Barry Letts Author

Barry Letts started his career as an actor. He began in repertory in York whilst also working for a local radio station in Leeds. After a chance meeting with BBC producer/director Rex Tucker, Letts started working with him first on radio and then on television. His first television appearance was with Patrick Troughton in a 1950 production of Gunpowder Guy, about Guy Fawkes. Eventually Letts decided he wanted to go into directing and attended the BBC director's course in 1967. He worked on episodes of Z Cars and The Newcomers before directing the six-part Doctor Who story 'The Enemy of the World' in 1967. Following this he became producer of Doctor Who in 1969. After he left Doctor Who in 1974, he found himself marking time by working as a sort of assistant to Head of Drama, Ronnie Marsh, until he decided to return to directing and approached various producers for work. It was because of this that he came to direct 'The Android Invasion' for Doctor Who in 1975. Straight after that came a production of The Prince and the Pauper for John McCrae. However, McCrae was promoted to Head of Drama for a New Zealand TV station and so Letts was asked to take over as producer of the classic serials on BBC1. In the late Seventies and early Eighties Letts returned to Doctor Who for a time as executive producer. He continued to work as a director, particularly on the classic serials which were at the time being produced by Terrance Dicks. In 1993, Letts wrote a new radio production of Doctor Who called 'The Paradise of Death', and this was followed in 1995 by 'The Ghosts of N-Space'. Letts has since written several original Doctor Who novels, and has also completed the first part of an autobiography called Who & Me, published in an online format in 2006, and as an abridged audiobook in 2008.