Jeremy Thorpe

You may wish to consult Jeremy for other, similarly-named pages.

Jeremy Thorpe was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was close to Global Chemicals. He personally forbade Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart from investigating the company. (TV: The Green Death) According to the Eighth Doctor, Thorpe served between Edward Heath and Shirley Williams. (PROSE: Interference - Book One)

Behind the scenes

• The Prime Minister was called "Jeremy" by the Brigadier, referencing Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe. During production, there was a close-call general election; the Doctor Who production team, operating on the assumption that the UNIT stories took place in the near future, were joking that Thorpe would be appointed Prime Minister. This did not happen in reality, though he did suffer severe scandals.
• Thorpe's forename wasn't given in Interference, but the common-sense interpretation of the passage is that the author was referencing Jeremy Thorpe.
• An article on the BBC Classic Doctor Who website, "Party Politics", makes the claim that Jeremy is Jeremy Thorpe and he led a coalition government following a hung parliament at the 1970 election. However, after the events involving Global Chemicals, the government's involvement in the "Axonite scandal" and the "Operation Golden Age fiasco", this government collapsed in 1973, and was succeeded by the Labour government under Shirley Williams. No narrative information beyond The Green Death's use of "Jeremy" and the prime minister in Terror of the Zygons (airdate 1975) now being called a "madam" by the Brigadier appears to back up the establishment or collapse of these governments.

Footnotes