Peter Bryant was the fourth producer of Doctor Who, taking over from Innes Lloyd in 1967 – until 1969; when he was replaced by Derek Sherwin.
Peter Bryant had produced his first serial of Doctor Who during previous producer’s Innes Lloyd’s era. The Tomb Of The Cybermen was given to Bryant as a test run to see how Bryant would perform. The serial was considered a success, so Lloyd stood aside in 1967 – after Enemy Of The World and Bryant took over.
‘Tomb Of The Cybermen’ was Peter Bryant’s first produced Doctor Who serial. He even cast his wife (actress) Shirley Cooklin as the character ‘Kaftan’.
“I had a marvellous telephone call – I’ve never forgotten it – the morning after ‘Tomb of the Cybermen’ went out. It was from Sydney Newman, who rang me to say how great he thought it was. It was the sort of thing Sydney Newman did, but for me, as my first job in television production, it was absolutely marvellous and very nice of him!” – Peter Bryant on his first produced Doctor Who story.
Peter Bryant produced many of the later Patrick Troughton stories, starting with The Web Of Fear, and was responsible for overseeing the introduction of Who-stalwart UNIT and the Lethbridge-Stewart character.
He lobbied actress Pauline Collins, to become a fulltime regular companion of the second Doctor; after appearing in The Faceless Ones. Collins turned the part down. So Zoe Heriot was written into the show instead.
Bryant also gave future writing royalty; Robert Holmes and Terrance Dicks their big breaks, Dicks became his regular script editor and shared duties with Bryant and future producer Derek Sherwin.
Bryant also hired Jon Pertwee for the role of the incoming Third Doctor – prior to his departure. Although his first-choice for the role – actor Ron Moody, passed over the role.
Bryant was the first producer to also perform a dual-function, as a script-editor on some of his produced serials (The Evil of the Daleks, The Abominable Snowmen and The Enemy of the World). Bryant had been an actor, script-writer/editor – prior to his Doctor Who producing career.
Aswell as casting Jon Pertwee. Bryant also cast Nicholas Johns to return as Lethbridge-Stewart and companion Caroline Johns, as Liz. Bryant also came up with the concept of the Doctor’s yellow car Bessie.
Bryant’s time as producer, came to an end in 1969 – with Patrick Troughton’s penultimate serial; The Space Pirates. Script Editor Derek Sherwin stepped in to helm the final Patrick Troughton story The War Games – as producer.
In later life, Bryant became an agent to other actors and writers. He died in 2006 – at the age of 82, after a battle with cancer.
