Zambia

Zambia is located in south west Africa. A British colony, it achieved its independence in 19XXX. It is a member of the British Commonwealth.

Population

When Doctor Who screened in Zambia in 1965, the population was circa 3.65 million, and licensed TV sets numbered only 11,118 (per WRTH, 1966).

TV & system

Zambia began its television service in 1961.

Here are several stations – ZNBC was the first to switch to colour (PAL) in 1979. Television Zambia (TVZ), a government-owned commercial broadcaster, was the one to carry Doctor Who. TVZ operated two separate stations, one based in Lusaka, the other in Kitwe.

Language/s

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

DOCTOR WHO IN ZAMBIA

Zambia was the 10th country to screen Doctor Who, and the third in Africa (see Selling Doctor Who).

BBC Records

The Seventies records a sale of 36 stories by 28 February 1977. The Handbook, however, identifies 38; 26 for Hartnell and 12 from Troughton. This total is borne out by the number of stories that did air, per the story tables below.

In DWM, Zambia is identified in 37 story Archives: the same as above, but with the single omission of A.

Stories bought and broadcast

WILLIAM HARTNELL

Twenty-six stories, 117 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
T	Galaxy 4	4
U	The Myth Makers	4
W	The Massacre	4
X	The Ark	4
Y	The Celestial Toymaker	4
Z	The Gunfighters	4
AA	The Savages	4
BB	The War Machines	4
CC	The Smugglers	4

Zambia therefore bought GROUPS A to F of the William Hartnell stories (the only other country to buy just this run of episodes was Barbados).

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

PATRICK TROUGHTON

Twelve stories, 68 episodes:

FF	The Highlanders	4
GG	The Underwater Menace	4
HH	The Moonbase	4
JJ	The Macra Terror	4
KK	The Faceless Ones	6
NN	The Abominable Snowmen	6
OO	The Ice Warriors	6
PP	The Enemy of the World	6
QQ	The Web of Fear	6
XX	The Seeds of Death	6
YY	The Space Pirates	6
ZZ	The War Games	10

Zambia therefore bought GROUP B, most of D, and F of the Patrick Troughton stories.

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

Origins of the Prints?

Rhodesia / Zimbabwe was the previous African country to screen the first eleven Hartnells, so it’s possible that Zambia was sent that same set of prints. Zambia was the only African country to screen the set of Troughtons that was supplied.

The run of Troughton episodes in 1973 may have been sourced from Gibraltar.

Transmission

WILLIAM HARTNELL

The series may have started in October 1965 (the first actual airdate has not been confirmed). Listings have only been found from September 1966 onwards, when The Dalek Invasion of Earth was playing. The series played on Tuesdays, at 6.10pm in Kitwe, which was one week ahead of Lusaka, where the start time was 6.20pm. During the screening of The Space Museum and The Chase, the gap widened to two weeks for a time, then back to one week with The Time Meddler.

Zambian viewers therefore had a run of episodes that (depending on the actual start date) lasted for nearly two whole years.

Six months later, on 30 January 1968, the series returned, back on Tuesdays, but now only airing in Lusaka. The start time was initially 6.10pm, before dropping to 5.40pm or 6.00pm during the run.

Part three of Galaxy 4 aired on 20 February, and part four of The Myth Makers on 26 March – a gap of five weeks. Unfortunately there are no TV listings given for the next four weeks. So the big question is, was there a one week break during which no episode aired – or did the one-off episode Mission to the Unknown air in its correct story sequence on 27 February?

If the listings are accurate, there was a period during September 1968 when Doctor Who was airing fortnightly, alternating with a series called Dennis the Menace.

The 117 (or 118) episode run of Hartnell stories came to a conclusion on 5 November 1968, with part four of The Smugglers.

PATRICK TROUGHTON

18 months later, the series returned on Wednesday, 8 April 1970, at 5.50pm, with The Highlanders. Neither The Tenth Planet or The Power of the Daleks screened in Zambia (most likely on account of the latter having been withdrawn from sale under Terry Nation's agreement with the BBC), so viewers were offered no on-screen explanation for the change in appearance of the lead character.

This 16 episode run ended on 29 July 1970. There had been a one-week break on 3 June 1970, between what was presumably The Underwater Menace and The Moonbase.

Three years later, Zambia resumed from where they had left off, with the Patrick Troughton story The Faceless Ones; the series was now playing on Monday evenings at timeslots of 5.30pm, 5.50pm, or 6.20pm. 30 weeks later, on 31 December 1973, the run ended, with what was probably The Web of Fear.

Another two years later, Zambia played a final run of 22 uninterrupted episodes, which would have been The Seeds of Death, The Space Pirates and The War Games. The day was Thursdays, and the timeslot ranged between 5.30pm to 6.35pm times

There is no record that Zambia screened Doctor Who again, even after the switch to colour.

TV listings

1960s TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper Zambia Mail and Times of Zambia.

Sometimes the listings gave the programme title as Dr Who? (complete with question mark!).

There were no TV listings available prior to 6 September 1966, so the actual date on which Doctor Who started is unknown. The listings included both Kitwe and Lusaka, and episodes were one week apart for the majority of the run. Many of the episodes titles were printed; for two instalments of The Web Planet the same title of two different episodes was printed two weeks running for both regions, but this appears to have been simply a misprint rather than a change of scheduled episode.

During the 1968 run, a large number of the paper had no TV listings at all, and instead printed an apology that they were unable to publish the listings "as they were not available from TVZ at the time of going to print". Frustratingly, this lack of listings throughout March 1968 means we'll never know for certain whether Mission to the Unknown aired!

1970s None of the listings for 1970 and 1973 had episode titles, but the number of episodes that did run does conform with the stories noted by BBC Records as having been purchased.

Fate of the Prints?

Uganda was the next African country to air the first eleven William Hartnell stories from 1965-1966.

Nigeria may have been the recipient of the Troughton stories that aired in Zambia in 1973.

Zambia was the last country to screen the now-missing serial The Space Pirates.

Zambia in Doctor Who

There are no instances where Zambia is mentioned in the series.

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