Mervyn Pinfield


Mervyn Pinfield was a British television producer and director working for the BBC during the 1950s and 1960s. He was the associate producer on the BBC television series Doctor Who from the first episode of An Unearthly Child to The Romans, during Verity Lambert's tenure as producer.
Pinfield was a highly experienced producer and director. Before joining the BBC early in the 1950s to work on live drama at Alexandra Palace, he spent over four years in 'weekly rep' as Director/Theatre Manager at the Royalty Theatre, Morecambe.
In 1963, he was appointed to the position of Associate Producer for Doctor Who to support the less-experienced Verity Lambert, as Doctor Who was the first program for which she was the Producer. He also directed Episodes 1 to 4 of The Sensorites, The Space Museum and Episodes 1 & 2 of Planet of Giants for the series, and worked as director on other BBC series such as Compact , The Monsters, and The Franchise Affair.
Pinfield was also known as the inventor of an early type of teleprompter, or autocue, which he called the Piniprompter.
In 2013, as part of the programme's 50th anniversary celebrations, the BBC broadcast the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, which recounted the creation and early days of Doctor Who. Pinfield was portrayed by Jeff Rawle.