Synopsis
An Adventure in Space and Time (2013) is a BBC biographical drama you can watch online on iFILM. Directed by Terry McDonough from a script by Mark Gatiss, the film tells the story behind the first episode of Doctor Who — not the show's mythology, but the two unlikely people who had to fight to get it made. David Bradley plays William Hartnell, the character actor who became the first Doctor in November 1963.
Hartnell had spent his career playing hard men — wardens, sergeants, bruisers. The roles paid well and left him cold. Verity Lambert (Jessica Raine), meanwhile, was navigating a BBC that had little use for female producers. The Saturday teatime slot that nobody else wanted gave them both something to prove. What they built together ran past their lifetimes.
Gatiss wrote the script without softening the difficult parts. Hartnell's illness is present, Lambert's battles with the institution are real, and the final scene — Bradley meeting Matt Smith, the Doctor of 2013 — lands quietly rather than triumphantly. This is one of the better pieces of television history told on television. Stream An Adventure in Space and Time (2013) online on iFILM.
Starring
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