Bahrain
The island nation of BAHRAIN is on the Arabian / Persian Gulf, off the east coast of Saudi Arabia.
Profile
| Country Number (N/K) | 1975? | SECOND WAVE |
| Region | Middle East | |
| Television commenced | 1973 | |
| Colour System | 1973 | PAL |
| Population | 1980 | 270,000 |
| TV Sets | 1980 | 80,000 (50,000 colour) |
| Language/s | Arabic and English | Dubbed and Subtitled |
Television Stations / Channels
Bahrain, the smallest Arabic / Gulf country, began its PAL colour television service in 1973.
Bahrain Television (a government-owned commercial broadcaster) provided an alternative to the then-monochrome broadcasts from the nearby ARAMCO compound in Saudi Arabia. It operated two channels: Channel 4, which was exclusively Arabic, and Channel 55, which was exclusively English.
Doctor Who screened on Channel 55.
Language/s
The principal language of Bahrain is Arabic, although English is also a major language. Television broadcasts were in both languages, or with Arabic subtitles.
DOCTOR WHO IN BAHRAIN
الدكتور هو
We are unsure of when Doctor Who first aired in Bahrain.
BBC Records
Research undertaken by Stephen James Walker revealed that The Ark in Space may have aired in Bahrain by July 1975.
Research undertaken by Richard Molesworth revealed that the video tapes of Robot, The Ark in Space and The Sontaran Experiment were sent from Jordan to Bahrain in mid-1981. (NOTE: We have been unable to find airdates in Jordan for those three stories.)
The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records a sale of "(7)" stories to Bahrain (by 10 February 1987).
DWM has Bahrain identified in the story Archive for 4A, with a year of sale given as 1981; this is taken from Molesworth's findings.
Stories bought and broadcast
TOM BAKER
Seven stories, total number of episodes unknown:
| 4A | Robot | 4 |
| 4C | The Ark in Space | 4 |
| 4B | The Sontaran Experiment | 2 |
| ? | Four other stories | ? |
BAHRAIN therefore bought at least part of GROUP A of the Tom Baker stories.
The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
If BBC Records record The Ark in Space as being sold in 1975 and again in 1981, might we conclude that the serial aired twice? And if so, does this count as two of the seven stories sold?
Transmission
TOM BAKER
BBC Records indicate there may have been a run of some of the season 12 Tom Baker stories in 1975. We have not been able to access any newspapers with TV listings for that period. (At least one of the stories appears to have been The Ark in Space – unless it was a one-off that aired on its own.)
The only documented screenings of Doctor Who we could find for Bahrain was a brief 12 week run on Channel 55, which corresponds with the date by which the tapes (NOTE: only 10 episodes, not 12) were sent from Jordan. The 12 week run commenced on Tuesday, 8 December 1981, at 6.30pm, and ended on 23 February 1982.
These 12 episodes could have been made up of three 4-parters, two 6-parters, or a 2-parter, one 4-parter and one 6-parter.
Assuming that The Ark in Space (and three other stories) had already aired in Bahrain in 1975, and the tapes of that serial supplied by Jordan were therefore surplus to requirements, the 12 weeks could have consisted of Robot, The Sontaran Experiment (as supplied by Jordan) and Genesis of the Daleks (supplied from elsewhere).
Due to the country's proximity to other Gulf countries, viewers in Bahrain could also receive transmissions from Saudi Arabia's ARAMCO channel/s, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, so even if Doctor Who had aired only briefly on Channel 55 itself, Bahraini viewers would have had the opportunity to see many other Doctor Who serials, from 1975 right up through until 1990 (see Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates).
There is no record that Bahrain screened Doctor Who again after 1982.
TV listings
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
The 1981-82 TV listings have been obtained from the Bahraini newspaper Gulf Mirror.
We have not been able to access any Bahraini or Gulf region newspapers prior to 1977, so if there was indeed an earlier run in 1975, we have no details for that.
