Verity Lambert

Verity Lambert, (27th November 1935-22nd November 2007) the first Producer of Doctor Who, was born in London. She served as Producer from An Unearthly Child to Mission to the Unknown. Her work on Doctor Who was the first time she had been a full producer. The day after her death was the 44th anniversary of the show.

Ms. Lambert owned her own production company, Cinema Verity. She was awarded an OBE in 2002, making her the first producer of Doctor Who to be made an OBE.

The 2005 revival of Doctor Who has paid on-screen tribute to Lambert on at least three occasions as of the end of 2009. In the 2007 episode Human Nature, the Doctor, in his guise as human John Smith, identifies his mother by the name Verity. The 2007 Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, ends with an on-screen dedication to Lambert, who had died a month earlier. Most recently, the 2009 episode The End of Time included a character named Verity Newman (as an homage to both Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman), the great-granddaughter of Joan Redfern from Human Nature, and the author of Journal of Impossible Things.