Doctor Who Fact Files

Fact Files
Front of the promotional leaflet

In October 1997 I was approached by Orbis Direct about a range of Doctor Who Fact Files they wanted to develop. They had the licence from the BBC and had already done several successful ranges of these collectible information cards (on Birdwatching, The Unexplained, The Secret World of Herbs, and Railway Legends) which build up over time into a complete collection on the subject.

I worked on these with them to develop the initial range of what would be covered, and also coming up with full lists for the eventual entire range. Then we put together samples of the actual cards themselves so that they could be pictured on the PR flier. This involved writing all the texts, and sourcing all the appropriate images and logos which would be used to 'brand' the cards to whichever Doctor's era was appropriate. I also created all the text for the promotional flier, 50,000 copies of which was distributed with copies of TV Times in the north of England only around the 20th January 1998. This was described as a 'test' to see if there was sufficient interest in the product and therefore whether it was worth progressing with.

Unfortunately, the initial take-up of the product as a result of this test was not deemed to be good enough by Orbis (who had been renamed to Atlas Editions at around the same time as well) and so they dropped the range.

Fact Files Front and back of the promotional leaflet


Fact Files Internal spread for the promotional leaflet


Fact Files Fact Files The front and back of one of the sample cards.