Jonathan Appleton is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.
An item of news that’s had a seemingly universal welcome in recent days has been the announcement of a new series of novels to feature that noble defender of the Earth from alien attack, Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. In an intriguing twist, the books will fill us in on the dear old Brig’s career as a thrusting young officer following his first meeting with the Doctor in The Web of Fear but before he got the job with UNIT which would see him become a legend.
Seriously exciting news for the Brigadier’s army of fans, made possible by publisher Candy Jar Books by arrangement with the Executor of the Haisman Literary Estate, Mervyn Haisman’s granddaughter Hannah Haisman, and endorsed by Henry Lincoln.
In an informative interview shortly before this news became public, Hannah Haisman fills in some fascinating background on her relative, his difficult relationship with the show’s producer and how the Brigadier secured his position as one of Doctor Who’s most enduring characters.
“My grandad was a truly amazing person. He was one of the most important, special and influential people in my life… I used to love sitting in grandad’s study whilst he worked. I would spend hours looking at the hundreds of books on the shelves and admiring his RADA certificate hanging on the wall, the Onedin Line flag, the photograph of the Yeti from Doctor Who, the huge poster of Jane and the lost city and various family photographs and portraits.”
It’s fair to say there was no love lost between Mervyn Haisman and story editor and producer Derrick Sherwin, and Hannah has strong opinions on Sherwin’s disparaging criticisms, recently aired in print, of Haisman and Lincoln’s writing. It seems however that with the return of Lethbridge-Stewart in The Invasion, Haisman had the last laugh:
“I know grandad was pissed off with him (Sherwin) using the Brig and that he had to fight with the BBC for many years to secure royalties. I’m over the moon that by doing this, bringing the Brig back, Sherwin secured Grandad’s legacy, and I know grandad would be chuckling about it.”
Perhaps surprisingly, Hannah says she was moved rather than perturbed by the resurrection of the Brigadier as a Cyberman in Series 8 finale Death in Heaven (“I was so proud that grandad’s character was still being used”).
Now the custodian of her grandfather’s literary estate, Hannah Haisman displays an admirable ability to tease the reader with the promise of further adventures for UNIT’s finest officer:
“I have high hopes for the Brig and I’m sure this won’t be the last time you see him… The Brig will always be around, if I have any say in the matter, and I do. There is a time in his life that nobody knows about…YET!”
Worthy of JN-T or RTD at their best! Roll on February and the launch of the Lethbridge-Stewart novels!
To read the full interview head over to type40 – you really, really should!
The post Learn More About Colonel Lethbridge-Stewarts’ New Adventures… appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.