Graham Williams (television producer)
| Graham Williams | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Richard Graham Williams 24 May 1945 Cheshire, England |
| Died | 17 August 1990 (aged 45) Tiverton, Devon, England |
| Cause of death | Shooting Accident |
| Occupation | Television producer/script editor |
| Spouse(s) | Jacqueline (widow) |
| Children | 3 - Richard Williams, David Williams, Katie Williams. |
Graham Williams (24 May 1945 - 17 August 1990) was a British television producer and script editor, whose best known work was on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.
After working as script editor for The View From Daniel Pike (1971), Sutherland's Law (1973), Z-Cars (1975–1976) and Barlow at Large (1975), he was encouraged by his friend Bill Slater, then BBC Head of Serials, to move to producership and was eventually charged with taking over Doctor Who after Philip Hinchcliffe's highly successful but controversial spell in charge of the series.
He was the producer on the show between 1977 and 1980, during the Tom Baker era. Under Hinchcliffe, the series had been at its most popular, with the highest average viewing figures, but had also come under heavy media criticism for the violent content. Upon taking over the reins of the series, Williams was instructed by his superiors to tone down the violence. Williams later said of his time on Doctor Who: "It all went wrong right from the start, when I was told to make the show more funny, and less violent. Unfortunately, this would have required a lot of money, of which we had practically sod all. Tom Baker, however, thought it was a splendid idea, and kept putting in all these bad puns and terrible jokes, which didn't get any better when I brought Dougie Adams in."
Although the viewing figures dipped somewhat during Williams' first two seasons, they remained fairly healthy and in 1979, the series achieved ratings as high as 16.1 million viewers (for episode 4 of City of Death), its highest ever - although this was partly attributable to the strike which took the BBC's main rival, ITV, off the air.
Williams also wrote significant portions of the script for two stories beset by writing problems, City of Death and The Invasion of Time.
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