Doctor Who and Churchill in Ö÷²¥´óÐã Archive collection
Post categories: Archive,ÌýDoctor Who,ÌýWinston Churchill
| 10:19 UK time, Thursday, 15 April 2010
Hello, I'm the new editor of the About The Ö÷²¥´óÐã blog. My first job was to speak to Ö÷²¥´óÐã Archive producer, Kate Wheeler about two exciting new collections featuring Doctor Who and Winston Churchill.
The viewing public seem to have awarded new Doctor Who Matt Smith an overwhelmingly enthusiastic thumbs-up. It's great news for him, the team at Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales and the Ö÷²¥´óÐã, especially as these tricky transitional times haven't always been so warmly received. As a document from the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Archive's latest collection shows, even the most popular Doctor Who actors had a rough ride when they made their first appearance, such as Tom Baker, ever recognisable with his long, multi-coloured scarf and staring alien eyes, who initially struggled to win over fans of his predecessor Jon Pertwee. The naysayers were soon won over though and Baker went on to star in the series for seven years.
Back in February, the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Director of Archive Content, Roly Keating, promised that the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Archive would be providing an online retrospective of Doctor Who to tie in with this latest series.The Ö÷²¥´óÐã Archive Collections team revealed all this week with a collection that contains three galleries of images, each telling a different story of Doctor Who's history, plus nearly 60 years of correspondence, internal memos and Radio Times clippings. My particular favourite is a memo proposing how a potential replacement for original Doctor Who William Hartnell might come about, in which the process that would come to be known as regeneration is described in detail.
"The metaphysical change which takes place over 500 or so years is a horrifying experience...It is as if he has had the L.S.D drug and instead of experiencing the kicks, he has the hell and dank horror which can be its effect."
You can read the full memo here.
Just like the Tardis there is much more to discover than is immediately apparent so I urge all die-hard Doctor Who fans to go and explore the collection.
Also, be sure to check out Andy Dudfield's post about the relaunch of the Doctor Who website.
If you saw the last episode, you'll know that the Doctor will soon be meeting the legendary statesman Sir Winston Churchill.
The Ö÷²¥´óÐã Archive has unveiled a fantastic 'Remembering Churchill' collection including the full morning's broadcast of his funeral, narrated by Richard Dimbleby, where 1960s London paused to witness the procession and dockers bowed their cranes in acknowledgement as one of the first non-royals received a State funeral.
Sir Winston's complex nature is revealed beautifully through interviews with the people who knew him. Colleagues such as Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan pay tribute to him, while we also hear from his former bodyguard, his private secretaries and the cook who served at 10 Downing Street for both of Churchill's terms in office. A real gem in the collection is an interview with Lord Alanbrooke, who was one of Churchill's closest advisers during World War II. Promoting the publication of his diaries, Alanbrooke discusses Churchill's strategies and reveals that at one time or other, he tried to have every one of his senior advisers sacked.
The Churchill collection is vast, offering so much to discover about the legendary statesman who was voted greatest of all Britons by Ö÷²¥´óÐã viewers in 2002.
Comment number 1.
At 16th Apr 2010, Sarah T wrote:What a great first blog by Laura Murray! I found this really interesting and informative. I'm a massive fan of the modern Doctor Who series and it was great to learn about the earlier episodes, which I have never seen. It has actually made me want to watch them and the handy links make that so easy!
I'm really looking forward to Laura's next one.
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Comment number 2.
At 17th Apr 2010, Mike, Wivenhoe wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 3.
At 21st Apr 2010, Denis Law wrote:Come on researchers and costume providers - Consider the last episode of Dr Who fighting the Daleks during WWII.
Since when did the Royal Air Force have Lance Corporal (1 stripe) NCO Ranks, as shown on a young lady's uniform in a couple of the 'Ops Room' scenes - that rank didn't exist in the RAF (or the Royal Navy, except for the Royal Marines and of course in the Army). The lowest NCO rank in the Air Force is a Corporal (2 stripes).
Quite coincidently, the LCpl rank is being introduced (for the 1st time ever) exclusively to the RAF Regiment (the RAF's ground fighting force) later this year.
Equally, why were all the Officers in the Operations Room dressed as 'Pilots' i.e. with 'wings' on the chests. Again, the Ops room would NOT have been manned by operational pilots or aircrew, but by humble ground operations staff, NOT by aviators.
Please pay some fundamental, basic attention to detail guys.
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