Sydney Newman
1917 - 1997During his time in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, he worked first with the Associated British Corporation (ABC, now Thames Television), before moving across to the BBC in 1962, holding the role of Head of Drama with both organisations. During this phase of his career, he was responsible for initiating two hugely popular television programmes, the spy-fi series The Avengers and the science-fiction series Doctor Who, as well as overseeing the production of groundbreaking social realist drama series such as Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Play.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications describes Newman as "the most significant agent in the development of British television drama." His obituary in The Guardian declared that "For ten brief but glorious years, Sydney Newman ... was the most important impresario in Britain ... His death marks not just the end of an era but the laying to rest of a whole philosophy of popular art."
In Quebec, as commissioner of the NFB, he attracted controversy for his decision to suppress distribution of several politically sensitive films by French Canadian directors.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fighting Sea-Fleas
Sydney Newman
Lorne Greene
First half of film portrays life in port, including rum issue, distribution of letters, and taking on ammunition, the remainder tells the story of an action against German S-boats, in a stock-shot compilation including some captured film. Officers briefed; boats leave harbour, put to sea, "action", a Nazi naval flag is reclaimed from wreckage in the sea, and the motor torpedo boat (MTB) returns to port flying it below the British White Ensign. Film ends with a sequence showing the funeral of a Canadian seaman.
Fighting Sea-Fleas
Train Busters
Sydney Newman
Lorne Greene
This short film depicts the strength and resources of the Royal Canadian Air Force, with its 32 overseas squadrons. It includes footage that explains the Allied air strategy of hitting the German army's nerve centres and features Canadian airplanes destroying a German munitions train.
Train Busters
The Magical Eye
Terence Macartney-Filgate
William Whitehead, Louis Applebaum
Features clips from 21 documentary and animation film classics, interviews with NFB filmmakers past and present, and incisive commentary from film critics and historians on the role and influence of the NFB during its first half century of existence.
The Magical Eye
Suffer Little Children
Sydney Newman
Lorne Greene, François Bertrand
This short documentary is part of the Canada Carries On series. At the end of World War II there were sixty million sick and starving children in Europe. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration undertook to provide food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education and sympathetic attention to these terrorized victims of war.
Suffer Little Children
Doctor Who: Origins
Carole Ann Ford, Brian Hodgson
A 55-minute documentary, detailing the creation of Doctor Who, including a rare interview with creator Sydney Newman, and new interviews with producer Verity Lambert, directors Waris Hussein and Richard Martin, actors William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, title sequence designer Bernard Lodge, and TARDIS sound effect creator Brian Hodgson
Doctor Who: Origins
Newfoundland: Atlantic Province
Sydney Newman, Roger Morin
John Scott
With simple ceremony on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Newfoundlanders are welcomed as fellow-Canadians. Prime Minister St. Laurent starting off the carving of Newfoundland's coat of arms in the tenth and formerly blank shield over the entrance to the Parliament Buildings, writing in stone another chapter of Confederation. So begins this survey of Canada's tenth province, Newfoundland, its resources and how its people live. The film takes us to St. John's, Corner Brook, Bell Island, and includes a visit to Labrador where we see the giant airport at Gander.
Newfoundland: Atlantic Province
