26 Facts About John Nathan-Turner

John Turner, known professionally as John Nathan-Turner, was an English television producer.

John Nathan-Turner was the ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who and the final producer of the series' first run on television.

John Nathan-Turner finished the role having become the longest-serving Doctor Who producer and cast Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy as the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors, respectively.

John Nathan-Turner was educated at King Edward VI School, at Aston in Birmingham, where he showed an early interest in acting and theatre.

John Nathan-Turner later worked on Doctor Who in the Tom Baker era as production unit manager under producer Graham Williams from 1977 to 1979.

John Nathan-Turner strongly felt that people working on the programme had stopped taking the show seriously: it was parodying science fiction, rather than presenting serious storylines.

John Nathan-Turner believed that Williams had allowed Baker too much influence on the show's direction, rather than confronting Baker over his increasingly comedic acting style.

John Nathan-Turner decided on a new broom approach, and instituted sweeping changes: replacing the arrangement of the theme music which had run throughout the 1970s with a more contemporary electronic arrangement by Peter Howell, and introducing revamped opening titles and a new closing credit sequence.

John Nathan-Turner dispensed with the services of long-time composer Dudley Simpson, who had provided the incidental music for the majority of the Doctor Who serials of the 1970s and all of the Williams era stories.

John Nathan-Turner cast Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor for season 19, having previously worked with him on All Creatures Great and Small.

John Nathan-Turner was largely focused on generating publicity for the series, something which he achieved by the device of casting high profile, well-known actors as guest stars.

John Nathan-Turner rarely used directors or writers who had worked for previous producers.

John Nathan-Turner became a familiar face among the many Doctor Who celebrities who made appearances during PBS fundraising drives, held to finance the purchase of more Doctor Who serials for screening in the United States.

Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times argued that "John Nathan-Turner should be applauded for enticing big-name guest stars and his 'stunt casting' of actors in wildly inappropriate roles often pays off", although he cited Briers as an example who was "shockingly bad".

John Nathan-Turner was criticised for the casting of companions purely as gimmicks: the character Tegan Jovanka was introduced solely to curry favour with viewers in Australia; whilst Peter Davison reported that the American character Peri Brown was introduced only in an attempt to endear the show to American viewers.

In 1986, after the series had returned, Grade insisted that John Nathan-Turner replace the actor he had cast as the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, as a condition of it continuing.

John Nathan-Turner received criticism from his former executive producer, Barry Letts, for introducing the question mark motif on Tom Baker's costume.

Eric Saward, who joined Doctor Who as script editor in season 19, had a tumultuous working relationship with John Nathan-Turner and quit the programme during production of season 23.

John Nathan-Turner's casting decisions for the central role of the Doctor have been criticised.

Also during the early 1990s, John Nathan-Turner produced the earliest Doctor Who commercial releases on audio cassette, for the BBC Radio Collection, creating narrated adaptations of television serials for which only the soundtrack remained.

John Nathan-Turner left his roles at BBC Video and the BBC Radio Collection at the end of 1992.

John Nathan-Turner co-presented the BSB 31 Who programmes during their 1990 Doctor Who Weekend, and co-wrote the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time for the show's 30th Anniversary.

John Nathan-Turner made his final contribution to Doctor Who in March 2002, six weeks before his death, when he gave his final interview on a location visit to what was used during the Resurrection of the Daleks recordings in 1983.

John Nathan-Turner contracted an infection and died in hospital on 1 May 2002, aged 54.

John Nathan-Turner lived for many years in London, with a home in Saltdean, Brighton.

John Nathan-Turner spoke of his life with Nathan-Turner in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine.