Bangladesh
Bangladesh is located to the east of India. It is a member of the British Commonwealth.????????
Contents
Profile
| Country Number (?) | 1980 | SECOND WAVE |
| Region | Australasia/Asia | Commonwealth |
| Television commenced | 1980 | . |
| Colour System | 1980 | PAL |
| Population | 19xx | xx million |
| TV Sets | 19xx | xx |
| Language/s | English | . |
Television Stations / Channels
Bangladesh began its PAL television service in 1980. It is a government-owned service operating two channels: 6 and 9.
- Station: Television Bhaban.
- Ident / Channel: Channel 6 and 9
The official language of Bangladesh is Indian, with English as a secondary language. However TV broadcasts were in English.
DOCTOR WHO IN BANGLADESH
BBC Records
A BBC memo from 1980 indicates that Bangladesh purchased serial CCC by early 1980.
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
Assuming that all the serials purchased were Jon Pertwee stories, and factoring in the number of known airdates (see below), then it seems likely that the package consisted of the same ones available to other Commonwealth countries at the time.
JON PERTWEE?
Five stories, 25 or 26 episodes:
| ? | unknown | 26 or 28 |
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Bangladesh was the last to screen Jon Pertwee stories in black and white.
Transmission
JON PERTWEE?
The first clear listing for Doctor Who appears on 8 July 1980. However the programme in that same time slot for the five weeks spanning 3 June to 1 July is simply billed as "FILM SHOW", so some of these may or may not have been Doctor Who.
The timeslots did change, with 6.40pm being the earliest, and 7.10pm the latest.
From 1 October, for the final 13 episodes, the series shifted to Wednesdays, at 6.15pm for all listings.
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".
The programme was pre-empted on 17 December, to allow for coverage of special Victory Day celebration and other religious programming. (Bangladesh celebrates its independence from Pakistan annually on 16 December.)
So, how many episodes were there? We have the first listing for Doctor Who on 8 July, and the last on 31 December – a spread of 25 weeks. Of these, only 14 are actually billed as "DR WHO", "DOCTOR WHO" (or erroneously as "DR HU"!). The others are simply billed as "FILM SHOW". If Doctor Who started prior to 8 July, then the maximum number of episodes is no more than 32.
If we assume that the first episode of Doctor Who is the first that is billed as such (8 July), and allowing for the 17 December pre-emption, and factoring the uncertainty over the 12 August listing, then 25 or 26 episodes aired. It's possible the change of day from 1 October also occurred with the start of a new story, which might mean the last 13 episodes consisted of a 7-parter and a 6-parter...
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, such as Inferno.
For 25 episodes, it would be one 7-parter (CCC), one 6-parter, and three 4-parters.
For 26 episodes, it would be two 7-parters (one of which was CCC) and three 4-parters.
There is no certainty that the serials aired in story order, so The Ambassadors of Death could indeed have aired towards the end of the run rather than near the start.
There is no record that Bangladesh screened Doctor Who again.
TV listings
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper Bangladesh Observer and Bangladesh Times.
For all billings the terms "FILM" or "FILM SHOW" are used. The fist to identify the programme by name is 8 July: "FILM SHOW DR WHO". On 27 May 1980, the timeslot is occupied by "FILM SHOW EXERCISE WITH GLORIA", and for the next five weeks it sim-ply says "FILM" or "FILM SHOW" so it's not clear when exactly it was that Doctor Who started. But there are 25 episodes billed with the name. On 12 August the billings in both newspapers simply say "Children's Programme" from 6.20 to 7.05, followed by "Variety Programme" from 7.05 to 7.30. It is possible that Doctor Who screened on that date in the first slot.
