambert also remembered being at the party, according to the DVD/Blu-ray commentary. 

Nation’s invitation to Ford said story editor David Whitaker could help her find the house, implying Whitaker was there, too.

At the time, Whitaker was working with Nation on the new Dalek TV story. They were also co-writing The Dalek Book for publication in September. (And Whitaker was novelising the first Dalek TV story.)

Given all these Doctor Who luminaries at the party, they surely tuned in to watch that evening’s episode — the first instalment of The Reign of Terror by Dennis Spooner.

(To this, my esteemed publisher Stuart Manning added: "Hazel Peiser, the partner of would-be Doctor Who Meets Scratchman director James Hill, recalls attending a party at Nation's mansion where the guests watched Doctor Who go out on TV. James was working on The Saint around that time, so it probably checks out.")

Spooner shared an agent with Nation, who’d recommended him to Whitaker. Two days before the party, it was confirmed that Spooner would join the BBC staff to shadow then succeed Whitaker.

The chances are that Spooner was at the party, too. In his biography of Nation, Alwyn Turner says Roger Moore also attended *one of* Nation’s parties at Lynsted Park, wearing a blue jumpsuit.

I like to imagine them all there together: the current Doctor Who, the future James Bond plus Jackie Hill — who was responsible for Sean Connery’s first big break. For more on the latter, see my post on I’m Just the Guy Who Says Action, by Alvin Rakoff. 

At the time of the party, Moore was the star of The Saint, for which Nation wrote (for higher fees than Doctor Who). A week after the party, Whitaker met Saint script supervisor Harry Junkin. 

A week later, Whitaker met with Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint, to discuss a potential musical. Nothing came of these meetings but they were surely instigated by or through Nation. 

(Whitaker refers to both meetings in letter to his new agent, Beryl Vertue, at Associated London Scripts, on 14 August 1964, a copy held in Doctor Who production file WAC T5/648/2 General)

In throwing the party and in putting Whitaker and Spooner up for potential jobs, Nation was sharing his largesse. He could afford to be generous — couldn’t he?

As I imagine that party, I wonder what was going through Nation’s mind and how much he felt able to enjoy it himself. He’d certainly had a good few months since the debut of the Daleks.

‘The Daleks have transformed Mr Nation’s life,’ reported Andrew Duncan in Women’s Mirror just over a year later on 30 October 1965, ‘and he could eventually make £1 million from them.’ (NB, he hadn’t yet.)

Then Duncan quoted Nation’s own insecurities about this success. ‘I’ve got this enormous fear that one day a man is going to come and take back all the money.’

Making Sense of Suburbia through Popular Culture, by Rupa Huq

I read this on holiday as research for something I'm working on at the moment. Dr Rupa Huq, MP for Ealing Central and Acton, explores depictions of suburbs in novels, music, films and TV and then devotes a chapter each to woman in suburbia and mapping Asian London in pop culture.

“The suburbs are in many ways ordinary,” she tells us on page 13: “according to estimates some 80 per cent of Britons live in them.” (The figure comes from Paul Barker's 2009 book The Freedoms of Suburbia.) That makes them almost universal, and entirely relatable when we see them on screen.

Huq delineates two kinds of suburbia, I think. First there's that idea of crushing, bland ordinariness, a place to be escaped. 

“Of recent UK offerings, The Sarah Jane Adventures, a spin-off from the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, was based in Ealing. Part of the show’s attraction was that such storylines of time travel and aliens could be unleashed in such an unlikely setting as a straight-laced, upstanding and ostensibly boring location.” (p. 130)

That Sarah Jane Smith hails from boring old Ealing (or, in The Hand of Fear, South Croydon) is juxtaposed against her adventures in all of time and space. It's a joke: after all her wild adventures, she ends up somewhere so ordinary.

Ealing is so ordinary and relatable that it could be anywhere - and indeed the Ealing scenes in The Five Doctors were actually filmed in Uxbridge, the Ealing scenes in The Sarah Jane Adventures were recorded in Penarth.

In the very first episode of Doctor Who, the mundane details of ordinary life - a policeman, a junkyard, a comprehensive school - create a credible, relatable frame for the sci-fi wonders that follow. Basically, the first half of the episode feels real so we buy the more outlandish stuff that follows. But again it's following that basic idea: we must leave the ordinary suburbs to go somewhere exciting.

And that's where the second kind of suburbia comes in. Huq quotes playwright Alan Ayckbourn on suburbia: 

“It’s not what it seems, on the surface one thing but beneath the surface another thing. In the suburbs there is a very strict code, rules … eventually they drive you completely barmy.” Think of England: Dunroamin’ (BBC Two, 5 Nov 1991, dir. Ann Leslie)

The suburbs are a place on anxiety, the “suburban neurosis” outlined in the Lancet in 1938 by Stephen Taylor, senior resident medical officer at the Royal Free Hospital (and, er, my dad's godfather). Huq also charts similar ideas in Betty Friedan's influential The Feminine Mystique (1963). I can see these same ideas being explored in sitcoms of the 1970s, that sense of the suburb as a place of strangeness and secrets and danger.

In fact, I think The Sarah Jane Adventures and quite a lot of Doctor Who makes more use of this second kind of suburbia, where more is going on that meets the eye. With aliens and time travel and daft jokes aplenty, the whole point is that Ealing - or anywhere else - isn't boring. Which might be of some comfort to the local MP.

Anyway. More of this to come in the thing I'm working on...

The Drifter (STW-9 Perth, 1973-74) episode guide to the series created and written by David Whitaker

The Drifter was created for STW-9 in Perth, Western Australia, by David Whitaker, a British writer probably best known as the first story editor of Doctor Who and the subject of my recent biography. The series ran for 21 episodes over 22 weeks 1973-74, and I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who can add to the following.

Background

The series owed something to an outline for The Lover dated 4 April 1966 and submitted to the Writers' Guild eight days later. David proposed that this would be filmed in colour, presumably in the style of The Saint or The Baron made for ITV. It would have seen Richard Young travelling Europe and getting into various scrapes and adventures, with David describing the character as a modern-day Casanova (whose unexpurgated autobiography had just begun to be published). 

Richard Young’s itinerant lifestyle follows a fire that killed his parents and destroyed their Sussex home in 1961. This was probably inspired by a real-life fire that swept through the London home David shared with his parents sometime in 1960 or 1961.

The Lover was not picked up but by 1970 David had reworked the idea in a full movie screenplay, Man on a Tightrope, for Armitage Films — the company that made the low budget science-fiction film Night Caller (1968) and horror Burke and Hare (1972). The main character is Richard Logan, an adventurer who has been living an itinerant life since the death of his wife five years previously in a fire. He’s recruited to expose a criminal gang by the enigmatic Nicholson — a name probably inspired by David’s mother, who was born Nellie Nicholas. The film was never made.

In February 1971, David was in Australia, discussing ideas for TV shows with David Aspinall, assistant production manager at STW-9 in Perth. According to a report in the Australian TV Times on 17 February, David was to write 12 ten-minute plays for the channel in different genres that would help to meet newly imposed quotas on locally produced programmes and could be used to train crews.

Then, in 1973, STW-9 recorded a pilot episode of The Drifter created and written by David, with Aspinall as executive producer. The network duly commissioned a 10-part series and later extended that to 26 - all to be written by David. But before completing this number, the series was cancelled at short notice. 

The Drifter

Regular cast: James Halloran (Alan Cassell), Owen Nicholas (Sydney Davis), Lucie Martin (Helen Naeme), Miss Zeigler (Valda Diamond).

Only the first two of 21 episodes are known to survive, and are currently on YouTube.

The title sequence shows, in a series of still captions, Halloran on his wedding day, then with his wife and two children, then a newspaper clipping tells us his family died in a fire. 

01. If You Can’t Join Them, Beat Them (tx Saturday 15 December 1973)

TV listing: “What do you do with a case full of money and the police breathing down your neck?”

A flight lands at Perth Airport and airline staff have to carry off a drunk, unconscious passenger, who carries a ticket in the name of “J Smith”. This is, in fact, James Halloran, some 18 months after the deaths of his wife and children. 

He wakes to find himself in bed at the home of air stewardess Lucie Martin — and wrongly assumes he picked her up the night before. After this embarrassment, Halloran is visited by Dr Lindeman, a passenger who helped him off the plane. In fact, Lindeman spiked Halloran’s drink and caused the whole distraction as part of an insurance scam.

Lindeman offers Halloran $10,000 to continue with the plot. It looks as though Halloran will agree but he then shops Lindeman to the authorities. Meanwhile, an enigmatic man called Owen Nicholas collects Halloran’s unclaimed suitcase from the airport and keeps hold of it to use as leverage.

02. Love On Tuesday At Three O’Clock Please (Saturday 22 December 1973)

TV listing: “Owen Nicholas persuades Halloran to answer a risqué advertisement.”

Recorded in studio on 7 November 1973

Guest cast: Lynn Canfield (Jenny McNae), Faith Royal (Adele Cohen), Len (Max Bartlett), Barry (David Lyon), Judith (Olwyn Summers)

Crew: Camera - Tony Graham, Ian Jobsz and Brett Wiley; Lighting - Brian Grosse; Audio - David Muir; Make-up - Pauline Dunstan; Settings - David Crosby; Properties - Noel Penn; Graphics - Victor Longbon; Videotape editors - Ivan De Souza, Jim McLoughlin and Ray Shaw; Floor manager - Mike Meade; Technical director - Kevin Mohen; Director’s assistant - Pat Green; Executive producer - David Aspinall; Director - Brian Green; Producer - John Hanson.

Lynn Canfield is drugged by two men who then undress and photograph her, and later send a blackmail demand. She goes to Owen Nicholas for help, and he uses his leverage to get James Halloran to investigate.

Faith Royal, who runs the escort agency used by Canfield and sent the demand, doesn’t want money; she wants Canfield to recruit further victims. Halloran takes a job with the agency while Nicholas’s secretary, Miss Zeigler, poses as a potential stooge, and together they put a stop to the scheme. Halloran, who is still staying with Lucie Martin, now seems bound to work with Nicholas — who is an associate of Halloran’s father-in-law, and keen to get the drifter back on his feet.

03. Heads I Win, Tails You Lose (Saturday 29 December 1973)

TV listing: “There is always one big winner at the weekly poker game. The Drifter doesn’t want to play, but must put up with the cards he has been dealt.”

04. Life And Death (Saturday 5 January 1974)

TV listing: “Halloran becomes deeply involved with Owen Nicholas — and finds himself investigating an ingenious murder attempt at the hospital.”

05. There’s Always An Angle (Saturday, 12 January 1974)

TV listing: “The Drifter breaks away — at last — and finds himself staying in a motel operating in an unusual way.”

06. Rogue’s Gallery (Saturday, 19 January 1974)

TV listing: “Halloran investigates when Ramon Salamander buys a stolen Renoir.”

Guest cast: Ramon Salamander (Neville Teede), Salamander’s mistress (Vynka Lee-Steere)

A photo of David Whitaker and Vynka Lee-Steere was published in the edition of TV Week for 8 December 1973 (p. 13), suggesting the episode was recorded around this time. The accompanying piece says that Lee-Steere plays the, “mistress of a millionaire armaments manufacturer who is selling illegal arms to subversive organisations”. 

A preview in the Western Australian on 19 January (p. 33) says that Salamander, “is suspected of stealing a Renoir painted in 1874 [and]James Halloran, the drifter played by Alan Cassells is assigned to find out where the Renoir has gone”.

Salamander is also the name of a villain in a Doctor Who story written by David, The Enemy of the World, which ends with Salamander being ejected from the TARDIS just after it leaves Australia… so perhaps this is the same character.

07. Things That Go Bump in the Night (Saturday, 26 January 1974)

TV listing: “Is there a plot afoot to ruin Harry Starr or has a ghost really invaded his new block of flats?”

A photograph in what may be the 15 or 22 December issue of TV Week shows star Alan Cassell with guest star Perth actress Sally Sander, who was presumably a guest star in this or the following episode.

08. The Strong Shall Inherit the Earth (Saturday, 2 February 1974)

TV listing: “Murderer Manny Rossiter escapes while on his way to gaol and plans to kill Owen Nicholas.”

A photograph in the TV Week published the day of broadcast shows Robert Foggetter (presumably as Rossiter) with a gun, leaning over the top of car to take a shot, while behind him there's a man with stocking over his head. The caption says that, “a realistic fight scene, car chase and ambush will be seen in this week’s episode of The Drifter.”

09. With A Little Help From My Enemies (Saturday, 9 February 1974)

TV listing: “Halloran helps a schoolteacher who discovers that one of her pupils possesses dangerous drugs.”

10. Death In The Garden (Saturday, 16 February 1974)

TV listing: “Mary Auben is a nice old lady who lives on a valuable property coveted by a nearby factory.”

The listings magazine also quotes a line of dialogue from the episode, spoken by an unnamed lawyer: “It’s astonishing what an oral life we lead — eating, drinking, talking, smoking, tasting, singing, biting, kissing and some habitual drug users inject themselves under the tongue.”

11. The Body of a Girl (Saturday, 23 February 1974)

TV listing: “Shirley, a 25-year-old prostitute, is in danger when she causes trouble."

12. The Beginning of the End (Friday, 1 March 1974)

TV listing: “Owen Nicholas puts Halloran in the centre of a fierce quarrel between scientific research and conservation.”

A news report in TV Week on 2 March revealed that actress Helen Neeme, playing series regular Lucie Martin, was pregnant — so she may have left the series before the end.

13. A Legal Way to Steal (Friday, 8 March 1974)

TV listing: “Halloran learns of a way to part people from their fortunes. But Owen Nicholas is much too fascinated with the attractive Myra to show interest.”

14. The Death of Janet Halloran (Friday, 15 March 1974)

TV listing: "Halloran receives a phone call from his wife Janet — who was burnt to death in a fire one year ago."

15. The Death of Janet Halloran (part 2) (Friday, 22 March 1974)

TV listing: “What is the organisation FSD and what was its connection with Janet Halloran? What was the secret she could not tell her husband?”

16. Breakdown (part 1) (Friday 29 March 1974)

No listing given.

17. Breakdown (part 2) (Friday, 5 April 1974)

TV listing: “An attractive girl and half-a-million dollars — the Drifter can have both for the price of a bullet.”

Cast: final listing to credit Helen Neene.

[12 April, no episode shown as it was Good Friday; a movie was broadcast instead]

18. Black, White and Red (part 1) (Friday. 19 April 1974)

TV listing: “Someone turned Rod Taylor into a living vegetable because of his fight for a principle and nobody wants Halloran to find the truth.”

19. Black, White and Red (part 2) (Friday, 26 April 1974)

No listing given.

Guest cast: James Setches, Andrew Carter, Frank McKallister.

20. The Valley of the Shadow (part 1) (Friday, 3 May 1974)

TV listing: “When Captain Keith Colby is invalided out of the army he asks the Drifter to help him find the man who tried to kill him.”

The 4 May edition of TV Week (p. 61) includes a photograph with the caption that, “Scriptwriter David Whitaker created a role for himself in a recent episode of The Drifter. He appeared as a businessman (right) with actors Laurence Hodge (left) and Norman Macleod.” The caption doesn’t say which episode this is from. David Whitaker kept a copy of this photograph and one of him being made-up for the part, presumably by Pauline Dunstan (credited at the end of episode 2).

21. The Valley of the Shadow (part 2) (Friday, 9 May 1974)

TV listing: “The Drifter is involved in a bizarre case of revenge against Keith Colby.”

Star Alan Cassell, quoted in TV Week on 25 May, said that,“Ironically, the episode I enjoyed most was the last one [as] I finally got myself into bed with a bird and there was a realistic fight scene that worked very well. … The fight was in fact so dynamic, a fellow actor ended up with two stitches in his lip.”

But he’d also had no warning of the cancellation. A total of 21 episodes had been broadcast over 22 weeks. The press referred to tentative plans to make further episodes at a later date, in colour. This doesn’t seem to have come anything.

On 3 October 1979, David wrote a synopsis for a novelisation of his Doctor Who story The Enemy of the World, adding the first name “Ramon” to the villainous Salamander, underlining the link between him and the character of the same name in The Drifter.

Doctor Who Magazine Yearbook 2024

I'm featured briefly in the new 2024 Yearbook from that lot at Doctor Who Magazine. For his piece on last year's Doctor Who books, Richard Unwin asked me a few questions about The Daily Doctor (which I co-wrote with Peter Anghelides) and Whotopia (which Jonathan Morris wrote with assistance from Una McCormack and me). There's even a photo of me, stood outside my old house in London sometimes before lockdown.

Among the myriad treats in the same issue, I was especially taken by Jason Quinn's interview with digital archivist Helen Randle from BBC Library and Curatorial Services, talking about the wealth of old paperwork - memos, sketches and sheet music - that is being unearthed and shared. You can dig into this stuff in The story of Doctor Who from the BBC archives, and click "follow" to get notified of updates. It's even available outside the UK.

Doctor Who Magazine #583

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine is largely devoted to forthcoming TV episode The Power of the Doctor, and features big interviews with stars Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill and John Bishop, plus chief writer Chris Chibnall. 

There's also a feature on the sets of Trap of Steel, the second episode of 1965 story Galaxy 4, by me and Rhys Williams, with CGI recreations by Rhys and Gav Rymill. There are some very good puns in the subheadings - "A Scanner in the Works", "Asphalt Jungle", "Rill Met by Moonlight". I didn't write those.

I did write this issue's "Sufficient Data", which marks the centenary of the BBC by looking at every hundredth episode of Doctor Who. As ever, the inforgraphic is by Ben Morris.

The "Coming soon" feature previews the forthcoming Season 2 box set, comprising the 41 episodes originally broadcast 1964-65. That preview begins with Toby Hadoke talking about "Looking for David", the documentary that he fronts and I worked on and appear in. 

An excerpt from the documentary will be shown at the BFI in London on Saturday, 29 October, and I'm hoping to be there to see it. I'm also continuing to research the life of David Whitaker for my biography to be published next year, and this week chatted to the widow of the best man at Whitaker's second wedding. 

Doctor Who: Season 2 Blu-ray

Yesterday at 3 pm the masters announced that the next Doctor Who Blu-ray set will be Season 2, the 39 episodes originally broadcast between 31 October 1964 and 24 July 1965. The trailer, below, includes a brief clip of me in what the official blurb refers to as,

"a deep dive into the life and career of story editor David Whitaker in LOOKING FOR DAVID."

Doctor Who Magazine #577

There's another "Sufficient Data" infographic at the back of the new Doctor Who Magazine, written by me and illustrated by Ben Morris. This one is based on episodes of Doctor Who first broadcast at Easter.

A lot of attention has been given to Doctor Who Christmas specials, but to date 14 episodes have first been broadcast on Christmas Day, while 20 have premiered on Holy Saturday (the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday):

1. 28 March 1964 - Mighty Kublai Khan
2. 17 April 1965 - The Warlords
3. 9 April 1966 - The Hall of Dolls
4. 25 March 1967 - The Macra Terror Episode 3
5. 13 April 1968 - Fury from the Deep Episode 5
6. 5 April 1969 - "The Space Pirates" Episode 5
7. 28 March 1970 - Doctor Who and the Silurians Episode 2
8. 10 April 1971 - Colony in Space Episode One
9. 1 April 1972 - The Sea Devils Episode Six
10. 21 April 1973 - Planet of the Daleks Episode Three
11. 13 April 1974 - The Monster of Peladon Part Four
12. 29 March 1975 - Genesis of the Daleks Part Four
13. 26 March 2005 - Rose*
14. 15 April 2006 - New Earth*
15. 7 April 2007 - The Shakespeare Code
16. 11 April 2009 - Planet of the Dead
17. 3 April 2010 - The Eleventh Hour*
18. 23 April 2011 - The Impossible Astronaut*
19. 30 March 2013 - The Bells of Saint John*
20. 15 April 2017 - The Pilot*

Six of those (marked with an asterisk) were the first of a new series, using Easter as part of the launch. Planet of the Dead (2009) and this year's Legend of the Sea Devils were special, one-off episodes for the Easter weekend. 

Legend of the Sea Devils is the first episode of Doctor Who to debut on Easter Sunday itself. And the 1993 repeat on BBC Two of Revelation of the Daleks Part Four is the only episode of Doctor Who broadcast on terrestrial TV on Good Friday.

Journeys into Genealogy

I'm a guest on the Journeys into Genealogy podcast with host Emma Cox, talking about my efforts to research the history of my own surname as the descendant of refugees, and also sharing some stuff about my current work in progress to uncover the life of David Whitaker, first story editor of Doctor Who.

Podcast website: https://journeysintogenealogy.co.uk 

Also available on:

• Apple
• Spotify  
• Stitcher 
• Tune In 
• Pocketcast 
• Deezer 
• Google podcasts 
• Amazon Music and Audible 

In Search of HV Morton, by Michael Bartholomew

This is a very good biography of a very successful writer and pretty awful human being. Michael Bartholomew brilliantly teases out the real man from the literary persona, effectively providing biographies of two people: the real Harry Morton and the invented HV.

Morton's most famous work is In Search of England (1927), in which he escaped London for excursions in a bull-nosed Morris. Bartholomew makes the point that the title suggests this England had become hidden or lost and so had to be sought through its countryside and history. He goes on that this struck a chord in a nation still reeling from war. He also points out that the final destination in the book, a village in which Morton finds this England, is almost certainly a fiction. As he says, there's a subtle but important difference between a myth and a lie... I'll return to this when I reread In Search of England.

Bartholomew is aided by a wealth of evidence which any researcher would envy (me included). HV Morton published more than 40 books, almost all of them non-fiction, often recounting his adventures with wry, self-deprecating insight. Many of the books were collections of reports for newspapers (and, later in life, features for glossy magazines), with telling differences between what was originally printed and what was then revised. That would be quite enough, but Bartholomew also had access to a 200-page unpublished autobiography written in Morton's last years and a collection of diaries and correspondence ranging right back to his earliest days. This means the biographer is able to compare a diary account of a formative experience with how Morton chose to remember it a half-century later, and then contrast this with the version put in print. There is even a dated list of Morton's sexual conquests, totalling some 100 different individuals, with "wh" marking those that he paid for, which Bartholomew matches against the other details in his timeline.

There are plenty of gaps in the record - missing diaries, absences in what Morton tells us - and Bartholomew is good at deducing connections, motives, feelings. He also tells us when it's his own speculation by adding "I think", as well as saying when nothing firm can be said. Literary biographies can all too often be an annotated list of published works, reductively pinning down real events that inspired the writer, as if writing is little more than copy and paste. Bartholomew achieves something very different - and better. Morton is more than simply a witness: we come to understand the creative act, even in non-fiction. There is careful research beforehand, skilled observation at the time, a period of reflection to put things in perspective, and then craft in the actual process writing - from moulding loose events into a story, to the striking turns of phrase, the well-chosen idiom or analogy, and the deftly worked light humour.

A good example of this use of different sources is what Bartholomew can tell us about a particular photograph, chosen for the back of the dust jacket:

The photograph is also included in the plate section of the book, with the following caption:

"The opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1923 -- Morton's first big break as a reporter. The photograph was taken by the Times photographer. Under armed escort, treasures are being removed from the tomb. The figure leading the way is the official archaeologist, Howard Carter. The figure on the extreme right, furtively shadowing the party and taking surreptitious photographs, is Morton. When the photograph was published in The Times, Morton, the interloper, was cropped from the image."

The next plate is the front page of the Daily Express for 17 February 1923, with Morton's coverage - "Pharaoh's Coffin Found" - the first headline. Bartholomew follows the thread of Morton's early passion for archaeology and friendship with antiquarian GF Lawrence, how this helped him get the Tutankhamun gig (the Express determined not to let the Times have a monopoly on the story), the effect this trip had on Morton and how it all tied in to the historical perspectives in his later books.

It's interesting to read that, while waiting to be sent out to fight in the war, Morton was stationed in Colchester and involved in some excavations of Roman finds there. This was also true of the archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler. There's no mention of Wheeler in this book, or of Morton in Jacquetta Hawkes' biography of Wheeler, and perhaps they never overlapped in life. Yet it strikes me that these womanising rogues had a lot in common, and Wheeler had a similar way of making direct connections to the ancient past. During excavation of Maiden Castle in the 1930s, Wheeler's brilliant deductions about the stages of a Roman siege were informed by his own battlefield experience in the war. Yet I wonder if the two men would have been at cross purposes: Wheeler using modern experience to unpick the truth of history, Morton looking to the past to provide a modern fiction... I'll keep an eye out for references to Wheeler in Morton's books.

Bartholomew has an eye for wry humour, such as when he details a break-in at the office young Morton was renting with a friend so that Morton could write a novel and the friend a play. 

"The project petered out, before Morton had completed chapter one, when a burglar broke in and made off with the kettle, tea and biscuits, but disdained to steal the manuscripts." (p. 82)

We also quickly get a sense of Morton's character, his presence in any room. While I envy Bartholomew his wealth of evidence, I wonder how much he enjoyed the time spent with his subject. Morton's insecurities and womanising are exhausting from the off but the racism creeps up on the reader. True, his travel writing is full of caricatures - there are often salt-of-the-earth yokels or idiot Americans for his narrator to converse with - but Bartholomew is good at showing how often Morton plays against easy stereotypes and presents a more complex view... at least in his published writing. In private, he's often shockingly racist, continually sympathising with the Nazis during the war and then emigrating to South Africa just as the apartheid regime came in.

Bartholomew confronts this head on and at some length: 

"For him to to have persisted with a rosy view of fascism, long after others had seen the light, indicates more than naivety." (p. 172)

He also points out the contradictions in Morton's prejudice: this man who made his name celebrating England actually despised much of its people and ways of doing things. Morton sympathised with and admired the Nazis and assumed they'd win the war, and yet was also a dedicated leader of a Home Guard unit, expecting to die with his men in token, doomed resistance to the inevitable invasion.

There are other ironies, such as - "improbably", as Bartholomew says - when the Labour Party published a pamphlet by Morton, What I Saw in the Slums (1933), with a foreword by party leader George Lansbury. Bartholomew makes the case that George Orwell surely read this ahead of his own, better known, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), and even argues that of the two, Morton is the more sensitive and egalitarian.

"Morton's own descriptions of women are just as powerful [as Orwell's], and are less patronising. He writes, for example, of women who strive to put a symbolic barrier between their home and the even more squalid street beyond, by whitening the doorstep: 'Thousands of horrid doorsteps, worn as thin as wafers in the centre, are whitened or raddled. Every time a door opens you see a woman cleaning something.' What I Saw in the Slums is an impressive little book." (p. 147)

Bartholomew is no less impressive. There's lots that's uncomfortable in Morton's life - or parallel lives - but the story is well told. Note to self: this is how it's done.

Doctor Who Magazine #569

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine includes two things by me.

First, the ingenious Gavin Rymill and Rhys Williams have reconstructed in CGI another studio floor plan from a missing episode of the series, this time the first part of The Macra Terror (1967). Rhys and I have written the accompanying words, trying to make sense of exactly how the story was realised with so little money, time and space.

Then, the latest instalment of Sufficient Data tackles the important subject of what, exactly, the Second Doctor keeps in his capacious pockets and when we first see each item. As always, the infographic is by Ben Morris but this time I shared the exhaustive research with Andrew Ledger, who undertook the extraordinary feat of rewatching every extant Troughton episode to be sure we hadn't missed anything.

Doctor Who Magazine #562

The thrilling new issue of the official Doctor Who Magazine features two things by me.

First, in "Moonbase 3" Rhys Williams and I have scrutinised recently discovered studio floor plans for 1967 story The Moonbase, focused on the ingenious way designer Colin Shaw maximised limited space. The CGI recreations of the studio set-up for episode 3 are by clever Gav Rymill. I also got some insight into the kind of person Colin Shaw was from his friend and colleague (and my old boss) John Ainsworth. Thanks to researcher Richard Bignell for alerting me to the discovery of the floor plans and helping my poor old brain make some kind of sense of them.

Secondly, "Sufficient Data" is a new regular column by me (and, from next issue, Steve O'Brien) illustrated by Ben Morris and exploring numbers and concepts in Doctor Who in what we hope will be a fun and surprising way. This issue we're all about the number 13. Steve, Ben and I previously worked together on the book Whographica, which is still available in bookshops.

Doctor Who Magazine 546

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine is out today, with plenty of exciting stuff about the forthcoming new series.

I've also researched the Cinderella pantomime that starred Peter Davison in Tunbridge Wells (1982-83) and Colin Baker in Southampton (1984-85), and the way it overlapped with the production of Doctor Who at the time - even down to dictating the locations used for filming. As well as lots of digging through archives, I spoke to both Jodie Brooke Wilson and Nicola Bryant, who each played the title role, and to Stephen Broome and Andy Ledger who were in the audience. I was also there, for the matinee performance on 5 January 1985, when I was the same age as my son is now.

There are exclusive new photographs - including one from the filming of Logopolis (1981) that is quite my favourite thing. Thanks to Stephen Cranford for providing some of the other archive material (from the collection he inherited from writer/director John Nathan-Turner) and to Daniel Blythe for a fact check. I'm also grateful to Ben Isted at the Assembly Hall Theatre in Tunbridge Wells and Holly Scott at the Mayflower Theatre (formerly the Gaumont) in Southampton.

Pick of the Week in Radio Times

Excitingly, listings magazine Radio Times has chosen our documentary, Victorian Queens of Ancient Egypt (this Sunday, 6.45pm, Radio 3), as its pick of the week.

Bolton Council also has a piece on the documentary: "BBC to highlight Bolton's museum benefactor."

ETA: Samira's also written "The women who love mummies" for the BBC News site.

And, on her website, "How we made Victorian Queens of Ancient Egypt".

Victorian Queens of Ancient Egypt

Marianne Brocklehurst's diary

Victorian Queens of Ancient Egypt, my fourth documentary for Radio 3's Sunday Feature will be broadcast on 3 February. This morning, presenter Samira Ahmed is in the Guardian about it:

• Guardian: "The lure of ancient Egypt is a way to revitalise faded industrial towns"

There are details for the programme on the BBC website:

Samira Ahmed explores the profound connection between ancient Egypt and the Victorian heyday of Britain’s industrial north – in a legacy of museums and northern pride.

Being taken to see the mummies has become a rite of passage, captivating generations of children since the late 19th century. Ancient Egypt is now embedded in early years education. At more than a hundred museums across the UK, that culture helps shape the British imagination. Where did that affinity come from?

To find out, Samira follows in the footsteps of three extraordinary women: Amelia Oldroyd, Annie Barlow and Marianne Brocklehurst. Each came from a northern, mill-owning family, and each felt compelled not only to visit Egypt and to collect antiquities, but to share their treasures with those at home. Each established local museums that survive today, inspiring new generations.

Today, such museums face an uncertain future. By returning to these women’s stories, can lessons be learned from the past?

Contributors:
Katina Bill, Kirklees Museums and Galleries
Matthew Watson and Rizwana Khalique, Bolton Library and Museum Services
Danielle Wootton
Emma Anderson and Kathryn Warburton, Macclesfield Museums
Rebecca Holt, MPhil student at Oxford University
Heba abd al-Gawad, Egyptian Egyptologist
Alice Stevenson, Institute of Archaeology, UCL
Dr Chris Naunton

Producers: Simon and Thomas Guerrier
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4

Journey up the Nile, the Egyptian Diary of Marianne Brocklehurst

Last week, I visited the West Park Museum in Macclesfield as research for my forthcoming Radio 3 documentary, “Victorian Queens of Ancient Egypt”, to be broadcast early next year.

The museum was the idea of Marianne Brocklehurst (1832-98), the well-off daughter of silk manufacturer, banker and Liberal MP John Brocklehurst (1788-1870), and I’m investigating Marianne’s own politics and why she, and the industrial north more generally, might have felt an affinity for the Pharaohs.

Marianne apparently made five trips to Egypt, and the museum has many of the artefacts she acquired along with her drawings and paintings. In 2017, the museum published “Journey Up the Nile”, a transcript of Marianne’s diary from her first trip. It’s a nice, hardback edition on glossy paper, including many illustrations and photographs, and an introduction by honorary curator Alan Hayward that helps set the scene. (The only thing lacking is a map, so I referred to the one in Alan’s 2013 pamphlet, “The Story of the Collection – How West Park Museum Got Its Ancient Egyptian Objects.”)

The diary begins on 11 November 1873, as Marianne sets off from Macclesfield with her travelling companion Mary Booth (1830-1912), Marianne’s young nephew Alfred and manservant George Lewis. The entries are mostly short, single paragraphs, the detail in the accompanying sketches. But there’s a sense of fun and adventure, Marianne seeming to relish the small hardships.

They pass through France and Italy, losing some of Alfred’s luggage along the way, recovering it, then losing track of time – presumably because of so much travelling by night - to arrive at Brindisi a day early for their boat across the Mediterranean. There are comic sketches of people falling over themselves during the very rough crossing, which leads to their boat ending up a hundred miles off course.

Although they reach Alexandria on 28 November, it’s another day before they’re cleared to land – 18 days after setting off from home. Stuck on board for that last evening, Marianne and Mary – the MBs, as they were known – meet other tourists, including novelist Amelia Edwards (1831-92), who will follow much of their course down and up the Nile on another, grander boat.

Edwards would later establish the Egyptian Exploration Fund (now Society) and provide a legacy for the first professorship of Egyptian Archaeology – awarded to Flinders Petrie – so she’s a significant figure in the discipline. This is from before all that, but she’s hardly a young girl. She’s a well-established professional writer, and in her early 40s – as are the two MBs.

In 2016, Historic England Grade II listed the grave Edwards shares with her long-term companion Ellen Drew Brayshaw, noting its importance in LGBT history. The MBs were also long-term companions who would be buried together. What can we read into that?

“We should not take a modern attitude to two women living together,” says Alan Hayward in his 2013 pamphlet, “for in those days, when a woman’s role was to raise a family and run the home, it was the only way for independently minded wealthy women to ‘do their own thing’.”

I scoured the diary looking for anything that might hint at something more. At no point does she tell us what their relationship is – but then she also doesn’t spell out her relationship to Alfred (her nephew) or George (her servant). The assumption is that her readers will know, because this diary was likely passed between friends and not intended for publication.

She is candid about certain things, describing at some length and with much excitement how she and Mary smuggled a mummy case out of the country, bribing officials along the way, and noting the very serious punishments those involved risked by helping her. Yet she is coy about exactly how much she paid – something less than a £100 but a “good round number in sovereigns” (p. 91).

So we’re left to interpret what is left unsaid. Can we read anything into the moment that Mary “smokes a pipe over the oil can” (p. 36) with the sailors, which seems rather unladylike, or the delight the MBs take in “paying our baksheesh like a man” (p. 69)?

Other details are more sure. The four-month trek down and up the Nile is a well-established journey, the river busy with other tourists, some of them friendly and respectable, others – such as Cooks’ excursionists and some American Christians – behaving badly, carving their names in the monuments and leaving their rubbish behind them. Some things have not changed in a century and a half - just like the MBs, the Dr and I struggled to find the carving of Cleopatra on the wall of the temple at Dandara.

In other ways it's another world. There's the pith helmets and formal wear of the tourists in the pictures. There’s the risk of crocodiles, and thieves, and Marianne’s compassionate response when a trusted sailor turns out to have stolen from them.

“Let us not be hard on his memory considering that, like the rest of the sailors, his pay was only thirty shillings a month for three or four months at the most and then nothing to do or to get until the next season began.” (pp. 86-7)

There is a great deal more, but I won’t share all my notes here as they’re for the documentary...