VETERAN TV producer Verity Lambert has died aged 71 after a long illness, the BBC said.
Lambert was the first producer of Doctor Who in 1963.
Her other credits include Minder, Quatermass, Adam Adamant Lives!, The Naked Civil Servant, Alan Bleasdale's GBH, Jonathan Creek and Eldorado.
Recently, she completed the second series of BBC1 comedy Love Soup. Only days ago it was announced that Lambert was to receive the lifetime achievement award at next month's Women In Film And Television Awards.
She received an OBE in 2002 for services to film and TV.
Jane Tranter, controller of BBC Fiction, said: "She made the television drama genre. utterly her own. She was deaf to the notion of compromise and there wasn't an actor, writer, director or television executive she worked with who' didn't regard her with admiration, respect and awe.'
Lambert started out as a secretary for Granada and joined the BBC drama department in 1963. Her first job was producing a new family drama, Doctor Who, a job she held for 18 months.
Russell T Davies, writer of the current Doctor Who series, said: "There are a hundred people in Cardiff working on Doctor Who and millions of viewers, in particular many children who love the programme that Verity helped create.
"This is her legacy and we will never forget that."
Today is 'the 44th anniversary of her first Doctor Who' episode.
Caption: Verity Lambert: produced Dr Who
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