The Chronicle

Barry Letts started his career as an actor, but became a director  in the 1960’s.  First working on Doctor Who as Director of the 1967 story The Enemy of the World.  In 1969, he was invited to become the Producer of the series. There can be no doubt that without his input to Doctor Who during the turbulent years of the early 1970’s, the series would not be here today.  Instead of a much loved flagship of British television, the series would regarded as one of those quaint, short lived black and white curios so peculiar to the 1960’s.    Back in 1969, the series  was going through the doldrums and came close to being canceled.  Mr. Letts took the show by the scruff of the neck and took it from monochrome into glorious colour for the new decade.  He gave us a new Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee; in a new setting, the exile of The Doctor to twentieth century Earth.  He was the man who proved that Doctor Who was the infinitely flexible format that the Fans  often claim it to be, he proved that it could go anywhere and do anything, and more importantly, he made people want to watch it again.

Barry Letts had a hand in the creation of three of the most popular Doctors.  As well as being Producer for all of Jon Pertwee’s tenure, in 1974 he cast Tom Baker in the role, before handing the series over to incoming Producer Phillip Hinchcliffe.  Finally in 1980, he returned to the series for one year as Executive Producer, and helped to cast Peter Davison after Baker’s marathon tenure.

It is fair to say that Barry Letts never really left Doctor Who.  He wrote two radio plays that featured Pertwee’s Doctor together with Sarah Jane Smith, (the companion played by Elisabeth Sladen, the he created back in 1974) and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (played by Nicholas Courtney).  He also wrote a number of novels with his friend and colleague Terrance Dicks.  His particular style blending the mundane with the extraterrestrial is a foundation of the current series of Doctor Who, and without him, Russell T. Davies would have had a much harder time bringing the series back in 2005.

Barry Letts’ carreer extended beyond Doctor Who. After leaving that series, he became the Producer of the BBC’s much loved Sunday Teatime Classics Adaptations, that would take a piece of great literature and transfer it to the TV in digestible half hour chunks.  It is through his work on these adaptations that a generation of children, myself included, developed a love of great literature.

His wife Muriel died earlier this year. He is survived by three children.

Barry Leopold Letts (26 March 1925 – 9 October 2009)