Adrian Rigelsford (born 1969, in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

) is a British writer and TV historian, most affiliated with ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

''. His work has been subject to controversies over inaccuracies and theft. In June 2004, he was convicted of stealing photographs from the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'' / Associated Newspapers archive in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

Writing career

Rigelsford has written several articles and books on TV and film history. Among them were ghost written biographies of

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show''. Sellers featured on a number of hit comi ...

and

Brian Blessed Brian Blessed ( ; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive bushy beard, booming voice, and exuberant personality and performances. He portrayed PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars''; Augustus in the 1976 BBC television ...

. In 1993, he wrote the script for ''The Dark Dimension'', a proposed 30th anniversary ''

'' special.

BBC Enterprises The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

supported the project and it was scheduled as a "straight-to-video" project, despite its very low budget. The project eventually earned the backing of BBC1 Controller

Alan Yentob Alan Yentob (11 March 1947 – 24 May 2025) was an English television executive and presenter. He held senior roles at the BBC, including head of music and arts, controller of BBC1 and BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadca ...

, who agreed to invest in it and show the programme on BBC1. However, the programme folded after 5 weeks of pre-production. He would return to scripting television again on the 1998 sci-fi series ''

Space Island One ''Space Island One'' (or ''Raumstation Unity'' in German) is a British/German science fiction television series that ran for 26 episodes beginning in 1998. A co-production between the UK's Sky One channel and the German Vox channel, it starred ...

''. In 2004,

Big Finish Productions Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and radio drama, audio plays (released straight to compact disc and for download in MP3 and m4b format) based, primarily, on science fiction properties. These include ''Doctor Who'' ...

produced the Rigelsford-written '' The Roof of the World'' as part of their main range ''Doctor Who'' audio plays. It starred Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. He was attached to write for the ''Lethbridge Stewart'' spin-off books, before being quietly dropped. He did contribute to the screenplay for the 2012 horror film '' The Seasoning House''.

Controversies

The accuracy of Rigelsford's reference work has been heavily disputed. He was accused of unsourced and previously unheard-of quotes from

William Hartnell William Henry Hartnell (; 8 January 1908 – 23 April 1975) was an English actor, who is best known for portraying the first incarnation of the Doctor, in the long-running British science-fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' from 1963 t ...

, as well as the omission of an entire season from one of his ''Doctor Who'' reference works. Later, a publication in '' TV Times'' of a "final" interview with director

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

brought Rigelsford to the attention of Anthony Frewin, a friend of Kubrick's. Frewin's investigation uncovered that a supposed tape of the Kubrick interview did not exist. In the light of this and Frewin's expert doubts, ''TV Times'' ran an apology about the interview. In June 2004, Rigelsford was convicted of stealing 56,000 photographs from the ''Daily Mail''/Associated Newspapers research library over an eight-year period and reselling them for approximately £75,000. Rigelsford was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rigelsford, Adrian 1969 births Living people English criminals 20th-century British male writers 21st-century British male writers