Nonprofit charity and archival body Film is Fabulous! has amassed a collection of scripts from Doctor Who and an impressive list of cult British genre TV series from the 1960s to the 1990s for De Montfort University in Leicester, England, for the purpose of archiving, scholarship and research. The list includes the most popular Science Fiction and cult series from the history of British television. Doctor Who may be the most obvious example, but it includes scripts for The Avengers (Not the Marvel Comics but the classic pop spy series starring Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg), UFO, Blake's 7, Robin of Sherwood, Red Dwarf, classic 1960s spy series Danger Man (US title: Secret Agent), and 1970s megahit quasi-fascist crime and espionage series The Professionals.
BBC
Film is Fabulous! worked closely with the cinema and television historians at De Montfort University in Leicester. Professor Justin Smith is both a trustee of The Film is Fabulous Trust and head of the Cinema and Television History Research Group at DMU. His colleague, Katharine Short, is the head of the Special Collections Department. The collaboration has led to the discovery and cataloguing of numerous items related to vintage television. Some of these fall within the realm of Film is Fabulous! team, while other items are part of the work undertaken by DMU. One of the recent donations is fascinating.
The De Montfort University Script Archive
In July 2025, an extensive collection of scripts, including original annotated camera scripts, production documents, schedules, and film diaries, was donated by a former television and film writer. The collection had been amassed over many years. It has original material from:
Doctor Who (1963-1999): including radio, stage shows, unmade episodes and one-offs (like Steven Moffat's Comic Relief special episode "The Curse of Fatal Death".
The Avengers
Danger Man
HMS Paradise
The Invisible Man
The Nightmare Man
Red Dwarf VI
Robin of Sherwood
Star Maidens
The Tomorrow People
UFO
Young Sherlock
Black Adder
Blake's Seven
Journey into Space
Python Night
The Quatermass Experiment
Survivors
Doomwatch
The Professionals
There are many other items that will be of great interest to researchers seeking information on vintage television from the late 1950s. The papers can be accessed via Special Collections at De Montfort University. The number of recent donations has resulted in De Montfort University becoming a major research centre for vintage TV.
Adi Tantimedh is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote radio plays for the BBC Radio, “JLA: Age of Wonder” for DC Comics, “Blackshirt” for Moonstone Books, and “La Muse” for Big Head Press. Most recently, he wrote “Her Nightly Embrace”, “Her Beautiful Monster” and “Her Fugitive Heart”, a trilogy of novels featuring a British-Indian private eye published by Atria Books, a division Simon & Schuster.
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