JFK derails Doctor Who, plus the drama that was too terrifying to show: 100 years of the BBC, part five
The Pythons fly, Doctor Who stumbles, Match of the Day shows a game of one half, The War Game is pulled – and was Dad’s Army a metaphor for military impotence during the cold war?
The BBC launches four TV long-runners and four radio stations still in the schedules today, sees the appeal of police procedurals and, influenced by America, looks into the night.
With Dixon of Dock Green in its seventh top-rating year, the BBC crime scene expanded with Z Cars, a much tougher and more authentic depiction of policing, which developed key TV actors such as Brian Blessed, Colin Welland and Frank Windsor. It ran until 1978, turning police procedurals into go-to shows. In the same year, an equally powerful genre – the medical series – became entrenched in the schedules with Dr Finlay’s Casebook. The Scottish setting of that series, and Z Cars’ northern location, were a response to ITV’s strong regional branding.
Aimed at children, this new series was due to start on Saturday 23 November at 5.15pm. But President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas the day before Doctor Who’s first episode, An Unearthly Child. A delay for an extended news plus widespread power cuts – probably caused by pressure on the grid from people following events in America – led the BBC to run a rapid repeat. William Hartnell, as the first Doctor, started the journey of a show that has survived for 59 years (with a 16-year black hole from 1989) and 14 doctors. The dark event that overshadowed the show’s launch was addressed in a 1996 spin-off novel, Doctor Who: Who Killed Kennedy.
