John Mair

John Mair was the Forward Planning Manager for the British Broadcasting Corporation in the weeks leading up to the premiere of Doctor Who in 1963. He was contacted by Donald Baverstock on 16 October 1963 to come up with hard numbers about the potential special effects budget for the programme. On the basis of these numbers, Baverstock made a more intelligent decision about whether he could increase the series' budget.

He and Joanna Spicer were thrown together by virtue of their respective offices, and at the behest of Donald Baverstock. They exchanged several memos in which they are principally concerned with discovering the true, exact cost of making this new programme. Together, they exert considerable pressure on the Doctor Who production team in October 1963 to figure out a more rational financial path. For a time, their memos threaten to shut down production. (REF: The First Doctor Handbook)