The Life and Legacy of Verity Lambert

Richard Marson's acclaimed biography of Doctor Who's first producer has had a limited reprint.

 

For five decades, the name Verity Lambert appeared on the end credits of many of Britain’s most celebrated and talked about television dramas, among them Adam Adamant Lives!, Budgie, The Naked Civil Servant, Minder, Edward and Mrs Simpson, Eldorado, G.B.H. and Jonathan Creek. 

 

She was the very first producer of Doctor Who, which she nurtured through its formative years at a time when there were few women in positions of power in the television industry. Later, she worked within the troubled British film business and became a pioneering independent producer, founding her own highly-successful company, Cinema Verity.

 

Within her profession, she was hugely respected as an intensely driven, sometimes formidable but always stylish exponent of her craft, with the stamina and ability to combine quantity with quality. Many of her productions have had a lasting cultural and emotional impact on their audiences and continue to be enjoyed to this day.

 

But who was the woman behind all these television triumphs and what was the price she paid to achieve them?

 

Combining painstaking research and interviews with many of Lambert’s closest friends and colleagues, Drama and Delight captures the energy and spirit of this remarkable woman and explore her phenomenal and lasting legacy.