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BTV
BTV

Type: Television Network
Origin: UK
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BTV ("British TeleVision") is one of the UK's oldest networks and parent company of the American channel BTV-WC (it is not associated, however, with bTV). The original Inspector Spacetime series was aired on BTV from its premiere in 1962 until its cancellation in 1988 (unfortunately, many episodes from the early years are missing, thanks to the network's deplorable archiving practices). They sponsor the annual Inspectrum fan meeting, InSpecTiCon, and will license franchise's merchandising rights to practically any vendor.

The network now produces the revived series, as well as having created the spin-offs The Mary Sue Predicaments and Peacemist: Nicer Post. During the eras of the Eleventh and Twelfth Inspectors, Inspector Spacetime then-showrunner Stefan Toffat divided his time between that programme and the acclaimed series The Lost World, a thoroughly modernised treatment of A. Conan Doyle's scientist-hero Professor Challenger.

Further Programmes[]

BTV's other successful shows include the utopian space opera Jake's Eleven, the stylish "spy-fi" series The Revengers, the hardboiled crime-action drama The Unprofessionals, The Bipeds adaptation of Christopher John's popular YA novels about human occupation of an alien world, and the popular series based on author Harriet Jameson's books about a Midlands butcher entitled All Creatures Meat, which also co-starred Linda Bellingham in the role of the shop assistant Isolde. For younger viewers, the long-running children's programme Orange Pip often features interviews with current Inspector Spacetime cast members.

Of additional interest to Inspector Spacetime fans is the espionage psychodrama The Pensioner. During Christopher Lee's hiatus from Inspector Spacetime during 1966, he created and starred in this short-lived cult classic about retired spies in a colony on top of a mountain, who were kept from escaping by a mysterious roving black cube. Lee played the main character, Letter B, a grim man who, like Lee's Inspector, brooked no nonsense. The Pensioner was known for its trailblazing gritty realism in an era when television was trending toward the surreal and psychedelic.

It has also shown such children's programmes as BusyCity, Samurai Pizza Cats, Policeman Bob, Prisoner Penns, and Safety Cat.

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