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23rd November 2007 Verity Lambert OBE (1935-2007)  What very sad news to hear of her passing, I feel absolutely gutted. As a lifelong Doctor Who fan, Verity Lambert was probably one of the first television figures I became aware of, and as it was also Doctor Who that originally brought the Kaleidoscope team together, it could be said that without whom...We tried to get Verity along to Kaleidoscope events so many times, it became a running joke. She'd either be unavailable, or we'd manage to book her only for it to fall through at the last minute, simply because the great lady was always so busy. In March last year, we thought she finally would be able to attend, only for it to fall through literally at the eleventh hour. She'd had a persistent back injury from a recent fall and had been advised on doctor's orders not to travel. At the event itself, we were trying to rig up a phone interview and I had a lengthy conversation with her. She couldn't apologise enough about how upset she was to have to miss the event and let everyone down and kept saying she still might be able to make it to a station to catch a train. In the end I had to tell her repeatedly that she needed to rest and get well - there would be another time. I think that says a lot about the kind of person she was. Thankfully there was another time, at Kaleidoscope last December and for me, the opportunity to meet her was one of the greatest high points of my twenty-one years of organising TV events. Her appearance on stage was a triumph as well, definitely one of the best guests we've ever had - and well worth the long wait! All too often she's mentioned in connection with one or two of the major series she was involved with, but her range of work was immense and spanned decades. I'm reminded of something I wrote to publicise our event: "Our guest for the day was Verity Lambert, making her much anticipated first appearance at a Kaleidoscope event. A protegé of Sydney Newman, Verity quickly made her first mark on television history as the original producer of Doctor Who, moving on to another much-loved favourite Adam Adamant Lives! and in subsequent years rising to become one of the foremost figures in the British television and film industries, and more recently one of this country's leading independent producers. Her credits read like a roll-call of television greats and include Budgie, Minder, Reilly - Ace of Spies, Rock Follies, Quatermass, Sleepers, G.B.H., Widows and Jonathan Creek to name but a few." RIP Verity. Go safely through the vortex. Adrian Petford Kaleidoscope |
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