Italy

ITALY is in central Europe, and borders the Mediterranean Sea.

Profile

Country Number (54?)	1980	SECOND WAVE
Region	Europe
Television commenced	1954
Colour System	1977	PAL
Population	1980	57 million
TV Sets	1980	12.87 million / incl. 1.18 million colour
Language/s	Italian	Dubbed

Television Stations / Channels

Italy began its television service in 1954.

There are a number of privately-owned stations, but the national broadcaster – and home to Doctor Who - is:

Radiotelevisione Italia (RAI)

All foreign television programmes are dubbed into Italian.

DOCTOR WHO IN ITALY

Italy was the seventh country in Europe to screen Doctor Who. It was appears to have been the to buy the series at the end of the SECOND WAVE of sales (see Selling Doctor Who).

And as we've noted in the chapter, 110 Million Viewers, 54 countries had bought the series by then.

BBC Records

The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS, records a sale of "(9)" stories to Italy (by 10 February 1987).

Given that only seven stories aired, it could be that two further stories were purchased but didn't air (one of these being 4E, if the DWM reference is correct). Of course, the records could be inaccurate, or the tally also includes the repeat screenings of two of the serials.

In DWM, Italy is identified in only 2 story Archives: 4E and 4H, in 1979. As far as we can tell, 4E did not air – see note above.

Stories bought and broadcast

TOM BAKER

7 stories, 26 episodes:

Code	English Title	eps	Italian title
4A	Robot	4	Robot
4C	The Ark in Space	4	Arca Spaziale
4B	The Sontaran Experiment	2	Esperimento Sontaran
4D	Revenge of the Cybermen	4	La Vendetta dei Ciberniani
4H	Planet of Evil	4	Il Pianeta del Male
4G	Pyramids of Mars	4	Le Piramidi di Marte
4F	Terror of the Zygons	4	La Sconfitta degli Zigoni (The Defeat of the Zygons)




	Billing for Pianeta del Male with Michael E Briant credited a director

NOTE: Italy was one of the few countries to screen 4B, 4C, 4H, 4G in the correct order.

The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes, which were dubbed into Italian.

In Italian, the character of the Doctor is called "Il Dottore". The Italian actors who portrayed the lead roles were:

Diego Reggente – Il Dottore Who!

Diego Reggente (The Doctor)
- DIEGGO REGENTE's CREDITS
Germano Long (Brigadier)
Piera Vidale (Sarah)
Guido de Salvi (Harry)

Diego Reggente – Il Dottore Who!

For a more detailed list of the Italian actors, visit: ITALIAN ACTORS for DOCTOR WHO

And although not covered by BroaDWcast, here are details of the voice-over actor for the new series:

DOCTOR WHO (2005) VOICES

Transmission

TOM BAKER

Although there are nine stories recorded in the 1987 sales document, only seven stories screened.

The series started on Wednesday, 6 February 1980, at 7.20pm.

It aired weekly in the same timeslot for 22 weeks, until 1 March 1980. The six stories aired in the correct story order, which was highly unusual, as many foreign broadcasters tended to screen those stories in production code order.

Nineteen months later, on Saturday, 3 October 1981, at 12.05pm in the afternoon, the series returned, with the "missing" Zygon story. This was followed by a repeat screening of Il Pianeta del Mal and Le Piramidi di Marte (which might account for the total of nine in the 1987 memo.)

There were 13 weeks in this run, but only 12 episodes: La Sconfitta degli Zigoni is billed for the first five weeks, so presumably ononeof these dates the episode was pre-empted.

The series ended on 26 December 1981.

As far as can be determined, the series did not screen in Italy again.

TV listings

← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated)

TV listings have been obtained from the Rome newspaper Il Tempo.

Listings always gave the series name as "DOCTOR WHO".

In Il Tempo, there were a number of "oddities". On 22 February, the listing given was for La Sconfitta degli Zigoni, but the following week, it was not stated (N/S),; but the next two weeks had Il Pianeta del Male; so presumably the Zygon story was dropped in favour of anther serial. (The paper also incorrectly billed Michael E Briant as the director.)