I wish we could of gotten more of him in the three doctors because his performance tho off in places, at times it was like he wasn’t Ill. I’m sure he would of loved seeing how much he is loved today and what he created, started and all that has come after
He always looked much older than he really was, in Doctor Who. He was only 55 when the first episode went out on a Saturday evening in early November, 1963. The programme was an instant success, so the BBC rebroadcast the first episode immediately before the second episode, by popular demand, on the second weekend. They had never repeated a fiction programme before then, and a back-to-back episode was unique. Hartnell made the rôle what it was, and as a small child, I watched every episode, often from a 'safe' hiding place behind a chair or sofa. William Hartnell had been suffering from increasing memory problems, so had to leave. That must have been painful, but he had the good grace to suggest an excellent, and successful second Doctor; Patrick Troughton.
I believe that the repeat had more to do with the fact that President Kennedy had died just before the first showing and many people had thus not watched Doctor Who as they were watching factual programming about the tragedy on the other side. Whether the people who had missed it were clamouring for a second chance to be able to catch it, or whether the BBC were the ones desperate to have a second crack at securing some kind of audience for the series, I'm not sure.
As has been confirmed, the repeat of the first episode was NOT due to "popular demand", but because the BBC was concerned that the news impact of the Kennedy assassination had caused the first episode to underperform - it only scored 4.4 million viewers, which was very low for that timeslot. The repeat scored 6 million, which was more typical. Doctor Who didn't start to show signs of being a surprise hit until until episode 3 of the first Dalek story almost six weeks later, which saw the ratings rise to 8.9 million and subsequently to 10.4 million by the end of that story.
This is tangential I know RWB - but as it's always intriguing to hear from someone who remembers watching the early episodes on their original broadcast, may I ask if you retain any distinct memories of stories that are still missing? The likes of 'Marco Polo' and 'The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve' are basically the Holy Grail to legions of DW fans, many (most?) of whom may have loved the programme and known of these supposedly top-notch yet long-lost adventures for decades now, but who quite likely weren't even born at the time they went out. Admittedly audio recordings do survive, thanks to amateurs taping the episodes off-air in just the same way as caused this news clip to be saved - but the actual look of those episodes only lingers in nearly 60-year-old memories of some of those lucky to catch them on their sole broadcast in the '60s. So it would be fascinating in the extreme to know if you do remember anything!
Incorrect the first pilot episode was full of errors and had really low viewing figures due to the assassination of JFK. Sydney Newman demanded verity Lambert and warris hussein to "do it all over again" and that's why we have 2 version of "An unearthly child"
I remember watching this in 1975 on the news as a ten-,year old having seen a report of his death in the Manchester Evening News delivered to our house just about an hour before. I'm fairly certain it was the first ever clip I saw of him as the Doctor from his original time in the programme.I begged to be able to stay up and watch the nine o'clock news to see it repeated, but to no avail!
A heavy smoker but also worked himself to death, but he was a major part of the solid foundation of a TV show that is still around 61 years later. R.I.P good sir.
Unless another copy has surfaced this is likely to be sourced from the off air audio I loaned to Steve Roberts of the Restoration Team for copying, probably around fifteen years ago. As a couple of people have enquired, here is the background. Influenced by my much played and scratched Century 21 disc The Daleks, I started recording from the television with Day of the Daleks as our family had recently acquired a cassette recorder. It was quite portable and went on holiday with us where I was able to record repeats of a couple of Stingray and Joe 90s which were no longer screened in our ITV region. Shortly after Day of the Daleks the two Cushing movies were aired for the first time and duly added to the collection. Looking back my family members were very cooperative when it came to watching in silence as the programmes unfolded. I was always looking out for other features too with the microphone ready for broadcasts such as Ask Aspel and on one occasion came home from school to capture Patrick Troughton on Pebble Mill at One which fortunately coincided rather nicely with the dinner break. A couple of school friends also followed me into recording Dr Who, one of whom was Steven Wilson. Come March 1975 and the early evening BBC news bulletin made a near identical announcement to that posted here with the same clip. Unprepared I was ready to record the report from the later bulletin and recall telephoning Stephen to suggest he did the same, as security. His father was something of an electronics buff and at school the next day he excitedly told me that he had connected a cable from the back of the television set to the recorder as an experiment which had been successful. Not only that, his father had somehow managed to commence the recording exactly as Richard Baker was about to start the piece. This was clearly superior to my microphone copy which had the first couple of seconds missing although my main priority had been to preserve the extract from the unknown episode rather than the whole section out of some morbid interest. I have no idea what became of Steven but have a hunch his family may have relocated in the two years between the recording and me leaving school - they were not locals and had previously moved to the area through his fathers employment. One memory I do have though is of Steven handing me the EMI cassette of the news broadcast in classroom - at the end of Genesis of the Daleks 6 complete with a voiceover announcing that the next story would be Revenge of the Cybermen. This may possibly have been on his last day and I recall he said something to the effect I would appreciate it more than him as he handed me the tape. So whilst I did record the piece myself this is actually Steven Wilsons recording although the upload perhaps does not illustrate the quality. I suspect Steven would be rather bemused by the thousands of people who must have heard the recording he made all those years ago - that's if he even remembers it.
they filmed Hells Drivers near my parents home & drove a lorry off the Downs for the finale. my father remembered all the local kids climbing down to get a bit of smashed truck for a souvenir. William Hartnell was in some great films. But beyond all his tv & movie roles he was the very first Dr Who. back where it all began in Totters Lane...
my take on the timeless child is that that person is not the doctor- while without the timeless child the doctor wouldn't exist the memory of that time doesn't exist for the doctor (and neither does the body)
Correct, there is no Doctor before him, good thing the Timeless Child personas are explicitly not the Doctor and that the character became the Doctor after the Division wiped their memory thus preserving canon. Why would you come to a tribute video and be obnoxious?
@@benw4409 Considering that bloody black woman doctor calls herself the doctor, they intended all of the before ones to be the doctor so that argument fails unfortunately
@@stephenwhite3967 No need to apologise, he certainly is the first Doctor and no NuWho rubbish can alter that fact. I'm sorry for you, being led up the garden path and given such a ridiculously nonsensical fake backstory and believe it. Hartnell was the first Doctor and fled Gallifrey in a stolen Type 40 TARDIS. He (note the masculine pronoun) was never a Winnie Mandela lookalike, that is just Leftist identity politics trying to besmirch an established mythos.
@@stephenwhite3967 That's going off of nuWho revelations, right? Scream of the Shalka isn't considered canon either, but at one point in time it was going to be the official 9th doctor. And since 10 took Rose to an alternate dimension, maybe there are different dimensions of doctors? Each with similarities, or even the same incarnations, but parallel versions! For instance, how do you explain the fact that both the 1st AND 2nd doctor reference only having one heart? They tried to retcon it that Hartnell only had one and the doctor didn't grow a second until his first regeneration, but that still leaves out the continuity issue with a Troughton story.
Watching the unearthlychild is just wow Williamhartnell will always be the "true first doctor" not the uncanny timeless woke child storyline we have now
