{"id":6141,"date":"2021-10-23T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T09:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1395577"},"modified":"2021-10-23T11:34:10","modified_gmt":"2021-10-23T09:34:10","slug":"how-plans-for-a-doctor-who-movie-almost-scuppered-the-shows-2005-return","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/how-plans-for-a-doctor-who-movie-almost-scuppered-the-shows-2005-return\/","title":{"rendered":"How plans for a Doctor Who movie almost scuppered the show\u2019s 2005 return"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Huw Fullerton\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 23 October 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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With the revived Doctor Who<\/a> series now in its 16th year and with a bright future ahead, it\u2019s hard to imagine that it was once a brutal struggle to get it back on air.<\/p>\n

But as revealed in a new behind-the-scenes book, following its 1989 cancellation (and the 1996 TV Movie) it was quite a struggle to bring it back, with the BBC blocked by an implacable foe \u2013 the BBC.<\/p>\n

Well, specifically the separate commercial arm BBC Worldwide (now replaced by BBC Studios), which had its own plans for the Doctor\u2019s future\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cBBC Worldwide, it transpired, owned all the rights to Doctor Who,\u201d then-BBC One Controller Lorraine Heggessey says in The Long Game, a new book by Paul Hayes that follows the struggle to revive the series between 1996 and 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said that we could not have it on TV because they were going to make a movie, and therefore we couldn\u2019t put it on BBC One. Which I was pretty fed up about, and ranted and raved for a bit but didn\u2019t really get anywhere.\u201d<\/p>

But Heggessey (who would go on to recommission Doctor Who under the creative team of screenwriter Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter) didn\u2019t give up, eventually calling the bluff of the other team and forging ahead with her own Who project.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout a year later they still hadn\u2019t made the film, and we still hadn\u2019t found something that seemed like the right drama for Saturday early evening on BBC One,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just said, \u2018This is ridiculous! How can you possibly have the rights? It\u2019s a BBC One property, it should belong to the BBC. You haven\u2019t made a movie anyway. We are just going to go ahead and do it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would only happen in the BBC, wouldn\u2019t it? BBC Worldwide wouldn\u2019t let BBC TV produce it! But eventually, we just bust through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heggessey is one of more than 30 people interviewed for Hayes\u2019 new book (released 1st November), alongside the likes of Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Mal Young and Alan Yentob. Also among the interviewees is Doctor Who\u2019s secret ally in the BBC One camp from those days \u2013 Heggessey\u2019s right-hand woman, the Channel Executive Helen O\u2019Rahilly, who tells the story of how she enlisted a Dalek to come to the Doctor\u2019s aid.<\/p>\n