If you watched Doctor Who in the 1980's then you know who John Nathan-Turner was. From 1980 to 1989 his producers credit was the final thing you saw on-screen at the end of every episode of Doctor Who.
His era in 1980 started brightly with a marked upturn in production values. He was praised by the fans and the BBC alike But by the end of the decade the show was despised by the BBC and by the hardcore fans who JNT had embraced earlier in the decade. He'd become so synonymous with the show that he was as hated by his superiors in equal measure to the show he ran. Jonathan Powell, the head of drama and later controller of BBC 1 says "…. I just wanted him to fuck off or die really".
Many of the artistes who worked for him adored him. He was a caring man although one with a temper and a huge streak of jealousy. After one fit of rage he spits in Nicola Bryant's (Peri) face (they never spoke again), in another he had a massive public argument with Antony Ainley (The Master) over fees being paid for a convention (although by all accounts Ainley was a hugely difficult man to deal with).
Then is a constant theme of booze and sex running through the book. JNT was an "out" gay man and worked closely with his partner Gary Downie. In the days before AIDS, they were both highly sexed promiscuous men who took full advantage of the situation. John, the more laid back of the two, would attempt to bed everyone in sight from fans to extras. One chat up line whispered in the ear of the author in the BBC club was "Have you ever had 2 up you". The author declined and no more was said. However it has to be said that certain fans had to "pay their dues" to get special access to the show. One superfan even arranges rent boys to keep the producer on-side! It’s disturbing, it’s uncomfortable and to be honest you feel grubby reading some of it.
However the stories of JNT’s partner, Gary Downie, activities are far more disturbing. The word is "predatory". In one instance the author finds himself hiding under a BBC desk while Downie patrols the corridor outside after making a forceful pass. He wasn't the only one either. Story after story of the highly sexed South African trying to forcefully fuck everything in sight is actually quite disturbing. He even scouted “doable barkers” at conventions to take back to their hotel room (“barker” being their slang for “fans”).
The question is posed (in this post Savile era) were the two of them peados? The book goes to great pains to say they weren’t, but a couple of hundred pages later there's a story from the late 90's where a "complaint" is put in by the parents of a 14 year old boy who Downie had been coaching for a theatre performance.
Which brings me onto the booze. There's no doubt the BBC of the 80's had a hard drinking culture and perhaps its no surprise that JNT died due to liver failure. For all his faults the end of the book is rather heartbreaking. A man washed up, who was unwanted by his BBC bosses who jettisoned him into a world into which he couldn't adapt. He spends the remainder of his life producing pantos and appearing at Doctor Who conventions. Ironically the series that he wanted to escape from could never leave him.
The book features recollections from everyone who was anyone who worked on the series in that era. It's easier to list the notable omissions who declined to take part, namely Tom Baker and script editor Eric Saward. However both are represented via archive interviews. By using so many interviews, the reader is asked to form their own opinion of the man. It is telling that many of his closest friends and colleagues have come out and said that the book is a fair and honest portrait of the man. My only criticism is that sometimes the revelations are so painful you wonder if you really should be reading them!
The cancellation crisis of 1985 is probably covered better here than ANY book. Jonathan Powell gives his full and frank recollections. It is also telling that some of his ex-staff really lay into Powell and the other BBC bosses of the era.
Finally the book also confirms what I had long suspected, that in the 1980's Doctor Who made more money for the BBC than it cost to make. It was one of the few shows that was a net contributor to the BBC proving what a stupid decision it was to abuse it and run it down. You have this ludicrous situation in the book where Powell is whining that he hates the show, he hates JNT and it's all costing money, and the guy from BBC Enterprises is saying how the show paid for itself and more besides! What kind of outfit was Powell running? You just want to reach into the page, slap the fucker and tell him to sack JNT and give the show more cash! The act of that decision would have changed history and might have meant JNT wouldn't have ended up drinking himself into oblivion. Whatever the merits of the man, the BBC behaved in a disgusting manner towards him during the second half of his time on the show.
Did JNT leave a legacy? Well yes, in many ways. In some ways he showed the new series production team how not to do things. But some things he did live on to this day. He cast 3 Doctors and 7 companions, he worked tirelessly to get the show out there and seen and started generating publicity for the show in a way that was simply not done at the BBC at the time. He was the show runner in a modern sense, the public face of the show. The first producer to get his face out there and promote the show. It's no co-incidence that in 2013 one of the few TV shows on TV where you see the person running the show in publicity is Doctor Who. JNT did that. You see Moffatt's mug on Digital Spy et al because 30 years ago JNT was doing it. Nobody gives a damn who runs Eastenders, but it's a given you know who runs Doctor Who.
He was also the only producer at the BBC to embrace BBC Enterprises (now BBC Worldwide) and got involved in merchandising and generating ways for the show to bring money it. While Powell and co were sneering at him, he was out there helping the show generate a profit for the BBC. Everything from the first VHS releases to pushing the show into America, what we take for granted today was done first by JNT.
It is an astonishing read, immaculately researched by a man who has worked in a similar position on a show also unloved by the BBC (the author was the producer of Blue Peter until the cat naming 'scandal'). If you are interested in Doctor Who, read it. If you are interested in the BBC read it. If you are interested in scandal, sex, drugs and booze, read it!
Rating: 946 Bananas.JN-T: The Life and Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner costs £14.99 and is avaliable from
http://www.miwkpublishing.com/store/index.php?_a=product&product_id=30. Don't get it from Amazon, it's more expensive.
Register
Calendar
FAQ
Search
