Bermuda

From BroaDWcast
Revision as of 22:57, 22 July 2012 by Jon Preddle (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigationJump to search

BERMUDA is a small island nation located to the east 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.


Stories bought and broadcast

WILLIAM HARTNELL

Bermuda's new "most talked-about serials", 13 December 1965

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.

Origin of the Prints?

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).

Alternatively, the 26 episodes were sent from Canada, who had also screened only those five serials.


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

Geneic billing for "Dr Who"
Carole Ann Ford, 3 January 1966
Airdates in Bermuda
← 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

  • Earl Cameron (Williams in The Tenth Planet) was born in Bermuda.
  • Sarah likens the mysterious goings on at Tullock Moor to be like "Another Bermuda Triangle" (Terror of the Zygons).


Links