- You may be looking for the in-universe magazine.
Radio Times (originally The Radio Times; also known as RT and frequently branded as RadioTimes) is a weekly print magazine, website and app listing schedules and recommendations for terrestrial, satellite and digital television channels and radio stations available in the UK, as well as highlighting the latest podcasts and TV shows/films now available via video on demand streaming platforms.
History[]
Radio Times is the oldest print broadcast listings publication in the world; it is even older than the British Broadcasting Corporation, with which it is most associated, since it was launched (in September 1923) by the Corporation’s predecessor, the British Broadcasting Company.[1] The publication celebrated its centenary in September 2023.[2]
For much of its run, Radio Times was considered the BBC’s in-house magazine—it was originally subtitled “The Organ of the BBC” and later "The Journal of the British Broadcasting Corporation". Following the launch of commercial television in the UK from 1955, Radio Times continued to list only the BBC’s “sound and television” schedules, with the various ITV stations opting for their own publications, most notably TV Times.
The eventual Radio Times/TV Times duopoly was ended on 1 March 1991, following the UK Government's deregulation of television listings; this enabled Radio Times to include, for the first time, coverage of ITV, Channel 4 and satellite/cable channels. Equally, TV Times and other commercially-published listings magazines were able to include the BBC’s schedules, as well as publish articles about BBC programmes including Doctor Who.
RadioTimes.com was founded in 1997.
Once owned solely by the BBC through what became BBC Publications (later BBC Magazines), Radio Times and RadioTimes.com were sold in 2011, in the process creating Immediate Media Company London Limited.
Radio Times and Doctor Who[]
As the sole listings magazine able to publish the BBC's radio and television schedules in 1963, Radio Times was the first publication in the world to report, describe and explain many of the core aspects of Doctor Who to the general public, including the Doctor, the Tardis, and the Daleks. It was also the first publication to publish viewers’ reactions to the series.
During the 1960s, Radio Times regularly included preview articles (of variable size, but seldom more than a quarter page) relating to the launch of each new Doctor Who serial. During the 1970s, under editors Geoffrey Cannon (1969-1979) and Brian Gearing (1979-1988), this coverage reduced to a single article (albeit covering one or two full pages) coinciding with the launch of a new season. By 1989, under the editorship of Nicholas Brett (1988-1996 & 2000-2001) the final season of the original run of Doctor Who merited only a half-page profile of Sophie Aldred.
During the 1960s, the weekly listings were subtitled “An Adventure in Space and Time” – presumably to avoid any suggestion that the series might be a medical drama. Mark Gatiss would reference this in the title of his 2013 TV film about the origins of Doctor Who.
Although then-editor Douglas G Williams (1954-1968) had allegedly promised the BBC’s Head of Serials to give the debut of Doctor Who the front cover of the issue listing programmes beginning Saturday 23 November 1963, this did not ultimately happen. While the “new Saturday afternoon Television series of adventures in time and space” was mentioned in a cover strapline, the main cover image featured the much-loved radio star Kenneth Horne, who was returning that week with a new series of comedy series Beyond Our Ken. Doctor Who would eventually be awarded its first Radio Times front cover 13 weeks later, coinciding with the first episode of Marco Polo. This was not without controversy, as the image featured only William Hartnell and guest star Mark Eden, much to the disappointment of regular series cast members William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, and Carole Ann Ford.
More than 60 years later, Doctor Who is now by far the most frequently featured programme on Radio Times front covers. During the “classic” era, the majority of these appeared during the 1960s and early 1970s; since the show’s revival in 2005, Doctor Who has earned the front cover slot on numerous occasions each series—including many multiple options. (The largest single choice of front covers was 12, each featuring an individual Doctor as part of the magazine’s celebration of the 50th anniversary story, The Day of the Doctor, broadcast on Saturday 23 November 2013).
Copies of Radio Times featuring Doctor Who front covers, especially from the 1960s and 1970s, remain among the most collectible – and expensive – issues of the magazine.
Radio Times has published numerous special editions down the years, including two on Doctor Who—these marked the programme’s 10th and 20th anniversaries in 1973 and 1983. The magazine also marked the programme’s 40th anniversary – and impending return to our screens – with a “40th Anniversary Special” inserted within the regular weekly edition which covered Sunday 23 November 2003.
Contributions to the Doctor Who Universe[]
Radio Times has sporadically published original Doctor Who fiction, beginning in 1964 with a festive short story Barbara in Wonderland which, contrary to expectations, did not star Barbara Wright, but did feature the First Doctor and two Daleks.
Other notable Radio Times DWU-related works included the first crossover between Doctor Who and another series, in the form of the 1965 comic strip Pugwash Ahoy!. Radio Times special issues have also published two original short stories: We are the Daleks! by Terry Nation, in 1973; and Birth of a Renegade, by the show's then-script editor Eric Saward, in 1983.
In 1996, following the broadcast of The TV Movie, Radio Times published a reasonably long-running serialised comic strip featuring the further adventures of the Eighth Doctor.
Spoilers[]
The publication has, down the years, been accused of propagating "spoilers" regarding forthcoming episodes. These included revealing from week one that the Cybermen were the returning foe in The Invasion (despite them not appearing until the climax of the fourth episode) and giving away that the Doctor would be “captured by his own people, the Time Lords” when previewing the start of The War Games.
Another example actually provoked a memo of complaint (dated 19 December 1969) from producer Barry Letts, concerning a new-year preview of debut Season 7 serial Spearhead from Space in the previous Christmas issue: this had included a sentence taken from the part of the BBC’s Early Warning Synopses “clearly indicated as not for publication, thus revealing the entire plot”, according to Letts. “I feel such carelessness is, to say the least, most unfortunate, and I would like to make sure, through you, that such a thing will never happen again.” (Original text.)
However, three years later, the "surprise" appearance of the Daleks in the final episode of Frontier in Space was somewhat undercut by that week's cast listing including details of "Chief Dalek" (John Scott Martin) and "Dalek Voice" (Michael Wisher). Those cast lists would surely have been approved by the Doctor Who production office at the time.
By 1982, despite the show not having featured on the front cover of the magazine for nearly a decade (since late 1973, promoting the launch of Season 11), the show’s then-producer John Nathan-Turner actively refused the offer of a front-cover slot to publicise the return of the Cybermen in Earthshock, as he wanted their appearance at the end of the first episode to come as a genuine surprise to viewers. The show would eventually appear on the front cover in November 1983, celebrating the 20th anniversary adventure The Five Doctors.
One of the most surprising "spoilers" related to the broadcast of the Series 3 episode, Daleks in Manhattan. Startlingly, the episode's big cliffhanger “reveal” of the Dalek/human hybrid Dalek Sec was heralded (or undermined, depending on your point of view) days earlier by its appearance on the front cover of Radio Times for the week commencing Saturday 21 April 2007. What was even more surprising was that this particular “spoiler” was arranged completely in concert with the Doctor Who production team in Cardiff; inside the issue, head writer Russell T Davies explained: “I just thought, what a brilliant cover idea! We don’t want to give away too much. But we love a Radio Times cover – how could we not?”[3]
Radio Times by the Decade[]
For a breakdown of Radio Times extensive coverage of the series (including covers, articles, features and offers):
- Radio Times/1960s
- Radio Times/1970s
- Radio Times/1980s
- Radio Times/1990s
- Radio Times/2000s
- Radio Times/2010s
Cover gallery[]
1960s[]
1970s[]
1980s[]
1990s[]
2000s[]
fold out cover
Version 1
Version 2
half image cover
half image cover
Fold out winning PPA Cover
fold out
2010s[]
fold out cover
2020s[]
Special publications[]
- A digitally cleaned up reproduction (complete with cover price) of the 10th Anniversary Special was released in the 40th Anniversary year exclusively from Radio Times.
Postcards[]
- A series of fourteen Radio Times Doctor Who Covers (up to and including Doctor Who The Movie was given away with an Eighth Doctor poster promotion)
Radio Times posters[]
1996[]
- A3 size photograph of the Eighth Doctor, (Paul McGann) inside the TARDIS, standing in front of the door.
2005[]
- Daleks at Westminster
- A1(84 x 59.4cm) size, double sided poster featuring the Daleks crossing Westminster Bridge (a recreation of the iconic 1964 image of when the Daleks invaded Earth)on one side and,
- on the reverse;
- Daleks (2005)
- Shown are three chunkier 2005-style Daleks
2006[]
- Cybermen at St Paul's Cathedral
- Photograph: Matt Holyoak / Ian McKinnell
- Image Manipulation: Ian McKinnell
- Art Director: Paul Smith
- Picture Editor: Patricia Taylor
- Radio Times has produced an exclusive double-sided poster recreating the terrifying moment when the Cybermen marched by St Paul's cathedral. (Nowadays, the area is at one end of the Millennium Bridge), on one side and a black Dalek on the reverse. The poster measures 59x84cm and required two tokens and postage of £2.95 (UK)
On the reverse;
- Black Dalek
- Photograph: Matt Holyoak
- Art Director: Paul Smith
- Picture Editor: Patricia Taylor
- Picture shows a black Dalek
2007[]
- Heroes
- Photograph: Mike Hogan
- Image Manipulation: Ian McKinnell
- Design and Art Direction: Paul Smith
- This long narrow poster shows is the Tenth Doctor, Martha and Captain Jack Harkness standing to the left in a TARDIS interior panoramic shot.
On the reverse;
- Monsters
- Photo: Mark Harrison
- Design and Art: Paul Smith
- This long narrow poster shows Weeping Angels, a Dalek, Dalek Sec Hybrid (centre) Scarecrows and Juddoon.
2008[]
- The Next Doctor
- Photograph: Matt Holyoak
- Image Manipulation: Ian McKinnell
- Art Directon: Paul Smith
- A Christmas poster offer to readers offered both Walace and Gromit and Doctor Who The Next Doctor double-sided posters
- One side a graveyard shot of Mercy Hartigan (centre) with both 'Doctors' on either side and the Cybermen in the background.
On the reverse;
- Cybermen 2008
- Photograph: Matt Holyoak
- Image Manipulation: Ian McKinnell
- Art Directon: Paul Smith
- This poster shows three Cybermen from The Next Doctor including the new Cyber Leader.
2009[]
- Davros
On the reverse;
- Supreme Dalek
2009/10[]
- Tenth Doctor
- Exclusive Photograph: David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor
- Photograph: Matt Holyoak
- Image Manipulation: Stuart Manning
- Art Directon: Paul Smith
On the reverse;
- The Doctor and Companions
- Exclusive Photograph: David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor with companions Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman)
- Photograph: Mike Hogan
- Image Manipulation: Ian McKinnell
- Art Directon: Paul Smith
2010[]
- TARDIS 2010 3D Poster
- Exclusive Photograph: The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond inside the TARDIS
- Daleks 2010 3D Poster
- Exclusive Photograph: Featuring the new Daleks on Westminster Bridge with spitfires in the skies.
Notes[]
A pretend Radio Times article promoting Daughter of the Gods, published in VOR 128.
- No television series have had more Radio Times covers than Doctor Who.
- Each of Jon Pertwee's seasons as the Third Doctor were heralded by a Radio Times cover.
- Tom Baker never featured on the front cover of Radio Times during his era, although he did later appear on one of the 12 covers marking the 50th anniversary in 2013.
- Radio Times offered to feature the Cybermen in a front cover and accompanying article to mark the start of Earthshock, but producer John Nathan-Turner turned this down as he was keen to preserve the surprise of their reappearance.
- Radio Times has, on occasions, published surprise-ruining “spoilers” within its preview articles, programme listings and even front covers, such as the appearance of the Daleks in “World’s End” and the final episode of Frontier in Space; the humanoid Dalek Sec in Daleks in Manhattan; the impending arrival of the Cybermen in The Invasion; and the first published mention of the Time Lords at the start of The War Games. Given that the programme listings are provided by the production team, some of these “spoilers” might well be described as “own goals”, though Terrance Dicks – while script editor – once mentioned that the Radio Times editorial team “were a law unto themselves” even while technically part of the overall BBC at the time.
- Nevertheless, on several occasions “spoilers” have been avoided by inventing spurious performer names to hide surprise reveals (see The Rescue, Time-Flight, et al) or, in the case of Earthshock, the Production team turning down the offer of a Radio Times front cover.
- Vortex magazine #128 featured a pretend render of a Radio Times article celebrating "Five years of Doctor Who". This was created by Big Finish Productions to promote the release of Daughter of the Gods, which was envisioned as a "five-year anniversary special", the Radio Times image adding to the feeling of authenticity.
Radio Times Covers Party[]
Radio Times holds its own annual Radio Times Covers Party, a prestigious event where cover stars are awarded framed covers, since the 2005 relaunch the Doctor Who team have been the recipients of more covers than any other series on TV.
- Andrew Skilleter collected a framed cover of his twentieth Anniversary piece for The Five Doctors in 1983, one of the illustrators to do so.
Covers Party 2007
