Uganda

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UGANDA is located in the highlands of Central East Africa. It was made a British Protectorate in 1896. In 1962 it achieved its independence. It is a member of the British Commonwealth.

Profile

Country Number (13) 1966 FIRST WAVE
Region Africa Commonwealth
Television commenced 1963
Colour System 1975 PAL
Population 1966 6.8 million
TV Sets 1966 5,300
Language/s English


Television Stations / Channels

Uganda began its television service in 1963, soon after achieving its independence from Britain. Colour transmissions began in 1975 using the PAL colour broadcast system. At the time there was just one television station: Uganda Television Service, which was operated by the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting & Tourism in Kampala.

Although the population was over 6.8 million, in 1966 licensed television sets numbered only 5,300.


Language/s

The main language of Uganda is English, plus many tribal dialects.


DOCTOR WHO IN UGANDA

Uganda was the 13th country to screen Doctor Who. It was the fourth in Africa (see Selling Doctor Who).


BBC Records

The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Uganda as one of sixteen countries screening Doctor Who by January 1966.

Uganda is not included in the list of 27 countries in The Making of Doctor Who 1972 Piccolo edition.

The Seventies records a sale of "(15)" stories. The Handbook identifies these as being ten from the first eleven William Hartnell stories, with the exception of Inside the Spaceship, plus five Patrick Troughton stories from season four.

In DWM, Uganda is identified in 13 story Archives, including Inside the Spaceship: (B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, FF, HH, JJ).


Stories bought and broadcast

WILLIAM HARTNELL

Eleven stories, 53 episodes:

Generic billing for "Dr Who?" in the Uganda Argus
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

Uganda therefore purchased the standard package of GROUPs A, B and C of the William Hartnell stories (see Selling Doctor Who).

The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.

Origin of the Prints?

It has been reported that the prints for the first 13 episodes were sent to Uganda from Cyprus. However Uganda actually screened those three stories two months before Cyprus did, which puts a degree of doubt as to what happened to the Cyprus prints.

One possibility is that Cyprus received a set of "Audition" prints from the BBC, and those were sent to Uganda "unaired" as part of Uganda's own Audition process. Uganda then sent those films as "Auditions" for Kenya, and then later received another set of the same stories that were bicycled in from Aden.


PATRICK TROUGHTON

Five stories, 22 episodes:

FF The Highlanders 4
GG The Underwater Menace 4
HH The Moonbase 4
JJ The Macra Terror 4
KK The Faceless Ones 6

Uganda therefore purchased the standard five-story GROUP B package of available Patrick Troughton (see Selling Doctor Who).

The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.

Origin of the Prints?

Since Uganda was the second country to screen these five stories, they must have been supplied with their own set of prints directly from the BBC.


Transmission

WILLIAM HARTNELL

The series started on Tuesday, 18 January 1966, screening every Tuesday, running non-stop for 53 weeks until 17 January 1967. The timeslot was variable, ranging from 5.20pm to 7.00pm.

Fate of the Prints?

The next African country to air these same eleven Hartnell stories was Kenya, in June 1966. It is possible that Uganda sent its prints of the Hartnell stories to Kenya.


PATRICK TROUGHTON

Just on 18 months later, the series returned on Saturday, 28 September 1968, but with Patrick Troughton as the Doctor. Neither The Tenth Planet and The Power of the Daleks screened in Uganda, so viewers were offered no on-screen explanation for the change in appearance of the lead character.

This second run - 22 episodes - played Saturdays at 7.00pm, and lasted for 24 weeks: no episodes screened on 21 December 1968 and 22 February 1969. The final Doctor Who episode to air in Uganda was part 6 of The Faceless Ones on 8 March 1969.

Fate of the Prints?

Uganda probably sent its prints of the Troughton stories to Zambia, the only other Africa nation to screen those five Troughton serials.


There is no clear record that Uganda screened Doctor Who again, even after the introduction of PAL colour transmissions in 1975.


TV listings

Airdates in Uganda
← 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 newspaper Uganda Argus (in Kampala).

The listings initially gave the series name as "Dr Who", before adopting "Dr Who?" (complete with question mark) as the standard. None of the listings identify any episodes by title. We can only assume that all stories aired in the correct story order.

Note: the TV listing for 18 January 1966 does not have a billing for "Dr Who", but 25 January does. With the run of episodes ending on 17 January 1967, if 25 January was episode one, that makes the run only 52 rather than 53 episodes long. To account for the 53 episodes that there should be, we have to assume that the series did debut on 18 January. (Maybe its debut was brought forward by a week?)

There is also no billing for "Dr Who" on 1 February 1966, but that is only because the TV listings omit (due to a printing error?) programmes between 6.00pm and 7.00pm, which is when Doctor Who was airing; again we can assume it did play that evening.


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