A point Martin Belam missed in “Is Doctor Who finally getting it right on race?” (13 November): the first ever story was directed by Waris Hussein, a gay Asian man, and produced by one of the first women producers at the BBC, Verity Lambert, who was Jewish. The show got it right on race and gender back in 1963: see my new book, Six Decades of Adventure in Space and Time: A Social, Cultural and Screen History of Doctor Who. Doctor Who has never been intentionally racist. The show has always valued every human (and intelligent alien) life.

Frank Danes

Ely, Cambridgeshire

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