Europe

DOCTOR WHO in EUROPE

While the BBC had moderate success selling Doctor Who to Mediterranean countries such as Malta and Cyprus in the 1960s, it had only limited success in selling the series to continental Europe. Only the Netherlands sampled the programme in 1975.

While Gibraltar kept up with the series on a regular basis (from 1965 to 1986), since that was a territory of England and broadcast in English, it doesn't really count!

Daily Mail article (image courtesy of Peter Haining's The Key to Time)

According to the Daily Mail, issue dated 28 February 1977, the reason for this lack of interest on the continent was because "Dr Who is too terrifying for Europe".

This newspaper article declared that: "DR WHO... will not be seen by European youngsters. He is too terrifying. "Our television is regarded as being too violent by the rest of Europe," Mr Brian Keyser, assistant head of sales for BBC Enterprises, said yesterday. "We have found it impossible to sell Dr Who..." Mr Keyser was speaking in Brighton, where the BBC presented a showcase of TV programmes for European buyers yesterday in the hope of raising £500,000. Dr Who will be shown to the delegates from 30 countries at Brighton this week. It has been sold to Canada and Australia, but there it is classified as adult-only viewing..."

A few years later, a couple of countries - Denmark and Italy - did sample some Tom Baker stories in 1979/1980. But it really wasn't until the late 1980s, that the BBC made any real breakthrough with selling the good Doctor to major players in Europe, such as France, Spain, Greece, Poland and Germany.

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