@feelinglistless said:

It's also worth noting that the BBC Programme Index has absorbed information from the current /programmes section in some cases making it more difficult to search for the original entries as they appeared in the Radio Times.

In the Genome, the source of the data is indicated each time, wether it comes from Radio Times or from BBC Online.

For shows from the pre-Internet time (like this one), our valid sources are the Genome entries tagged as coming from Radio Times.

For more recent shows, the valid source are the archived pages of the BBC site from the time of the broadcast.

Except the Radio Times regularly didn't mention "new series" in its text but may have done using a graphical element on the page which wasn't translated when the scans were done for the Genome. From the same year of the first episode of BBC Television Shakespeare, here's the how the first episode of Season 16 of Doctor Who was billed.

Dr Who: The Ribos Operation: Part 1

BBC One

First broadcast: Sat 2nd Sep 1978, 17:45 on BBC One London

A four-part story by Robert Holmes Starring Tom Baker

The Guardian of Time gives the Doctor a difficult task - and a new assistant. Together they must search for the six segments of the Key to Time, to prevent the Universe from being plunged into eternal chaos.

(There are two Dr Who exhibitions currently on display: one at Longleat House, Warminster, Wiltshire, and the other on Blackpool's Golden Mile)

Source: Radio Times

There no indication here of this being a new series of Doctor Who. But we treat is as such due to third party sources and the fact there was a gap between the previous series and this one. Another example, the original billing for the first episode of season six of Are You Being Served?

Are You Being Served?

BBC One

First broadcast: Wed 15th Nov 1978, 18:45 on BBC One London

by JEREMY LLOYD and DAVID CROFT By Appointment There is to be a Royal Walkabout in the district in which Grace Brothers is situated. If time permits, the Royal party may visit Grace Brothers. starring co-starring featuring and Lighting WARWICK FIELIDING Sound LEN SHOREY Designer ANTHONY THORPE Directed by BOB SPIERS Produced by DAVID CROFT

All's I'm saying is you can't just rely on BBC Genome entries to describe whether something is the first episode of a new series within the text. Not to mention that the billings for the BBC Shakespeare are usually very short because some parts of BBC Two in that period of the magazine's history. Here's the entry for the first episode of the first series, Romeo and Juliet:

The BBC Television Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

BBC Two

First broadcast: Sun 3rd Dec 1978, 20:10 on BBC Two England

by William Shakespeare Starring Celia Johnson, Michael Hordern, Patrick Ryecart, Anthony Andrews with John Gielgud as Chorus and introducing Rebecca Saire Preview: page 27

There isn't a synopsis or text because that would have been included in the preview on page 27, which the Genome hasn't reproduced. In other words, the BBC Genome isn't an impeachable source of contemporary information and can't be relied on, any more than third party sources who worked on the programme or have researched it within the BBC's own written archive at Perivale. The BBC Genome is helpful, but it's based on a magazine and is as much of a third party source as the BBC Books publications.

@feelinglistless said:

There isn't a synopsis or text because that would have been included in the preview on page 27, which the Genome hasn't reproduced.

If you have access to the complete Radio Times magazine or the TV schedule page of a newspaper of that date, feel free to provide it.

In other words, the BBC Genome isn't an impeachable source of contemporary information and can't be relied on, any more than third party sources who worked on the programme or have researched it within the BBC's own written archive at Perivale.

The problem of your third party sources is that they are talking of how the show was produced, not how it was broadcasted.

Just because the BBC Genome doesn't mention that something is part of a series, doesn't mean that it wasn't.

In this type of case, it is always preferable to list the episodes in a single season, provided they are in the correct order and with the correct dates.

An episode group can be created for the production seasons.

Fair enough.