This is the inside story of Reeltime Pictures, from the earliest days of its acclaimed Myth Makers VHS tapes, through the production of its ambitious dramas and documentaries, to its successive adoption of DVD, Blu-ray, streaming and download formats. Boasting a wealth of quotes from many of those involved, the book tells the story of Keith Barnfather’s passion and dedication to develop a valuable archive of material chronicling the complete production history of classic Doctor Who.
On the face of it, this book is probably going to fly completely over the heads of Doctor Who fans brought up on the 2005 series; the name, Reeltime Pictures, is so anchored and tied to the late 1980s and through the entire span of the 1990s that both it and its product literally belong to another era. And yet that perception, while justified, is grossly regrettable, as the reality of Dylan Rees’ in-depth study of Keith Barnfather’s long work in interviewing the actors and production crew of the original series of Doctor Who forms an incredibly important and rich back-catalogue of material from faces now no longer with us…
I have a vested interest in this book. I was a devotee of Reeltime’s Myth Makers series of interviews through the ’90s and beyond, and these VHS releases still sit in a cupboard, even though technology has left them behind. And so, at a whopping 350 pages, this just-released reflection on Reeltime and its incredible output and contribution to the Doctor Who fanbase was a bit of a gamble for me – would it be any good?
The verdict is… a very definite yes! In fact, the finished book exceeds all my hopes, as what we get is a well laid out and wordy look back at everything Reeltime and Keith Barnfather have produced since the early 1980s — from the first Myth Makers interviews, to more ambitious productions like Wartime with John Levene, to the various Sophie Aldred thrillers, and up to date with Damaris Hayman’s Olive Hawthorne anthology among many other things. This is a very comprehensive breakdown and insight into all of Reeltime’s output.
But really it’s Nick Briggs’ contribution that adds the flavour – while he is today best known for voicing the Daleks and being a key figure at Big Finish, back in the 1990s, he was the face of Reeltime Pictures and was very involved with the fan-produced VHS world that helped sustain the fanbase in those years. Along with its memorable theme tune, Briggs was synonymous with the Myth Makers series, and he has a surprising honesty here as he reflects on the highs and the lows of that journey, and his own shortcomings along the way — nowhere more stark than his openness in his badly handled meeting with Jon Pertwee for his turn on speaking to Myth Makers. A bruising memory he carries to this day.
On the other hand is his and Barnfather’s joy at the experience of getting Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks for two interview releases, and the respect that they all have for these two giants of Doctor Who comes through all the way – not surprising, as these too are my favourites of the Myth Makers series… and I was surprised to learn here that Barnfather had wanted to do a third session with the two, but never quite got around to scheduling it. Something he now regrets.
This is a simply wonderful book. Each retrospective comes with an accompanying picture of the release or interview being discussed, and there is a centre-section of full colour glossy images for various Reeltime drama releases such as the Shakedown and Mindgame trilogy. My copy has gone away for Christmas, and, while I did try numerous times to order directly from Telos’ website, the publisher is having problems in accepting Card payment at the moment due to serious software issues on their site, and so are down to just a cumbersome PayPal verification facility, which in the end defeated me. And so I went instead to Amazon, clicked on two buttons, and received the book the next day, and at a reduced price.
No fuss whatsoever. Such is the harsh realities of online mail order for small publishers like Telos.
I have to make clear that the pleasures and value in this book are down to the anecdotes and vividly told first-hand experiences of Briggs and Barnfather’s meetings with a lot of the original series cast and crew members that are long gone: Michael Wisher, Peter Grimwade, Paul Bernard, Michael Craze, Elisabeth Sladen, Caroline John, Mary Tamm, Richard Franklin, and so, so many more. This is what should make this book appealing to every fan of the television series, new series or old. It isn’t just a book about Reeltime Pictures; it’s a book about the original television series and all those very real people who contributed to putting it out onto television for us to enjoy. And it also serves as a worthy tribute to Keith Barnfather himself, an oft-overlooked figure who played a substantial part in keeping the Doctor Who world active and supplied with new content through an entire decade, and beyond.
A highly recommended book!
Doctor Who Myths and Legends — The Reeltime Pictures Story is available now from Telos.
