User:Jon Preddle
NIGERIA is in northwest Africa.
Profile
| Country Number (9) | 1965 | FIRST & SECOND WAVE |
| Region | Africa | Commonwealth |
| Television commenced | 1959 | |
| Colour System | 1974 | PAL |
| Population | 1966 | 52 million |
| TV Sets | 1966 | 30,000 |
| Population | 1974 | 66.174 million |
| TV Sets | 1974 | 85,000 |
| Population | 1980 | 68.750 million |
| TV Sets | 1980 | 450,000 |
| Language/s | English | regional languages |
Television Stations / Channels
Nigeria was / is the most populated of any African country.
By the mid-1960s, Nigeria was made up of 12 separate 'states' or regions, each with its own 'capital city'. (By the mid-1970s, these regions were merged into four main states.)
Each state had its own independent television service, broadcasting foreign and locally-produced programming to only that region.
- Western Nigerian Government Broadcasting Corporation (WNTV): established in October 1959, based in Ibadan, and broadcasting to the western states. WNTV was the first television service operating in 'tropical' Africa. (Northern countries like Algeria and Libya had already established TV services.) In 1974, WNTV was the first to commence colour broadcasts.
- Radio-Television Kaduna / Radio Kaduna Television (RKTV): established in March 1962, based in Kaduna, and operated by the Broadcasting Company of Northern Nigeria, provided coverage to the central northern states.
- Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC): a federal government-owned service, established in April 1962, based in the then-capital city of Lagos, and broadcasting to the south western states.
- Midwest TV: The Midwest state government established a TV service from Port Harcourt in 1972.
In 1976, the federal government established the Nigerian Television Authority, based in Lagos, under which all government-owned television services across Nigeria were controlled by a single body, although each continued to broadcast its own separate schedules of programming. These stations each carried the ident NTV.
Although BBC Records identify sales of Doctor Who to "Nigeria", in fact many of the sales were to different broadcasters across the country. Therefore, we've adopted a different layout for the Nigeria profile to reflect this.
Doctor Who screened on several different channels over the years; it appears that each station bought whatever stories were still available from the BBC at the time.
Language/s
Nigeria has over 235 languages and dialects, although English is the principal language. Television broadcasts contained an equal mix of foreign programming in English, and locally-produced content in regional languages.
DOCTOR WHO IN NIGERIA
Nigeria was the ninth country to screen the series, and the first in Africa.
BBC Records
The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Nigeria as one of twelve countries screening Doctor Who in that year.
The Seventies records a sale of "(24)" stories by 28 February 1977. The Handbook identifies these as being: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, {{Q}, R, S and BB for Hartnell; and NN, PP, QQ, SS, TT}, and WW for Troughton.
In DWM, Nigeria is identified in 28 story Archives: the same 24 as in The Seventies, plus 4A, 4B, 4C, and 4D.
In The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS, there are "(4)" sales noted for Nigeria prior to February 1987. Those likely equate to the four Tom Baker stories as noted in DWM, although it appears that far more than only four Tom Baker stories aired.
RADIO KADUNA (RKTV) (1965-1967)
WILLIAM HARTNELL
17 stories, 81 episodes:
| A | An Unearthly Child | 4 |
| B | The Daleks | 7 |
| C | Inside the Spaceship | 2 |
| D | Marco Polo | 7 |
| E | The Keys of Marinus | 6 |
| F | The Aztecs | 4 |
| G | The Sensorites | 6 |
| H | The Reign of Terror | 6 |
| J | Planet of Giants | 3 |
| K | The Dalek Invasion of Earth | 6 |
| L | The Rescue | 2 |
| M | The Romans | 4 |
| N | The Web Planet | 6 |
| P | The Crusade | 4 |
| Q | The Space Museum | 4 |
| R | The Chase | 6 |
| S | The Time Meddler | 4 |
RKTV therefore bought the standard package of William Hartnell stories, GROUPs A to E that was available to English-speaking Commonwealth countries.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
Since Nigeria was the first African nation to buy the series, it is likely they received fresh prints from the BBC.
Transmission
The series started on Radio-Television Kaduna / Radio Kaduna Television (RKTV) on Tuesday, 3 August 1965, at 6.35pm. It stayed on that day of the week and timeslot throughout the run.
The last clear listing for Doctor Who on RKTV was on 18 April 1967 - but assuming there were no interruptions, this would be the 90th episode, nine more than the number of available episodes. We can only assume that there were nine pre-emptions during the run.
From 23 May 1967, the Doctor Who timeslot was filled by a series called The Strangers; but it's not clear on what date that started – see TV listings below.
But assuming all 81 episodes played without interruption or pre-emption, and the last seven listings in the papers were printing errors, Doctor Who ended on 14 February 1967.
Fate of the Prints?
It is very possible that RKTV forwarded its prints of the first eleven William Hartnell stories to Rhodesia, but that a delay in doing so had the roll-on effect of the series debut in Zambia being held off by four weeks...
For the season two stories, The Romans to The Time Meddler, these prints may have been sent to Zambia.
TV listings
The listings for RKTV have been obtained from the Lagos Daily Times.
All billings identify the series as "Dr Who".
Several issues did not contain listings for RKTV, and some had no TV listings at all. September to November 1966 was particularly bad for missing listings. And in April / May 1967, the lack of TV listings makes it unclear when the replacement show The Strangers started.
MID WEST TV (1973)
WILLIAM HARTNELL (Continued)
Three stories, 14 episodes:
| BB | The War Machines | 4 |
| N | The Web Planet | 6 |
| S | The Time Meddler | 4 |
BBC Records indicate that by the early 1970s, only a handful of William Hartnell stories were still available to purchase. Mid West TV therefore bought three of these, two of which had been screened by RKTV in 1967.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
It is know that the film prints for The Time Meddler were sent to Nigeria from New Zealand on 2 March 1973. These episodes had been cut by the New Zealand censors. However, it appears that Mid West was responsible also for cutting the first few minutes of the opening TARDIS control room scene, leading up to the first appearance onscreen of Steven Taylor.
(An alternative to this is that the BBC in London supplied Mid West with a print of part one of The Time Meddler as part of its "Audition" process, and the print they supplied was missing the opening TARDIS scene, an edit made by BBC Enterprises to account for the non-availability of The Chase. New Zealand therefore supplied Mid West with another copy of the same episode.
The prints of The War Machines were supplied to Nigeria from Singapore. Singapore had in turn received the prints from New Zealand; they were dispatched by the NZBC on 10 January 1972. Again, the prints had been cut by the New Zealand censors; although it appears that the Nigerian or Singaporean broadcaster had made further cuts to episodes two and three.
It is not known where the Mid West copy of The Web Planet came from; the serial did not screen in New Zealand due to censorship reasons, and the fate of the film prints held by the NZBC is not recorded, but it is possible that The Web Planet was sent to Nigeria at the same time as The Time Meddler. Or, since Singapore sent The War Machines to Nigeria, they may have also been responsible for supplying The Web Planet.
Transmission
After a six year break, Doctor Who returned to Nigerian televisions; now screening on Midwest Television (aka Western Nigeria Radiovision Service) in Ibadan.
It is not clear when this run commenced - the first listing for the series is on Monday, 30 April 1973, with the listing given as "Children's Time - Dr Who", 6.30 to 7.30pm. From the listings it looks like Doctor Who aired as part of an hour-long timeslot of cartoons and other children's fare. The last such listing is on 2 July 1973. Assuming there are no printing errors, this was a ten week run. If Doctor Who played for the full hour, then two episodes may have aired back to back. Otherwise only ten episodes played - but since this run would have included the "repeats" of The Web Planet and The Time Meddler (the latter being sent from New Zealand only a matter of weeks earlier) and "new" story The War Machines, there is certainly allowance for these 14 episodes to have aired at this time.
=Fate of the Prints
All 14 of these Hartnell episodes were subsequently recovered from Nigeria and returned to the BBC in 1984/85. Part one of The Time Meddler was missing parts of the opening TARDIS scene. This does not appear to have been cut in New Zealand, as the episode's running time is correct in NZBC's records. Did Nigeria cut the scene, or were they supplied with a cut part one by the BBC already as part of an Audition print?
The prints of The War Machines exhibited the cuts made by the New Zealand censor, as well as additional cuts to parts two and three, which were made by Singapore or Mid West.
The recovered prints of The Web Planet were uncut; the copies the BBC held were incomplete: part one was missing the opening recap from The Romans and part six had an alternative "NEXT EPSIDOE" closing caption. The "Nigerian" prints were complete and uncut.
TV listings
Listings for Mid West TV come from the New Nigerian, which was published from Kaduna. This paper only started publishing listings for Mid West from 24 April 1973, so it is unclear when exactly Doctor Who started; the first of only ten listings is dated 30 April 1973, and there are 14 episodes to account for. Presumably the "missing" four episodes aired in April.
From July 1973, New Nigerian only occasionally published Mid West TV listings.
UNKNOWN (1974?)
BBC Records record a sale of these four Patrick Troughton stories by October 1974. However listings for these have not been found; it is not known what state or broadcaster transmitted these now-missing adventures.
PATRICK TROUGHTON
Four stories, 24 episodes:
| NN | The Abominable Snowmen | 6 |
| PP | The Enemy of the World | 6 |
| The Web of Fear | 6 | |
| SS | The Wheel in Space | 6 |
This station purchased four serials from GROUP D of the Patrick Troughton stories.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
These four stories had recently screened in New Zealand; interestingly, New Zealand did not screen The Ice Warriors or Fury from the Deep, neither of which screened in Nigeria, which does suggest there might be a connection between the two countries as far as these four stories are concerned.
It's also possible these prints may have been supplied by Zambia.
Transmission
TV listings
We accessed a number of different Nigerian newspapers for 1974 and 1975 but could not find any listings for a run of 24 episodes of Doctor Who. Many of the regional TV listings had billings for non-specific children's programming. For example, the following channels had daily "generic" children's programming, which may have included Doctor Who:
- NBC-TV: Children's Hour (6.00-7.00pm)
- WNTV: Junior TV Workshop (6.00-6.30pm)
- MidWest TV: Junior Tee Vee Club (7.05-7.30pm)
- TV Kaduna: Hello Children (6.05-6.35)
And for a very long period in early 1974, the New Nigerian was plagued by a printing 'duplication' error, in which the same TV listings were repeated over and over again. Doctor Who could quite easily have aired but not been billed on its own.
Fate of the Prints?
Nigeria was the last country to screen these now-missing stories.
NIGERIAN BROADCASTING CORP (NBC-TV) (1975)
PATRICK TROUGHTON (Continued)
Two stories, 9 episodes:
| TT | The Dominators | 5 |
| WW | The Krotons | 4 |
NBC therefore bought two stories from GROUP E of the available Patrick Troughton stories.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
The only countries to screen these two serials prior to Nigeria were Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Gibraltar.
Transmission
BBC Records indicate that The Dominators was sold to "Nigeria" some time around November 1975, and The Krotons by February 1976. Only four listings for Doctor Who appear under listings for Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation / NBC-TV, the first on Monday, 7 December 1975, the fourth and final is four weeks later on 28 December 1975. Presumably this is for The Krotons.
However the billings are very ambiguous, as they say: "4.00 Magic Hour – Son of Dr. Who", and the timeslot is indeed a full hour.
This suggests that during this hour of "Magic", Doctor Who screened under the title "Son of Dr Who" - did the programmers think Troughton's Doctor was the son of Hartnell's?
However, further research into the name "Son of Dr Who" has revealed that there may have been a children's magician who performed under that stage-name. In his online biography, Dr. Oluaiye Mobolaji Alimi Salami Naibi Oba Ogboni, reports that he studied magic in London, and on returning to Nigeria, "was the in-house magician performing on NTA Channel 10 with late Professor Peller and son of Dr. Who between 1976 – 1978."
This implies that Dr Ogboni, Professor Peller and Son of Dr Who were three stage magicians performing together on Channel 10. However this run of episodes was ot on Channel 10, and it was in 1975, not 1976 to 1978.
We have checked with various Colleges of Magic, and none have any record of a Nigerian magician using "Son of Dr Who".
Our own instincts here, is that "Son of Dr Who" is indeed Doctor Who (there are no other listings for the series in 1975); and the biographer has simply got his/her dates and facts slightly askew.
Only four episodes are accounted for (The Krotons?), but as noted below, other listings for NBC-TV were missing.
Fate of the Prints?
Nigeria was the final country to buy and screen these two Troughton serials.
TV listings
These listings for NBC-TV have been obtained from the New Nigerian, which was published from Kaduna. Listings for this channel were infrequent, and often only for programming after 6.00pm. With "Son of Dr Who" screening at 4.00pm, further billings are absent.
NTV-KANO (1979-1980)
TOM BAKER
Although The Eighties reports a sale of only four stories, it is clear from the airdates, that far more stories aired. As far as can be determined, NTV screened Tom Baker's first three seasons only:
17 stories?, 72 episodes?
| 4A | Robot | 4 |
| 4B | The Sontaran Experiment | 2 |
| 4C | The Ark in Space | 4 |
| 4E | Genesis of the Daleks | 6 |
| 4D | Revenge of the Cybermen | 4 |
| 4F | Terror of the Zygons | 4 |
| 4H | Planet of Evil | 4 |
| 4G | Pyramids of Mars | 4 |
| 4J | The Android Invasion | 4 |
| 4K | The Brain of Morbius|4 | |
| 4L | The Seeds of Doom | 6 |
| 4M | The Masque of Mandragora | 4 |
| 4N | The Hand of Fear | 4 |
| 4P | The Deadly Assassin | 4 |
| 4Q | The Face of Evil | 4 |
| 4R | The Robots of Death | 4 |
| 4S | The Talons of Weng-Chiang | 6 |
Nigeria therefore bought GROUPs A to C of the Tom Baker stories.
The episodes would have been supplied on PAL colour video tapes, with English soundtracks.
Transmission
Doctor Who returned to Nigerian TV screens in 1979. The entire Jon Pertwee era was skipped, and instead viewers saw Tom Baker's fourth Doctor.
This run aired on NTV-Kano. Colour broadcasts had commenced in Nigeria in 1974 (first by WNTV, then elsewhere in later years). By 1979 all Nigerian television stations were under control of the Nigerian Television Authority.
It appears that the first episode was on Monday, 8 January 1979. (We are unsure as to the exact start date, as there was no listing for NTV-Kano in the 1 January paper.) BBC Records indicate the first four stories were Robot, The Sontaran Experiment, The Ark in Space and Revenge of the Cybermen.
The series screened weekly at 6.30pm. Between 8 January 1979 and 19 May 1980 - a run of 72 weeks - there were 11 dates on which something else was listed in the 6.30pm slot. But these listings for "Marine Biology", "Young World", "Komai da Ruwanka" and "A Gani Na" (*) may be symptomatic of the duplication errors that affected the New Nigerian in 1974.
But the fact that 72 is also the same episode-count for [[Robot] to The Talons of Weng-Chiang does suggest that these were the stories that aired. But if so, why do the BBC Records only list four stories prior to 1987?
It was a passing comment made on a radio programme that Nigerian television was so far behind the times that Patrick Troughton was still the Doctor over there that prompted Ian Levine and the BBC to contact Nigerian TV stations in the search for missing episodes. Could there have been some truth in that comment?
It's an extreme thought, but it is entirely possible that this 1979-80 run consisted of the four Bakers (14 episodes) named in BBC Records PLUS the 24 Patrick Troughton episodes that couldn't be traced in 1974/1975!
There is no clear record that Nigeria screened Doctor Who again after May 1980.
(*) These two programmes are in Chadic, a language spoken in Ghana and Nigeria; the former literally translates as "Everything that your water" and the latter as "See is".
TV Listings
These listings are also from the New Nigerian. All billings are given as '"Dr Who". There was no listing for NBC-Kano in the 1 January 1979 paper, so it's possible the series commenced earlier than 8 January.
Summary
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← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
We have accounted for 200 episodes of Doctor Who screening in Nigeria, ten of which were "repeats" of The Web Planet and The Time Meddler.
Nigeria in Doctor Who
- Ralph debayo (played by Mark Heath), one of the personnel of the Gravitron Moonbase, wears a Nigerian flag (albeit upside down!) on his tunic (The Moonbase).
