View source for Tunisia

'''[[Wikipedia:Tunisia|TUNISIA]]''' is in North Africa, on the Mediterranean sea. It borders [[Algeria]] and [[Libya]].
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==Profile== 
{| {{small-table}} 
|- 
|'''Country Number (24)'''||1967||[[Selling Doctor Who|FIRST WAVE]] 
|- 
|'''Region'''||[[:Category:Africa|Africa]]||
|- 
|'''Television commenced'''||31 May 1966||
|- 
|'''Colour System'''||1976||[[:Wikipedia:PAL|PAL]] 
|- 
|'''[[WRTH|Population]]'''||1966||4.5 million
|- 
|'''[[WRTH|TV Sets]]'''||1966||5,000 
|- 
|'''Language/s'''||[[Arabic]], French||Dubbed and Subtitled
|- 
|}


==Television Stations / Channels==

Television was available in Tunisia from the late 1950s, when one of the Italian broadcasters set up a relay station in Tunis to receive signals transmitted from [[Italy]]. 

The Tunisian government launched its own television service, '''Radiodiffusion-Television Tunisienne (RTT)''', on 31 May 1966.

Colour transmissions began in 1976 using the [[Wikipedia:PAL|PAL]] broadcast system.


==Language/s==

Programming was in [[Arabic]], French and Italian. In the 1960s, more than 50% of programming was locally-produced fare, with the remainder supplied from [[Egypt]] and [[Lebanon]], who also provided dubbed foreign programmes. 


=='''DOCTOR WHO IN TUNISIA'''==
{{Arabic}} 

Tunisia was the '''24th''' country to screen '''Doctor Who'''. It was also the '''first''' of the [[Arabic]]-speaking nations to purchase the series (see [[Selling Doctor Who]]).


==[[BBC Records]]==

Tunisia is not included in the list of 27 countries in '''The Making of Doctor Who''' (1972 Piccolo edition).

'''The Seventies''' records a sale of '''"(4)"''' stories by 28 February 1977. '''The Handbook''' identifies these as being: {{C}}, {{F}}, {{G}} and {{J}}. 

In '''DWM''', Tunisia is identified in '''six''' story Archives: the above four, plus {{A}} and {{E}}.

It is likely that {{B}} was also aired, making seven in total. 


==Stories bought and broadcast==

===[[William Hartnell stories|WILLIAM HARTNELL]]===

Seven stories, 32 episodes but all screened?:
[[File:Tunis TV2.JPG|'''الدكتور هو''' in Arabic, 6 July 1967|thumb|right|250px]]
[[File:Tunis Ep10.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Dr Who (Episode 10) Feuilleton, 6 July 1967]]
[[File:Tunis TV.JPG|TV listing in Arabic, 10 August 1967|thumb|right|250px]]
[[File:Tunis EP15.JPG|Close up of '''الدكتور هو''', Episode 15 in Arabic, 10 August 1967|thumb|right|250px]]
[[File:Tunis EP17.JPG|'''الدكتور هو''', Episode 17 in Arabic, 24 August 1967|thumb|right|250px]]
{| {{small-table}}
|-
|A||[[An Unearthly Child]]||1 or 4?
|-
|B||[[The Daleks]]||7
|-
|C||[[Inside the Spaceship]]||2
|-
|E||[[The Keys of Marinus]]||6
|-
|F||[[The Aztecs]]||4
|-
|G||[[The Sensorites]]||6
|-
|J||[[Planet of Giants]]||3
|-
|}

Tunisia therefore bought the standard GROUP A, B and C of the [[William Hartnell stories]] that had been dubbed into [[Arabic]], but not [[The Dalek Invasion of Earth]] and [[The Rescue]]. 

One reason why those two were not purchased at the time may have been due to the on-going issues between the BBC and Dalek creator Terry Nation. During late 1966 and all of 1967 Nation was having discussions with American TV networks with regard to the setting up of a spin-off series featuring the Daleks. The BBC has agreed that it would not continue to sell any Daleks serials, although any sales that had already been negotiated before the moratorium was placed were not affected. Tunisia must have completed its purchase of [[The Daleks]] before the moratorium began, but missed out on purchasing [[The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]; presumably [[The Rescue]] was not purchased at the same time due to its narrative link to that Dalek serial (i.e. Susan's departure). 

(See the section '''Who Dubbed Who?''' on the [[Spanish]] page for more discussion about issues concerning the foreign dubbings of those two stories.)

The dates of the series' sale to Tunisia are unusual: the first three serials were purchased by '''25 October 1967''', the last three by '''20 November''', and [[The Keys of Marinus]] by '''12 December'''. Whether the late "sale" of that six-parter has any bearing on there being at least six episodes unaccounted for is unknown. As noted below, the [[Arabic]] edition of [[The Aztecs]] was created in '''November 1967''', which supports when the serial was "sold".

The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with [[Arabic]] soundtracks. (It's possible that the film prints Tunisia received were mute, with the Arabic soundtrack provided on a separate magnetic tapes.)


====Origin of the Prints?====

Tunisia was the first country to receive the [[Arabic]] prints that had been dubbed for the BBC in [[Lebanon]]. 


==Transmission==
{{Arabic}} 
[[File:Tunis EP2.JPG|thumb|right|250px|TV listings in French, 20 April 1967]]
[[File:Tunis 2eme.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Docteur Who Episode 2, 20 April 1967]]

Although '''32''' episodes were bought, we have only determined airdates for '''23''' episodes (see TV listings below). 

The series started on Thursday, '''13 April 1967''', and aired weekly. The regular timeslot was 8.00pm or 8.05pm, with the last two at 8.15pm and 7.30pm. 

The third episode of the series aired on '''27 April'''; the next numbered episode was the 8th, on '''22 June''', which was actually eight weeks later. The papers for '''1 May, 1, 8 and 15 June''' were missing, so three episodes must have been pre-empted during this period. 

The 23rd and '''"dernier"''' (last/final) episode aired on '''5 October 1967''' at the earlier time of 7.30pm. 

As noted above, only 23 of a potential 32 episodes aired. It is known for certain that all four episodes of [[An Unearthly Child]] were dubbed into [[Arabic]], however several of the [[Arabic]] countries did not air episodes 2, 3 and 4 of the first serial. Whether this also happened in Tunisia is unknown. (The fact that Tunisia was the first Arabic nation to air the series might indicate that they '''did''' screen all four episodes, and it was only the subsequent countries did not air the other three.) 

But if only part one of [[An Unearthly Child]] aired, then one of the two six-parters, [[The Keys of Marinus]] and [[The Sensorites]], or [[Inside the Spaceship]] and [[The Aztecs]] didn't screen. As noted above, [[The Keys of Marinus]] is recorded as having been "sold" after the other six stories, which might have a bearing on the fact that at least six episodes are unaccounted for.

With 23 episodes airing in one block, the permutations of that number of episodes include:   

'''Scenario #1'''
*4 - An Unearthly Child 
*7 - The Daleks 
*2 - Inside the Spaceship
*6 - The Keys of Marinus or The Sensorites 
*4 - The Aztecs (*)


'''Scenario #2'''
*4 - An Unearthly Child
*6 - The Keys of Marinus
*4 - The Aztecs
*6 - The Sensorites
*3 - Planet of Giants


'''Scenario #3'''
*1 - An Unearthly Child
*7 - The Daleks 
*2 - Inside the Spaceship
*6 - The Keys of Marinus or The Sensorites
*4 - The Aztecs 
*3 - Planet of Giants


'''Scenario #4'''
*1 - An Unearthly Child
*7 - The Daleks 
*6 - The Keys of Marinus 
*6 - The Sensorites
*3 - Planet of Giants


Of note, the existing Arabic print of [[The Aztecs]] episode 4 that had been used in [[Morocco]] (included on the DVD release) has the date '''November 1967''' printed on it. If this is the date that the negative was created from which all prints were struck, that is months after the screenings in Tunisia had concluded – which strongly suggests that it was [[The Aztecs]] that did not screen in Tunisia, which means Scenario #4 is the more likely.

(*) Noted on the [[Arabic]] page is that the closing Arabic narration to this story does not describe the events of [[The Sensorites]]. Could it be that [[The Aztecs]] was the final story to air? 

There is no clear record that Tunisia screened '''Doctor Who''' again, even after the switch to PAL colour in 1976.


====Fate of the Prints?====

The next [[Arabic]] country to buy '''Doctor Who''' was [[Morocco]], with sales dated May 1968. Given their very close proximity to each other, it is more than likely that Tunisia sent its prints of the Hartnell stories that it aired to [[Morocco]], with the "missing" ones acquired by [[Morocco]] from a different source.

But of note, [[Iran]] screened the very same seven stories in a block from January to October 1969. It wasn't until February 1970 that NIRTV aired more. It's therefore possible that Tunisia sent the stories to Iran. (Although the principal language of Iran is Farsi rather than [[Arabic]], the two languages are not too dissimilar, so NIRTV could have aired the serials with the Arabic soundtrack substituted by a Farsi language dub with the Music / Effects track supplied by the BBC.)


==TV listings==
{{airdates-left|}}
TV listings in French have been obtained from ''L'Action'' and ''La Presse de Tunisie''.

The listings identify the series as '''"Docteur Who"''', '''"Dr Who"''' or '''"Doctor Who"''' under the '''"PROGRAMME EN LANGUE ARABE"''' section, meaning it was broadcast in [[Arabic]]. (The papers also list programmes in French and Italian.)

There was no paper for the first episode on '''13 April''', but the following week's edition had a billing for "2eme episode" (second episode).

The papers did not identify episodes by title, instead they just numbered them in French: '''"2eme episode", "3e episode", "dernier episode"''', etc. Some of the billings also says '''"(Feuilleton)"''', which means "serial".

There was no listing for the series on '''10 August 1967''', however the episodes before and after this date were numbered '''14e''' and '''16e''', so the '''15th''' must have aired on 10 August.

Only 23 of the 32 potential episodes have been accounted for, which means that 6 episodes didn't air – [[Inside the Spaceship]] and [[The Aztecs]], or one of the 6-parters (the last to be "sold" [[The Keys of Marinus]]?), or played at a much later date - we checked TV listings from October 1967 to the end of 1968, but there were no further billings for the series in that fifteen month period.

We also accessed the newspaper ''Al-Amal'', which had TV listings in Arabic. Some of the billings for '''الدكتور هو''' had a numeral next to them – such as '''15''', '''17''', etc – which matched the French numbering on the same date.


==Links==
*[[Main Page]]
*[[Broadcasts around the World]]
*[[Articles & Analysis]]
*[[BBC Records]]
*[[Doctors]]
**[[William Hartnell stories]]
*[[Arabic]]

[[Category:Africa]]