Verity Lambert

Verity Lambert (born November 27 1935 in London, England, UK) is a British television and film producer, best known for producing the science-fiction series Doctor Who for the BBC for its first two years, from 1963 to 1965. She was a ground-breaker for women in British television, being the first female producer of an important drama series and later becoming one of the most powerful women in the industry.

BBC career

When Lambert arrived at the BBC in June 1963, she was the drama department's only female and youngest producer. Newman's contemporaries had less faith in her than he did and she was initially given a more experienced associate producer, Mervyn Pinfield, to assist her. However, she soon proved her capabilities, with her immediate superior - Head of Serials Donald Wilson - eventually admitting that she clearly knew the series far better than he did and he would no longer interfere in her decisions after the success of the Daleks, who appeared in a script Wilson had strongly advised against her using.

Related Topics:
1963 - Mervyn Pinfield - Donald Wilson - Dalek

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Doctor Who debuted on November 23 1963 and quickly became a huge popular success for the BBC, and did a great deal to establish Lambert's reputation as a producer of popular drama. She oversaw the first two seasons of the programme, eventually leaving in 1965 to move onto another BBC show, the soap opera-style drama The Newcomers. In 1966 she switched back to more fantasy-oriented television when she became the producer of another programme Newman had created, the swashbuckling action / adventure series Adam Adamant Lives!. Further productions for the BBC included a season of the crime drama Detective (1968-69) and a twenty-six part series of adaptations of the stories of William Somerset Maugham (1969). One of the more obscure ways in which she was credited on BBC television during this time was in Monty Python?s 1969 sketch "Buying a Bed", which features two shop assistants called Mr. Verity and Mr. Lambert, named after her.

Related Topics:
November 23 - 1963 - 1965 - Soap opera - The Newcomers - 1966 - Adam Adamant Lives! - 1968 - 69 - William Somerset Maugham - Monty Python

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In 1969, she left the staff of the BBC to join London Weekend Television, where she produced Budgie (1971-72) and Between the Wars (1973). In 1974 she returned to the BBC on a freelance basis to produce Shoulder to Shoulder, a series of six 75-minute plays about the suffragette movement of the early 20th century.

Related Topics:
London Weekend Television - 1971 - 72 - 1973 - 1974 - Suffragette - 20th century

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