Barry Letts | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Barry Leopold Letts (1925-03-26)26 March 1925 Leicester,Leicestershire, England |
| Died | 9 October 2009(2009-10-09) (aged 84) |
| Occupations | Actor, director, producer, writer |
| Years active | 1946–2009 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
Barry Leopold Letts (26 March 1925 – 9 October 2009)[1] was an English actor, television director, writer and producer, best known for being the producer ofDoctor Who from 1969 to 1974.[2]
Born inLeicester, he worked as an actor in theatre, films and television before retiring in his early forties and becoming a television director. He then became the producer of theBBC science fiction seriesDoctor Who for five years, overseeing almost the entirety ofJon Pertwee's tenure as theThird Doctor and castingTom Baker as theFourth Doctor. He produced or directed many of the BBC's Sunday Classic drama serials from 1976 to 1986, and returned toDoctor Who in 1980 to be theexecutive producer for itseighteenth season.
The Guardian described Letts on his death as "a pioneer of British television" who "served the medium for more than half a century" and "secured his place in TV history" withDoctor Who.[1] He was associated with the series for many years, with active involvement in the television programme from 1967 to 1981 (as a director, producer, executive producer and writer) and with later contributions to itsspin-offs in other media.
Letts was an assistant stage manager at Leicester's Theatre Royal in his teens and took up the job full-time after leavingWyggeston Grammar School for Boys. His initial work was as a repertory actor, following his service as a Sub-Lieutenant in theRoyal Navy during the Second World War.[1] He later played one of the leading characters in theTerence Fisher directed film,To the Public Danger, a heartfelt plea against dangerous driving. He also appeared in the highly regardedEaling Studios productions,Scott of the Antarctic andThe Cruel Sea, in supporting roles.
From 1950 he appeared in various live television productions includingGunpowder Guy (broadcast on 5 November 1950) in which futureDoctor Who actorPatrick Troughton playedGuy Fawkes and Letts a fellow conspirator.[1] He also appeared as Colonel Herncastle in the1959 television adaptation ofWilkie Collins's novelThe Moonstone, and played roles inThe Last Man Out andThe Avengers.[3]
Much of his television work was for theBBC. Letts gave up his acting career after completing the BBC's director's course. His early directorial work included episodes of the long-running police dramaZ-Cars and a soap opera,The Newcomers.
Letts' first involvement withDoctor Who was in 1967 when he directed thePatrick Troughton serialThe Enemy of the World.[4] This was a complex serial to direct as Troughton played boththe Doctor and the dictator "Salamander" in the same story and sometimes in the same scenes – a rare and demanding directorial requirement for the 1960s. However, in his memoirWho and Me, Letts related how he naively usedmatte boxes to allow Troughton to act face to face with himself, when in factoptical printing was already available and the same could have been accomplished in post-production.
He became the series' producer in October 1969, replacingDerrick Sherwin, withJon Pertwee recently cast as the Doctor. Letts' first story as producer was Pertwee's second,Doctor Who and the Silurians,[5] and he remained the producer for the rest of the Pertwee serials, becoming the father figure in the 'family' atmosphere that had developed on the show at that time. It was an era of substantial change forDoctor Who, with episodes broadcast in colour for the first time and an improved budget which enabled more location filming and action sequences than had previously been possible. Letts also embraced the technological innovations which came with moving the series into colour, most notably his enthusiasm forColour Separation Overlay.[6] He also oversaw the celebration of the programme's tenth anniversary in 1973, uniting the first three Doctors in the first multiple Doctor story,The Three Doctors.
When he took over, a recent BBC decision had cut the season length from over 40 episodes a year to 26.[7] Notable changes Letts made, as related in his autobiographyWho and Me, included producing the show in two-episode blocks, rather than as separate episodes: rehearsing two episodes for a fortnight, and then recording those two episodes back-to-back, thereby reducing the demands on the studio scenic crews, who only had to erect and strike the sets once a fortnight instead of once a week. This was a profoundly significant change: it allowed much more rehearsal time, in a much less frantic atmosphere; it ended a long running dispute with the unions representing the technical crews; it reduced wear-and-tear on the sets (and the budget allocations for repairing the damage); and it meant that, forever after, serials could only be made in multiples of 2 episodes—a primary reason for the 4-episode and 6-episode format dominating the schedules for the following fifteen years. He also retired the originalhowl-around title sequence used, with variations, from 1963 until 1973, introducing as its replacement the classictime tunnel special effects sequence which would run, until 1980, behind the opening and closing credits for every episode produced in seasons 11 to 17.
When he was offered the chance to become producer on the series, Letts made it a condition that he be allowed to also continue to direct. The Head of Serials agreed to this, and Letts directed threeDoctor Who serials during his time as producer:Terror of the Autons,Carnival of Monsters andPlanet of the Spiders. Letts also directed most of the studio scenes forInferno afterDouglas Camfield was taken ill during the production. Letts's final work as a director on the series was when he returned in 1975 to directThe Android Invasion during the era ofPhilip Hinchcliffe as producer.
Letts formed a particularly close partnership with two other contributors to the programme:Terrance Dicks, who was the script editor on the programme between 1968 and 1974; and playwrightRobert Sloman, with whom Letts co-wrote four serials in the Pertwee era:The Dæmons (credited under the pen-name Guy Leopold);The Time Monster;The Green Death; andPlanet of the Spiders, which was Pertwee's swansong. Letts later provided an official obituary for Sloman in December 2005, published inThe Guardian.[8] Letts was aBuddhist and also heldliberal political views. According toToby Hadoke, who contributed to hisGuardian obituary, "Letts's liberal worldview led him to commission stories with contemporary resonance – eco-parables, critiques oncolonialism andapartheid, even entry into theCommon Market (the Galactic Federation inDoctor Who parlance) were all presented within a format of child-friendly derring-do."[1]
One of Letts' final tasks as producer was to castTom Baker as theFourth Doctor. Baker was recommended to him by Bill Slater, an experienced former director who was then serving as the Head of Serials at the BBC. After one story with Baker,Robot, Letts left the position of producer in 1974, having been the longest serving producer on the programme until that time.
In 1980, he returned toDoctor Who to be executive producer duringJohn Nathan-Turner's first season as producer, betweenThe Leisure Hive and Tom Baker's final story,Logopolis. Letts' return to the programme was because Nathan-Turner had not previously been either a director or producer, and a restructuring of theBBC Drama Department meant that Head of Series and SerialsGraeme MacDonald was unable to offer the support previous producers had received. As it happened, 'JNT' (as he was known) stayed for nine years, overtaking Letts as the longest serving producer onDoctor Who. When the programme returned in 2005, Letts was involved in the hectic round of interviews to promote the show, appearing for a lengthy discussion piece onThe Daily Politics withAndrew Neil onBBC2.
Letts also wrote the scripts for two radio plays based on the show, starring Jon Pertwee with Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane, broadcast in the 1990s:The Paradise of Death andThe Ghosts of N-Space. He wrote thenovelisations of the TV storyThe Dæmons (Target Books, 1974) and of both of his radio plays[3]The Paradise of Death (Target, 1994) andThe Ghosts of N-Space (Virgin Books, 1995, published as part of theVirgin Missing Adventures line). He also wrote two originalDoctor Who novels published byBBC Books:Deadly Reunion (co-written withTerrance Dicks, 2003)[9] andIsland of Death (2005). He, like Terrance Dicks, also wrote radio dramas for theBig Finish company's series of productions starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, released on CD. In 2008, he performed an unabridged audiobook reading of his novelisation ofThe Dæmons.
In June 2008 he recorded a long in-vision interview covering his entire career, and hisDoctor Who years in particular, excerpts of which continued to be widely used on future DVD releases, most notably on an obituary documentary "Remembering Barry Letts" which was included on the BBC DVD release ofThe Dæmons. He continued to record commentaries and interviews for DVD releases of hisDoctor Who episodes until shortly before his death in 2009.
His involvement withDoctor Who was far wider than simply his professional work of writing, directing and producing the show. He frequently gave interviews, attended conventions, and made personal appearances in connection with the show and his work on it and indeed other aspects of his career. He enjoyed a lifelong friendship with Terrance Dicks, established in 1969, and they frequently attended events as a team.
Letts' work on the show is inextricably linked with the character of theThird Doctor, as played byJon Pertwee. With the exceptions ofThe Enemy of the World,Robot,The Android Invasion and his one season as executive producer in 1980–81, everyDoctor Who story regardless of media in which Letts has been involved – whether as producer, director or writer – involved this version of the character.
His other work included producing and co-creating the tv seriesMoonbase 3 withTerrance Dicks in 1973.[10]
After leavingDoctor Who he remained with the BBC, doing a mixture of directing and producing. He directed for numerous series and serials (including onDoctor Who in 1975), before settling into the role of producer of the BBC's Sunday classic serials (where he appointed his friend and formerDoctor Who collaborator, Terrance Dicks, as his script editor). He oversaw more than 25 serials in this capacity, over an 8-year period,[10] includingNicholas Nickleby,Great Expectations,A Tale of Two Cities,Dombey and Son,The Hound of the Baskervilles (starringTom Baker),The Invisible Man,Pinocchio,Gulliver in Lilliput,Alice in Wonderland,Lorna Doone,Little Lord Fauntleroy,The Children of the New Forest,Beau Geste andSense and Sensibility. Many actors with whom he had worked onDoctor Who were to feature in these classic serials, including Tom Baker,[11] Elisabeth Sladen,[12] Caroline John,[11] and Paul Darrow.[13]
His final directing work was on the BBC soap operaEastEnders which he worked on periodically from 1990 to 1992. He also taught directing for the BBC atElstree Studios.[14]
He had a small cameo role in the filmExodus, broadcast on UK Channel 4.
His autobiography,Who and Me, was published posthumously in November 2009,[15] then released as a talking book on CD, read by Letts himself, and later broadcast onBBC Radio 7.
Letts suffered from cancer for many years before his death.[1] His wife, Muriel, had died earlier in the year. Letts was survived by his three children: Dominic, Crispin and Joanna.[10] His sons, Dominic and Crispin, had followed him into the acting profession.[3]
Following Letts' death,Tom Baker was interviewed forBBC Radio 4'sLast Word to pay tribute. He described Letts as "the big link in changing my entire life".Doctor Who executive producerRussell T Davies also wrote a personal tribute to him in issue No.415 ofDoctor Who Magazine.
The November 2009Doctor Who episode "The Waters of Mars" was dedicated to his memory. Issue No.417 ofDoctor Who Magazine included a 12-page tribute to Letts and featured contributions from former colleagues includingFrazer Hines,Mary Peach,Terrance Dicks,Nicholas Courtney,Graeme Harper,Katy Manning,Christopher Barry,Elisabeth Sladen and Baker.
It had been intended for Letts to attend theDoctor Who Appreciation Society's convention 'Time and Again' atRiverside Studios in Hammersmith that year, until it became clear his health would not allow this. He died shortly before the convention and as a small tribute the end credits of the recently recolouredPlanet of the Daleks Part Three, shown at the event, were changed to end with an 'In Memory of Barry Letts 1925–2009' caption.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | San Demetrio London | Apprentice John Jones | |
| 1947 | Frieda | Jim Merrick | |
| 1948 | To the Public Danger | Fred Lane | Short |
| 1948 | Scott of the Antarctic | Apsley Cherry-Garrard | |
| 1949 | A Boy, a Girl and a Bike | Syd | |
| 1953 | The Cruel Sea | Raikes | |
| 1956 | Reach for the Sky | Tommy | Uncredited |
| 2007 | Exodus | Professor Marcus | (final film role) |
| Preceded by | Doctor Who Producer 1970–75 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| Other | |
