Tributes - 1997

Sydney Newman

Television drama producer Born Toronto, Canada, April 1 , 1917. Died Toronto, October 20, 1997.

During his 40 years as a producer, Sydney Newman saw television's potential to bring prestigious and quality drama to the masses, coining the famous industry line: "If Shakespeare were alive today, he'd be working for television." To this end, he pioneered 'reality television' - turning the glitzy world of British TV into a medium for biting, contemporary drama.

Ironically, despite all his credits in this area, his most famous legacy is two series - The Avengers and Doctor Who - which took viewers as far away from reality as television would allow.

After all, he was nothing if not versatile. His interest in the visual arts had led him to his first job, designing cinema posters. Always ambitious, he soon made his way to Hollywood, where he was offered a job by Walt Disney. Unable to get a work permit, he returned home to work as a graphic artist - and later a producer - for Canada's National Film Board.

In 1946 he won an attachment with NBC TV in New York - his introduction to television. Through watching and producing American TV plays, he was alerted to the potential of 'reality drama'. On his return to Canada in 1952, he became an executive at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - helping to instigate Canada's own 'golden age' of TV drama with General Motors Theatre.

He travelled across the Atlantic in 1954, hoping to work in Britain's growing television industry. It was four years before he was hired by ABC TV (the forerunner of Thames Television), to produce the anthology series Armchair Theatre for the ITV. As he had done in his native Canada, he instigated what many refer to as a 'golden age' in British television drama, introducing such playwrights as Alun Owen and Harold Pinter to the screen.

Within a year, Armchair Theatre was winning an average audience of 12 million, easily becoming one of Britain's most popular programs.

Newman's success, it seems, was due to a mixture of vision, audience awareness and charisma. "He will humour the sensitive writer, the temperamental actor, the raging director," wrote television critic Philip Purser in 1963, "but in the end he gets his own way as surely as his name took the final credit on the screen after every drama show." (This was occasionally frustrating for his commissioned writers, one of whom complained, "It's like trying to sell the telephone to Alexander Graham Bell.")

In between episodes of Armchair Theatre, ABC bosses called in Newman to bring life to a flagging series, Police Surgeon - possibly hoping that he would give it a few more doses of realism.

Instead, he devised The Avengers, which quickly became one of Britain's most popular forms of escapism. The lead character, played by Ian Hendry, was transformed into a vengeful crime-fighter, accompanied by an unusual secret agent, the dapper John Steed (Patrick McNee).

Throughout the sixties, it was an essential part of British culture, influencing fashion (leather fighting suits, worn by the female co-stars, became a highlight of Carnaby Street boutiques), feminism, and crazes ranging from television parody to gadget-based science fiction. A later season - in which McNee was teamed with Diana Rigg - became the first British show to be aired in American prime-time.

In December 1962, Newman joined BBC-TV as Head of Drama - and in the words of one producer, "he hit us like a whirlwind". Old-fashioned period pieces were replaced with the same penchant for contemporary drama which he had brought to ITV. His centrepiece was The Wednesday Play, presenting such powerful stories as Nell Dunn's Up the Junction (1965) and Jeremy Sandford's Cathy Come Home (1966), both directed by Ken Loach.

Another carry-over from ITV was Newman's idea for Doctor Who . He had already dabbled in children's science fiction serials, including Target Luna and Pathfinders in Space (both 1960), but this concept - a mysterious figure who travels through time and space - had been considered too frightening for younger viewers.

Nonetheless, it was revived at the BBC, which recognised its potential as a semi-educational children's series. (The education lay in the Doctor's knowledge of science and his ability to visit historical events.) Produced on a shoestring, it premiered in late 1963, starring veteran actor William Hartnell in the title role.

Having devised the series, Newman handed the reins to a young producer, Verity Lambert. He was soon appalled to discover that she had assigned a story by comedy writer Terry Nation, featuring a group of robotic monsters called the Daleks. "I said, 'How dare you? You know I didn't want that. That's fake. Bug-eyed monsters are cheap science fiction'," Newman recalled. "But ironically it turned out that that was what really made the series."

With an emphasis on alien monsters - triggered by the success of the Daleks - Doctor Who would be produced for 25 years and sold to 68 countries, winning a devoted following in the process. At a special awards show held in 1996, it surprised almost everyone - even its fans - by being voted the best BBC popular drama series ever (ahead of Eastenders, Z Cars and others).

Newman remained as the BBC's Head of Drama until 1967, going out in style with the epic period drama The Forsyte Saga. He was initially against the "crazy proposal" - believing that John Galsworthy's book was not prestigious enough - but changed his mind, realising that even this had potential.

After his BBC contract, Newman had a brief and unsuccessful foray into feature films, before returning to Canada in 1970 as head of the National Film Board. He returned to Britain during the 1980s as a freelance producer, and retired to Canada in 1990.

Newman's wife, Betty McRae, died in 1981. He is survived by his daughters Deirdre, Jennifer and Gillian, his sister, and his partner, Marion McDougall.