Writer Ian Potter:

"Back in 1951 when Britain was still recovering from the 2nd World War, a countrywide event was held looking forward to a brighter future for the nation and looking back on its history with a sense of pride - The Festival of Britain. On London's South Bank, strikingly modern buildings sprouted up full of wonders and spectacle. The modern marvel of television was displayed in the Telekinema on the site now occupied by the British Film Institute and the dramatic Skylon and Dome of Discovery brought futuristic 'Dan Dare' architecture to the London's skyline.

I think there's definitely something of the Festival of Britain's aspirations for the future and celebration of history woven into the DNA of early Doctor Who, so it was a delight to put the Doctor and his companions into the Festival and explore the gap between the history and future on display with the history and future they'd lived and travelled through.

It's an adventure first and foremost but the story is directly inspired by one of the more ambitious exhibits in the Dome of Discovery, which had intrigued me when I was a curator of TV at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television. When I researched it in depth and found, like many museum exhibits, it never quite worked as envisioned, I was delighted. Popular histories had all related what the exhibition brochure claimed the exhibit would do, not what it ended up doing in practice. It was a perfect metaphor for a story that touches on how history sometimes becomes propaganda. I had to hold back from describing everything on the South Bank exhibition site but I promise you every single thing in the story, with the exception of the Doctor, his friends, Jamie and Zoe and our villain, really was there. In fact, after producer Ian Atkins suggested a small tweak to my initial storyline it transpired the site had (slightly spookily) provided exactly what we needed to accommodate it!

I was lucky enough to attend the recording of the story by Wendy Padbury, whose reading I found utterly delightful. It's beautifully pitched and seemingly effortless, bringing far more than I could have imagined to my words. Listening to her recreating Zoe so perfectly put a huge smile on my face. I do hope listeners will have some of that excitement I felt in the studio, enjoy the adventure and, just maybe, when they next visit a museum, wonder what other stories might be hidden there among the displays..."

August, 2017

Doctor Who: Short Trips: The British Invasion (7.8)

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