Derrick Sherwin Interview

Originally published on BestBritishTV.com in 2011.

Derrick Sherwin (1936-2018) worked on Doctor Who as a producer, Script Editor, Writer and Actor in the 1960s and 1970s. He was kind enough to share his memories of the show with us.

My “baptism of fire” with the BBC started when Innes Lloyd decided to move on as Producer and Peter Bryant was set to take over the reins. I was recruited by the Head of Serials, Shaun Sutton to join as Script Editor. I had already established myself as a writer with several Drama contributions to Thirty Minute Theatre, The Boy Meets Girl Series of plays, my own Wednesday Play contribution of “Yob & Nabob” and a stint as one of the writers of the soap “United” and the ITV Soap “Coronation Street”. I was therefore used to writing Drama and certainly used to writing under pressure.

That experience was to prove invaluable when I joined DR WHO which was one of the most pressured productions I had ever come across. Peter Bryant had moved from a radio serial to join as script Editor on the WHO but had little experience of writing and virtually none as a script Editor holding together story development with a varied team of writers and a very volatile team of actors and directors. DR WHO therefore was not the most sought after program to work for at the time – mostly because of the tiredness of the writers and the inability of the production staff to inspire them. It was therefore a daunting task to take over what was, at the time at the BBC a sinking ship. However I was determined that the ship wasn’t going to end up in Davy Jones locker under my watch!

I set about re-designing the format of the series which, in my opinion had become bogged down in stories about jelly-like blobs from outer space – crazy and unbelievable sci-fi creations which children and hardly adults could even believe in as the basis for a story. I decided that slowly DR WHO should be ‘brought down to Earth’ and to assist in this and to give some relief to the main actors I invented an Earth-bound group called “UNIT” – a division of a United Nations Taskforce to explore UFO’s and other terrestrial anomalies. Hence they eventually tied up with DR WHO.

I started this process with the story about the YETI and continued to increase the involvement as the characters developed – Sgt. Benton and Brigadier Lethbridge Stuart.

Every story thereafter involved UNIT and took some of the weight off the running characters. The involvement of UNIT became almost as popular as the series itself and could have been a spin-off into a series by itself. However, my brief was to give life to the slowing fading star of the BBC Serials division. UNIT helped and bringing the stories ‘down to Earth’ a la the Quatermas story of Nigel Kneale. The reality of this new addition gave the show a new lease of life and the audience numbers started to pick up as it gained popularity again.

1.You selected Jon Pertwee to play the role of the Doctor. What were you aiming for when you selected Jon ? and after you left the show do you think the character of the Doctor stayed true to your original plan ?

Patrick Troughton as the good Doctor was past his prime and had become irascible mostly through tiredness and had to be replaced. A tough task! Peter Bryant, who had become Producer by then, and I as Story Editor started the search. One of the qualities that Troughton had was the ability to see the funny side of things – a sense of comedy. This was something both Bryant and I did not want to lose for as well as being endearing it was also a useful dramatic ability – easing overly dramatic situations with comedy. The search therefore was largely influenced by this character and the need for a sense of comedy – Jon Pertwee was a well know radio comedy actor and a comedy act in himself. It was a risk but then it paid off since Jon also showed his ability as a character actor and an understanding of dramatic realism. However, Jon was a little afraid of the current TV rehearse/record methods even though he had done many live shows in the past. However, his first DR WHO show seemed doomed never to happen because the BBC found itself in the middle of a strike which meant that shows could not be recorded in the Studios. I had a Thirty-Minute theatre being in production at that time but I was lucky since the story called for virtually static camera positions with the actors moving around the cameras. The Strike did not affect Film so I immediately set about re-designing the show to be shot on Film. I re-wrote the scripts with this in mind and set the staff about finding a one location set-up to accommodate the story “Spearhead From Space”. This had the added advantage of easing the anxiety for Jon since shooting on film meant no continuous performance!

Jon, once he had iovercome his initial nerves, took the DR WHO character and went on to develop it perfectly in who own way. In my opinion one of the best Doctors of all time.

In the meantime Peter Bryant had been called upon to take over production of the series of co-production stories of Francis Durbridge “Paul Temple” owing to the success as Producer of DR WHO

Peter knew that the resurrection of this archaic series of the original Durbridge radio series meant bringing it up to date with new stories. The previous Producer had decided to keep it in period – the 1930 years! Bringing it up to date was necessary and the major co-producer, a German company, insisted on this. However, Peter knew that he hadn’t the right qualifications to do this and asked that I join his as Script Editor and joint Producer. This was a step ui in the Productions world of the BBC so, much to Jon Pertwee’s chagrin I accepted.

My term of two years at WR WHO had taught me one major thing – that the quality of the scripts was the major factor in the success of any Drama. This has been my driving light ever since and my reputation as an editor/Producer/Writer has served me well in writing or rather re-writing many US movies.

2."Spearhead from Space" was the first Jon Pertwee story but also the first colour story. What challenges did moving from black and white to colour create ?

In this story the challenge became an advantage because of the strike at the BBC I was able to put the whole story onto film. As the first DR WHO in color then did not affect it because it was all color film instead of being film sequences cut into Studio video production. In those days we shot film on 16mm (for economy sake) which stuck out like a sore thumb when edited together with Studio recording. Therefore it being all on film really improved the entire visual experience even though 16mm film was of a lower quality that video recording.

Thereafter of course life became more difficult. Color recording meant that we had to take notice of all color involved – sets, costumes f/x and so on. It was a nightmare on both the quality and the budget but thankfully I then left to apply my talents to Paul Temple. It however gave the production the opportunity of using what was then called “color separation overlay”- now called “Green screen”. It was a technical development that allowed us to place the actor in front of a colored screen and project electronically a location through the mans of the single color as a medium – a bit like the original back projection techniques previously use on film.

These were exciting technical days!

3.The Autons were the villains in "Spearhead from Space" and are among the aliens from the old show that have appeared in the new show but what are your favourite Who villains ?

The Autons came about because I one day saw a shop window full of manaquins and wondered what the effect would be if they all came to life and invaded. I then saw the factory where platic dolls were being made. Just put the two together with the "taking over the world" kind of story and there it is - the Autons!

The Cybermen were my favorite – these were the near-realistic monsters with which we could all identify because they were representations of men but in a robotic-like form and seemingly only interested in conquest. Inside these robotic and deadly exteriors we the brain of man or something similar – a brain with no regard for humanity, no human feeling, morals or ethics.

These were the epitome of human villains but without regard for their own existence of paid – dispensable!

I brought them back into the WHO series with another Kit Pedler idea in the INVASION. This appealed to me because it had the same qualities of reality in sci-fi as The Quatermas movie. We shot a lot of it outside St Pauls Cathedral and I remember to this day as the Cybermen came out of the sewer manholes and a couple of American tourists saw them! I thought this was going to be the real fatality caused by Cybermen!

4.What is your favorite Dr Who memory ?

Having to write the introductory episode of The Mind Robber following the inability of the previous writer to extend his story and Peter Ling’s reluctance to extend his superb story, The Mind Robber. I had to fill the gap and at the same time introduce Peter’s story. However, the budget was restricted – I had no budget for sets (other than the Tardis) no extra characters, no storyline, no monsters or money to create new ones….No money at all! Writing in a vacuum! What a challenge – what fun. As it turned out is was one of the most appreciated episodes of the WHO ever!

4.You now Run Big D Production company. What major projects are you working on with your firm ?

I have started the Production Company in New Zealand purely because I have so many ideas that need to be realized and I have no wish to be absorbed by the Major Companies – done that, been there. I also have a great interest in Computer animation and special F/X which I can make there at half the price of elsewhere.

I have plans for a number of Movies that I have written with production in NZ in mind. I have also something dear to my heart and the result of my experience – a brand new concept which, in essence is meant to appeal to the same audience as DR WHO. It is titled “WE” which has a family involved and a basically nutty professor and his android double. Enough said – you will hopefully get the opportunity to see for yourself if I can raise the kind of capital to make the Movie pilot prior to the Series. Finding the money for production without getting eaten up by the Majors means that one has to go through the process of education ad a financier and a banker!

There appears to be little understanding of family audiences preferences or creativity in this respect in the USA – it’s all cashing in on others previous successes. No originality, no creative balls!