Verity Lambert 1935-2007
It is with great sadness that I write that Verity Lambert, the first ever producer on Doctor Who died last night on the eve of the show’s 44th anniversary. 44 years ago today she oversaw the production of hit sci-fi programme’s first serial which introduced the TARDIS travelling Time Lord and his companions.
She stayed with the show for two seasons before moving on. She was no and then linked with the show for the remainder of her life. Often asked about it in interviews, she spoke of the series fondly. Lambert also attempted to gain the rights to revive the series herself but lost out because the BBC was already talking to Philip Segal (who later produced the 1996 TV movie).
In the 2007 Doctor Who episode “Human Nature” the Doctor, (as John Smith) said that his parents’ names were Verity and Sydney; this was a tribute to Lambert and the series’ initiator Sydney Newman.
Lambert never married and had no children. She once told an interviewer, “I can’t stand babies — no, I love babies as long as their parents take them away.” In 2000 two of her productions, Doctor Who and The Naked Civil Servant, finished third and fourth respectively in a British Film Institute poll of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century. In the 2002 New Year’s Honours list Lambert was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to film and television production, and the same year she received BAFTA’s Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television.
Verity Lambert would have been 72 on November 27th 2007.
Related Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verity_Lambert
List of Doctor Who productions
Outpost Gallifrey
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