Sri Lanka
SRI LANKA is an island to the south east of India.
Profile
| Country Number (N/K) | 1980 or 1984 | SECOND WAVE |
| Region | Australasia/Asia | Commonwealth |
| Television commenced | 13 April 1979 | |
| Colour System | 13 April 1979 | PAL |
| Population | 1984 | 14.9 million |
| TV Sets | 1984 | 50,000 |
| Language/s | English |
Television Stations / Channels
Sri Lanka government began its commercial PAL colour television service - Independent Television Network (ITN) - on 13 April 1979.
Language/s
The principal languages of Sri Lanka are Sunhala, Tamil and English; television broadcasts are generally in English.
DOCTOR WHO IN SRI LANKA
We are unsure as to the exact start-date for the series in Sri Lanka, so we cannot determine its placement in the screening order (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records a sale of "(9)" stories (by 10 February 1987). However we have only located airdates for 6 or 7 stories. Either the total in The Eighties is incorrect, or two or three further stories screened prior to 1984. (We are still researching pre-1984...)
Sri Lanka is not named in any of the DWM story Archives.
Stories bought and broadcast
JON PERTWEE
Three (known) stories, 14 episodes:
| RRR | The Three Doctors | 4 |
| UUU | The Time Warrior | 4 |
| YYY | The Monster of Peladon | 6 |
Sri Lanka therefore bought part of GROUPs D and E of the Jon Pertwee stories.
These same three Pertwee stories were also in the package that aired in Malta, Swaziland and Sierra Leone. These three countries also aired Spearhead from Space; it's therefore possible that Sri Lanka also screened that serial prior to 1984.
The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes (or film for the first serial) with English soundtracks.
TOM BAKER
Three or four stories, 14 episodes:
| 4F | Terror of the Zygons | 4 |
| 4G | Pyramids of Mars | 4 |
| unknown | 6 |
Sri Lanka therefore bought (at least) part of GROUPs A and B of the Tom Baker stories.
The programme was supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
Transmission
NOTE: Our research so far covers 1984 onwards; we are still researching the likelihood of there being an earlier run which may have included Spearhead from Space plus two additional Tom Baker serials, to make up the "(9)" serials as recorded in BBC Records...
TOM BAKER
The listings we have found (so far) commence from Wednesday, 4 April 1984 at 8.00pm, screening weekly. The first story was Terror of the Zygons, followed by Pyramids of Mars. Both stories had pre-emptions, with no episodes airing on 15 May or 5 June. The next six episodes were not identified by title – with the billings crediting Tom Baker and Ian Marter; however with Marter and Nicholas Courtney both billed under Pyramids of Mars, the final six episodes are not necessarily Genesis of the Daleks, or the 2-parter, The Sontaran Experiment, paired with another four-parter.
JON PERTWEE
The week after the 14th Tom Baker episode, a run of 14 Jon Pertwee episodes began – with The Three Doctors from 24 July, still at 8.00pm. There was a one week gap between parts three and four on 14 August. This was followed by The Time Warrior, with part four at 7.55pm. Then from 25 September it was The Monster of Peladon; again a one week break on 9 October. Part 4 aired at the later time of 8.30pm.
The last episode was on 6 November 1984.
As for why the Pertwees screened after the Bakers is not known. It's possible that the schedulers simply aired the stories alphabetically according to production code order: 4F, 4G, RRR, UUU, YYY. Of course, this theory falls apart if the unidentified final 6 episodes are 4E or 4L, or 4B plus another four parter, such as 4A, 4C or 4D!
(And if there was a run of episodes prior to 1984, these could be AAA, 4A, then 4B, 4C or 4D, which further supports an "alphabetical" broadcast order...)
Papers beyond 1984 were checked; there is no clear record that Sri Lanka screened Doctor Who again.
TV listings
 |
← 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 Sri Lankan newspapers Daily News and Daily Mirror, both based in Colombo. (Papers pre-1984 were not available.)
The series was billed as either "Doctor Who" or "Dr Who".
The Tom Baker episodes were all noted as being part of a fourteen episode run – e.g. "Prog 1/14", "Prog 7/14". The first aired episode is simply billed as "Science fiction series". It's not until the fourth episode that the title "Terror of the Zygons" is given. All four parts of the next serial, Pyramids of Mars, are identified by title.
Some of the listings include cast and crew credits: there was clearly a difficulty with the spelling of some names, as the credits include "Jon/John Partwee", "Harry Letts" or "Jennie Mayne". Other actors named are "Jon Petwee", "Patrick Trounghton" and "Donald Palmer".
Some of the story titles are incorrect: The Time Warrior is listed as "The Time Warriors" (plural), and Pyramids of Mars was given in the singular. The billings also identify some of the episodes by their BBC production codes, such as "Dr Who - Series 3U – "The Time Warriors" on all four episodes, and "Dr Who Series 3Y – The Monster of Peladon" on five of the six.
The last six Tom Baker episodes are not titled, but are credited as "starring Tom Baker, Ian Marter"; these six could be a 4-parter and a 2-parter (The Sontaran Experiment), or a 6-parter (Genesis of the Daleks?). But given the papers' track-record of printing incorrect names, there's no guarantee that the credited actors did actually feature in the listed episodes; the final 6-parter could have been from a later season, such as The Seeds of Doom.
