View source for BBC promises Dr. Who fans 'he will return'

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| publication = Irish Independent
| file = 1985-03-02 Irish Independent.jpg
| px = 350
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| date = 1985-03-02
| author = 
| pages = 22
| language = English 
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| categories = hiatus
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| text = BBC managing director Bill Cotton promised millions of Dr. Who fans yesterday that their television time traveller will be back on screen next year. In an unprecedented move, Mr. Cotton telephoned David Saunders, coordinator of the Dr. Who Appreciation Society, and told him the programme will be back in Autumn 1986.

The assurance follows the BBC's decision to spend £500,000 sterling on a new American mini-series after saying it could not currently afford the £200,00-a-programme cost of Dr. Who.

The mini-series, Kane and Abel which the BBC has not seen - is being made by Embassy Films, the American company once headed by Michael Grade, now controller of BBC 1.

Mr. Grade, who ordered the next series of Dr. Who to be delayed for 18 months to save money for other drama projects, commissioned the Kane and Abel series before leaving the company in 1993. He has a credit as executive producer but has no financial involvement in the series which is based on Jeffrey Archer's bestselling novel. Mr. Cotton told Saunders yesterday: "Dr. Who will be on the air in 1936 as it is in 1985 and as it has been for each of the past 22 years.

"Instead of running in January next year we shall wait until the start of the Autumn schedule and then Dr. Who will be a strong item in the lineup of programmes," he promised.

Fans had feared the Doctor might not return to the screen.

Mr. Cotton said: "We are going back to the old tradition and have 25 minute programmes rather than the 45, minute version, runnning at the moment. We think that is what the public wants, and so does. the producer and his team." The BBC said yesterday that the current series of Dr. Who was costing about £2 million around £200,000 an episode, and not as eariler understood. £100,000 a programme.

Mr. Cotton said that the 45 minute episodes had been a good experiment, but Dr. Who needed to get back to basics and to established ways. It also meant that with 25 minute episodes the series could run longer.

He told fans: "We appreciate the passionate support of the fan club in this country and of fans around the world. We ask them to be a little patient while we get the Doctor back on to the familiar rails. I am confident that Dr. Who has a great future BBC 1."

But Ian Levine, spokesman for the Dr. Who Fan Club, said: "We are not interested in the BBC's plans of waiting another 18 months for another new series of the programme. We want the show to come back into production in June so it can be screened at the end of the year."

Kane and Abel stars Peter Strauss, Sam Neill and Veronica Hamill. The BBC bought the series at the Monte Carlo Telvision Festival two weeks ago in a deal which surprised rivals ITV.

The BBC said later there was no "direct relationship" between the decision to postpone next year's series of Dr. Who and the purchase of Kane and Abel.

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