As promised on Monday, today we’re going to add another member to the blog Hall of Fame: Verity Lambert. Lambert’s probably best known as the first producer of Doctor Who and if that’s all she’d done, it would have been impressive, but not enough to elevate her.
However, Lambert is responsible not only for some of the most well known and iconic shows in British TV, she’s responsible for shows that helped give women a voice, not just on-screen but behind the scenes as well.
The youngest as well as the only female drama producer at the BBC when she joined the corporation, she went on to produce the ground-breaking The Naked Civil Servant, Rock Follies, Minder, Widows, Shoulder to Shoulder and GBH for ITV and Channel 4, as well as TV favourites such as Rumpole of the Bailey, Budgie and The Sweeney, and became CEO of Thames TV’s acclaimed production arm Euston Films. It was through her efforts that women such as Prime Suspect creator Lynda La Plante were given entry to an industry that was male-dominated in the extreme.
And that’s why she’s going into the pantheon.
To coincide with this, we’re launching a new feature of the blog to show off some of Lambert’s best work. And just to get the inevitable out of the way, we’re going to launch it with her first work as a producer. Yes, Doctor Who is the first entry in “A pack of Lambert golds”.
