What is light entertainment? A primarily British term, it encompasses more or less everything that is not hard drama, documentary, or the news. This could be anything from talent shows like The X-Factor to talk shows like that of Graham Norton to sitcoms like Mrs. Browns Boys to sci-fi like Doctor Who.

Wait- what was that last one?

Doctor Who is a light-entertainment program. The first episode, ‘An Unearthly Child’, launched inside a schedule dominated, even the day after Kennedy’s assassination, by light entertainment programming. Juke Box Jury, described in the Radio Times as ‘comment and opinion on the latest pop releases’, featured panelists such as Cilla Black, Sid James, and Anna Quayle, all of whom were intimately associated with the frothier, more comedic, and musical ends of the British performing spectrum. Sports program Grandstand and an edition of Comedy Playhouse were also part of the lineup. Doctor Who slotted in here in a spot previously occupied by Garry Halliday, a manly hero who battled evil smugglers every teatime.

Rather than appearing in a slot reserved for drama, it instead found its place amongst comedy, talk, and sport, reflecting both the diversity of what can be classed as light entertainment and also what the BBC thought of Doctor Who at the time. As the IBA would later write in a 1978 report about different kinds of television, programs like these are the reason why “for entertainment that many viewers turn to the box. After the tensions and anxieties of everyday life, people welcome the opportunity to sit down relax, and be made to smile and laugh.” To escape into a fantasy world, essentially.

Which sounds like Doctor Who to me.

The Light Entertainment Case for Doctor Who

But many fans have over the years resisted these interpretations. The concept of Who as something that has being amusing or ‘light’ written into its very DNA seems to hark back to playground bullying or jokes about tinfoil monsters and childishness. Even in their own articles written about the show, the BBC implies that the series couldn’t be sophisticated until it began ‘exploring race and sexual identity, and passing critical comment on 1980s Britain.’ Simply telling an enjoyable story with engaging characters and a combination of humor and drama doesn’t cut the mustard in a world where there are extreme delineations between high and low culture, with the implication that a show must be in the former to have any good in it at all.

But as a report on ITV in 1970 put it, “the people who work in light entertainment in television are often the most anxious of men, always looking for new ideas, new jokes, new ways of putting their programs on the air.” In British television in particular the boundaries between high and low culture are frequently blurred, perhaps due to the freedom that television as a flexible medium, originally derided by critics for its disposability and modishness, can offer.

This is particularly true for science fiction, as popular sci-fi television across the world has consistently drawn from high and low culture to create something that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. Star Trek: The Original Series cast Joan Collins and had a dog wearing a space horn in episodes alongside episodes exploring race, gender, and the horrors of the past and present; British children’s sci-fi show The Tomorrow People had a lead taken from 70s boyband Flintlock, who nearly crosses over into Naziism in a later episode. Red Dwarf featured two separate big song-and-dance numbers across its series and discussed death and loneliness at the end of the universe.

Many British television shows cannot be categorized into high or low culture easily: The Frost Report offered satire, sketch, and discussion, whilst The Young Ones blurred the boundaries between sitcom, variety, and sketch.

Classic Doctor Who was also, of course, created in very similar circumstances to the BBC’s light entertainment broadcasts—not only in the same studios but, like them, to “be aired on a flickering GEC 14-inch set with the living-room light extinguished,” and discarded thereafter, television drama being afforded the same status in terms of tape preservation as Cilla.

British television is a very different ecosystem to that of American: our much smaller, less diverse output (at least traditionally) has led to BBC cross-pollination and the joke that the UK has twelve actors endlessly recycled amongst programs. This means that actors have to be talented across genres, or are able to experience a varied career in both light and “serious” entertainment. The very talented comedienne Victoria Wood later moved into more dramatic works such as Housewife 49; Martin Freeman began as an actor defined by his comedic work in The Office before moving onto semi-comic roles in Sherlock and then in fully dramatic ones in The Responder.

William Hartnell was himself a fixture of light entertainment programs, having appeared as an NCO in ITV sitcom The Army Game for a number of years—a straight-man performance perhaps, but embedded within the tradition of light comedies within army life, as seen in films like Idle on Parade (1959) or Carry on Sergeant (1958). Before this, he had been a “hard man” in iconic movies like Brighton Rock (1948). These movements between serious and light entertainment can be seen throughout the careers of the Doctors, from Jon Pertwee’s comedy roles in radio show The Navy Lark to Peter Davison’s latter-day musical career to David Tennant’s increasing work in comedies such as Staged alongside family dramas and Shakespeare. Doctor Who and the actors who play them are embedded in the malleable definition of ‘light entertainment’ within British television.

Landmark Light Entertainment Moments in Doctor Who

Different eras of Who have moved towards and away from light entertainment, sometimes within the same Doctor: the Phillip Hinchcliffe/Robert Holmes Who plays with shades of darkness, aiming for a serious tone riffing on horror stylings, whereas the Douglas Adams episodes lean increasingly towards jokiness, not helped by Tom Baker’s increasing control and ham acting.

Steven Moffat’s style of Who essentially uses the structure of sitcom or farce to tell science fiction and horror stories. Plotlines such as the Amy-Rory-Doctor love triangle reflect this. As a consequence of the structure of the show, hanging as it does on the interplay between two or so actors, Doctors, and companions form double acts, as in Two (Patrick Troughton) and Jamie (Frazer Hines), or Ten (David Tennant) and Donna (Catherine Tate, who was primarily a comedian). The TARDIS is frequently lost, allowing for farce; the Doctor finds themself in situations where they are treated as an outsider or things must be explained to them, allowing for the use of farce.

Doctor Who has also consistently pinched light-entertainment personnel for its writers: Terry Nation wrote scripts for Tony Hancock, Douglas Adams of course wrote Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Steven Moffat had a sitcom hit with Coupling. Thus across eras, scriptwriters are alive to the comedic and dramatic possibilities of Doctor Who’s structure.

Light entertainment locations for stories are also a key part of Who’s structure, recurring across eras: 1988’s ‘The Greatest Show In The Galaxy’ and 1971’s ‘Terror of the Autons’ both feature carnivals, and ‘Bad Wolf’ (S1, Ep12) gameshow sets. In fact ‘Bad Wolf’ was almost called ‘Gameshow World’. The Anne-Droid had been one of Davies’ earliest pitches for the series. The Doctor has been frequently trapped inside carnivals and sideshows, from the Miniscope owned by traveling showman Vorg in 1973’s ‘Carnival of Monsters’, to the Toymaker and Master of the Land of Fiction’s games involving fictional characters in 1966’s ‘The Celestial Toymaker’ and 1968’s ‘The Mind Robber’. Varos in 1985’s ‘Vengeance on Varos’ is a state where torture and executions are televised for a baying audience, and the serial concludes with the Doctor running through the Dome’s games and abolishing the executions, leaving a shocked audience to wonder at their new-found freedom.

Some Who episodes have devolved into full-on panto: ‘The Horns of Nimon’ makes much more sense as a serial once you understand it was viewed at across late December/early January of 1979/80. In the Wilderness Years following the original show’s cancellation, Who became a light-entertainment relic in itself, as in the very silly 1993 charity crossover Dimensions in Time, where the Doctor and his companions find themselves transported into TV soap Eastenders. Modern Doctor Who offers far more joke-per-episode quota: episodes like ‘The End of the World’ (S1, Ep2), ‘Boom Town’ (S1, Ep11), and ‘Love & Monsters’ (S2, Ep10) involve frequent comedic moments.

However, the horrors of casting comedy performers and pop stars in Who have been debated over for decades. As with other aspects linking the show to light entertainment, it seems to be a holdover from the days in which the program was not taken ‘seriously’– how could a show that can balance Jason Connery, Peter Wyngarde, and Beryl Reid have any value? – but in retrospect, it all comes down to the writing: Kylie Minogue’s performance in 2007 Christmas special ‘Voyage of The Damned’ (S4, EpX) is forgivable in a good script, whereas Ken Dodd’s may not be.

Stunt Casting in Doctor Who

Production decisions also led to a move towards light entertainment: stunt casting helped John Nathan-Turner keep Who in the public eye, as did use many of its leads for pantomimes in Tunbridge Wells Theatre. The first of these featured Peter Davison, Anthony Ainley, and Davison’s wife Sandra Dickinson, a sci-fi actress in her own right (as Trillian in the original Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy and Emily in The Tomorrow People). Later, a Doctor Who Cookbook was released to drum up notice. Getting bums on seats means playing into the popular.

Variety show stalwarts increasingly appeared during John Nathan-Turner’s tenure in the 1980s, both as a way of securing publicity and adding some comedy into the program, thus aiming for a wider audience. It likely helped too that many of these acts were called to perform as they might within a variety context, meaning that even if their performance was a tad out of place, it was often stronger than some of the Equity B-listers within the main narrative.

Ken Dodd, a comedian known for his lengthy shows, tickling stick, and inherently funny bones, appears in 1987’s ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ as the suitably over-the-top Tollmaster, but also receives a very sticky, gruesome death. Hale and Pace, a popular comedy double act, are the shopkeepers who serve the Doctor in 1989’s ‘Survival’, and add an element of grubby late 80s-ness to proceedings, which fits in with the general sense of suburban malaise within the serial.

John Cleese and Eleanor Bron, both part of the Cambridge comedy clique of the time and also Adams’ friends, offer a humorous moment in 1979’s ‘City of Death’ by critiquing the TARDIS as if it was modern art. A silly moment within a silly story, it nevertheless links back to both Adams’ prioritization of comedy within his era and the general statements on art, artists, and reproduction within the wider narrative.

Genial host of the long-running radio panel show Just A Minute, Nicholas Parsons, appears as the Reverend Wainwright in 1989’s ‘The Curse of Fenric’, a stunt casting that actually allows Parsons to play against type as a man struggling with and ultimately destroyed by his faith.

Comedian Alexei Sayle, best known internationally for his appearance in The Young Ones, plays the DJ in 1985’s ‘Revelation of the Daleks’, a part that doesn’t quite work within a generally quite dodgy story but that joins together the roles of shock DJ and alternative stand-up to interesting effect.

Bernard Cribbins had of course been a comic performer and singer for decades before being cast as Wilfred Mott, and the goodwill the audience already had towards him (that audience including Russell T. Davies) is part of what makes Wilf such a warm character. We bring our childhood memories of Cribbins as the man of The Wombles and ‘Right Said Fred’ to the loveable grandpa role of Wilf, our existing emotions acting as a shortcut.

Big-name casting from light entertainment can also embody various aspects of a career: Roger Lloyd-Pack may be best known for his role in Only Fools and Horses, but had also provided many serious acting performances including some for Harold Pinter, likely the greater motivation behind his casting as Lumic in ‘Rise of the Cybermen’ (S2, Ep5) and ‘The Age of Steel’ (S2, Ep6). Beryl Reid was a fine serious actress as well as a performer in comedic farces but is terribly miscast as a hardened space captain in 1982’s ‘Earthshock’, meaning that sometimes it is the script rather than performer which upends a guest performance. Richard Briers too could straddle both sides of British entertainment, from many successful sitcom performances to Shakespeare, but is cast for his comedic talents in 1987’s ‘Paradise Towers’.

In Nu Who, guest stars begin to play themselves, beginning with political commentator Andrew Marr in ‘Aliens of London’ (S1, Ep4) but soon devolving into light entertainment stalwarts from Tricia to Paul O’Grady to an entire episode structured around reality TV personalities like Anne Robinson and Trinny and Suzanna. Davies’ use of these personalities serves as an in-joke for parents, but also to make his Doctor Who more intimately connected with the workaday world of the viewer, an intention established from Rose’s personality as companion onwards.

This continues with Davies’ successors: comic actor and stand-up Rufus Hound appears in ‘The Woman Who Lived’ (S9, Ep6), making jokes to delay his own execution in a way that suggests that Steven Moffat wanted to revisit his sitcom days. Elsewhere in the Moffat era, stand-up Frank Skinner appears as Perkins the engineer in ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’ (S8, Ep8) in a companion-that-never-was role, and double act Mitchell and Webb make an appearance as robots in ‘Dinosaurs On a Spaceship’ (S7, Ep2). Chris Chibnall’s casting includes Aisling Bea in ‘Eve of the Daleks’ (S13, EpX), and more noticeably well-known light entertainers Bradley Walsh and John Bishop as companions.

Of course, the question may be are we watching character or actor: David Suchet or The Landlord, or Ken Dodd or The Tollmaster? Do our outside perceptions color our expectations of these characters and the stories they appear in? It may add a layer of fun to play ‘Spot the Celebrity’ in Doctor Who, but it can also be distracting. Same with recurrent casting: Tom Baker essentially plays himself playing the Doctor playing The Caretaker in ‘The Day of the Doctor’ (50th Anniversary Special). That being said, it is inevitable that the way that British television works, light-entertainment personalities are bound to bump up against each other whilst producing a show, even behind the scenes: Sylvester McCoy was coached in the magic tricks he performs in ‘Greatest Show in the Galaxy’ by Geoffrey Durham, both a talented magician and comedian Victoria Wood’s husband, whilst the actors playing the Myrka in 1984’s ‘Warriors of the Deep’ had previously played the pantomime horse in children’s show Rentaghost (and it shows).

The Legacy of Light Entertainment

As we have seen, modern Doctor Who and its fandom sit more comfortably with being seen as comedic or fun, rather than serious, even if the name “light entertainment” is still viewed with suspicion. Increasingly, non-episode based Who has also spread into weirder, funnier low-culture avenues.

Immersive experience Doctor Who: Time Fracture was advertised at West End Live with Siluarians performing a jazz number, and sadly no longer with us Doctor Who Experience involved live-action roleplay as children were allowed to pilot the TARDIS. But then, this blurring of boundaries has always been a facet of the program’s status: The Doctor’s primary non-canonical appearances have been in light entertainment: on Disney Time in the 70s, or on Children In Need today, these appearances often taking the form of comedy sketches (a collaboration between Peter Capaldi and Eddie Redmayne called ‘Looking for Pudsey’ being the most recent).

It is undeniable, then, that Doctor Who is light entertainment, in the same way, that the original series of Star Trek is. It is something bright, fun, and frothy with well-drawn characters and intellectual themes concealed by the comedy and adventure, in much the same way as in a sitcom. The blurred boundaries between cultures within British television mean that Doctor Who can cherrypick the best of both worlds in style, content, and performers. It might not always work, but Doctor Who is as embedded in the world of light entertainment as it was when rubbing up against Grandstand in 1963.