Verity Lambert(1935-2007)

In the Doctor Who episode The Family of Blood (2007), a character mentions that his parents were called Verity and Sydney. This is a tribute to Verity Lambert, the first producer of the original series Doctor Who (1963), and Sydney Newman, the Head of Drama at the BBC who gave her this job.

I had been doing Doctor Who (1963) for about three months when I was called into Donald's (Donald Wilson) office. I was told that, now I'd done it and it was on air, I was going to go and produce a twice-weekly serial about a council that was being made in Birmingham. I said I wasn't, and Donald said, 'You're under contract to the BBC, not under contract to do Doctor Who (1963). If we say you're going then you're going.' Doctor Who (1963) had barely gone on the air, and I certainly didn't feel confident leaving it then, so I asked why they wanted me to go. The answer was that I wasn't married, so it was easier for me to go and live in Birmingham than it was for any of the other producers!