Verity Lambert, queen of

Verity Lambert produced Doctor Who, Rumpole of the Bailey and Minder – and revolutionised TV. By Nick Brown

Mrs Who

‘T he moment this brilliant young producer started telling me about Doctor Who, I was hooked. I told her, “This is going to run for five years” – and look what happened!’

So said the first Doctor Who, William Hartnell, about Verity Lambert. 22nd November 2022 marked the 15th anniversary of her sad death in 2007, five days before her 72nd birthday.

Let’s nip back in time to 1963 (your TARDIS or mine?) and consider just what an impact a hitherto-unknown young woman made on television.

Sydney Newman had just been recruited as a producer by the BBC from ABC Weekend Television, which provided service in the Midlands and Northern regions for the ITV network. He commissioned a new Saturdayevening science-fiction programme to be broadcast in weekly episodes.

The idea was to bridge the gap between Grandstand and Juke Box Jury: keep the dads who had been watching the sport and draw the younger generation who were waiting for their popular-music show.

Newman dreamt up a time machine that was bigger on the inside than on the outside. He also suggested keeping an air of mystery about the eponymous hero. Who was he? Where did he come from? How could he travel in time and space? Enter Verity Lambert to complete the vision.

Born on 27th November 1935 in London, she was educated at Roedean School before studying at the Sorbonne.

Her first job in TV was as a secretary at Granada Television, moving on to ABC, where she crossed paths with Sydney Newman. After a stint in New York at the production company Talent Associates, Lambert returned to England and, in December 1962, was recruited by Newman at the BBC to produce this new science-fiction programme.

The BBC was then a very male-dominated institution, with women largely being typists and tea ladies.

Lambert became a trailblazer for women who dared to dream of having better TV jobs.

Not only did she become the organisation’s only female drama producer, but she was also the youngest of all the drama producers.

The BBC weren’t massively interested in the new show, giving it a small budget. Lambert had to argue the case to get it shown.

When she got her way and Doctor Who was first broadcast, on 23rd November 1963, it was an instant hit. Next year, the show will celebrate its 60th anniversary.

The first story, An Unearthly Child, introduced the characters and laid the foundation for the world’s longestrunning science-fiction programme, far outliving the five years William Hartnell predicted for the show.

The second instalment was The Daleks. This shot Doctor Who into the headlines. Overnight, schoolchildren across the country held out their arms and declared, ‘Exterminate!’

This was Lambert’s triumph. Sydney Newman had insisted no ‘bug-eyed monsters’ be used. Lambert insisted the Daleks were commissioned, arguing that they would prove popular.

She produced Doctor Who for two years, overseeing 86 episodes. She went on to produce Adam Adamant Lives!, following the adventures of a Victorian gentleman frozen in ice by his evil nemesis, and a series of adaptations of Somerset Maugham stories.

Lambert joined London Weekend Television in 1969, producing Budgie,

Exterminate! Verity Lambert with a Dalek, 1968

starring pop star Adam Faith. Five years later, in 1974, she became head of drama at Thames Television, overseeing such hits as The Naked Civil Servant, Rumpole of the Bailey and Edward and Mrs Simpson. A move to Euston Films in 1979 as chief executive led to her productions of Quatermass and Minder.

She established her own production company, Cinema Verity, in 1985. It produced the sitcom May to December, the hard-hitting drama series GBH and the feature film A Cry In the Dark, starring Meryl Streep. Independently of Cinema Verity, she produced Alan Davies’s comedy drama Jonathan Creek for the BBC.

Lambert’s achievements were recognised. She was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Strathclyde, a BAFTA for Outstanding Creative Contribution to Television and, posthumously, a lifetime achievement award from Women in Film and Television. In 2002, she was made an OBE for services to film and television. A blue plaque with Verity’s name on was unveiled at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.

There have been onscreen nods to her, with the revived series of Doctor Who including a character, Verity Newman, named after Verity and Sydney. The Doctor, in his guise as the human John Smith, names them as his parents. She was given a subtle mention in a Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketch, where Eric Idle and Graham Chapman play salesmen called Mr Verity and Mr Lambert.

Without her, would there be the opportunities for women in television and the media in general that there are now? Yes, probably. But someone had to be the groundbreaker. Someone had to smash through the old-boys’-club barriers.

That someone was Verity Lambert.