[1] During his time in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, Newman worked first with ABC Weekend TV before moving across to the BBC in 1962, holding the role of Head of Drama with both organisations.

[2] His obituary in The Guardian declared that "for ten brief but glorious years, Sydney Newman ... was the most important impresario in Britain ... His death marks not just the end of an era but the laying to rest of a whole philosophy of popular art.

"[3] In Quebec, as commissioner of the NFB, he attracted controversy for his decision to suppress distribution of several politically sensitive films by French Canadian directors.

[4] Sydney Cecil Nudelman[5] was born in Toronto on April 1, 1917, the son of a Russian-Jewish immigrant father who ran a shoe shop.

[3] His assignment there was to compile reports for the Canadian government on American television techniques, focusing on dramas, documentaries and outside broadcasts.

[9] In this position he encouraged a new wave of young writers and directors, including Ted Kotcheff and Arthur Hailey, and oversaw shows such as the popular General Motors Theatre.

[2] This anthology series was networked nationally across the ITV regions on Sunday evenings, and in 1959 was in the top ten of the ratings for 32 out of the 37 weeks it was broadcast, with audiences of over 12 million viewers.

[8] Newman used the strand to present plays by writers such as Alun Owen, Harold Pinter and Clive Exton, also bringing over associates from Canada such as Charles Jarrott and Ted Kotcheff.

[16] Although Police Surgeon was not a success and was cancelled after only a short run,[16] Newman took Hendry as the star, and some of the ethos of the programme, to create a new series (not a direct sequel as is sometimes claimed) called The Avengers.

[17] Debuting in January 1961, The Avengers became an international success,[18] although in later years its premise differed somewhat from Newman's initial set-up, veering into more humorous territory rather than remaining a gritty thriller.

[17] Newman's great success at ABC had been noted by the British Broadcasting Corporation, whose executives were keen to revive their own drama department's fortunes in the face of fierce competition from ITV.

[3] He accepted the position, eager for a new challenge, although he was obliged to remain with ABC until the expiration of his contract in December 1962, after which he immediately began work with the BBC.

[27] Although much work on the genesis of the series was done by Donald Wilson, C. E. Webber and others, it was Newman who created the idea of the TARDIS, a time machine larger on the inside, and the character of the mysterious "Doctor", both of which remain at the heart of the programme.

[31][32] Newman then decided on his former production assistant at ABC, Verity Lambert, who had never produced, written or directed, but she readily accepted his offer.

[3] Despite being offered an executive producership by the BBC, keen to regain his services on the day he left ABPC, Newman decided to return to Canada.

to a committee of parliament in 1971,[43] but in the same year personally rejected the release of Michel Brault's film about the October Crisis, Orders (Les Ordres).

[4] Newman was concerned about the idea of releasing films with Quebec nationalist themes, such as Groulx's 24 heures ou plus, at such a tense political time, worried about what the Canadian public would think.

"[46] The writer Richard Collins felt that "the very experiences that enabled [Newman] to recognize the nature of the NFB's problem and the need for a change of diction and reorientation to the tastes of Canadians had left him out of touch with Canada.

"[47] For his part, Newman felt that the NFB's French program had not made enough effort to communicate with people in English Canada or to make films that were relevant to "the ordinary men, who have no particular axe to grind.

[20][49] His main reason for going back to the UK was to attempt, unsuccessfully, to produce a drama series about the Bloomsbury Group for the new Channel 4 network.

On October 6, 1986, Newman wrote back to Grade with a suggestion that he take direct control of the series as executive producer, that Patrick Troughton should return to the role of the Doctor for a season, and then regenerate into a female, with Newman suggesting either Joanna Lumley, Dawn French or Frances de la Tour to succeed Troughton.

Grade then suggested that Newman meet the current Head of Drama, Jonathan Powell, for lunch to discuss the Canadian's ideas.

[52] For the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who in 2013, BBC television commissioned a dramatisation of the events surrounding the creation of the series, entitled An Adventure in Space and Time and written by Mark Gatiss.

[53] A biography of Newman by Ryan Danes, titled The Man Who Thought Outside the Box, was released in April 2017 by Digital Entropy Publishing.