This is a follow up to the article about Anthony Coburn’s son not allowing the BBC iPlayer to upload the first few 1960’s episodes.
On November 1st, the BBC are going to be putting a back catalogue of Doctor Who content on iPlayer; with over 800 episodes.
However, there’s been issues regarding four episodes from William Hartnell’s time as The Doctor, beginning with An Unearthly Child.
Anthony Coburn’s son Stef, inherited the rights to the IP in 2013, and he made offers of undisclosed amounts to the BBC, that would have enabled them to distribute those episodes on their platform.
The BBC rejected those offers and Stef Coburn has been adamant about not letting the BBC have these episodes ever since. These episodes are still currently available online via ITVX Premium/Britbox, and various retailers for the physical copies.
Although, the BBC press office did not respond to our requests to confirm whether or not these episodes will be on iPlayer. The BBC has later confirmed to RadioTimes instead, issuing a statement:
“This massive iPlayer back catalogue will be home to over 800 hours of Doctor Who content, making it the biggest ever collection of Doctor Who programming in one place but will not include the first four episodes as we do not have all the rights to those.”
A spokesperson for the BBC.
Which Doctor Who episodes will not be on BBC iPlayer?
Fans can still look forward to a large collection being made available on the platform, apart from these four episodes, which will not be on there:
– An Unearthly Child
– An Unearthly Child: The Cave of Skulls
– An Unearthly Child: The Forest of Fear
– An Unearthly Child: The Firemaker
