1977: Making DOCTOR WHO | The Lively Arts | The Making Of | BBC Archive

The Lively Arts sees Melvin Bragg go behind the scenes of Britain's best-loved science fiction series, Doctor Who. With a short production time and comparatively modest budget, every episode is a challenge for set and costume designers, visual and sound effects engineers and the rest of the cast and crew.
Featuring Dick Mills at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, composer Dudley Simpson, director David Maloney, producer Philip Hinchcliffe, costume designer John Bloomfield and actors Deep Roy and Michael Spice during production of The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
Clip taken from The Lively Arts: Whose Dr Who, originally broadcast 3 April 1977.
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[@benperkins791]

So fascinating to see footage of the show being made at the time.

[@ciarantimothy8081]

I would be interested to see more behind the scenes clips of classic who

[@livvy94]

Me too!

[@peterward2275]

Great seeing a young Deep Roy preparing for an early role!

[@brianartillery]

I thought exactly the same thing - I had completely forgotten that he played the role of Mr Sin (The Peking Homunculus). He's a cool actor - he was all the Oompa Loompas in the Johnny Depp Willy Wonka movie, and was quite simply terrifying in the 'X-Files' episode, 'Badlaa'.

[@glencollins2395]

£20,000 in1977 comes to around £160,000 today. Good grief, you couldn't make a twenty five second commercial for that these days, never mind a twenty five minute show!

[@captainsensiblejr.]

Just realised this was being made at the same time as Star Wars: A New Hope.

[@shadouk6737]

Still the best produced/acted Who yarn of the classic series and light years ahead of wha the show currently produces in terms of imagination. Its fascinating to see this footage after all these years and what a talent David Maloney was, his work on Blake's 7 was instrumental in that show's success.

[@haileyshannon7548]

I used to watch these specials on TV all the time as a kid (and I still do) and I use think working for TV and movies would be a fun job.

[@danielpalmersofficial]

Wow, that sound!! ✌️😂

[@Lumibear.]

Wow, well, that’s given me a whole new appreciation for the ‘low production values’ of Doctor Who, they really did put a heck of a lot of effort into them, didn’t they?

[@Gus-jb8cm]

Thank you for uploading this clip. it's great to see how things were done and the money!!! 💸💰 Phew, £160.000!!! Bearing in mind the cast often ran up & down the the same short corridor loads of times, in which to create the illusion of one being half a mile long. The back stage crew did well!!¡¡ 👍😊

[@spongebobmusic3570]

Can you upload more of the making of old Dr who episodes?

[@leepshin]

Right you have a number of comments requesting more behind the scenes of classic Who so how about it then?

[@guymadgesam24]

Love the vcs3 would be my dream synthesiser

[@mackenzie77777]

Unbeliavable seeing this behind the scenes work done for "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" episode. Look at the work done on that rats head. The metal work, etc. Philip Hinchcliffs Doctor whos were the very best in my opinion. So weird that they put all this work in to a kids/young peoples program. Where as now the rubbish they make for adults (reality tv). I was nine when this was broadcast and have owned the video tape and DVD`s. This one is up there with the top five episodes ever.

[@simeonyves5940]

The Talons of Weng Chiang! one of *the* Greatest Doctor Who Stories!

[@Problembeing]

Giant rat - nailed it 👍

[@cornellwaters8969]

Thank You🩲

[@SandyRiverBlue]

Deep Roy. Who'd have thought it?

[@mikesilva3868]

🤯great

[@geniussnake497]

"Cold, is it?" "Er"

[@stephennoonan8417]

4:53

[@ViceSquad]

Steam Punk ahead of its time...

[@harrynewiss4630]

Very interesting. 20k per episode - not much even then. Amazing what they did on such a shoestring budget.

[@peterhagan8454]

rolands put a bit of weight on i see

[@finnmanproductions9240]

The rat 6:53 😂

[@fucheduck]

modern "filmakers" could learn from this guy, Mister David Maloney. Since "movies" these days have music in the forerground not the background and playing OVER the dialouge! nevermind the footsteps! I think we need to mind the footsteps and we need to mind the dialouge. Obviously this kind of methodlical thinking does not exist in the 21st century...:(

[@Slarti]

So in today's(2024) money, £20k from 1977 is worth £171k - which is still pretty good for one episode.

[@Drawthought]

Back when the BBC was any good and actually made programmes people wanted to watch.

[@rushing2game172]

Still do

[@Concreteowl]

10 million watched the latest Christmas special. That's more than the number who watched the Talons of Weng Chiang with its dodgy rat and yellow face.

[@eggsbox]

why don't you draw thought from your brain _before_ you comment

[@hopj591]

I guess you've never seen Peaky Blinders or Killing Eve 😅

[@Jabberstax]

Back when the BBC was worth watching. Before their slavish adherence to THE MESSAGE.

[@phily8093]

Why does everything in Doctor Who need music. It's so annoying that dialogue and sound effects are over powered by pointless music. The odd bit inbetween dialogue to set the mood - fine if you want, but its ridiculous.

[@CacoQueen]

To each to their own, I love the incidental music!

[@phily8093]

I agree, each to their own. But the music on classic Doctor Who sounds to me to be the same painful, screeching stings, at various lengths, increasing in electronic additions in time, but retaining the same repetitive droning.