DTT: Exploring the Art of the Radio Times

The current Radio Times cover, trailing the new series of Apple TV’s spy drama, Slow Horses, is quite the eye catcher. It’s great to see the TV listings magazine still commissioning the occasional art cover, especially given its long tradition of utilising original art.

In this case, the cover is the creation of The Red Dress, aka London based Olivia Chancellor and Oliver Bland, who’ve also provided illustrations for Vanity Fair, Empire, and more.

Finding Dory retro poster by The Red Dress

Vampira for Empire by The Red Dress

Readers have welcomed the standout cover – sadly, something of a rarity for British magazines as commissioning budgets are squeezed. (Fortunately, titles like Mojo and others are still utilising illustrators).

It’s all a far cry from a little over ten years ago, when the cover art of the Radio Times was actively celebrated with a special radio programme, The Art of Radio Times, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2013 and available to listen here on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

As the Radio Times reached its centenary, Peter Day told the story of the outstanding British graphic artists who made the magazine their canvas.

The idea that a broadcasting listings magazine should provide the opportunity for writers and artists to produce some of their finest creative work seems perhaps a little far-fetched in the present era of TV listing magazines and supplements.

Yet Radio Times, which first appeared on bookstands in September 1923, was a great nurturer of artistic talent.

It started with cartoons – the early magazine loved a gentle 'Punch'-like joke - but soon Radio Times evolved its own individual graphic idiom, using line drawings and motifs, alongside more conventional photographs, to illustrate the imaginative world of radio, in particular.

In the magazine's heyday, an elegant Eric Fraser cover would regularly grace the bumper-selling Christmas edition, and 1953's Coronation Number became a collector's item with Fraser's simple and noble heraldic theme.

Alongside Eric Fraser, amongst the great British artists to create some of their most distinguished work for Radio Times were Edward Ardizzone, Val Biro, Frank Bellamy, Dave Gibbons and Victor Reinganum.

Eric Fraser’s original art for his Lord of the Rings Radio Times cover, published in 1981. Via dramatist Brian Sibley

Cover by Dave Gibbons

This Frank Bellamy illustration highlighted an edited omnibus of The Sea Devils (27 December 1972) in the Radio Times

In addition, Bob Sherriffs contributed thumbnail caricatures in the early years and, 50 years later, Peter Brookes, before becoming a fixture on The Times was a regular contributor.

In The Art of Radio Times, originally made to mark the 90th anniversary, produced by Simon Elmes, Peter Day explores the graphic heritage that Radio Times fostered with those who drew and those who commissioned for it.

• Check it out The Art of the Radio Times here on BBC Radio 4 Extra

• Tie-in Radio 4 Radio Times Art Gallery 

• Producer Simon Elmes on “The Art of Radio Times” (Wayback Machine Link)

• The Red Dress are represented by Debut Art

• Arena: The Art Of The Radio Times

Arena presents the art of the Radio Times through the eyes of illustrator Eric Fraser, a regular contributor to the magazine

• Rusty Staples: Superman’s 50th Anniversary… Radio Times’ coverage, 30 years on

• Brian Sibley: Cover Story - The Lord of the Rings on Radio

DTT: RPG Nostalgia: FASA’s Doctor Who Role Playing Game

Who remembers FASA’s groundbreaking Doctor Who Role Playing Game? First released as a Boxed Set in 1985, it was written by Guy W. McLimore Jr. and William John Wheeler, the game featured art by a number of artists. 

They include FASA staffer Jane K. Bigos, David R. Deitrick (who describes his career as encompassing “artist, a soldier, a teacher, a missionary, an oil-field roustabout, a carpenter, and a dozen other professions”, and has dreamed up some stunning Fireball XL5 reboot concepts), artist and author William H. Keith Jr., who contributed heavily to the graphical appearance of that era of Traveller RPG releases and now writes under the name Ian Douglas; the game’s Art Director and Dungeons and Dragons and Star Trek game artist Dana M. Knutson, game developer Dave R. Marsh, creator of the Shadowgate computer game, and graphic designer Todd F. Marsh. 

More memorable, perhaps, are the art contributions of the late Jim Holloway, a name surely familiar to fans of other popular RPGs down the years: not just Dungeons & Dragons, but less well known games such as Gamma World and Star Frontiers. He provided art on the game’s supplements, his distinctive (if inaccurate) art for The Daleks cover still eye catching today.

Harry Quinn was another artist on the project, delivering the cover for The Legions of Death, a Third Doctor supplement. He painted also provided cover images for Doctor Who and the Vortex Crystal and Doctor Who and the Rebel's Gamble, but is still well regarded for his work on other fantasy and RPG books for FASA, TSR, and others. 

Cover art by Harry Quinn

FASA’s Doctor Who Role Playing Game, of course, was only the first RPG based on Doctor Who; Time Lord – Adventures through Time and Space, written by Ian Marsh and Peter Darvill-Evans, featuring cover art by Colin Howard, was published in 1991 by Virgin Publishing, and the Cubicle 7 incarnation of the game is now in its second edition. But there’s always something fascinating about pioneers, and FASA’s take was certainly that for many, and there’s clearly still plenty of love for it out there although, of course, tracking down a complete set is not an easy or inexpensive task.

Art by Jim Holloway

Comprising a 48-page Player's Manual, 82-page Game Operations Manual, and 64-page Sourcebook for Field Operatives, and dice, the first Doctor Who roleplaying game utilised a revised version of the system developed for FASA's Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game. The game allowed players to assume roles as Time Lords and companions, and to work as operatives for the Celestial Intervention Agency. 

Although FASA only published modules for it during 1985-86, it nevertheless generated three supplements and seven adventure modules, some of which contained lore from the TV series that was not readily available to fans in the United States, and, for some, was actually their first introduction to Doctor Who. 

Although Tom Baker and Louise Jameson had long parted the show, it’s little wonder the Fourth Doctor and Leela featured in the first edition, such was their popularity stateside.

Photo with thanks to Edwin Patterson

All the FASA supplements. Photo with thanks to Edwin Patterson

Even if you didn’t ever play the game, perhaps put off by the complexity of play (although hardcore RPG fans appreciated it), many Who fans, including myself, were avid collectors of the tie-in figures created by Citadel Miniatures, a subsidiary of Games Workshop: a set of 25mm miniatures co-branded with FASA sold in conjunction with the game. (For the US market, the sets were actually produced by RAFM Miniatures).

It’s great to see Cubicle 7 still flying the flag for Doctor Who RPGs, particularly at a time when the series TV future seems uncertain. But you can’t help but admire the work of those who got there first.

Head downthetubes for...

• FASA Doctor Who Roleplaying Game Facebook Group

• Diary of Doctor Who Role-Playing Games Fanzine (DDWRPG)

• Rolling Boxcars: Time Traveling to 1985 – FASA’s The Doctor Who Role Playing Game

Article by Dan of Innsmouth

• The Other Side: FASA Doctor Who RPG: Part 1, Unboxing/Introduction by Timothy Brannan 

• The Other Side: FASA Doctor Who RPG: Part 2, Review by Timothy Brannan 

• The Other Side: FASA Doctor Who RPG: Part 3 - The Supplements by Timothy Brannan 

• The Other Side: FASA Doctor Who RPG: Part 4 - The Adventures by Timothy Brannan 

• The Other Side: FASA Doctor Who RPG: Part 5 - Jenny Everywhere by Timothy Brannan 

• The Other Side: Review: Time Lord the Doctor Who RPG Review by Timothy Brannan 

• The Other Side: Time Lord - Review by Timothy Brennan

• The Other Side: Review: Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Review by Timothy Brannan

• Citadel Miniatures - Doctor Who figure Checklist 

• Doctor Who (RAFM) Miniatures Checklist

• Facebook: The Art of Jim Holloway 

James Holloway, who died 28th June 2020, was an American artist of fantasy and science fiction illustrations whose work appeared in role-playing games, on the cover of Dragon, and on the covers of board wargames

• Wayback: "Jim Holloway :: Pen & Paper RPG Database" | Archived from the original on January 3, 2009

• Silver Key: A Tribute to Jim Holloway