Sydney Newman
Born: 1917-04-01 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died: 1997-10-30
Known For: Production
Biography
Sydney Cecil Newman, OC (April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman was appointed Acting Director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) and then head of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and acted as an advisor to the Secretary of State. During his time in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, he worked first with the Associated British Corporation (ABC, now Thames Television), before moving across to the BBC in 1962, holding the role of Head of Drama with both organisations. During this phase of his career, he was responsible for initiating two hugely popular television programmes, the spy-fi series The Avengers and the science-fiction series Doctor Who, as well as overseeing the production of groundbreaking social realist drama series such as Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Play. The Museum of Broadcast Communications describes Newman as "the most significant agent in the development of British television drama." His obituary in The Guardian declared that "For ten brief but glorious years, Sydney Newman ... was the most important impresario in Britain ... His death marks not just the end of an era but the laying to rest of a whole philosophy of popular art." In Quebec, as commissioner of the NFB, he attracted controversy for his decision to suppress distribution of several politically sensitive films by French Canadian directors. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Filmography
2025
- Innes Lloyd: The Producer as Self (archive footage)
2023
- Doctor Who: The Daleks in Colour ... (Original Series Creator)
2021
- Doctor Who: Galaxy 4 ... (Creator)
2015
- Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song ... (Creator)
2011
- Doctor Who: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe ... (Creator)
2008
- Verity Lambert: Drama Queen as (Archive Footage)
2006
- Doctor Who: Origins as Self (archive footage)
- Creation of the Daleks as Himself (archive footage)
2005
- Doctor Who ... (Creator)
- Doctor Who 9: Christopher Eccleston ... (Creator)
1998
- The Avengers ... (Creator)
1989
- The Magical Eye as Self
1983
- Utilities ... (Associate Producer)
1973
- Grierson as Self
1966
- Adam Adamant Lives! ... (Creator)
- Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks ... (Creator)
1965
- Dr. Who and the Daleks ... (Creator)
- Tea Party ... (Producer)
1964
- The Wednesday Play ... (Creator)
1963
- Doctor Who ... (Creator)
- Festival ... (Producer)
1962
- Out of This World ... (Producer)
- Night Conspirators ... (Producer)
- Afternoon of a Nymph ... (Producer)
- The Fishing Match ... (Producer)
- The Hard Knock ... (Producer)
1961
- The Avengers ... (Creator)
- Pathfinders to Venus ... (Producer)
- Honeymoon Postponed ... (Producer)
- Plateau of Fear ... (Creator)
- The Ship That Couldn't Stop ... (Producer)
- Danger! Men Working ... (Producer)
- The Rose Affair ... (Producer)
- Tune On the Old Tax Fiddle ... (Producer)
1960
- Counter-Attack ... (Producer)
- Target Luna ... (Producer)
- Police Surgeon ... (Creator)
- Pathfinders in Space ... (Producer)
- Pathfinders to Mars ... (Producer)
- A Night Out ... (Producer)
- Where I Live ... (Producer)
- Lord Arthur Savile's Crime ... (Producer)
- After the Funeral ... (Producer)
- I'll Have You to Remember ... (Producer)
- My Representative ... (Producer)
1959
- Doctor Kabil ... (Producer)
- The Scent of Fear ... (Producer)
- After the Show ... (Producer)
- Hot Summer Night ... (Producer)
- The Bird, the Bear and the Actress ... (Producer)
- The Thought of Tomorrow ... (Producer)
1958
- I Can Destroy the Sun ... (Producer)
1956
- Armchair Theatre ... (Creator)
- Flight Into Danger ... (Supervising Producer)
1954
- The Canadian Howdy Doody Show ... (Producer)
1953
- Space Command ... (Supervising Producer)
1951
- Screaming Jets ... (Producer)
- Inside Newfoundland ... (Director)
- Talent Showcase ... (Producer)
- Struggle for Oil ... (Producer)
1949
- Newfoundland: Atlantic Province ... (Director)
- A Capital Plan ... (Producer)
- Passport to Canada ... (Producer)
- Summer Is for Kids ... (Producer)
- Red Runs the Fraser ... (Producer)
1948
- Pay-Off In Pain ... (Producer)
- Inside The Atom ... (Producer)
- Science in Bloom ... (Producer)
- It's Fun to Sing ... (Producer)
- Choral Concert ... (Producer)
1947
- Canada Dances ... (Producer)
- Montreal by Night ... (Producer)
- Johnny at the Fair ... (Producer)
- Careers and Cradles ... (Producer)
1946
- Ski Skill ... (Producer)
- The New North ... (Producer)
1945
- Suffer Little Children ... (Editor)
1944
- Train Busters ... (Director)
- Fighting Sea-Fleas ... (Writer)
- Flight 6 ... (Director)
- Trans-Canada Express ... (Producer)
1943
- Fighting Norway ... (Director)
- Banshees Over Canada ... (Producer)