Internal BBC reaction to there being no series of Doctor Who in 2009

Dear Ms Hallett

Please find my last FOI request below.

Request 3 of 3

I’m going to have to give you some more background to put this
request in context, so again please bear with me.
Russell T Davies wrote a book called The Writers Tale in
collaboration with another writer called Benjamin Cook. The format
of the book was the email correspondence between the two. I am
quoting some relevant extracts below.

Wednesday 30 May 2007 Russell T Davies to Benjamin Cook page 133

“Talking of secrets blown, tomorrow’s Sun is running our plan to
take Doctor Who off air after 2008. God knows how they got hold of
that. Their contacts are good. With any luck no-one will believe
them – or we’ll be facing a media storm. It’s a nightmare. It’s way
too soon for this information to be released. Peter Fincham is now
talking about overruling Jane Tranter and doing only one special
for 2008, then getting a whole new team in place for a series in
2009 or something. Good luck to ‘em. I’ll be gone.”

Thursday 31 May 2007 Russell T Davies to Benjamin Cook page 134

“The plan for 2009 and beyond well...We’ll transmit Series Four
next year, then a 2008 Christmas Special and then 2 hour long
Specials in 2009, most likely Easter and Christmas Day. Then a 3rd
Special in 2010 should segue into a brand new series 5, with a new
production team. We’ve planned this for ages. I remember discussing
it with Julie and David in Woods restaurant in Cardiff Bay, a few
days before filming began on The Runaway Bride. The show, by 2009,
will simply need a rest. We need to starve people a bit.”
(NB The Runaway Bride was the 2006 Christmas Special guest starring
Catherine Tate. Filming on this began in July 2006.)

Monday 3 September Benjamin Cook to Russell T Davies (page 249)

“‘No Doctor Who return until 2010,’ declares BBC News.
‘Doctor Who to return for fifth series in 2010,’ says the official
Doctor Who website.

How’s the Doctor Who crew taken the news that there will be no
series five in 2009?”

Monday 3 September Russell T Davies to Benjamin Cook (pages 249 –
250)

“The weeks of work that press release has taken! The RSC was going
to announce that David is doing Hamlet at a press conference on 11
September, so everything was timed for then...until the RSC
brochure was sent out last week, mentioning David! Clearly, their
PR is as good as ours. Numb skulls. So the news of no Doctor Who
series in 2009 has all been a bit rush-released. Phil and Julie
were going to talk to all the staff and heads of department calmly
and properly, but then had to run around like idiots on Friday
[presumably 31 August 2007] instead, blabbing to one and all.
I’m a bit locked away here, so I’m not sure how it’s gone down,
though Julie and Phil say not too bad. Everyone has been aware of
the rumours for ages, so I don’t think anyone is very surprised. A
lot of people said, ‘I thought so.’ Many of the staff are
freelance, and this is how the freelance world works. Jess [Van
Niekerk] in the office was immensely pragmatic: she said she’s been
travelling about as a freelancer for ten years now, so she’ll
always get work. The most worrying thing is for the crew, the
regular crew on set every day, those that live in Cardiff. I
haven’t even had time to ask about those I’m worried about – people
like Lindsey Alford, who’ve moved lock, stock and barrel to
Cardiff. I can’t leave this desk to find out. That’s terrible...
...Besides, it’s not as lengthy a filming break as it might have
been because the BBC is desperate for a Series Five as soon as
possible. ...The show really only goes off air for 2009. And that’s
summed up weeks of really delicate discussions. Though the plans
still keep changing!”

Tuesday 5 September Russell T Davies to Benjamin Cook (pages 258 -
9)

“It’s all hitting the fan over Monday’s press release. If I told
you all the shenanigans, I’d have to type for 500 hours. Peter
Fincham, having been talked through our plan for 2009 so many times
is reacting to the press release like it’s brand new information.
Seriously! Since this stupid Queen business, he’s in siege
mentality. He’s been phoning up Julie: ‘Why are we doing this? Why?
!’ Maybe I’m getting paranoid, but I reckon that his next step is
to overrule Jane Tranter, magic a new production team out of
nowhere, and have a complete new series in 2009. That’s how much of
an emergency it is. Interesting times.”

Wednesday 5 September 2007 Russell T Davies to Benjmin Cook (pages
259 – 260)

“I don’t know a lot of what’s going on. Julie keeps it from me to
protect my writing time, but tonight she was so tired and worn down
and disheartened by it all that it all came out in a great big
blurb. Julie’s outpouring only came about because I happened to
mention that I was worried that David was taking a lot of flak for
the ‘gap year’, like we’d done it in order for him to do Hamlet. In
fact, we’d decided to pause ages ago – a decision taken with him,
yes, but the Hamlet offer came up afterwards, when he knew he had
free time; we decided first. I suggested to Julie, off the cuff,
that I could mention this in my column in Doctor Who Magazine, and
Julie blanched. And then the outpouring started, because she had to
tell me how severe things were, in order to stop me saying anything
to anyone. Not out of secrecy, but because the smallest word now
becomes so inflammatory. Even to the BBC One Controller.”

I appreciate what you told me before about how not everything is
recorded as people can communicate through non-written methods like
the telephone. But there surely must be some recorded information
relating to this matter if it was as big an internal crisis as
Russell T Davies states it was.

So I would like to request all recorded information relating
to/communications by Julie Gardner, Phil Collinson, Jane Tranter
and Peter Fincham discussing their views and the reaction within
the BBC to the crisis caused by the fact that there was no series
of Doctor Who in 2009, and showing how this crisis was handled. The
period of the request is 30 May to 5 October 2007.

I don’t think my request comes under the schedule 1 derogation for
art and literature. It’s not to do with an editorial function on a
programme. It’s to do with internal management and administrative
functions e.g. the Director General exercising management
responsibility over senior staff and to do with human resources
e.g. allocation of staff within the BBC.

Also the crisis is already partially in the public domain because
Russell T Davies disclosed it and mentioned names and said who was
doing and saying what.

Sorry that my email is very long and a bit pedantic but I want to
make things as clear as possible.

Thanks.

Yours sincerely,

Annie Wilkes