Rex Tucker (20 February 1913 – 10 August 1996) was a British
television director in the 1950s and 1960s.
He was born in
March in the
Isle of Ely,
Cambridgeshire. Tucker joined the BBC in 1937 to work in radio where he remained for several years before moving to TV work. In 1954 Tucker wrote and directed ''The Three Princes'' which featured future Doctor Who producer
Barry Letts and actor
Roger Delgado who later became well known for playing the Doctor's opponent The Master. In 1961 he wrote, produced and directed the historical serial ''
Triton'', which was
remade in 1968. Tucker also wrote a sequel ''
Pegasus
Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...
'' for broadcast in 1969.
Amongst his work, he was a driving force during the formative stages of ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'' in 1963, acting as a caretaker
producer
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
prior to the arrival of
Verity Lambert. Tucker's friend, the actor and director
Hugh David — whom Tucker had actually approached about playing the leading role in the series — later claimed in interviews that it was Tucker who had named the series ''Doctor Who'', although Tucker himself credited
Sydney Newman with this. Tucker was also the director originally assigned to the first serial, ''
An Unearthly Child'', and later it had been planned that Tucker would direct more of the programme's introductory season. However, these commitments did not work out, and ultimately he directed only ''
The Gunfighters'' in 1966. During the last episode, ''The O.K. Corral'', a dispute arose between Tucker and then producer
Innes Lloyd over the editing of the episode, leading to Tucker requesting that his credit be excised.
In 2013 the BBC commissioned a
docudrama
Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event".
Docudramas typic ...
about the creation and early days of ''Doctor Who'', called ''
An Adventure in Space and Time'', as part of the programme's fiftieth anniversary celebrations. Tucker appears as a character in the drama, played by actor
Andrew Woodall.
His daughter
Jane Tucker was part of the
Rod, Jane and Freddy
Rod, Jane and Freddy were a singing trio who appeared in children's programming on the British TV channel ITV in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. They starred both in the long-running series ''Rainbow'' and their own 15-minute show. The trio ...
musical trio.
References
External links
*
''Rex Tucker - The Forgotten Producer'', by Paul Scoones (''Time Space Visualiser'' issue 49, November 1996)
1913 births
1996 deaths
People from March, Cambridgeshire
British television directors
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