In an interview on the official DVD release of the story, its director, Pennant Roberts, says Holmes wrote The Sun Makers in retaliation over a tax bill.
When this story was broadcast in November 1977, the basic UK income tax rate was 34%, almost three-quarters more than the 20% set for the 2023/24 tax year. The world economy had been hit by an oil crisis earlier in the decade which drove up costs due to fuel shortages. There was high unemployment, and an inflation rate of around 15%. By comparison, the inflation rate in Autumn 2022 was just under 11%, and around 6% by summer 2023.
In an attempt to generate more revenue for the economy in the 1970s, the The chief finance minister of the United Kingdom, based at 11 Downing Street. One of their main jobs is to set the country’s annual Budget. at the time, Denis Healey, raised the tax rate for those on the highest incomes to 83%. This was not popular with many wealthier people and in a documentary on the BBC’s DVD release of The Sun Makers, historian Dominic Sandbrook notes that when this story was made, there was a: “climate of anxiety and anger and kind of middle-class anti-tax sentiment in Britain.”
This sentiment is perhaps best demonstrated in a conversation between The Doctor and his companion, the warrior Leela.
Leela: “These taxes? They are like sacrifices to tribal gods?”
The Doctor: “Well, roughly speaking. But paying tax is more painful.”
Classic episodes of Doctor Who from the 1960s right up to the 2020s are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
This article was published in November 2023.
