Cyprus
CYPRUS is a small island of XXXX km2, in the Mediterranean sea, near the coat of Turkey. It was once a British colony.
Contents
Population
When Doctor Who screened in Cyprus in 1966, the population was 594,000, and licensed TV sets numbered 11,659 (per WRTH, 1966).
TV & system
Cyprus began its television service in 1956.
There is just one television station: Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, a government-owned commercial broadcaster.
Colour transmissions began in 1976 using the colour broadcast system, but Doctor Who never screened in colour.
Language/s
The main language of Cyprus is Greek and Turkish, although English was then recognised as a third official language.
DOCTOR WHO IN CYPRUS
Cyprus was the 15th country to screen Doctor Who (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Cyprus as one twelve countries screening Doctor Who in that year.
The Seventies records a sale of 9 stories by 28 February 1977. The Handbook identifies these as being: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, K.
In DWM, Cyprus is identified in the same 9 story Archives.
Two other Mediterranean countries, Gibraltar and Malta had screened Doctor Who in 19765; it's possible that Cyprus was sent prints from one of those countries.
Stories bought and broadcast
WILLIAM HARTNELL
Although BBC Records indicate a sale of at leat nine stories, only the first seven of those aired:
Seven stories, 36 episodes:
| A | An Unearthly Child | 4 |
| B | The Daleks | 7 |
| C | Inside the Spaceship | 2 |
| D | Marco Polo | 7 |
| E | The Keys of Marinus | 6 |
| F | The Aztecs | 4 |
| G | The Sensorites | 6 |
Cyprus therefore bought GROUP A, GROUP B and part of GROUP C of the William Hartnell stories.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Transmission
WILLIAM HARTNELL
The series began on Saturday, 12 March 1966, at 7.55pm. The day of the week changed to Friday from 10 June 1966 with part one of Marco Polo, where it remained for the rest of the run. Other than a break for a week on 28 October 1966, and what appear to be pre-emption on 15 July, the series otherwise ran uninterrupted, ending with part six of The Sensorites on 25 November 1966.
The timeslots ranged from 7.25pm to 9.20pm.
In 1984, it was discovered that the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation still possessed their 16mm prints of The Aztecs (1,2,3), The Sensorites (1-6) and The Reign of Terror (1,2,3,6).
What is unusual in this, is the very fact that The Reign of Terror didn't screen. This is either due to censorship issues, or perhaps they were only ever supplied with four of the six episodes, or they were sent the prints in error.
TV listings
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper Cyprus Mail.
Listings initially gave the series name as Dr Who
The majority of the episodes were named in the paper. Part six of Marco Polo is listed as airing on 15 July 1966, but the following week it is listed again, with a note in the paper stating that XXXXXXX, which suggests either a different episode was aired in error, and Mighty Kubla (sic) Kahn aired 22 July.
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
Fate of the Prints
As noted above, 13 16mm prints from three different serials were returned from Cyprus in 1984. This discovery was announced by Paul Vanezis in the July 1985 issue of Celestial Toyroom, the news-zine of DWAS: [XXXXXX put in copy of article and letter]]]
Cyprus in Doctor Who
There are no instances where Cyprus is mentioned in the series.
References
