Verity Lambert
Verity Lambert OBE | |
---|---|
Born | Verity Ann Lambert 27 November 1935 London, England |
Died | 22 November 2007 London, England | (aged 71)
Education | Roedean School |
Alma mater | University of Paris |
Occupation(s) | Television and film producer |
Known for | First producer of Doctor Who |
Spouse |
Verity Ann Lambert
Lambert began working in television in the 1950s. She began her career as a producer at the BBC by becoming the founding producer of the
Women were rarely television producers in Britain at the beginning of Lambert's career. When she was appointed to Doctor Who in 1963, she was BBC Television's only female drama producer, as well as the youngest.[1] The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications hails her as "not only one of Britain's leading businesswomen, but possibly the most powerful member of the nation's entertainment industry ... Lambert has served as a symbol of the advances won by women in the media".[2] The British Film Institute's Screenonline website describes Lambert as "one of those producers who can often create a fascinating small screen universe from a slim script and half-a-dozen congenial players."[3]
Early career in independent television
Lambert was born in
Following her dismissal from Granada, Lambert took a job as a shorthand-typist at ABC Weekend TV.[6] She soon became the secretary to the company's Head of Drama and then a production secretary working on a programme called State Your Case.[6] She then moved from administration to production, working on drama programming on ABC's popular anthology series Armchair Theatre and also early episodes of The Avengers,[8] both of which were then overseen by the new Head of Drama, Canadian producer Sydney Newman.
Catastrophic incidents could occur on
In 1961, Lambert left ABC, spending a year working as the personal assistant to American television producer David Susskind at the independent production company Talent Associates in New York.[6] Returning to England, she rejoined ABC with an ambition to direct, but remained a production assistant and found it impossible to gain promotion. She decided that, if she could not find advancement within a year, she would abandon television as a career.[6]
BBC career
Doctor Who
In December 1962, Sydney Newman left ABC to take up the position of Head of Drama at BBC Television, and the following year Lambert joined him at the corporation. Newman had recruited her to produce Doctor Who, a programme he had personally conceived and initiated as an educational science-fiction serial for early Saturday evenings. The programme concerned the adventures of an old man travelling through space and time in his TARDIS, disguised as a police box. In some quarters, the series was not expected to last longer than thirteen weeks.[10]
Although Lambert was not Newman's first choice to produce the series—Don Taylor[11] and Shaun Sutton[12] had both declined the position—he was very keen to ensure that Lambert took the job after his experience of working with her at ABC. "I think the best thing I ever did on that was to find Verity Lambert," he told Doctor Who Magazine in 1993. "I remembered Verity as being bright and, to use the phrase, full of piss and vinegar! She was gutsy and she used to fight and argue with me, even though she was not at a very high level as a production assistant."[11]
When Lambert arrived at the BBC in June 1963, she was initially given a more experienced associate producer, Mervyn Pinfield, to assist her. Doctor Who debuted on 23 November 1963 and quickly became a success for the BBC, chiefly on the popularity of the alien creatures known as Daleks. Lambert's superior, Head of Serials Donald Wilson, had strongly advised against using the script in which the Daleks first appeared, but after the serial's successful airing, he said that Lambert clearly knew the series far better than he did, and he would no longer interfere in her decisions. The success of Doctor Who and the Daleks also garnered press attention for Lambert herself; in 1964, the Daily Mail published a feature on the series focusing on its young producer's looks: "The operation of the Daleks ... is conducted by a remarkably attractive young woman called Verity Lambert who, at 28, is not only the youngest but the only female drama producer at B.B.C. TV ... [T]all, dark and shapely, she became positively forbidding when I suggested that the Daleks might one day take over Dr. Who."[13]
Lambert oversaw the first two seasons of the programme and the first part of the third, eventually leaving in 1965. "There comes a time when a series needs new input," she told Doctor Who Magazine thirty years later. "It's not that I wasn't fond of Doctor Who, I simply felt that the time had come. It had been eighteen very concentrated months, something like seventy shows. I know people do soaps forever now, but I felt Doctor Who needed someone to come in with a different view."[14] 15 episodes produced by Lambert—all episodes of Marco Polo, two episodes of The Reign of Terror, two episodes of The Crusade, three episodes of Galaxy 4 and the standalone Mission to the Unknown—were not retained in the BBC Archives, mainly affecting her first year working on the show.
Other BBC productions
Lambert moved on to produce another BBC show developed by Newman, the swashbuckling action-adventure series
In 1969 the comedy series
In 1969 Lambert left the staff of the BBC to join London Weekend Television, where she produced Budgie (1970–72) and Between the Wars (1973). She returned to the BBC on a freelance basis to produce Shoulder to Shoulder (1974), a series of six 75-minute plays about the suffragette movement of the early 20th century.[16]
Thames Television and Euston Films
Later in 1974, Lambert became Head of Drama at
At Thames and Euston, Lambert enjoyed the most sustained period of critical and popular success of her career. The Naked Civil Servant won a
Television historian Lez Cooke described Lambert's time in control of the drama department at Thames as "an adventurous period for the company, demonstrating that it was not only the BBC that was capable of producing progressive television drama during the 1970s. Lambert wanted Thames to produce drama series 'which were attempting in one way or another to tackle modern problems and life,' an ambition which echoed the philosophy of her mentor Sydney Newman."[20] Howard Schuman, the writer of Rock Follies, also later praised the bravery of Lambert's commissioning. "Verity Lambert had just arrived as head of drama at Thames TV and she went for broke," he told The Observer newspaper in 2002. "She commissioned a serial, Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, for safety, but also Bill Brand, one of the edgiest political dramas ever, and us ... Before we had even finished making the first series, Verity commissioned the second."[21]
Lambert's association with Thames and Euston Films continued into the 1980s. In 1982, she rejoined the staff of parent company Thames Television as director of drama, and was given a seat on the company's
Cinema Verity
In late 1985, Lambert left Thorn EMI, frustrated at the lack of success and at restructuring measures being undertaken by the company. She established her own independent production company,
Lambert executive produced Alan Bleasdale's hard-hitting drama serial G.B.H. (1991), commissioned by Channel 4, which won several awards. Her relationship with Bleasdale was not entirely smooth — the writer has admitted in subsequent interviews that he "wanted to kill Verity Lambert"[22] after she insisted on the cutting of large portions of his first draft script before production began. Bleasdale subsequently admitted that she was right about the majority of the cut material, and when the production was finished, he only missed one small scene from those she had demanded be excised.[22]
A less successful Cinema Verity production was the soap opera
Other reviewers, even the best part of a decade after the programme's cancellation, were much harsher, with Rupert Smith's comments in The Guardian in 2002 being a typical example. "A £10 million farce that left the BBC with egg all over its entire body and put an awful lot of Equity members back on the dole ... it will always be remembered as the most expensive flop of all time."[24]
In the early 1990s, Lambert attempted to win the rights to produce Doctor Who independently for the BBC; this effort was unsuccessful because the corporation was already in negotiations with producer Philip Segal in the United States. Cinema Verity projects that did reach production included Sleepers (BBC1, 1991) and The Cazalets (BBC One, 2001), the latter co-produced by actress Joanna Lumley, whose idea it was to adapt the novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard.
Lambert continued to work as a freelance producer outside of her own company. She produced the popular BBC One comedy-drama series Jonathan Creek,[18] by writer David Renwick, ever since taking over the role for its second series in 1998. From then until 2004, she produced eighteen episodes of the programme across four short seasons, plus two Christmas Specials. She and Renwick also collaborated on another comedy-drama, Love Soup, starring Tamsin Greig and transmitted on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. Her last work was to produce the second series of Love Soup.
In the 2002
Personal life
In 1973, Lambert married television director Colin Bucksey. They separated in 1984 and divorced in 1987.[4][27][28] She had no children, once telling an interviewer, "I can't stand babies—no, I love babies as long as their parents take them away."[2]
Death
Lambert died of cancer on 22 November 2007, in London, one day before the 44th anniversary of Doctor Who.[29] She was due to have been presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and Television Awards the following month.[30]
Legacy
In 2000, the Lambert productions Doctor Who and The Naked Civil Servant finished third and fourth respectively in a
In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "
In April 2008, BBC Four aired an evening-long tribute to Lambert's work at the network, including a documentary and repeats of her most popular programmes.[35] Also that year, the DVD release of The Time Meddler included the last commentary she made before her death, and a short documentary feature, Verity Lambert Obituary, described as "a concise essay looking back over the career of one of Doctor Who's co-creators."[36]
For Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary in 2013, the BBC commissioned a drama about the creation of the programme, entitled An Adventure in Space and Time. Lambert was played by actress Jessica Raine.[37]
On 23 July 2014, a blue heritage plaque was unveiled by the Doctor Who Appreciation Society and the Riverside Trust, at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith in London. The plaque commemorates Lambert at Riverside and elsewhere. The plaque was unveiled by director Waris Hussein, her longtime friend and colleague, and the unveiling was attended by many friends and associates from over the years.[38] When Riverside Studios was closed for redevelopment later that year, the plaque was placed into storage. In 2022 it was reinstalled on the exterior of the building and unveiled at a ceremony attended by many people from television, including actors Caroline Quentin, Larry Lamb, Carole Ann Ford and Anna Carteret, writer Lynda La Plante, former Doctor Who producers Philip Hinchcliffe and Steven Moffat, Ofcom chair Michael Grade, and former vision mixer Clive Doig.[39]
Selected filmography
- Doctor Who (1963–1965), producer
- Adam Adamant Lives! (1966–1967), producer
- Detective (1968), producer[40]
- Take Three Girls (1969), producer
- W. Somerset Maugham (1969–1970), producer
- Budgie (1971), producer[40]
- Between the Wars (1973), producer
- The Silver Mask (1973), producer
- A.D.A.M. (1973), producer
- Achilles Heel (1973), producer
- After Loch Lomond (1973), producer
- Shoulder to Shoulder: Sylvia Pankhurst (1974), producer
- The Naked Civil Servant (1975), executive producer
- Rock Follies (1976), executive producer
- Couples (1976), executive producer
- The Norman Conquests (1977), producer
- ITV Playhouse: Roadrunner (1977), executive producer
- The Sailor's Return (1978), executive producer
- Charlie Muffin (1979), executive producer
- Quatermass (1979), executive producer[41]
- The Knowledge (1979), executive producer
- A Performance of Macbeth (1979), executive producer
- Fox: King Billy (1980), executive producer
- The Flame Trees of Thika (1981), executive producer
- Saigon: Year of the Cat (1983), producer
- The Nation's Health (1983), executive producer
- Reilly: Ace of Spies(1983), executive producer
- Widows (1983), executive producer
- Minder (1979–1984), executive producer
- Morons from Outer Space (1985), executive producer
- Clockwise (1986), executive producer
- Link (1986), executive producer
- Evil Angels (A Cry in the Dark)[42] (1988), producer
- American Roulette (1988), executive producer
- Coasting: Offshore (1990), producer
- G.B.H. (1991), executive producer
- Sleepers (1991), executive producer
- Boys from the Bush (1991), producer
- Eldorado (1992), producer[43]
- Comics (1993), producer
- Class Act (1994), producer
- Heavy Weather(1995), producer
- Temp (1995), producer
- She's Out (1995), producer
- A Perfect State (1997), executive producer
- Jonathan Creek (1998–2004), producer
- The Cazalets (2001), producer
- Love Soup (2005–2007), producer
- Doctor Who: A Happy Ending (2006), script editor
References
- ^ Griffiths, Peter (17 January 1996). "Maiden Voyage". Doctor Who Magazine (234). Marvel UK: 4–9.
- ^ a b Dickinson, Robert. "Lambert, Verity — British producer". Museum of Broadcast Communications. Archived from the original on 20 September 2006. Retrieved 11 September 2006.
- ^ a b Vahimagi, Tise. "Lambert, Verity (1935-)". Screenonline. Retrieved 11 September 2006.
- ^ a b "Verity Lambert". The Times. 24 November 2007. Retrieved 23 November 2007.
- ^ Collins, Frank (4 June 2015). "Drama & Delight: The Life of Verity Lambert". Framerated.
- ^ a b c d e f g Lambert, Verity (5 May 1997). "CV: Verity Lambert". The Independent. p. 6.
- ^ Benedict, David (21 June 2001). "Eternal Verity". The Guardian. p. 10. Archived from the original on 1 April 2005. Retrieved 12 September 2006.
- ^ "The Avengers Declassified: Keel and Steed".
- ^ ISBN 0-85170-884-6.[page needed]
- ISBN 0-426-20430-1.[page needed]
- ^ a b Hearn, Marcus (22 December 1993). "The Dawn of Knowledge". Doctor Who Magazine (207). Marvel UK: 8–18.
- ^ Hearn, Marcus (14 January 1998). "A cross between Genghis Khan and a pussy cat". Doctor Who Magazine (260). Panini Comics: 26–31.
- ^ John, Sandilands (28 November 1964). "Behind every Dalek there's this woman". Daily Mail. Archived from the original on 19 June 2006. Retrieved 12 September 2006.
- ^ Griffiths, Peter (14 February 1996). "Woman's Realm". Doctor Who Magazine (235). Marvel UK: 38–41.
- ^ Pixley, Andrew (2006). Adam Adamant Lives! - Viewing Notes. London: BBC Worldwide. BBCDVD1479.[page needed]
- ^ a b c d e "BFI Screenonline: Lambert, Verity (1935-2007) Biography".
- ISBN 0-7493-0226-7.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link - ^ a b "DRAMA AND DELIGHT – THE LIFE OF VERITY LAMBERT".
- ^ Angelini, Sergio. "Minder (1979–94)". Screenonline. Retrieved 13 September 2006.
- ^ Cooke 2003, p. 98.
- ^ Davies, Russell T (16 June 2002). "First ladies of rock". The Observer. Retrieved 13 September 2006.
- ^ a b Alan Bleasdale (2006). Interview (DVD). G.B.H, disc four: 4 DVD.
- ISBN 0-14-101221-8.[page needed]
- ^ Smith, Rupert (1 March 2002). "Exiled in Iberia". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 September 2006.
- ^ "Honours: Film and broadcasting". BBC News Online. 31 January 2001. Retrieved 13 September 2006.
- Guardian Unlimited. 22 April 2002. Retrieved 13 September 2006.
- ^ Hayward, Anthony (26 November 2007). "Verity Lambert". The Independent. Archived from the original on 27 November 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2007.
- ^ Duncan, Andrew (24 May 1986). "Wednesday Page: Coping with life at the top; Five successful career women". The Times.
- ^ Purser, Philip (26 November 2007). "Verity Lambert". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 November 2007.
- ^ "Doctor Who's first producer dies". BBC News Online. 23 November 2007. Retrieved 23 November 2007.
- ^ "The BFI TV 100: 1-100". British Film Institute. 4 September 2006. Archived from the original on 14 February 2006. Retrieved 13 September 2006.
- ^ Writer - Paul Cornell; Producer - Susie Liggat; Director - Charles Palmer (26 May 2007). "Human Nature". Doctor Who. Cardiff. BBC One.
- Australian Jewish News, 22 November 2013
- ^ Writer - Russell T Davies; Producer - Phil Collinson; Director - James Strong (25 December 2007). "Voyage of the Damned". Doctor Who. Cardiff. BBC One.
- ^ "BBC4 to air tribute night to drama producer Verity Lambert". the Guardian. 25 February 2008. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
- ^ "Doctor Who DVDs: Time Meddler DVD".
- ^ "David Bradley to play William Hartnell in Celebration of Doctor Who". BBC. 30 January 2013. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
- ^ "Remembering Verity Lambert". www.dwasonline.co.uk. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
- ^ Mulkern, Patrick (30 May 2022). "Verity Lambert, TV legend and Doctor Who producer, honoured with blue plaque". Radio Times. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
- ^ TheGuardian.com. 26 November 2007.
- ^ "BFI Screenonline: Quatermass (1979)". www.screenonline.org.uk.
- ^ "A Cry in the Dark (1988) - Release dates". IMDb.com. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 August 2015.