The Power of Jane Tranter

Doctor Who fans, and specifically Doctor Who Magazine readers, will be aware of the influence Jane Tranter, controller of BBC Fiction, has on Doctor Who. Russell T Davies has cited how her decisions can make or break the wishes of the production team in Cardiff, stifling the idea that Rose should be succeeded by a Victorian/Edwardian kitchenmaid, and urging the replacement of the seemingly old-fashioned pseudohistorical, like The Unquiet Dead, with more brazenly anachronistic fare like Tooth and Claw.

Today's Media Guardian includes an article critical of the centralisation of commissioning authority in Tranter at the BBC, and while Doctor Who is mentioned only fleetingly, the article provides valuable context, if made up largely of unattributable anecdotal evidence, for the production of the programme and other current BBC series.