Darling of the Daleks behind Doctor Who
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- Publication: Daily Express
- Date: 2013-11-10
- Author: Clare Heal
- Page: 50
- Language: English
With the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who fast approaching Clare Heal pays tribute to Verity Lambert, the programme's first producer, whose career is highlighted in a BBC drama this month
OF ALL the bad guys featured in Doctor Who, the Daleks are the most iconic. Even dedicated non-Whovians can identify these evil tin-can tanks, tell you that they couldn't climb up stairs and rattle out a passable "Ex-ter-min-ate!".
Yet, had it not been for Verity Lambert, Doctor Who's first producer, they would have been written out of TV history.
Lambert was brought to the BBC in 1963 by head of drama Sydney Newman. She was just 27, becoming not only the Corporation's youngest producer but its only female one.
Newman died in 1997 but had previously told Doctor Who Magazine: "I think the best thing I ever did on that was to find Verity Lambert. I remembered Verity as bright and, to use the phrase, full of **** and vinegar! She was gutsy and she used to fight and argue with me."
The argument over the Daleks, which were created by writer Terry Nation, erupted because Newman considered them to fit under the heading of "bug-eyed monsters" which he had specifically banned, thinking them inappropriate for a show that was designed to educate children via stories about time travel.
Lambert stuck to her guns and her determination proved justified when the Daleks became an immediate hit.
Call The Midwife Star Jessica Raine, who plays Lambert in An Adventure In Time And Space, a forthcoming drama about the genesis of Doctor Who, says: "As the first female drama producer at the BBC she had to be very determined. She had a real fire in her belly about projects she believed in."
There is another element of the show that would be unthinkably different to Who-fans, were it not for Lambert.
Crime writer Lynda La Plante, whose breakthrough TV show Widows was produced by Lambert, reveals: "It's not really known how much Verity Lambert fought for the most extraordinary piece of music which accompanied Doctor Who. Nobody wanted it but Verity. Everyone thought that it was a ridiculous piece of music and she fought for it tooth and nail.
"That's what she was like. When she wanted something, she got it."
Lambert was inspired by Les Structures Sonores, two French brothers, François and Bernard Baschet, who made soundscapes using acoustic instruments to create a very electronic-sounding effect.
They weren't available on Doctor Who's budget so she commissioned composer Ron Grainer whose score was realised by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop.
Lambert left Doctor Who in 1965 feeling it needed "new input", moving on to produce adventure series Adam Adamant Lives! and then to LWT followed by roles at Thames Television and its film subsidiary Euston Films, Thorn EMI and her own production company, Cinema Verity.
The programmes and films she brought to the screen include many British classics: The Naked Civil Servant, Rumpole Of The Bailey, Quatermass, John Cleese's film Clockwise, sitcom May To December, Alan Bleasdale's hard-hitting drama GBH and Jonathan Creek.
Her one misfire appears to have been universally panned BBC ex-pat soap opera Eldorado, but it is an otherwise impeccable record. "Oh, she had an eye for talent," says Lynda La Plante. "She got the best out of people because she encouraged them. She didn't tell you what do to. She made you choose."
La Plante first worked with Lambert on Widows, her drama about four women attempting to pull off a raid following the deaths of their armed robber husbands. Having previously auditioned for the producer, she submitted the treatment under her husband's name of La Plante rather than her acting name, Marschal.
SHE RECALLS meeting Lambert at Euston Films and being shown into her office: "She went, 'Oh God, don't tell me you're Lynda La Plante! We all thought the name sounded like a transvestite trucker...' "She looked at me and said, 'OK. I'm willing to give you a tryout. I'll commission it and you'll write episode one but if it isn't good enough you'll agree to my bringing on another writer.'.
"If she had asked me to rollerskate around the block I'd have said yes."
Fortunately it was more than good enough. The six-part series went on to become a massive hit and La Plante and Lambert worked together on other projects including She's Out and Comics.
"She taught me everything I work towards today," says La Plante. "She was that good. I've never met anyone to touch her. She knew the audience, she knew talent, she knew business, she knew budgets. We would fight but she knew what she wanted and if you could prove that what you wanted was better she would say, 'OK, you win'. That's why I respect-ed her so much."
Although ferocious when at work and certainly not a glad sufferer of fools, Lambert was apparently "a hoot" in her downtime. "If you were invited to dinner her producer's hat would disappear and she would be a very witty, very funny hostess."
An Adventure In Time And Space concentrates on Verity's professional side but, Raine says, this more relaxed side of Lambert is captured too: "We do get to see a little sliver of the fun side of Verity. Apparently she used to hold these art parties and invite the artist and all of her mates around and have a sort of exhibition, a bit of music and a bit of dancing."
It has been noted that, companions in the Tardis aside, Doctor Who has become a very female-free zone. The lack of female writers is often bemoaned, a fact that seems perhaps even sadder when one considers Verity Lambert's pivotal role in its creation.
She died on November 22, 2007, five days before her 72nd birthday and on the eve of the 44th anniversary of Doctor Who's first broadcast, having been appointed OBE for services to film and television production in the 2002 New Year's Honours and given Bafta's Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television.
"I never felt that the BBC knew what they had in Verity," says La Plante. "She was a genius."
Five decades on from the first Dr Who programme, no time travel is necessary to ensure Verity Lambert's place in tele-vision history.
An Adventure In Time And Space, BBC2, November 21 at 9pm
'She had real fire in her belly about projects she believed in' JESSICA RAINE, above
GENIUS: Verity Lambert fought to keep Daleks in Doctor Who and gave Lynda La Plante her writing break with Widows
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