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Pull to Open, 1962-1963: The Inside Story of How the BBC Created and Launched Doctor Who
When Doctor Who began on Saturday November 23 1963, few could have guessed that it marked the start of perhaps the most extraordinary story in the history of BBC television drama. But there had already been another story, equally extraordinary yet unseen, leading up to the transmission of that opening episode – the creation of the series itself.
Pull to Open explores the behind-the-scenes saga of Doctor Who in 1963, when a chain of events at the BBC brought together a disparate group to launch what would become one of British TV’s best-loved and most successful programmes. It’s the story of why these events happened; the BBC creative culture into which Doctor Who was born; how television drama was made in the early 1960s; and an insight into the people who started this epic journey.
Drawing from the BBC’s written archives and new interviews with some of those who were there, including Doctor Who’s first director Waris Hussein and original co-star Carole Ann Ford, Pull to Open is a detailed and comprehensive account of the programme’s path to the screen. Immerse yourself in the world of BBC Television in 1963 and discover how a series which was almost cancelled before a single episode was shown survived to cement its place in the popular culture of a nation.
Pull to Open explores the behind-the-scenes saga of Doctor Who in 1963, when a chain of events at the BBC brought together a disparate group to launch what would become one of British TV’s best-loved and most successful programmes. It’s the story of why these events happened; the BBC creative culture into which Doctor Who was born; how television drama was made in the early 1960s; and an insight into the people who started this epic journey.
Drawing from the BBC’s written archives and new interviews with some of those who were there, including Doctor Who’s first director Waris Hussein and original co-star Carole Ann Ford, Pull to Open is a detailed and comprehensive account of the programme’s path to the screen. Immerse yourself in the world of BBC Television in 1963 and discover how a series which was almost cancelled before a single episode was shown survived to cement its place in the popular culture of a nation.
422 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 11, 2023
This is quite different to the author’s earlier non-fiction book, The Long Game, which covered the various attempts to reboot Doctor Who after its cancellation in 1989. In Pull To Open Paul Hayes examines the creation of the series, and this means using a much greater focus and condensed period of time.
Seemingly everything that can be found, from an initial study into the viability of science fiction programming to the debut of Doctor Who, is covered in this rather addictive read. Hayes conveys a tremendous sense of time and place in doing so, offering great context about the cultural landscape of 1962-1963. This is important to consider when reflecting on why and how the series happened, and why it took off the way it did. (It also makes it a book of wider interest than just “I like Doctor Who.” There are many non-fic books on the series and the best ones have a wider remit, telling you for instance what television production in general looks like.)
There are still omissions, because some facts either weren’t documented or cannot be found. These gaps are nonetheless highlighted as well as they can be, and Pull To Open more than makes up for them in what it *can* tell us. I learned a lot about where certain ideas came from - and it’s no less noteworthy when something wasn’t a single person’s bright idea, but a group idea or an ongoing process.
No stone is unturned. If you have any interest in how an old and still running series came to be, dive in.
Seemingly everything that can be found, from an initial study into the viability of science fiction programming to the debut of Doctor Who, is covered in this rather addictive read. Hayes conveys a tremendous sense of time and place in doing so, offering great context about the cultural landscape of 1962-1963. This is important to consider when reflecting on why and how the series happened, and why it took off the way it did. (It also makes it a book of wider interest than just “I like Doctor Who.” There are many non-fic books on the series and the best ones have a wider remit, telling you for instance what television production in general looks like.)
There are still omissions, because some facts either weren’t documented or cannot be found. These gaps are nonetheless highlighted as well as they can be, and Pull To Open more than makes up for them in what it *can* tell us. I learned a lot about where certain ideas came from - and it’s no less noteworthy when something wasn’t a single person’s bright idea, but a group idea or an ongoing process.
No stone is unturned. If you have any interest in how an old and still running series came to be, dive in.
October 20, 2023
Like Paul Hayes previous Doctor Who book, The Long Game, this book goes far beyond a regular making of tome. Where TLG details the intricacies of late 20th/early 21st century TV production, Pull To Open provides a historical view of television following WW2. Naturally focused on BBC it also delves into the various regional ITV companies to provide a backdrop for the players and producers who would come to make this programme that we all love.
Absolutely fascinating, and provides some important context to recent controversies surrounding the very episodes covered here. I'd love to see another book in this style, perhaps covering the original cancellation, although that seems well documented.
Another excellent read Paul, thank you.
Absolutely fascinating, and provides some important context to recent controversies surrounding the very episodes covered here. I'd love to see another book in this style, perhaps covering the original cancellation, although that seems well documented.
Another excellent read Paul, thank you.
October 18, 2023
In this book Paul Hayes explores the orgins of Doctor Who at the BBC from the suggestion of the production of a science fiction show up to the filming of its earliest episodes.
The bulk of this book carefully explores the inner workings at the BBC and how the people who became best remembered for the show's creation became associated with it.
The sections on Donald Wilson, Verity Lambert, Warris Hussein and Syndey Newman are particularly interested and well researched.
A must read for any Doctor Who fan.
The bulk of this book carefully explores the inner workings at the BBC and how the people who became best remembered for the show's creation became associated with it.
The sections on Donald Wilson, Verity Lambert, Warris Hussein and Syndey Newman are particularly interested and well researched.
A must read for any Doctor Who fan.
February 13, 2024
This is a fantastically researched book on the creation of Doctor Who. Paul Hayes has waded deep into the archives and the interviews to put together possibly the most detailed account of the process. He helps flesh out people who have either not been talked about before or who have just been names in the series mythology, e.g. C.E. 'Bunny' Weber.
He also does a fine job of trying to credit the right people for the right things in the process, which is incredibly hard to do and - as recent events around 'An Unearthly Child' have shown - sometimes controversial. "The memory cheats" as JNT once said. I think what Hayes does demonstrate is that it was a team process. Someone might suggest something, then someone else would tweak it or push another idea. The paper trails aren't complete and people remember things differently, which Hayes outlines. He is trying to be fair and when he thinks someone's memory is faulty he points you in the direction of other evidence. It's a magnificent piece of research.
I'll admit one minor quibble. I was less interested in the post-broadcast chapter. But that's just me. It is still worth reading.
I should also give it a bonus point for a whole chapter on the BBC's response to the Kennedy Assassination that is really a book within a book. I studied the Kennedy Assassination at University so it has always been a topic I'm interested in.
If you're a Doctor Who fan and/or someone interested in the the making of television in general I recommend this highly. I'd go so far as to call it an excellent work of cultural history.
He also does a fine job of trying to credit the right people for the right things in the process, which is incredibly hard to do and - as recent events around 'An Unearthly Child' have shown - sometimes controversial. "The memory cheats" as JNT once said. I think what Hayes does demonstrate is that it was a team process. Someone might suggest something, then someone else would tweak it or push another idea. The paper trails aren't complete and people remember things differently, which Hayes outlines. He is trying to be fair and when he thinks someone's memory is faulty he points you in the direction of other evidence. It's a magnificent piece of research.
I'll admit one minor quibble. I was less interested in the post-broadcast chapter. But that's just me. It is still worth reading.
I should also give it a bonus point for a whole chapter on the BBC's response to the Kennedy Assassination that is really a book within a book. I studied the Kennedy Assassination at University so it has always been a topic I'm interested in.
If you're a Doctor Who fan and/or someone interested in the the making of television in general I recommend this highly. I'd go so far as to call it an excellent work of cultural history.
October 18, 2023
As with the author's previous book, does what it says on the tin; if you want the whole story of how Doctor Who evolved from the BBC wanting 'some kind of science fiction serial' to Hartnell, the TARDIS, the Daleks, and success, this is for you. There are also fascinating insights into the TV production process, the BBC in the sixties, the early progress of The Beatles, and the shock of Kennedy's assassination. A very detailed - and loving - look at one crucial year.
November 28, 2023
As with The Long Game, Hayes succeeds in making the slow journey of the show to the screen compelling. It’s the wrong book to look for if you want startling revelations - this is, after all, well trodden ground - but it more than compensates with a wealth of detail, historical context, and the thorough research allowing the odd myth to be busted. No account can truly be definitive, but this is as close as you’ll get.
October 11, 2023
Paul Hayes' previous release was about how Doctor Who came back in the new millennium and this one looks at its origins in just as much detail. As essential read for fans of 1960s TV and that silly time and space show, and for fans of people called Donald and Dennis who worked in smoky offices in Shepherds Bush in the 60s.
May 3, 2025
Loved it, i need many manymore
February 3, 2025
A probably definitive overview of the creation of what would eventually become the BBC's flagship science-fiction program Doctor Who, well before it had secured that reputation by longevity and popular acclaim. Although author Paul Hayes has conducted no new interviews for this work (published for the sixtieth anniversary of the series in 2023, when many of the principal figures would admittedly be unavailable), he's exhaustively combed through the historical record, from old production memos and contemporaneous news articles to later memoirs and interview responses, all to produce this fairly cohesive account of the two years in the title.
It's a somewhat arbitrary timespan. The idea for Doctor Who grew steadily over many creative sessions with various contributors, but the earliest concrete seeds appear to date to 1963. By setting his purview to cover the previous year as well, Hayes is able to share more of the background industry landscape of the era, as well as a few preliminary reports the studio had produced exploring the concept of sci-fi on television in general, which may or may not have been incorporated by the team later working on Who. In many areas like this, there's no smoking gun of clear evidence regarding some specific piece of involvement; with human memory being fallible and many papers of the time not preserved, sometimes even the producers themselves disagree about who was responsible for what.
On the opposite end of the book's designated period, the show famously premiered on November 23rd, 1963, with a slight delay due to overrun coverage of the recent JFK assassination. The writer again fudges a little to extend his window through the following month as well, presumably to include more details about the Daleks, those popular villains which were introduced in the second serial to air. But he stops long before any notion of regeneration or other changes to the cast or story format had been developed, leaving a curiously staid impression of a media property that by now is best known for its capacity to update and reinvent itself on a regular basis.
Regardless, it's an interesting look at the topic of how certain elements gradually took shape -- and false starts were discarded -- as the first scripts were written, and a nice reminder of how many now-iconic pieces of the franchise like the TARDIS arrival sound were there from basically the beginning. We also get treated to lessons on outside British history and culture and mini-biographies of some of the key players both on and off the screen, although this of course necessitates going back even further than 1962. All things considered I wouldn't classify this as any sort of must-read for fans, but it's certainly been informative.
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It's a somewhat arbitrary timespan. The idea for Doctor Who grew steadily over many creative sessions with various contributors, but the earliest concrete seeds appear to date to 1963. By setting his purview to cover the previous year as well, Hayes is able to share more of the background industry landscape of the era, as well as a few preliminary reports the studio had produced exploring the concept of sci-fi on television in general, which may or may not have been incorporated by the team later working on Who. In many areas like this, there's no smoking gun of clear evidence regarding some specific piece of involvement; with human memory being fallible and many papers of the time not preserved, sometimes even the producers themselves disagree about who was responsible for what.
On the opposite end of the book's designated period, the show famously premiered on November 23rd, 1963, with a slight delay due to overrun coverage of the recent JFK assassination. The writer again fudges a little to extend his window through the following month as well, presumably to include more details about the Daleks, those popular villains which were introduced in the second serial to air. But he stops long before any notion of regeneration or other changes to the cast or story format had been developed, leaving a curiously staid impression of a media property that by now is best known for its capacity to update and reinvent itself on a regular basis.
Regardless, it's an interesting look at the topic of how certain elements gradually took shape -- and false starts were discarded -- as the first scripts were written, and a nice reminder of how many now-iconic pieces of the franchise like the TARDIS arrival sound were there from basically the beginning. We also get treated to lessons on outside British history and culture and mini-biographies of some of the key players both on and off the screen, although this of course necessitates going back even further than 1962. All things considered I wouldn't classify this as any sort of must-read for fans, but it's certainly been informative.
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6...
--Or click here to browse through all my reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
February 4, 2025
An exciting adventure in space and time: in which Paul Hayes recreates, in detailed and sometimes micro-detailed detail, the conception and realisation of the long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who.
This is one for the anoraks, both of the Sisterhood of Karn variety, and more generally of TV, its production technicalities, politics and constraints, so it suits me down to the ground. It does also tell a good tale of internecine rivalries, turf wars and penny-pinching at the BBC of the time, a very peculiar institution mixing creative piss and vinegar with bureaucratic fussiness and procrastination. (And it hadn’t changed much when I worked there 25 years later.) That the outsiders - Sydney Newman, Canadian and Jewish, who first conceived of the show, Verity Lambert, Jewish, young AND a woman, the first to occupy a producer role on a regular basis at the Beeb, and Waris Hussein - foreign and gay! - should have made it, and made a success of it, was somewhat against odds to put it mildly.
And here we are - a show the establishment didn’t really want, and has treated over the years like an on-off boyfriend (casual disdain, break ups followed by ghosting, then professions of desperate, undying devotion) - which somehow wormed its way into the nation’s affections and has, in that hoary old phrase, “become part of our way of life.” Even those who’ve never seen an episode, are too young to know what a police box actually was, and don’t know how many people have played the Doctor in total (just ask that of any group of Whovians if you like provoking mindless violence and shouting), recognise the TARDIS and what it represents, the Daleks and that theme tune. Quite an achievement over 61 years for what started as a silly little kids’ show to fill the gap on Saturday teatime between the sport and Juke Box Jury.
This is one for the anoraks, both of the Sisterhood of Karn variety, and more generally of TV, its production technicalities, politics and constraints, so it suits me down to the ground. It does also tell a good tale of internecine rivalries, turf wars and penny-pinching at the BBC of the time, a very peculiar institution mixing creative piss and vinegar with bureaucratic fussiness and procrastination. (And it hadn’t changed much when I worked there 25 years later.) That the outsiders - Sydney Newman, Canadian and Jewish, who first conceived of the show, Verity Lambert, Jewish, young AND a woman, the first to occupy a producer role on a regular basis at the Beeb, and Waris Hussein - foreign and gay! - should have made it, and made a success of it, was somewhat against odds to put it mildly.
And here we are - a show the establishment didn’t really want, and has treated over the years like an on-off boyfriend (casual disdain, break ups followed by ghosting, then professions of desperate, undying devotion) - which somehow wormed its way into the nation’s affections and has, in that hoary old phrase, “become part of our way of life.” Even those who’ve never seen an episode, are too young to know what a police box actually was, and don’t know how many people have played the Doctor in total (just ask that of any group of Whovians if you like provoking mindless violence and shouting), recognise the TARDIS and what it represents, the Daleks and that theme tune. Quite an achievement over 61 years for what started as a silly little kids’ show to fill the gap on Saturday teatime between the sport and Juke Box Jury.
October 12, 2023
Just when you think the story behind the creation of Doctor Who has all been told, along comes Pull to Open. It straightens out a fair few myths and stitches together a compelling narrative of all the disparate elements that brought the show to screen.
Where this book really shines, however, is in contextualising the creation of Who in a wider global cultural context. And we're not just talking the Kennedy assassination: popular culture was being forged by a bunch of inspired lunatics taking a chance on new opportunities and Doctor Who benefited by the actions of those trailblazers - as well as adding a few lunatics its own.
It's a truly fascinating insight into the creation of a TV legend and yet it's also compellingly told, whilst skilfully avoiding the dangerous pitfall of an academic work: that of being hard to wade through. Hayes' writing is incredibly easy to read, and this is a book I will end up dipping into over and over again.
Highly recommended.
Where this book really shines, however, is in contextualising the creation of Who in a wider global cultural context. And we're not just talking the Kennedy assassination: popular culture was being forged by a bunch of inspired lunatics taking a chance on new opportunities and Doctor Who benefited by the actions of those trailblazers - as well as adding a few lunatics its own.
It's a truly fascinating insight into the creation of a TV legend and yet it's also compellingly told, whilst skilfully avoiding the dangerous pitfall of an academic work: that of being hard to wade through. Hayes' writing is incredibly easy to read, and this is a book I will end up dipping into over and over again.
Highly recommended.
October 11, 2023
I thought I knew the story of how Doctor Who got on the air, but really I barely knew a thing! This is such a comprehensive but easy to read book of the BBC's launch of Who, once again Hayes has gone all in to master a definitive account, which gives lots of starting points for further research on Doctor Who, the BBC at that time and the cultural world as a whole.
April 27, 2025
A really thorough, really interesting deep-dive not just into how Doctor Who came to be, but how British television and the BBC evolved in the 1960s. While of course fascinated by the story of the show, I found the segways to how the world of television as a medium and presence in the lives of the public evolved to be the most fascinating bit, and truly worth pondering over.
May 22, 2024
An excellent read, at times possibly over exhaustive look at how Dr Who came to our screens.
November 11, 2024
If you’re a massive geek like I and fascinated by Doctor Who history - you’re gonna love this one.
February 15, 2025
A look at the early life of one of the longest running drama series. A lot of the information I know already but I liked the behind the scenes quality of it.
February 17, 2025
Absorbing account of the origins of Doctor Who, full of anecdotes and precise archive-derived details. As engrossing as his previous book about everything that went into the return of the programme.
November 22, 2025
A fascinating, engaging and in depth guide detailing the untold story of the origins of one of televisions greatest concepts ♥️♥️ Learned so much and loved every second ✨️
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews