Nepal

NEPAL is a land-locked nation in central Asia; it shares a border with India.

Profile

Country Number (N/K)
Region	Asia
Television commenced	5 January 1985
Colour System	5 January 1985	PAL
Population	1987	17 million
TV Sets	1990	27,000
Language/s	Nepali, English	Subtitled

Television Stations / Channels

Nepal began its regular PAL colour television service in January 1985.

There is just one Government-owned television service, Nepal Television Corporation (Channel 25 / TV25), operating from Kathmandu.

By the mid-1990s, a number of satellite channels were available, including at least one BBC channel -- see below.

Language/s

The principal language of Nepal is Nepali. Foreign-language television programmes are usually subtitled.

BBC Records

Nepal is not named in any of the main BBC Records sources that we have used.

We became aware of potential screenings in Nepal on this FORUM POSTING: "I have a friend who grew up in Nepal who said he watched black and white Dr. Who episodes in the early 1990s…", which is all we have to go on.

Generic listing from Rising Nepal, November 1995; the BBC channel shown here is likely to be a version of BBC Prime

The majority of all television sets sold and owned in Nepal were black and white, so the reference to "black and white" episodes does not necessarily mean that TV25 screened William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton stories.

TV listings

The only Nepalese newspaper we have been able to access was The Rising Nepal from 1989 to 1996. The paper did publish comprehensive TV listings for the local Nepal TV station, plus the external satellite stations from "STAR TELEVISION" (Satellite Television Asian Region, based in Hong Kong), that was launched in late 1991.

These channels included Star Movies, Star Plus, and Channel V, all of which were also available in India and other parts of Asia. However, there were no listings found for Doctor Who.

STAR also carried BBC World Service Television. However, this feed did not include the 1992, 1993, 1994 repeats of Doctor Who that were seen in Europe. STAR discontinued BBC WSTV in April 1994.

BBC World Service later became BBC Prime, which commenced a repeat run -- including black and white Jon Pertwee stories -- in January 1995. The TV listings in The Rising Nepal in late 1995 (such as the clipping here) carry billings for the various STAR channels, as well as one labelled as BBC. Since BBC World Service was no longer available after April 1994, this is presumably a variant of BBC Prime, however it's unclear if the feed to Asia carried the same programming as the European feed.

If it was the same, despite the lack of any billings for Doctor Who in the Nepal papers, it is highly likely that this "BBC" station was the source of the black and white episodes that our "eye witness" saw - although 1995 is a couple of years later than the cited "early 1990s"...

But if Doctor Who wasn't available on the BBC channel available in Nepal, then how and when our "eye witness" saw the series is unknown…

Nepal in Doctor Who

• In The Talons of Weng-Chiang, the Doctor incorrectly attributes J. Milton Hayes' poem The Green Eye of the Yellow God ("There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu...") to Harry Champion

Links

• Main Page
• Broadcasts around the World
• Articles & Analysis
• BBC Records
• Doctors