Quotes

I always said Bill Hartnell (William Hartnell) played him (Doctor Who (1963)) as a grumpy old man because he was a grumpy old man.

I always used to say about Mary Whitehouse, if there's one thing she hated more than sex, it was Doctor Who (1963).

I'm no great believer in rewrites anyway. During my time there was a programme called "The Ambassadors of Death", which David Whitaker - a very good writer - had done four or five rewrites and the show wasn't getting better, it was getting worse. You know the kind of Hollywood type thing where you have several writers and seventeen drafts and it's all crap. I've always felt that in an efficient operation, you do two drafts. You write your first draft and the script editor and the producer and maybe the director comment on it and you go and write your second draft and that should do as a writer.

It turned out I had a ghastly talent for doing soap operas! Soap opera is fun, it's innocuous entertainment, but it's fat really. What's astonishing and I guess a part of worldwide 'dumbing down' is the way it's taken over the television schedule in Britain. Five of the top shows are now soap operas. Crossroads (1964) was unique because it was the first soap opera. It was never very good. It was very cheap but people loved soap opera. And the company that produced it hated it and wanted to get rid of it but it kept coming to the top of the ratings every week. In those days, the BBC would never have done a soap opera, it was like pornography, and now they live on EastEnders (1985). I have a saying that 'all drama tends inexorably to soap opera'. There are disguised soap operas all over television.

Never let the actors get above themselves. The idea of a Pertwee (Jon Pertwee) or a Tom Baker directing a Doctor Who (1963) would strike terror in us. You must never let the inmates run the asylum.

[on Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy] The magic wasn't quite there.

[on the final years of Doctor Who (1963)] There was a decline without a doubt. I think the people working on it, particularly John Nathan-Turner, were not fit for purpose, as it were. Colin Baker, for example, never got a chance with that silly costume, which I thought was a great shame. I was sorry but I wasn't surprised when they took it off.

I always used to say, Barry (Barry Letts) took over as producer, I took over as script editor, Jon Pertwee became the Doctor and the show went into colour. Modesty forbids me to say which is the most important. In fact, all these things came together.