Doctoring a telly classic

10:16am Tuesday 8th April 2008

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Not for the first time, I have a confession to make. I am an anorak. To be more precise, I am a Doctor Who fan.

Let me clarify. I was completely obsessed with the programme when I was a kid, which is probably the best time to be obsessed with a kids' programme.

Indeed, so taken was I with the sci-fi series that when I had an operation on my eyes at the age of five I tried to take the bandages off prematurely because I was so keen to catch the climax of an adventure.

Fortunately for me, I was prevented from following this desperate course, which meant I was able to watch many more adventures in time and space, until my enthusiasm tailed off in adolescence when I found other things to do on Saturday evenings.

Even so, I think I am probably reasonably well placed to ask the salient question - how has a clapped-out piece of television, consigned to the broadcasting graveyard, turned into one of the top shows on the box, drawing an estimated 8.4 million viewers (the best figures for the day) on its return to our screens on Saturday?

This, after all, is a programme which was famously condemned by Michael Grade when he was one of the BBC's top men in the 1980s. When it was finally dropped a few years later, it was actually improving, but was still self-obsessed and choked by its long history, catering for diehard fans rather than the mass audience it once had.

Now it's a flagship programme, even emulating the Morecambe & Wise Show with its Christmas special, complete with big star guest. Who's in Who this time? Oh, it's pop princess Kylie - just watch those festive ratings rise.

I think the success is down to two things. One is the very clever revival by Russell T Davies, who chucked out the baggage he didn't want, keeping just enough history to keep the anoraks happy while pursuing his own agenda - helped by much-improved production values and special effects that don't rely on wobbly models or blokes in rubber suits.

But Davies can also thank the people who put the concept together back in 1963, because, probably largely by accident, they created a franchise that was built to last.

The main character is a mysterious alien - no one knew where he came from or what powers he might have. So if you want to change your lead actor, no problem, it turns out when the Doctor gets worn at the edges he turns into someone else.

Then there is the Tardis. The BBC didn't want to shell out on an expensive spaceship model, so someone suggested a machine disguised as a police box, which could go absolutely anywhere and do almost anything you feel like - a rare example of inspired cost-cutting.

I watched the start of the new season, to see if it matched the hype. It was clever, if slightly silly, had Sarah Lancashire as star guest and a "ghost" appearance from Billie Piper, and the viewing figures suggest the magic is still there. Oh, and thankfully Catherine Tate was less irritating than in her first Tardis trip - though, frankly, that wouldn't take much doing.

* THE prize for most irritating woman on the box that day surely went to Clare Balding, presenting the Grand National. There she was, crowing triumphantly because she had managed to waylay a hapless jockey for a comment just before he got on his horse for the start. The fact the poor man had nothing to say that added anything to the occasion was completely lost on her.

At least her colleague, who asked the winning jockey whether he could believe he had come in first, immediately after the rider had told him he couldn't yet believe what had happened, showed some inadvertent comic timing.

But someone should tell the Beeb that, unlike the Doctor, the National doesn't need hyping.