Comprehensive information and links about Barry Letts

Barry Letts is a British actor, television director and producer best known for his work on the BBC science fiction television series . Indeed, he is one of the people associated with the programme on a long basis, with active involvement in each of the programme's decades.

Letts' first involvement was when he directed the 1968 Patrick Troughton serial . This was a complex serial to direct as Troughton played both the Doctor and the Mexican dictator Salamander in the same story and sometimes in the same scenes - a rare and demanding directorial requirement for the 1960s.

He became the show's producer in 1970 in succession to Derrick Sherwin. Jon Pertwee had just been cast as the Doctor. Letts remained the producer for the majority of the Pertwee serials and was the father figure in the 'family' atmosphere that had developed on the show at that time. It was an exciting era for , with episodes broadcast in colour for the first time. He also oversaw the celebrations of the programme's tenth anniversary in 1973.

Barry Letts formed a particular partnership with two other contributors to the programme: Terrance Dicks, who was the editor on the programme at that time; and Robert Sloman, with whom he contributed four stories to the Pertwee era: , which was Pertwee's swan song. Barry Letts is a Buddhist, and this has influenced several of his contributions to . Indeed, he provided an official obituary to Sloman in December 2005.

He was still producer when Tom Baker was cast as the Fourth Doctor, taking a strong role on the casting. After one story with Baker, he left the position of producer in 1975, having been the longest serving producer on the programme to that time.

Barry Letts also directed several during the era of Philip Hinchcliffe as programme producer.

In the 1980-81 series, he returned to be executive producer alongside John Nathan-Turner as the producer. This was for one season between . Letts' return to the programme was because it was assumed that Nathan-Turner did not have enough experience to produce the programme alone. As it happened, 'JNT' as he was known stayed for nine years, overtaking Letts as the longest serving producer on . When the programme returned in 2005, Letts was involved in the hectioc round of interviews to promote the show, most unusually appearing for a lengthy discussion piece on novelisation for Target Books. His latest book, "Island of Death", featuring the Jon Pertwee Doctor, the Brigadier and Sarah Jane Smith, was published in July 2005.

His other work includes producing and co-creating 1984, all as part of the BBC's "Sunday Classics"" strand.

He was also a director on the soap opera