SHADA – The
full story at last
To begin with, a little bit of backstory for context. After
the 1973 oil crisis, the UK experienced a period of high inflation, in much the
same way that we are now experiencing increased inflation due to the invasion
of Ukraine and the war on Iran. That meant that workers needed their wages to
keep up with the inflation just to pay the bills, while some employers were
resistant to increasing wages as it would mean they would have increased costs
which might mean they couldn’t keep up with loans; and so on as you can
imagine. The BBC doesn’t seem to have been particularly well-managed in the
late 70s so every year, around November, there would be a couple of weeks of
strikes from workers before the management awarded them a pay rise to keep up
with inflation. You might ask, why didn’t the management just do that without
workers needing to strike? I don’t know. Maybe they wanted to give the
impression that they were awarding pay awards reluctantly and under duress to
demonstrate a responsible attitude to stewardship of public money. Let’s say it
was that.
Anyway, there were certainly strikes in 1977 and 1978. The
ones in 1977, and the subsequent pay award, seems to have been one of the
reasons, if not the main reason, why Underworld had to resort to CSO and model caves because, as producer Graham Williams described it, he went away on
holiday for a week and came back to discover that they no longer had the money
to build the cave sets. He would say this was due to inflation but in terms of
television production, your main cost is wage costs, and when they increased
with inflation they didn’t do so gradually and predictably across the year;
what happened is that they would fall behind inflation, and then there’d be a
settlement to bring them in line with inflation (not an increase as such even
if the numbers went up). In 1977, the settlement for set construction workers
wages seems to have happened while Williams was away on holiday. And then later
in the year more strike action meant that The Invasion of Time was
allocated less studio time and ended up shooting a lot of material on location
in St Anne’s Hospital instead. I don’t have the Season 15 blu-ray yet but I expect there are details in the
production paperwork for Underworld and The Invasion of Time, this
is the sort of thing that creates correspondence.
In 1978, despite it being the so-called “Winter of discontent”, Doctor Who seems to have got off fairly lightly. The studio recordings for The Armageddon Factor on the 20, 21 and 22 of November were delayed by between 15 minutes and two hours, though it’s had to tell if they had any impact on the quality of the nevertheless-finished production. But this is a useful bit of context about the nature of strike action by BBC workers at the time; to irritate and add to pressure (and possibly overtime costs) but not to an extent that it meant production had to be cancelled outright.
So what was happening in 1979? Inflation was about 13% and
the election of a Conservative government in May would have probably meant that BBC management
would have felt even more pressure to demonstrate a responsible attitude to stewardship of public money
and that they were only awarding only-in-line-with-inflation settlements
because the unions were forcing them to.
Nevertheless, there wasn’t actually much strike action at
the BBC that year – certainly not in comparison to that at ITV, which you will
already know caused it to cease broadcasting for several months. What strikes
that took place were designed to affect live programmes, because that will have
the most impact – viewers would notice! – and would also be harder, if not
impossible, for management to find ways of working around. And so it was that A Song For Europe 1979 (the song selecting
the UK’s entry, not Eurovision itself) was pulled off the air, depriving
viewers of a live performance of Harry, My Honolulu Lover by The Nolans.
Later, on 15 November, a strike by sound engineers prevented the BBC giving
live coverage of Miss World 1979 but the management got around it by
transmitting a pre-recording of the parade of lovely ladies, followed by an
unscheduled repeat of Ronnie Barker’s appalling Futtocks End comedy special,
before providing live but soundless coverage of the winner being crowned
(Miss Bermuda, in case you were wondering).
And, around the same time, Doctor Who was also affected, when an “industrial dispute” meant the night shoot planned for 18 October was replaced by a day shoot on 19 October. I put “industrial dispute” in quotation marks because that’s how it is described by Ralph Watson, Production Assistant, in a memo from 23 October. It’s described as a “strike” in the Artist’s Time Sheet on the 22 October but, as we shall see, that seems to have been what they wrote whenever there was industrial action. Whatever the dispute was that day, it doesn’t seem to have been part of any sort of national walk-out or anything like that, but I have no problem with people calling it a strike because it was, clearly, a case of the workers withholding their labour.
The Artist’s Time Sheet I refer to, by the way, is for the Extras and Walk-Ons, because it turns out that six extras were booked for the night shoot. Quite what was planned is not clear; the scripts are no use because they describe it as “SEQUENCE as directed”. The film schedule makes it clear the extras would be appearing in a sequence shot at Round Church; as scheduled, the shoot would have begun at Blackmoor Head Yard (for the final part of the sequence, as in the day shoot) followed by filming at Green Street, then Round Church on Bridge Street, then All Saints Passage, then Trinity Street (all, I think, different locations to those used in the day shoot).
So, anyway, as we all know, production on Shada continued,
with effects shots of people entering and leaving the invisible spaceship and
some model shots being shot at Ealing Film Studios Stage 2 on 22 October and
the first recording block at Television Centre Studio 3 on 3, 4 and 5 November.
With the next recording block scheduled for 19 and 20 November...
What I’ll do now is try to provide a timeline of events. I expect Doctor Who historian and social media japester David Brunt will cover it in even more detail when he gets around to writing his book on it, but this will have to do for now.
Thursday 15 November
Industrial action by the union ABS (Association of
Broadcasting Staff) disrupts live coverage of Miss World 1979 and tennis
on BBC 2 (it was still shown, but with a musical accompaniment rather than
commentary). The action concerns a dispute over the wage regrading for
television sound assistants (hence the action taken being of a sound
engineering nature); as reported by The Daily Telegraph the next day,
the BBC “considers the present grading structure unwieldy and in danger of
collapse [....] and had hoped the ABS would agree to suspend those agreements
so that a new structure putting everyone into five blocks of grades could be
discussed”.
Friday 16 November
ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service)
intervenes to try to resolve the dispute between ABS and the BBC but without
success. It is possible that live coverage of Ascot is affected.
Saturday 17 November
As far as ABS is
concerned, the dispute about wage-regarding is no longer just about sound
engineers but also technical engineers. Strike action causes the edition of
Multi-Coloured Swap Shop to be pulled in the morning and transmission of Grandstand
to be delayed (a cartoon filled in the time, reportedly Tom and Jerry).
Thankfully transmission of the final episode of The Creature from the Pit
was unaffected, and the live transmission of Match of the Day later in
the evening also seems to have gone ahead as planned (there is no report of it
being disrupted).
Sunday 18 November
There doesn’t seem to have been any industrial action this
day.
Monday 19 November
The ABS national executive meets. As reported by the Evening
Standard, the dispute is “over the BBC’s decision to stop staff regrading
pending the introduction of a new grading structure in the New Year” and led to
“100 technicians being taken ‘off the BBC payroll’ this weekend for refusing to
work with management staff brought in to replace 18 striking technical
managers”. Whatever the rights and wrongs of workers essentially being suspended without pay for refusing to be strike-breakers, it’s clearly an escalation.
Doctor Who – The actors Daniel Hill and Victoria Burgoyne
begin camera rehearsal at midday. They break for lunch at 1pm. At 1.45 Tom
Baker puts his costume on and is given make-up. He heads to the studio TC 6
with Daniel and Victoria at 2pm and begin to camera rehearse the scenes in
Chris’ lab.
At approximately 3.05 producer Graham Williams, on “the
advice of General Manager Studios and at the direction of HSS” (Head
Series/Serials, Graeme MacDonald) abandons the studio recording. He then writes
a memo to the OSS (Organiser Series/Serials) noting this and says “I understand
that normal working will resume tomorrow and we are investigating the
possibility of continuing the next day to continue this particular story.”
According to the Artist’s Studio Call Sheet, the cast all
leave at about 3.30pm apart from K-9 voice actor David Brierley who arrives at
the studio at 5pm, having been given a later call-time, and then goes home at
5.30pm.
Industrial action affects the live transmission of Nationwide
which uses pre-recorded film items. The edition of Panorama is also
cancelled, but this may be due to its controversial content – the Blunt affair
– or because of an unrelated dispute regarding an attempt by management to fire
its editor, Roger Bolton, after a recent edition on the IRA. It may even be a
combination of all three reasons.
The live transmission of Blue Peter is not affected
by the industrial action; at this point the show is in the midst of a
fundraising appeal for Cambodian refugees which the ABS do not wish to disrupt.
As reported in The Guardian the following day,
“recordings of Dr Who and a variety programme were called off”. The variety programme in question is Six of
a Kind, the pilot episode for what later became Three of a Kind, starring
Lenny Henry and David Copperfield with Don Mclean, Karen Kay, Pearly Gates and
Leah Bell, but without Tracy Ulman.
Bill Cotton, controller of BBC 1, writes to members of staff
warning them that anyone going on strike will have to sign a “personal
declaration” of normal working before being allowed to resume work. This
hardball tactic has the effect of making the dispute much worse as the ABS
General Secretary says the union will be stepping up its action but “there is
no question at the moment of an all-out stoppage.”
Tuesday 20 November
Doctor Who – At 8.15am Graham Williams is called by the Shada
set designer, Vic Meredith, asking why the studio has been locked. He
arrives at the studio himself at 9.30am, with no idea why the studio has been
locked. He is “naturally concerned [...] that this could be construed in a
sensitive situation as a ‘lock out’”.
Williams contacts HSS and at 10.45 is instructed to abandon
the studio recording at around 10.45-11.00.
He then writes two memos to OSS. The first is to inform him
that “We are proceeding with outside rehearsals for the next set of studios and
await your advice as to how the loss of two days can best be made up”.
The second gives a detailed account of the morning’s events,
as recorded above. He is also clearly pissed off that he wasn’t called the
previous night to let him know that the recording would be abandoned.
Now this is all really important. Firstly, Graham Williams,
the man who was there, literally standing at the locked door of the studio,
describes the situation as resembling a “lock-out”. And he reinforces
that point by making it clear in the second memo that he regards the decision
to cancel the recording as a management decision which it clearly was.
It seems likely that the second recording day of Six of a
Kind is scrapped; “Luckily, there was a strike and the whole thing got
quietly put away” according to Lenny Henry interviewed in 2015.; however, there
is no information about whether the recording of the Francis Durbage drama Breakaway
in TC 3 went ahead or not – the programme was certainly finished, as it was
broadcast on BBC 1 from the 11 January 1980. It’s on Youtube if you want to see
it.
The live transmission of Nationwide is targeted by
industrial action but seems to be unaffected from a viewers’ point of view. Question
Time is also affected.
In the evening, at the request of the crew, the ABS allows
the planned edition of Crackerjack to go ahead at the Television Theatre
(now the Shepherd’s Bush Empire) on the grounds that children were already
travelling to see the show and it would be cruel to disappoint them. However,
the show is only performed for the theatre audience and is not recorded.
Wednesday 21 November
According to the report in the Evening Standard on the following day, recordings of The Generation Game, Parkinson, Grange Hill, Jackanory and Playschool are cancelled. Nationwide is targeted again, more noticeably. An arts programme called Mainstream is also affected and Pebble Mill at One and The Book Programme are replaced with repeats of previous editions.
Nevertheless, recording of Top of the Pops goes ahead
as normal, including mimed performances of I Don’t Want To Be A Freak (But I
Can’t Help Myself) by Dynasty and Monkey Chop by Dan-i. It’s
introduced by Dave Lee Travis so don’t expect to see it on BBC Four anytime
soon.
The Daily Telegraph reports on the dispute, as they
call it. Talks between the ABS and the BBC have broken down and there are no
plans for further meetings. They explain that “the dispute started two weeks
ago when electricians staged a series of one-day unofficial walkouts, affecting
programme production. Technicians and other production staff also started a
series of 24-hour stoppages which have disrupted programmes such as Panorama,
Nationwide and weather forecasts”. They go on to say that the BBC have
now “laid off” 300 staff for refusing to “give assurances of normal working”
and “have been declared by the BBC to be on strike”. They are also
threatening to take any remaining workers who fail to give assurance of normal
working practices with being taken off the payroll. “production was stopped
yesterday on Dr Who, Play School and Six of a Kind”.
Now, this article is really important, and despite it being
in The Daily Telegraph I think it gives us a good insight into what was
going on. Note first that the BBC was the one declaring workers it had sent
home (possibly temporarily, possibly permanently) as being on strike. This is,
essentially, what a management lock-out is. Secondly, it’s clear that
this story has come from the BBC, as it’s giving their version of
events, so it’s interesting to note that they are the ones saying which
programmes have been affected – it’s notable that two of them are beloved
children’s programmes (nobody would have had a clue what Six of a Kind was
at the time).
The Evening Standard also reports on the dispute,
claiming that “lighting strikes – which have now cost the BBC almost £500,000
in lost productions – yesterday stopped work on half a dozen programmes,
including Robin Day’s Question Time and Dr Who”. This article is
also clearly sourced from the BBC as it quotes BBC deputy manging director
Robin Scott warning staff that the corporation “remains resolute”. The £500,000
figure seems rather high for three days of quite straightforward studio
recording.
Why would the BBC want readers to know which programmes were
being affected and how much it was allegedly costing? The obvious
interpretation is because they wanted public opinion to be on their side; while
the strikes by the ABS were intended to be very visible but to only be on live
programmes, the management seems to have taken the view that viewers will be
less sympathetic if it was children’s programming and The Generation Game
that was affected. As BBC deputy managing director Robin Scott makes clear in
the Evening Standard “Nothing, least of all public support, can be
achieved by the present disruptive and damaging action”.
Thursday 22 November
Doctor Who – 10.00 – 500. The cast begin rehearsals for the
next studio block in Room 602 of the BBC Television Rooms, Victoria Road,
Acton, covering scenes in Skagra’s ship.
The Artists’ Time Sheet is issued claiming that the two
recording days were “Cancelled due to strike”.
Technicians volunteer to work on Blue Peter for free
so that it can include a film report on the appeal for Cambodian refugees. BBC
management refuses to allow this, deducts the pay from the crew’s wages, and the report is included in John Craven’s Newsround instead.
Nationwide is still transmitted despite crew action.
Another recording of The Generation Game is cancelled. Tomorrow’s
World seems to go ahead as normal. A pilot of the sitcom Oh Happy Band! Is
scheduled to be recorded today; it’s not clear whether it goes ahead but at
some point it is recorded, as it is transmitted, along with another five
episodes of this entirely-forgotten David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd sitcom, in
September 1980.
The Evening Standard reports on the Blue Peter dispute
(“‘We’ll work for free’ offer is turned down by BBC”) and the programmes which
failed to be recorded the previous day (again, this information can only have
come from the BBC itself). It also
reports that the strike has now escalated to include technical operators and
sound crews in Manchester and technical staff in Bristol, and that the BBC has
now taken a total of 400 workers off the payroll.
Friday 23 November
Doctor Who – 10.00 – 5.00 Rehearsals continue, with scenes
in Skagra’s Ship and in Shada.
A Sypher session for this day is abandoned because the Grams
Operator is reallocated elsewhere without Williams being notified. ‘Sypher’
isn’t a mis-spelling for cypher, it’s what the BBC called the machine they used
to do cypher dubs (ie adding sound effects and fixing any audio faults).
Doctor Who script editor and Shada writer
Douglas Adams attends the second recording session for episode 9 of his radio
series The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (recording on this episode
had begun on 14 November).
All the workers who worked on the edition of Crackerjack are
informed by management that they are now sacked because they were deemed to be
in breach of contract for withholding labour (when in fact they had turned up
and worked as usual). They are informed that the Crackerjack production
had been cancelled by the management and that they had, in effect, broken the
‘lock-out’ and they were not only dismissed but would not be paid for the past
three days. (The BBC doesn’t actually carry out this threat and in the end pays
the crew their wages for this and the 22 November edition of Blue Peter).
(Source: Roger Bunce and the TM’s dispute from the tech-ops website).
Nationwide is still transmitted despite crew action.
Recordings scheduled for today include The Goodies and an insert for
something called Lloyd George; again, I can’t tell whether they went
ahead or were deferred but The Goodies series was broadcast complete in
January 1980 and, if Lloyd George was The Life and Times Of David
Lloyd George, that also got finished and was shown in 1981.
Saturday 24 November
Doctor Who – 9.30 – 1.30 Rehearsals continue with scenes in
Shada.
There are no reports of programme disruption on this day. Multi-Coloured Swap Shop goes ahead as planned with an appearance by Andrew Sachs in character as “Manuel”. Part one of Nightmare of Eden is broadcast to the enormous of delight of yours truly. If the scheduled edition of Parkinson with Rolf Harris went ahead we’re not going to be seeing it again anytime soon.
Sunday 25 November
There are no reports of programme disruption on this day.
Looking at the schedule, though, you kind of wish there had been, some cartoons
might have livened it up.
Monday 26 November
As reported in The Guardian the following day, two of
the three remaining crews at TV centre are now withholding their labour and the
number of employees removed from the payroll is 450. Blue Peter goes
ahead as normal with the remaining crew (it includes a report on the Edinburgh
and East Scotland Cat Show) and Nationwide is also transmitted. The
Guardian accurately summarises the dispute: “Technical staff have been
trying to put pressure on BBC management by staging one-day strikes and
refusing to guarantee normal work. The corporation has replied by suspending
the offending crews.”
Doctor Who – 10-00 – 5.00 Rehearsals continue with scenes in
Skagra’s ship.
Regarding last weeks’ Sypher booking; Williams is informed
by the OSS that the Grams Operator was reallocated to Blake’s 7 and that
the session would have run out of time anyway. He is advised to make another Sypher
booking – “bearing in mind the present industrial dispute”. This is the first intimation
that the next studio block might not be going ahead.
Tuesday 27 November
The BBC meets ABS, but not to discuss the current dispute
but to discuss the effect of the new license fee settlement on wage rates. The
executive of the ABS then meets in the afternoon to consider their next move;
they are “still determined the action will continue”.
According to the Evening Standard the industrial
action has now cost the BBC £900,000 and 540 staff have been taken off the
payroll.
Nationwide is still broadcast in a rudimentary form.
Doctor Who – 10-00 – 4.00 Rehearsals continue with scenes in
Shada and Skagra’s ship.
Williams replies to the OSS regarding the Sypher booking,
pointing out that Doctor Who’s needs are more urgent and that the session
was going fine.
Wednesday 28 November
Production at TV Centre has now ceased on anything apart
from news bulletins. There are now 600 staff off the payroll. Nationwide is
finally cancelled after the ABS threaten to pull the plug on it if the
management attempt to transmit it without a technical team in place. It is
replaced with an old documentary, subject unknown (and is also replaced on
Thursday and Friday).
Doctor Who – 10-00 – 5.00 Rehearsals continue with a work
through in recording order.
Thursday 29 November
The Daily Telegraph reports on the dispute - “Action
stepped up in BBC dispute” – and reporter Ian Bradley accurately summarises the
nature of the dispute in detail and accurately explains that the workers have
been taken of the payroll for refusing to sign the undertaking to work as
normal rather than actually being on strike.
According to The Guardian, “some items due to been
screened in Christmas week have been lost.” It is not clear what programmes
these are.
Blue Peter is “blacked out” despite it being due to
include a film on the Cambodia appeal.
Doctor Who – 10-00 – 5.00 Rehearsals continue with a
technical run and producer’s run.
Friday 30 November
The Guardian has two reports on the industrial
action’; an item on the Blue Peter cancellation and a piece on the
background to the industrial action courtesy with ‘Tom’, “a sober, respectable
middle-class” technical manager. Apparently 600 people are now “on strike” (my
quotation marks) and are “taken off the payroll” (the reporter’s quotation
marks).
Doctor Who – 10-00 Rehearsals begin.
At 11.45 Williams is called by the OSS to be instructed to
abandon the production of Shada. The cast and crew are informed. He
sends a memo to the OSS saying that, in discussion with Graeme MacDonald, the Head
of Series/Serials, “the decision to abandon was in many ways through to be a
relief. At leas the elements of uncertainty have now vanished”.
Williams then writes to the cast and crew saying that at
“Lunchtime today I heard the most heartbreaking news. Our story has not only
been postponed, but cancelled without a commitment to a remount date. You can
guess my feelings. It seems such a shame for all our hard work to amount to
nothing at all”.
Williams then gets on a plane with Tom Baker to attend the
first Doctor Who convention in the USA, at the Continental Hyatt House,
Los Angeles.
ABS representatives and BBC management have a meeting at
ACAS in the evening...
Saturday 1 December
...and have agreed on a ‘peace formula for the dispute, as
reported in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. Nevertheless,
this is too late for today’s editions of The Generation Game and Parkinson,
which are replaced with repeats of earlier editions, while Grandstand loses
coverage of the finals of the snooker championship and the rugby league,
replacing them with reports on gymnastics and ice skating. Part two of Nightmare
of Eden, however, is transmitted without incident.
The BBC now estimates the cost of the industrial action as
£1.5 million.
Doctor Who – This would have been the first day of recording
of the third studio block. As the dispute has not been formally resolved it is
unlikely anything is recorded in the vacant studio.
Sunday 2 December
Sunday Worship is replaced with a repeat of an
earlier edition, and tonight’s edition of Rising Stars (a talent show
hosted by Lennie Bennet) is replaced with a repeat of ABBA in Switzerland,
first shown in April, which is a great improvement.
The Sunday Telegraph reports that if the ‘peace
formula’ is accepted by the ABS executive on Monday then BBC TV programmes
could be back to normal by the middle of the week. This report is (perhaps
surprisingly) very accurate as it makes it clear the 600 technicians have been
“suspended” rather than being on strike. The cost is now estimated as
£1,501,000 – it’s gone up by £1000 since yesterday.
A BBC spokesman is quoted as saying “Once we get back to
normal production the first thing we shall do will be the Christmas shows.
There should be no disruption to them if we get back to work in the next few
days”.
Doctor Who – This would have been the second day of
recording of the third studio block. Again, as the dispute has not been
resolved it is unlikely anything was recorded in the vacant studio.
Monday 3 December
The ABS executive agree to the ‘peace formula’, which is
described by the BBC as a “compromise solution” but which appears to be the BBC
management backtracking on their decision to stop staff regrading and
reinstating all suspended workers with full pay for their missing days. Blue
Peter and Nationwide return to the nation’s screens.
Doctor Who – This would have been the final day of recording
of the third studio block. The studio is probably allocated to the recording of
the edition of The Little and Large Show broadcast on 1 January 1980.. The
artists’ time sheet records the three cancelled Doctor Who studio days
as ‘Cancelled due to strike’. They are all paid as if the studio recordings had
gone ahead.
Douglas Adams attends the recording of episode 10 of The
Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
For the rest of December there is paperwork regarding the
cancellation, including a letter to Dudley Simpson informing him that his
musical services will not be required (this letter is copied to Ronnie
Hazlehurst for some reason).
And that’s it as far as the industrial action is concerned,
and Shada too. Incoming producer John Nathan-Turner briefly tries to get
Shada remounted as a four-part story from April 1980; this becomes a two
fifty-minute part story before being abandoned in June 1980 due to “the
unavailability of studios and servicing”.
There are now over four thousand versions of Shada, and
counting.
.jpeg)
The question you might like to ask is why did the management
cancel the recordings on the Monday 20 November and Tuesday 21 November? Let’s
put it this way. It’s easy to imagine a version of events where the recording
was scuppered by a crew strike. The cast and crew are told by their union reps
not to turn up for work or try to get to the studio but are stopped because
there’s a picket line. Or, if there’s no advance warning, they start camera
rehearsals or recording but then a person essential the production withholds
their labour – ie the person responsible for pressing ‘record’ on the video
recorder – at which point recording grinds to a halt and everyone goes home.
It’s not hard to imagine as that’s what normally happened whenever a strike was
called.
But the door to the studio being locked is different.
Strikers don’t have the power or the keys to lock studio doors. That’s
management; in this case, the HSS. You wouldn’t need to lock the doors
if you knew the recording was going to be scuppered by a strike anyway. You
would only need to do that if you thought the recording wasn’t going to
be scuppered by a strike but you wanted to stop it going ahead. Because you
wanted to be the one who decided which programmes were cancelled, rather it
being up to the unions or the crews. Because you wanted to change the nature of
the industrial action from being about technicians causing annoying and very
noticeable disruptions to live broadcasts to being one where it was causing
programmes to be cancelled with the rest of the cast and crew being deprived of
work (but not payment, everyone who turned up for work still got paid).
But it’s fair to say, yes, the management lock-out was in
response to industrial action. There was a strike. The ABS were
withholding their labour. So you could, if you really wanted to, say that the
lock-out was because of the strike because it was in response to
the strike. In the same way that the Three-Day Week was a response to the
threat of a miner’s strike – with the same level of counterproductivity. But it
was also a decision made by the management, a decision which was unnecessary
and ill-considered, a decision which had the effect if not the intention of massively
exacerbating the dispute; a dispute where the BBC were ‘grandstanding’ if not Grandstand-ing.
A dispute which wasted a huge amount of money (if not quite as much as the
BBC were claiming) and which only had one effect; leaving us one Doctor Who story
short.
