VERITY LAMBERTVerity Lambert, who died on 22 November, 2007, aged 71, was the original producer of cult British television series Doctor Who.Her death was announced on the 44th anniversary of the first showing of the hit show. Without her contribution – most notably her controversial decision to include the famous Dalek characters – the show may not have been as enduringly successful.After Doctor Who, Ms Lambert produced a whole host of award-winning, high-calibre programmes in a career lasting more than 40 years. Despite occasional disappointments, like soap opera Eldorado, she gained a reputation for popular, intelligent and sophisticated programmes across all genres – costume dramas, crime series, comedies and cutting edge dramas.As a woman, Ms Lambert was a pioneer in British television. During Doctor Who, she was not only the youngest producer – aged just 28 – but the only female producer at the BBC. She will be remembered as an energetic, tenacious, fiery woman with an instinct for good programmes.Verity Ann Lambert was born into a wealthy Jewish family in North London on 27 November, 1935, and attended Brighton’s prestigious Roedean School. She moved to Paris aged 16 to study at the Sorbonne for a year, returning to secretarial college in London.Ms Lambert’s secretarial skills became her ticket into the television industry. She began work in Granada Television's press office in 1956, but was fired after only six months and became a shorthand typist at ABC Television. She quickly worked her way to production secretary before making the move to drama programming on popular series Armchair Theatre.Ms Lambert moved to New York in 1961 to spend a year as producer David Susskind’s personal assistant. Back in England, frustrated with work as a production assistant at ABC, she moved to the BBC and was soon invited by former colleague, Head of Drama Sydney Newman, to produce a new programme called Doctor Who.Doctor Who aired on 23 November, 1963, and became a huge success. Ms Lambert worked on the first two seasons before moving on to produce a string of popular series and soap operas like The Newcomers and Adam Adamant Lives! In 1969, she joined London Weekend Television to produce shows including Budgie (1970–72), before returning to BBC on a freelance basis in 1973.The following year, she was appointed Head of Drama at Thames Television and from 1976 also oversaw its film production subsidiary Euston films. In 1979 she became the company’s full-time Chief Executive responsible for hit drama Minder (1979–94). This was the most successful period of her career, with hosts of awards for her programmes.In November 1982, Ms Lambert furthered her film career as Director of Production for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. Although she produced some hits, including John Cleese film Clockwise (1986), she was frustrated by the British film industry and the company itself, and left to form her own independent production company, Cinema Verity.She had success here with BBC1 sitcom May to December (1989–1994) and acclaimed serial G.B.H (1991). She continued freelancing, working on BBC comedy-drama Jonathan Creek until 2004. This was followed by another comedy-drama, Love Soup, in 2005; a second series of this will be broadcast posthumously.Ms Lambert married film director Colin Bucksey in 1973, but the marriage collapsed in 1984 and the couple did not have any children. She died following a long illness on 22 November, 2007, aged 71.Ms Lambert was awarded the OBE in 2002 for her services to film and television production and received BAFTA's Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television in the same year. She was due to be honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and Television Awards the month after her death.She had made such a significant contribution to evolving British culture that a character was named after her in a Monty Python sketch.In a 2007 episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor calls his parents Sydney and Verity, a tribute to the legacy of Lambert and the director Newman.It is testimony to her talent that, in 2000, two of her programmes - Doctor Who and The Naked Civil Servant – appeared in the top 4 of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, according to the British Film Institute.Tributes poured on after her death. The Museum of Broadcast Communications echoes the views of many when it hails Verity Lambert as “not only one of Britain's leading businesswomen, but possibly the most powerful member of the nation's entertainment industry... Lambert has served as a symbol of the advances won by women in the media.”
Keep me informed of updates
