Verity Lambert (27 November 1935-22 November 2007[1]) was the first producer of Doctor Who, serving from An Unearthly Child to Mission to the Unknown. Her work on Doctor Who was the first time that she had been a full producer and was one of the first times a woman had such a role in television.
Ms. Lambert owned her own production company, Cinema Verity. She was awarded an OBE in 2002 for services to film and television, making her the first producer of Doctor Who to be made an OBE.
Death and legacy[]
She was due to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and Television Awards in December 2007, but died before the award could be presented to her. It was awarded posthumously. Lambert passed on just five days shy of her 72nd birthday, falling victim to cancer and a lifestyle of heavy smoking.
The 2008 DVD release of The Time Meddler, which she had participated in the audio commentary for prior to her passing, was dedicated to her memory.
In An Adventure in Space and Time, Lambert was played by actress Jessica Raine.
The original cast and Verity (centre).
The 2005 revival of Doctor Who has paid on-screen tribute to Lambert on at least three occasions. In the 2007 episode Human Nature, the Tenth Doctor, in his guise as the 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 series creator Sydney Newman), the great-granddaughter of Joan Redfern from Human Nature and the author of A Journal of Impossible Things.
Credits[]
Doctor Who[]
- The Pilot Episode
- An Unearthly Child
- The Daleks
- The Edge of Destruction
- Marco Polo
- The Keys of Marinus
- The Aztecs
- The Sensorites
- The Reign of Terror
- Planet of Giants
- The Dalek Invasion of Earth
- The Rescue
- The Romans
- The Web Planet
- The Crusade
- The Space Museum
- The Chase
- The Time Meddler
- Galaxy 4
- Mission to the Unknown
Miscellaneous[]
Documentary[]
DVD and Blu-ray[]
- Doctor Who: Origins
- Over the Edge
- Inside the Spaceship
- Tales of Isop
- Daleks! Beyond the Screen
- Daleks! Conquer and Destroy
- Jacqueline Hill: A Life in Pictures (archive footage)
- The Celestial Toyroom
Television[]
VHS[]
Audio commentary[]
- The Aztecs
- The Dalek Invasion of Earth
- An Unearthly Child
- The Daleks
- The Web Planet
- The Time Meddler
