As Jodie Whittaker’s historic time as the first woman to play the prestigious role of The Doctor comes to an end, Time Made Of Strawberries looks at 13 fantastic women who were key to the show’s success and fantastic women in their own right.
Verity Lambert
Verity Lambert was the show’s first producer when it first launched in 1963. Recruited by then Head of Drama Sydney Newman who had worked with her at ABC, she was the youngest and only female producer at the BBC. Newman described her as bright and gutsy. He told Doctor Who Magazine in 1993 that at ABC, “she used to fight and argue with me, even though she was not at a very high level as a production assistant.” Verity certainly knew what she wanted when it came to the show and fought for it, which only proved to be in the show’s best interests. In fact, then head of serials Donald Wilson admitted that she clearly knew the show better than he did, when her move to continue with the first feature of the Daleks, against his strong advice to do otherwise, proved successful.
On her departure, Verity commented “It’s not that I wasn’t fond of Doctor Who. I simply felt the time had come… I know people do soaps forever now but I felt Doctor Who needed to come in with a different view.”
The educational science-fiction programme was, according to Wikipedia, “only expected to last 13 weeks.” Defying expectations alongside director Warris Hussein for 2 years, she managed to run a series which would go on to last over 50 years (and counting). Although Verity left us in 2007, the legacy of the hard work and dedication she put into the show during its first few years, lives on forever.
Delia Derbyshire
The famous Doctor Who theme tune is hummed by many, known, as currently composed by the talented Segun Akinola and originally realised by Ron Grainer. However, that is not the full story. Despite her name never appearing in the credits, Delia Derbyshire was instrumental (no pun intended) to the show’s signature sound. Inspired by war sounds, Delia
Julie Gardner
Carole Ann Ford
Jodie Whittaker
Rachel Talalay
Sarah Dollard
Elisabeth Sladen
Hayley Neubauer
Karen Gillan
Jenny T Colgan
Billie Piper
Julie Ankerson
Time Made Of Strawberries - Un Temps De Fraises 