Sydney Newman

For the musicologist and pianist, see Sidney Newman.

Sydney Newman
OC
Sydney Newman
Newman at the Canadian media delegation to China in 1974
Born
Sydney Cecil Nudelman[1]

(1917-04-01)April 1, 1917
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DiedOctober 30, 1997(1997-10-30) (aged 80)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupations
  • Film and television producer
  • writer
Known forCreation of The Avengers and Doctor Who
PartnerMarion McDougall
AwardsOrder of Canada

Sydney Cecil Newman OC (April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman was appointed acting director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) and then head of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and acted as an advisor to the Secretary of State.[2]

During his time in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, he worked first with ABC Weekend TV, before moving across to the BBC in 1962, holding the role of Head of Drama with both organisations. During this phase of his career, he created the spy-fi series The Avengers and co-created the science-fiction series Doctor Who, as well as overseeing the production of groundbreaking social realist drama series such as Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Play.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications describes Newman as "the most significant agent in the development of British television drama."[3] His obituary in The Guardian declared that "for ten brief but glorious years, Sydney Newman ... was the most important impresario in Britain ... His death marks not just the end of an era but the laying to rest of a whole philosophy of popular art."[4]

In Quebec, as commissioner of the NFB, he attracted controversy for his decision to suppress distribution of several politically sensitive films by French Canadian directors.[5]

  1. ^ Burk, Graeme (April 2017). "Who created Doctor Who?". Doctor Who Magazine (510). Panini Comics: 65.
  2. ^ "Sydney Newman". NFB Profiles. National Film Board of Canada. Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved January 25, 2010.
  3. ^ Jacobs, Jason. "Newman, Sydney". Museum of Broadcast Communications. Archived from the original on March 2, 2006. Retrieved January 22, 2006.
  4. ^ Gilbert, W Stephen (November 3, 1997). "Obituary: Sydney Newman – TV's feisty dramatiser". The Guardian. p. 15.
  5. ^ Evans, Gary (1991). "'On a Chariot of Fire': Sydney Newman's Tenure". In the National Interest: A Chronicle of the National Film Board of Canada from 1949 to 1989. University of Toronto Press. pp. 177–187. ISBN 978-0-8020-6833-0.