Mark Stammers

Doctor Who is the world's longest-running science fiction television series. Each handbook will provide both a broad overview and a detailed analysis of one phase of the programme's history. William Hartnell was already a well-known and experienced film and television actor when, in 1963, he took on a new role: a mysterious and crotchety time traveller in a new BBC drama series for chil...

By the end of the 1960s the BBC television programme Doctor Who had enthralled a generation of children. The police telephone box and the staccato-voiced Daleks had become household icons; watching the flickering black-and-white images of alien monsters and marvels had become a Saturday teatime ritual for millions. In January 1970 Doctor Who returned for a new season - and burst into living rooms...

On 23 November 1963 a British institution was born. Almost thirty years later Doctor Who commands a following matched by no other British television programme. Yet in its early days the series had to face fierce opposition from within the BBC itself. However, the arrival of the series' most popular monsters, the Daleks - soon to become a British cult icon - helped to secure Doctor Who'...