Nigeria
NIGERIA is in northwest Africa.
Profile
| Country Number (9) | 1965 | FIRST & SECOND WAVE |
| Region | Africa | Commonwealth |
| Television commenced | 1959 | |
| Colour System | 1974 | PAL |
| Population | 1966 | 52 million |
| TV Sets | 1966 | 30,000 |
| Population | 1974 | 66.174 million |
| TV Sets | 1974 | 85,000 |
| Population | 1980 | 68.750 million |
| TV Sets | 1980 | 450,000 |
| Language/s | English | regional languages |
Television Stations / Channels
Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa.
By the mid-1960s, Nigeria was made up of 12 separate 'states' or regions, each with its own 'capital city'. (By the mid-1970s, these regions were merged into four larger states.)
Each state had its own independent television service, broadcasting foreign and locally-produced programming. The major stations, and the ones relevant to BroaDWcast, were:
- Western Nigerian Government Broadcasting Corporation (WNTV): established in October 1959, based in Ibadan, and broadcasting to the western states. WNTV was the first television service operating in 'tropical' Africa. (Northern countries like Algeria and Libya had already established TV services a few years earlier.) In 1974, WNTV was the first to commence colour broadcasts.
- Radio-Television Kaduna / Radio Kaduna Television (RKTV): established in March 1962, based in Kaduna, and operated by the Broadcasting Company of Northern Nigeria, provided coverage to the central northern states.
- Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC): a federal government-owned service, established in April 1962, based in the then-capital city of Lagos, and broadcasting to the south western states.
- Midwest TV: the state government in Benin established a TV service from Port Harcourt in 1972.
In 1976, the federal government established the Nigerian Television Authority, based in Lagos, under which all government-owned television services across Nigeria were controlled by a single body, although each continued to broadcast its own separate schedules of programming. These stations each carried the ident NTV.
Although BBC Records identify sales of Doctor Who to the generic name of "Nigeria", these disparate sales were to different broadcasters across the country. Therefore, we've adopted a station-by-station layout for the Nigeria profile to reflect this.
Doctor Who screened on several different channels over the years; it appears that each station bought whatever stories were still available from the BBC at the time, hence why some of the runs of stories are disjointed.
Language/s
Nigeria has over 235 languages and dialects, although English is the principal language. Television broadcasts contained an equal mix of foreign programming in English, and locally-produced content in regional languages.
DOCTOR WHO IN NIGERIA
Nigeria was the ninth country to screen the series, and the first in Africa.
BBC Records
The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Nigeria as one of twelve countries screening Doctor Who in that year.
The Seventies records a sale of "(24)" stories by 28 February 1977. The Handbook identifies these as being: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S and BB for Hartnell; and NN, PP, QQ, SS, TT, and WW for Troughton.
In DWM, Nigeria is identified in 28 story Archives: the same 24 as in The Seventies, plus 4A, 4B, 4C, and 4D.
In The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS, there are "(4)" sales noted for Nigeria prior to February 1987. Those likely equate to the four Tom Baker stories as noted in DWM, although it appears that far more than only four Tom Baker stories aired. .
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RADIO KADUNA (RKTV) (1965-1967)
WILLIAM HARTNELL
17 stories, 81 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 |
| H | The Reign of Terror | 6 |
| J | Planet of Giants | 3 |
| K | The Dalek Invasion of Earth | 6 |
| L | The Rescue | 2 |
| M | The Romans | 4 |
| N | The Web Planet | 6 |
| P | The Crusade | 4 |
| Q | The Space Museum | 4 |
| R | The Chase | 6 |
| S | The Time Meddler | 4 |
RKTV therefore bought the standard package of William Hartnell stories, GROUPs A to E that was available to English-speaking Commonwealth countries.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
Since Nigeria was the first African nation to buy the series, it is likely they received fresh prints from the BBC.
Transmission
The series made its Nigerian debut on Radio-Television Kaduna / Radio Kaduna Television (RKTV), Tuesday, 3 August 1965, at 6.35pm. It stayed on that day of the week and timeslot throughout the run.
In an article / interview with William Hartnell published in the 24 April 1966 issue of the UK newspaper, Daily Mirror, it is noted that Doctor Who is "a knockout in Nigeria".
The last clear listing for Doctor Who on RKTV was on 18 April 1967 - but assuming there were no interruptions, this would be the 90th episode, nine more than the number of available episodes. We can only assume that there were nine pre-emptions during the run.
From 23 May 1967, the Doctor Who timeslot was filled by a series called The Strangers; but it's not clear on what date that started – see TV listings below.
Assuming that all 81 episodes played without interruption or pre-emption, and that the final seven listings in the papers were printing errors and should be for The Strangers, Doctor Who ended on 14 February 1967.
Fate of the Prints?
It is very possible that RKTV forwarded its prints of the first eleven William Hartnell stories to Rhodesia, but that problems in doing so meant that the planned 19 September debut in Zambia, who followed Rhodesia, was delayed by four weeks...
For the season two stories, The Romans to The Time Meddler, these prints may have been sent to Zambia.
TV listings
The listings for RKTV have been obtained from the Lagos newspaper, Daily Times.
All billings identify the series as "Dr Who".
Several issues did not contain listings for RKTV, and some had no TV listings at all. September to November 1966 was particularly bad for missing listings. And in April / May 1967, the lack of TV listings makes it unclear when Doctor Who ended and the replacement show The Strangers started.
MID WEST TV (1973)
WILLIAM HARTNELL (Continued)
Three stories, 14 episodes:
| N | The Web Planet | 6 |
| S | The Time Meddler | 4 |
| BB | The War Machines | 4 |
BBC Records indicate that by the early 1970s, only a handful of William Hartnell stories were still available to purchase. Mid West TV therefore bought three of these, two of which had previously screened by RKTV in 1967.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
The film prints for The Time Meddler were sent to Nigeria from New Zealand on 2 March 1973, which was only a month ahead of the Nigerian transmission.
These episodes had been cut by the New Zealand censors. However, it appears that Mid West was responsible for removing the first few minutes of the opening TARDIS control room scene, which had the first onscreen appearance of Steven Taylor.
(An alternative is that the BBC in London sent Mid West a print of part one of The Time Meddler as part of its "Audition" process, and the print they supplied was already missing the opening TARDIS scene, an edit made by BBC Enterprises because The Chase was no longer available. New Zealand therefore may have supplied Mid West with another copy of the same episode.)
The prints of The War Machines were supplied to Nigeria from Singapore. Singapore had in turn received the prints from New Zealand; they were dispatched by the NZBC on 10 January 1972. Again, the prints had been cut by the New Zealand censors; although it appears that Mid West or the Singapore broadcaster had made further cuts to episodes two and three.
It is not known where the Mid West copy of The Web Planet came from; the serial did not screen in New Zealand due to censorship, and the fate of the film prints held by the NZBC was not recorded, but it is possible that The Web Planet was sent to Nigeria at the same time as The Time Meddler. Or, since Singapore sent The War Machines to Nigeria, they may have also been responsible for supplying The Web Planet.
Transmission
After a six year break, Doctor Who returned to Nigerian televisions; now screening on Mid West TV, which despite the name broadcast to southern regions of Nigeria.
It is not clear when this run commenced - the first listing for the series is on Monday, 30 April 1973, with the listing given as "Children's Time - Dr Who", 6.30 to 7.30pm. From the listings it looks like Doctor Who aired as part of an hour-long slot of cartoons and other children's fare. The last such listing is on 2 July 1973. Assuming there are no printing errors, this was a ten week run. If Doctor Who played for the full hour, then for some of this run, two episodes may have aired back to back. Otherwise only ten episodes played, but there are 14 episodes to account for. It's more than the newspaper simply did not always carry listings for Mid West, and the first four episodes of the run are omitted from the TV listings page.
Fate of the Prints
All 14 of these Hartnell episodes were subsequently recovered from Nigeria and returned to the BBC in 1984/85. Part one of The Time Meddler was missing parts of the opening TARDIS scene. This does not appear to have been cut in New Zealand, as the episode's running time is correct in NZBC's records. Did Nigeria cut the scene, or were they supplied with part one cut by the BBC as an Audition print?
The recovered prints of The War Machines exhibited the cuts made by the New Zealand censor, as well as additional cuts to parts two and three, which were made by Singapore or Mid West.
The copies of The Web Planet the BBC already held in its Archive were incomplete: part one was missing the opening recap from The Romans and part six had an alternative "NEXT EPISODE" closing caption. The returned "Nigerian" prints were complete and uncut.
TV listings
Listings for Mid West TV come from the New Nigerian, which was published from Kaduna. This paper only started publishing listings for Mid West from 24 April 1973, so it is unclear when exactly Doctor Who started; the first of only ten listings is dated 30 April 1973, and there are 14 episodes to account for. Presumably the "missing" four episodes aired in April. There were no papers available for 7 May and the last three weeks of June 1973.
The six available airdates billed the series as "Children's Time - Dr Who".
From July 1973, New Nigerian only occasionally published Mid West TV listings.
UNKNOWN (1974?)
BBC Records record a sale of four Patrick Troughton stories by October 1974. However airdates and listings for these have not been found; it is not known what state or broadcaster transmitted these now-missing adventures.
PATRICK TROUGHTON
Four stories, 24 episodes:
| NN | The Abominable Snowmen | 6 |
| PP | The Enemy of the World | 6 |
| The Web of Fear | 6 | |
| SS | The Wheel in Space | 6 |
This unknown station purchased four serials from GROUP D of the Patrick Troughton stories.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
It's possible these prints may have been supplied by Zambia.
These four stories had also screened in New Zealand a few years earlier; interestingly, New Zealand did not screen The Ice Warriors or Fury from the Deep, both of which did not screen in Nigeria either, which does suggest there might be a connection between the two countries in terms of supply.
Transmission/TV listings
We accessed a number of different Nigerian newspapers for 1974 and 1975 but could not find any listings for a run of 24 episodes of Doctor Who. Many of the TV listings examined had billings for non-specific children's programming. For example, the following channels had daily "generic" children's programming, which may have included Doctor Who in their line-up:
- NBC-TV: Children's Hour (6.00-7.00pm)
- WNTV: Junior TV Workshop (6.00-6.30pm)
- Mid West TV: Junior Tee Vee Club (7.05-7.30pm)
- TV Kaduna: Hello Children (6.05-6.35)
And for several months in early 1974, the New Nigerian was plagued by a printing 'duplication' error, in which the same TV listings were repeated over and over again. Doctor Who could quite easily have aired at that time.
Fate of the Prints?
Nigeria was the last country to screen these now-missing stories.
NIGERIAN BROADCASTING CORP (NBC-TV) (1975)
PATRICK TROUGHTON (Continued)
Two stories, 9 episodes:
| TT | The Dominators | 5 |
| WW | The Krotons | 4 |
NBC therefore bought two stories from GROUP E of the available Patrick Troughton stories.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
The only countries to screen these two serials prior to Nigeria were Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Gibraltar.
Transmission
BBC Records indicate that The Dominators was sold to "Nigeria" some time around November 1975, and The Krotons by February 1976.
Only four listings for Doctor Who appear for Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation / NBC-TV, the first on Monday, 7 December 1975, the fourth and final is four weeks later on 28 December 1975. Presumably this is for The Krotons.
However the billings are very ambiguous, as they say: "4.00 Magic Hour – Son of Dr. Who", and the timeslot is indeed a full hour.
This suggests that during this hour of "Magic", Doctor Who screened under the title "Son of Dr Who" - did the programmers think Troughton's Doctor was the son of Hartnell's?
However, further research into the name "Son of Dr Who" has revealed that there may have been a children's magician who performed under that stage-name. In his online biography, Dr. Oluaiye Mobolaji Alimi Salami Naibi Oba Ogboni, reports that he studied magic in London, and on returning to Nigeria, "was the in-house magician performing on NTA Channel 10 with late Professor Peller and son of Dr. Who between 1976 – 1978."
This implies that Dr Ogboni, Professor Peller and Son of Dr Who were three stage magicians performing together on Channel 10. Of course that would make it an extreme coincidence that a magician called "Son of Dr Who" was appearing on television around the same time that Doctor Who should also have been on, but for which listings could not be located.
We have checked with various Colleges of Magic, and none has any record of a Nigerian magician using the stage-name "Son of Dr Who".
Our instinct here is that "Son of Dr Who" is indeed Doctor Who (we could find no other listings for the series in 1975), and that Ogboni's biographer has simply got his/her facts slightly askew; when they say Ogboni appeared with the late Professor Peller and son of Dr Who they mean he was on television in the same programme hour along with Doctor Who.
Fate of the Prints?
Nigeria was the final country to screen these two Troughton serials.
TV listings
The billings for NBC-TV have been obtained from the New Nigerian, which was published from Kaduna. Listings for that channel were infrequent, and either side of the four listings that have been ascertained the paper only printed programming for after 6.00pm, and "Son of Dr Who" screening at 4.00pm...
We feel sure therefore that this run was indeed The Dominators and The Krotons.
NTV-KANO (1979-1980)
TOM BAKER
Although The Eighties reports a sale of only four stories, it is clear from the airdates, that far more stories aired. As far as can be determined, NTV-Kano screened Tom Baker's first three seasons only:
17 stories?, 72 episodes?
| 4A | Robot | 4 |
| 4B | The Sontaran Experiment | 2 |
| 4C | The Ark in Space | 4 |
| 4E | Genesis of the Daleks | 6 |
| 4D | Revenge of the Cybermen | 4 |
| 4F | Terror of the Zygons | 4 |
| 4H | Planet of Evil | 4 |
| 4G | Pyramids of Mars | 4 |
| 4J | The Android Invasion | 4 |
| 4K | The Brain of Morbius | 4 |
| 4L | The Seeds of Doom | 6 |
| 4M | The Masque of Mandragora | 4 |
| 4N | The Hand of Fear | 4 |
| 4P | The Deadly Assassin | 4 |
| 4Q | The Face of Evil | 4 |
| 4R | The Robots of Death | 4 |
| 4S | The Talons of Weng-Chiang | 6 |
NTV-Kano may therefore have bought GROUPs A to C of the Tom Baker stories.
The episodes would have been supplied on PAL colour video tapes, with English soundtracks.
Transmission
Doctor Who returned to Nigerian TV screens in 1979. The entire Jon Pertwee era was skipped, and instead viewers saw Tom Baker's fourth Doctor.
Colour broadcasts had commenced in Nigeria in 1974 (first by WNTV, then elsewhere in later years). By 1979 all Nigerian television stations were under control of the Nigerian Television Authority, and all TV stations pre-fixed with NTV (identified stations included NTV-Kaduna, NTV-Lagos, NTV-Jos, NTV-Sokoto and NTV-Kano.)
This new run of colour Doctor Who aired on NTV-Kano.
As far as we can tell, the first episode was on Monday, 8 January 1979. (We are unsure as to the exact start date, as there was no listing for NTV-Kano in the 1 January paper.) BBC Records indicate the first four stories were Robot, The Sontaran Experiment, The Ark in Space and Revenge of the Cybermen.
The series screened weekly at 6.30pm. The run lasted for 72 weeks, from 8 January 1979 to 19 May 1980. For 11 dates during the run, something else was listed in that slot. But the listings for "Marine Biology", "Young World", "Komai da Ruwanka" (*) and "A Gani Na" (*) may be symptomatic of the duplication errors that affected the New Nigerian back in 1974.
But the fact that 72 is also the same episode-count for Robot to The Talons of Weng-Chiang does suggest that these were the stories that aired. But if so, why do the BBC Records list sales of only four season 12 stories prior to 1987?
It was a passing comment on a 1984 radio programme that Nigerian television was so far behind the times that Patrick Troughton was still the Doctor over there that prompted Ian Levine and the BBC to contact Nigerian TV stations in the search for missing episodes. This search resulted in the recovery of the Hartnell stories The Time Meddler and The War Machines. But could there have been some truth in that comment? Did Troughton episodes air in Nigeria in the late 1970s?
It is therefore an extreme possibility that this 1979-80 run did consist of just the four Bakers named in BBC Records PLUS the 24 Patrick Troughton episodes that couldn't be traced in 1974/1975!
But since that idea accounts for only 64 episodes in a 72 week run, what were the other eight episodes? The jury is still out on that one...
(*) These two programmes are in Chadic, a language spoken in Ghana and Nigeria; the former literally translates as "Everything that your water" and the latter as "How to see". A Gani Na is listed in the 6.30pm slot through until the end of August 1980.
There is no clear record that Nigeria screened Doctor Who again after May 1980.
TV Listings
These listings are also from the New Nigerian. All billings are given as "Dr Who". There was no listing for NBC-Kano in the 1 January 1979 paper, so it's possible the series commenced earlier than 8 January.
Airdates
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
We have accounted for 200 airdates for Doctor Who in Nigeria, ten of which are "repeats" of The Web Planet and The Time Meddler.
Nigeria in Doctor Who
- Gravitron Moonbase crewman Ralph deBayo (played by Mark Heath) wears a Nigerian flag (albeit upside down!) on his tunic (The Moonbase).
