News Waris Hussein shares his 1963 personal diaries about the first Doctor Who serial

[The Nth Doctor]

Waris Hussein, the very first Doctor Who director, has shared with the Radio Times entries from his 1963 personal diaries about his experiences developing and directing Doctor Who's first serial, An Unearthly Child. The article is the first of an ongoing series where Hussein also provides present-day commentary and context about his own entries, many of which he doesn't even remember writing. Of particular note is how little faith he had in Doctor Who and how he believed the entire production was a complete mess. The first part concludes after the filming of the first episode.

From his Friday 5th July 1963 entry:

We are having great casting problems and have not yet seen one suitable girl to play Susan after a conveyor belt of articulating drama school products with toffees in their mouths. Two people, Cyril Cusack and Penelope Lee, have already declined our offers and I shan’t be surprised if Leslie French does the same – meanwhile the scripts are going to be rewritten by Anthony Coburn and I am wondering what my future will be after all this has blown up in our faces.

Verity is charmingly optimistic without any real knowledge of what she actually wants from the serial. All idea of possible fantasy has been thrown to the four winds and we are discussing the portrayal of the Gum tribe quite seriously in terms of accurate palaeolithic terms. Sydney Newman’s brainchild is quite impossibly monster-like. The whole business is like a nightmare.
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It's a fascinating read to see how the show was perceived at that time, not just by Hussein, but also by Verity Lambert, Sydney Newman, and others (as dictated by Hussein). They had no idea...

I'll keep posting links to the series as they come out (and as long as I remember to check for them...).

 

[Chaos Descending]

What an historical treasure! Thanks for sharing it.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Cyril Cusack as The Doctor (I assume), now there’s an intriguing “what if”.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Cyril Cusack as The Doctor (I assume), now there’s an intriguing “what if”.

I think it was already known that Cyril Cusack was one of the actors that "could have been the First Doctor but wasn't".

 

[Captaindemotion]

I think it was already known that Cyril Cusack was one of the actors that "could have been the First Doctor but wasn't".

Ah okay; I don’t remember reading it before. Could be I did but have forgotten.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Waris Hussein, the very first Doctor Who director, has shared with the Radio Times entries from his 1963 personal diaries about his experiences developing and directing Doctor Who's first serial, An Unearthly Child. The article is the first of an ongoing series where Hussein also provides present-day commentary and context about his own entries, many of which he doesn't even remember writing. Of particular note is how little faith he had in Doctor Who and how he believed the entire production was a complete mess. The first part concludes after the filming of the first episode.

From his Friday 5th July 1963 entry:

We are having great casting problems and have not yet seen one suitable girl to play Susan after a conveyor belt of articulating drama school products with toffees in their mouths. Two people, Cyril Cusack and Penelope Lee, have already declined our offers and I shan’t be surprised if Leslie French does the same – meanwhile the scripts are going to be rewritten by Anthony Coburn and I am wondering what my future will be after all this has blown up in our faces.

Verity is charmingly optimistic without any real knowledge of what she actually wants from the serial. All idea of possible fantasy has been thrown to the four winds and we are discussing the portrayal of the Gum tribe quite seriously in terms of accurate palaeolithic terms. Sydney Newman’s brainchild is quite impossibly monster-like. The whole business is like a nightmare.
​

It's a fascinating read to see how the show was perceived at that time, not just by Hussein, but also by Verity Lambert, Sydney Newman, and others (as dictated by Hussein). They had no idea...

I'll keep posting links to the series as they come out (and as long as I remember to check for them...).

Late reply, but that’s fantastic… did any more show up?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Oh, fuck, I completely forgot to check back after a few days. I figured they were going to go weekly...and I forgot all about it.

...and now I don't feel so bad:

Part two published on June 1 and part three published on July 1.

Now I have to remember to make the time to read them!