Commercial rivals
Though there was little to fear from The Waltons and Collecting Now on BBC2, or Shakespeare Lives and the news on Channel 4, the weekday early evening slot put Doctor Who up against some potent ITV opposition.
On Tuesdays, the programme overlapped the Central soap opera Crossroads, which gave way to Reporting London at 7.00pm.
However, for most of the UK 7.05pm meant the latest visit to Emmerdale Farm, home in the Yorkshire Dales to, among others, Frazer Hines’ Joe Sugden. Both soaps could command audiences of 12 million, easily outstripping the Time Lord.
Wednesdays were just as tough for the TARDIS team. In most ITV regions, another visit to the Crossroads motel was followed at 7.00pm by the networked monolith that was This Is Your Life, which Thames had been screening since 1969 and still pulled in audiences of around 15 million.
Even The Five Doctors took a beating, with the action-packed might of The A-Team and LWT’s Judi Dench-Michael Williams sitcom A Fine Romance attracting over 13 million viewers as an alternative to Children in Need.