Bangladesh
Bangladesh is located to the east of India. It is a member of the British Commonwealth.????????
Contents
Population
When Doctor Who screened in Bangladesh in 1980, the population was around 90,000,000, and licensed TV sets numbered 252,000 (per WRTH, 1984). SHOULD USE 1979
TV & system
Bangladesh began its television service in 1980, adopting the PAL colour broadcast system.
There is just one television station: Television Bhaban, a government-owned commercial broadcaster. This broadcaster operated two channels: channel 6 and channel 9. Doctor Who aired on channel 9.
Language/s
The main language of Bangladesh is Indian, with English as a secondary language. However TV broadcasts were in English.
DOCTOR WHO IN BANGLADESH
Bangladesh was the 55th country to screen Doctor Who (see Selling Doctor Who). It was also the last to screen Jon Pertwee stories in black and white.
BBC Records
The Eighties the Lost Chapters records a sale of 5 stories (by 10 February 1987).
Bangladesh is not identified in any of the DWM story Archives.
Stories bought and broadcast
JON PERTWEE?
Five stories, 26 or 28 episodes:
| ? | unknown | 26 or 28 |
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Transmission
JON PERTWEE?
It is not clear when Doctor Who started; the first listing in the newspaper for "Film Dr Who" is on 22 July 1980, at 7.10pm; however the programmes in that same time slot from 3 June until 22 July as billed as just "Film Show", some of which may or may not have been Doctor Who.
The last listed episode was on 31 December 1980. From 7 January 1981, the timeslot was taken by the American crime series The Green Hornet, which was specifically billed as being "coloured".
So, how many episodes were there? We have the first listing for Doctor Who on 22 July, and the last on 31 December – a spread of 25 weeks. Of these, only 14 are actually billed as "Dr Who". The others are simply billed as "Film Show". If Doctor Who started prior to 22 July, then the maximum number of episodes is no more than 32.
If The Eighties total of 5 is accurate, and assuming these were Jon Pertwee stories on account of them being in black and white "film" (despite the TV service being in colour), then this run of episodes could be a random selection of stories across the entire Pertwee era, but excluding those stories that were not available to Commonwealth nations.
The timeslots did change, with 5.50pm being the earliest, and 7.10pm the latest.
There is no record that Bangladesh screened Doctor Who again.
TV listings
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper Bangladesh Observer.
As noted above, billings were for "Film Dr Who", "Film Show Dr Who", or just "Film Show". Two misprints gave the title as "Dr Hu"!
Bangladesh in Doctor Who
There are no instances where Bangladesh is mentioned in the series.
References
