Barry Letts has passed away

No details as yet, I saw it posted on a collectors forum I visit. the Whoniverse has lost another great contributor.

such a sad loss...what a great era...the Pertwee era and having a hand in selecting Tom Baker. A bit of my childhood I can thank to this guy- such happy memories and iconic dw moments. Letts has an autobio. out this november...which I will certainly buy.

Very sad news. Definitely one of the most important people in the history of Doctor Who. He will be missed.

I was very sorry to read this. Barry Lettes is definetly one of the giants in the long history of Doctor Who. The first Doctor Who I ever saw was "The Ambassadors of Death" way back in the mid-70s when the show was first sold in the U.S. Letts also cast Elisabeth Sladen and Tom Baker. Barry Letts also wrote and directed "Gulliver In Lilliput" for the BBC and gave Lis Sladen her favorite television role in that production.

Thank You for all the wonderful entertainment Mr. Letts.
Rest In Peace.

In looking back through some of these Who discussion posts, it bothers me to see so little attention paid to this news from October. Letts, along with script editor Terrence Dicks and new doctor Jon Pertwee did so much to move Doctor Who to a new level of success. More remarkable was that this trio was together for five years! No other period of classic Who had seen that level of stability and the quality of shows was undeniable. We should all be thankful to Barry Letts for being one of the most important figures in Doctor Who history. His book "Who and Me" is a wonderful telling of his time working on Who and is a must-read. I guess folks have been too busy bitching about f**king toys on this forum to care.

I care.

I also enjoyed the Classic Serials that A&E showed way back when the he produced as well as the Hound of the Baskervilles with Tom Baker.

Yes, of course you do as I'm sure others do. I'm sorry. Sometimes the forum frustrates me. A great contributer and shaper of our beloved show was lost and it didn't get much notice here. As I posted, grab his book. It's great! A nice way to remember him. We'll always have his insightful DVD contributions, too.

I have the CD, can you tell me what the differences are?

I hope he was able to record a commentary for Planet of the Spiders.

Dunno. I don't have the cd. Dunno about Spiders, either, but I know he's on the Dalek War DVDs and I'm pretty sure he's on Peladon Tales.

I posted on another forum, as I am sure most of us did. And there some posting in the thread on the Pertwee figure thread, as his death was announced on the day most of us received him. I was a somber moment to be holding his Doctors action figure in your hands and realizing the man who produced those episodes had just left us. I maybe slightly biased, but I believe the Pertwee Years have some of the best and most consistent episodes of Doctor Who ever produced.
And his book was fantastic.

RIP Barry Letts 1925-2009
The greatest Doctor Who producer of all

I did notice you and others comment on the Pertwee figure thread, Ron, and I was kinda feeling the same thing as you. It was eerie to me. I also agree that, apart from maybe Verity who started it all and got it going, Barry was the best producer. I am a die-hard Pertwee era fan and I would watch one of his weaker serials before some Doctor's best because the marvellous partnership of Barry and Terrence with Jon as their star was magic even when the story wasn't as good. Ambassadors of Death, Inferno. Silurians, Frontier in Space, The Daemons, Mind of Evil, Sea Devils (of course!), all some of the best Who ever. I could go on and on...

did you fellas ever see the the video that revists the making of the daemons? I saw it years ago at a convention- it was fascinating to see how those icons worked together....I can't wait to read the memoir.

greenk9 wrote:

did you fellas ever see the the video that revists the making of the daemons? I saw it years ago at a convention- it was fascinating to see how those icons worked together....I can't wait to read the memoir.

Return to Devil's End or something like that. I used to have it VHS, but lost it!!!! Very cool, and that village is one of the places on my visit list whenever I get to England!

SeaDevil wrote:

I did notice you and others comment on the Pertwee figure thread, Ron, and I was kinda feeling the same thing as you. It was eerie to me. I also agree that, apart from maybe Verity who started it all and got it going, Barry was the best producer. I am a die-hard Pertwee era fan and I would watch one of his weaker serials before some Doctor's best because the marvellous partnership of Barry and Terrence with Jon as their star was magic even when the story wasn't as good. Ambassadors of Death, Inferno. Silurians, Frontier in Space, The Daemons, Mind of Evil, Sea Devils (of course!), all some of the best Who ever. I could go on and on...

I couldn't agree more, and you just listed some of my favorite Doctor Who episodes(and love the Sea Devils as well!). My Pertwee obsession is the reason I have traded to get 6 of his figures so I could customize them. My all time favorite emotional moment in Doctor Who is when Pertwee leaves the Nut Hutch at the end of Green Death and drives away alone. To me it also signals the end of the era, as the UNIT family begins to break up, and Delgato is gone, and Jon and Barry have decided to leave as well. But, we do get Sarah and eventually Tom, so it isn't too bad!

Has anyone gotten the audio version of Who and Me? I like the idea of Barry reading his book to me, so I may get it.

Ronpur wrote:

Has anyone gotten the audio version of Who and Me? I like the idea of Barry reading his book to me, so I may get it.

See above. I have to start thinning out my collections and that is probably one of the items I will be parting with.

I have the audio edition of Who & Me - it's quite nice, it really has more of a "fireside chat" feel than someone reciting an already-written work to you, and Letts is a class act where most folks at the end of their careers would be dishing a bit of dirt.

The only drawback is that it obly gets you through the first two Pertwee seasons... and then signs off and promises another volume, which I doubt the man got a chance to record. I posted a review here if anyone wants to read it.