"Shelved" Shada documentary

[John]

Shelved is a new Radio 4 documentary from journalist and long term Doctor Who fan Shaun Ley, which examines the events surrounding the cancellation of three episodes of long running television serials during 1979.

The thirty minute documentary on Saturday 12th December at 10.30 will look at why executives took the decision of scrappping an episode of ITV's police drama The Professionals and the final episode of BBC2's wartime drama Secret Army.

Shaun also challenges the long established belief that the final story of season seventeen, Douglas Adam's Shada was axed mid way through production to make way for the Morecambe and Wise christmas special.

The documantary includes contributions from Tom Baker, the director of Shada Pennant Roberts and Doctor Who historian Jeremy Bentham.

[tracy]

listioned to the interview this morning about shada . its a shame that it was not completed due to the strike the interview was very interesting .i have the video of shada with tom narrrating it and there is a script with it .thanks to tom for doing the narration on it

[Theta Sigma]

Very good interviews with Tom as well as Pennant Roberts and Jeremy Bentham.

[merlinsseer]

It's sad that adults can be more childish than children about such things like what department gets to change the clock hands or who can move a chair around on the set.

On those rare occasions that Doctor Who was filmed outside of the studio those stories like Seeds of Doom, Pyramids of Mars and City of Death usually became fan favorites and are well remembered for their beautiful backdrops and lush scenery. From the few clips I've seen of Shada it was well on it's way to joining the ranks of those well loved stories and in the end could have even topped ' City of Death ' in popularity. Those poor "Who singers" as Mr. Baker called them in his book, . Just imagine the thrill they felt at being seen in a Doctor Who story only to have it dashed to the ground because a bunch of numb skulls couldn't come to terms over something so silly - i bet they even argued over who got to make the tea