Bermuda
BERMUDA is a small island nation located to the west of the United States. It is a British territory, and member of the Commonwealth. Although it lies at the same latitude as the USA, it is still considered to be part of the Caribbean, which lies further south.
Profile
| Country Number (12) | 1965 | FIRST WAVE |
| Region | Caribbean | Commonwealth |
| Television commenced | 1958 | |
| Colour System | 1968 | NTSC |
| Population | 1966 | 57,000 |
| TV Sets | 1966 | 17,000 |
| Language/s | English |
Television Stations / Channels
Bermuda began its television service in 1958. There is just one television station: Capital Broadcasting Co Ltd (CBC-TV), which operated two channels – ZBM-TV, Channel 10 and ZFB-TV, Channel 8.
Doctor Who aired on ZFB-TV, Channel 8.
DOCTOR WHO IN BERMUDA
Bermuda was the 12th country to screen Doctor Who, and the second in the Caribbean (two months after Trinidad & Tobago (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Bermuda as one of sixteen countries screening Doctor Who by January 1966.
The Seventies records a sale of "(2)" stories by 28 February 1977. The Handbook identifies these as being D and E.
In DWM, Bermuda is identified in five Archives: A, B, C, D and E.
Trinidad & Tobago was the previous Carribbean country to screen the series; since both countries were serviced by the programme distributor Television International Enterprises Limited / TIE (Programmes) Ltd (see WRTH), it’s likely that Bermuda was sent the same set of prints shortly after transmission had completed in Trinidad & Tobago two month earlier (although Trinidad & Tobago went on to screen six more stories).
Stories bought and broadcast
WILLIAM HARTNELL
Five stories, 26 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 |
Bermuda therefore bought GROUP ONE and GROUP TWO of the William Hartnell stories.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Transmission
WILLIAM HARTNELL
The series started on Monday, 13 December 1965, at 6.30pm on ZFB-TV, channel 8. It screened uninterrupted for 26 weeks in the same timeslot until Monday, 6 June 1966.
There is no record that Bermuda screened Doctor Who again, even after the introduction of colour.
Fate of the Prints
The next Carribbean country to air Doctor Who was Jamaica, in March 1966; both countries were serviced by the programme distributor Television International Enterprises Limited / TIE (Programmes) Ltd (see WRTH), so it is possible that Bermuda sent its prints of those five Hartnell stories to Jamaica soon after each episode was transmitted.
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) |
TV listings have been obtained from the Bermudan newspaper Bermuda Recorder.
Listings give the series name as "'Dr Who'" (including punctuation). None of the listings carried episode titles, so we can only assume the five stories aired in the correct order.
Three papers in January 1966, and one in February 1966, were missing.
The 13 December 1965 issue carried a brief preview of the new series, calling it "one of BBC's most talked-about serials". It gave the title of "... episode 1 "An Unearthly Child"".
The 3 January 1966 listings were illustrated with a publicity photo of Carole Ann Ford. The caption of which said, "CAROLE ANN FORD as Susan Foreman in BBC-TV's "DR. WHO" – an adventure in space and time consisting of a series of stories of varying lengths - started only recently on Channel 8. (Mondays at 6.30).
Bermuda in Doctor Who
- Sarah likens the mysterious goings on at Tullock Moor to be like "Another Bermuda Triangle" (Terror of the Zygons).
