Sierra Leone
SIERRA LEONE is a small country situated on the west coast of Africa. A British colony, it is a member of the British Commonwealth.
Contents
Population
When Doctor Who screened in Sierra Leone in 1967, the population was 2.25 million, and licensed TV sets numbered only 1,050! (per WRTH, 1966).
TV & system
Sierra Leone began its television service in 1962.
There is just one television station: Sierra Leone Television, a government-owned commercial broadcaster.
Colour transmissions began in 1978 using the PAL colour broadcast system.
Language/s
The main language of Sierra Leone is English, plus many tribal dialects.
DOCTOR WHO IN SIERRA LEONE
Sierra Leone was the 23rd country to screen Doctor Who; it was the eighth in Africa (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
The Seventies records a sale of 13 stories by 28 February 1977, which is an error. The Handbook correctly identifies 14: G, M, N, P, Q, T, U, W, X, Y, Z, AA, BB, CC.
In DWM, Sierra Leone is identified in 22 story Archives: the same 13 as above, plus A, B, C, E, F, H, L S, for Hartnell, and YYY for Pertwee.
Stories bought and broadcast
WILLIAM HARTNELL
Twenty-five stories?, 111 episodes? (and played in an incorrect order)
| 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 |
| 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 |
| AA | The Savages | 4 |
| BB | The War Machines | 4 |
| CC | The Smugglers | 4 |
| T | Galaxy 4 | 4 |
| U | The Myth Makers | 4 |
| W | The Massacre | 4 |
| X | The Ark | 4 |
| Y | The Celestial Toymaker | 4 |
| Z | The Gunfighters | 4 |
Sierra Leone therefore bought GROUPs A to F of the William Hartnell stories, with the exception of two stories, The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Chase, both of which had been withdrawn from sale during 1967 while Terry Nation was trying to sell his Dalek spin-off series to American networks.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
JON PERTWEE
? stories, ? episodes:
| YYY | The Monster of Peladon | 6 |
The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
Kenya was the previous African country to screen the series, and also one of the distribution countries of TIE Ltd, so it’s possible that Sierra Leone was sent the same set of prints from Kenya.
The other Hartnell episodes might have been supplied from Barbados, the only other TIE Ltd client to air those season three stories.
Transmission
WILLIAM HARTNELL
The series commenced on Wednesday, 12 April 1967, at 8.15pm. The timeslot changed to 7.35[m from 19 July 1967, then to 7.05pm or 7.00pm from 16 August. There was a two-week break during October; the 26th and last episode of the run – presumably The Keys of Marinus part six - played on 18 October 1967.
Four weeks later, on 13 November, the series recommenced, now on Mondays, with a slot starting at 7.40pm for the first episode but dropping back to 7.25pm for all others.
This run of episodes lasted 56 weeks, with the final episode airing 2 December 1968. As far as can be determined, no episodes aired on Christmas Day 1967, 1 April, 22 April, 5 August 1968. There were also 15 weeks when no paper was available. There are 43 episodes to account for, which means that there were at least 13 weeks during which Doctor Who didn't screen. There is the possibility that either The Dalek Invasion of Earth or The Chase did screen (which reduces the 'extra' episodes to only three); the moratorium on selling Daleks stories ended by the end of December 1967, so The Chase could very well have been made available to Sierra Leone by late 1968...
On Friday, 24 July 1970, a final run of 36 episodes aired; Sierra Leone was one of only three countries (the others being Barbados and Zambia) to screen only the block of Hartnell from A to CC.
The first episode to be named in the papers was part three of The Massacre, The Priest of Death on 18 December (although it seems the episodes that week was actually The Sea Beggar!) All the episode for 8 January 1971 onwards were named. From this, it is clear that Sierra Leone Television aired the stories out of order, presumably mistaking the story production codes as the story order: staring with AA, BB, CC, then T through to Z.
The final episode was part four of The Gunfighters on 26 March 1971.
JON PERTWEE
Not found.
There is no record that Sierra Leone screened Doctor Who again.
TV listings
TV listings have been obtained from the newspaper Daily Mail.
1960s
Listings initially gave the series name as Dr Who ???????????? Some of the billings print the title as "Dr No"!
No episode titles are given until the December 1970 to March 1971 run. It appears that the TV listings were pushed out of sync by one week between 11 December 1970 and 19 March 1971, as there are two listings for "The Bomb" (29 January and 12 February) but none for "Johnny Ringo" (which should be 19 March).
1970s
From 1971 onwards, the newspapers no longer printed TV listings; the airdates for the Pertwee stories have not been determined.
Fate of the Prints?
Sierra Leone was the final English-speaking African country to air Doctor Who.
Sierra Leone in Doctor Who
There are no instances where Sierra Leone is mentioned in the series.
References
