Ghana
GHANA is a small republic located in West Africa. It had been a British colony, before gaining its independence in 1957. It is a member of the British Commonwealth.
Profile
| Country Number (19?) | 1966? | FIRST WAVE |
| Region | Africa | Commonwealth |
| Television commenced | 1965 | |
| Colour System | 1980 | PAL |
| Population | 1966 | 7 million |
| TV Sets | 1966 | 1,000 |
| Language/s | English |
Television Stations / Channels
Ghana began its television service in 1954. Colour transmissions began in 1980 using the PAL colour broadcast system. In 1965 there was just one television station:
DOCTOR WHO IN GHANA
We are not certain when Doctor Who commenced on GTV, but Ghana was – we think – the 19th country (the sixth in Africa) to broadcast Doctor Who (Selling Doctor Who)
BBC Records
Doctor Who - The Seventies records sale of "(5)" stories. Doctor Who - The Handbook identifies these as being the first five William Hartnell stories.
DWM also identifies the same five stories.
Stories bought and broadcast
| A | An Unearthly Child | 4 |
| B | The Daleks | 7 |
| C | Inside the Spaceship | 2 |
| D | Marco Polo | 7 |
| E | The Keys of Marinus | 6 |
Ghana therefore bought just the first Group of William Hartnell stories. (Bermuda and Canada were the only other two countries to 'drop' the series after the first five stories.)
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints.
Transmission
The first known Ghanaian airdate for Doctor Who was on Monday, 11 July 1966, at 9.30pm. The subsequent timeslots varied between 8.45pm and 9.00pm. The last listed episode was on 15 August 1966.
It is unknown whether these dates are at the beginning, the middle or the end of the 26 episode run. If they were the first, and the series aired without a break, then it ended in early 1967. If it is at the end of the run, then the series could have commenced in late December 1965...
TV listings
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper Ghana Daily Graphic.
The newspaper listings were very sporadic prior to July 1966, and from 22 August disappeared altogether, so only six episodes of Doctor Who have been identified – however we are not sure if these five listings are the first, in the middle of or are towards the end of the 26 episode run.
The main reason for our uncertainty lies in the fact that the 26 April 1966 issue of The Daily Mirror, carried an interview with William Hartnell ("Oh, the Agony of being Dr Who"), in which it says "Canadians, Maltese and Ghanaians all send him fan-mail..." So, if they were writing to him as early as April 1966, then the series must have been long before 11 July 1966...
On that basis, the air-dates in our table have mostly been assumed.
(See Peter Haining's Doctor Who – The Key to Time for the text from The Daily Mail article.)
Ghana in Doctor Who
- In episode four of The Chase, the box office outside the Frankenstein’s House of Horror exhibit declares that it is part of the 1996 "Festival of Ghana".
