I'm pretty sure they use a Snell and Wilcox ARC150. This is a realtime box of tricks, play it in one end, play it out the other and there you go, filmised.

Cheers, Andrew Parkinson (Colourist, BBC)

They deinterlace in hardware when they conform the project. They use a Snell & Wilcox Alchemist.

I know this is an old thread but the current BBC spec for filmic look is 1920x1080i at 25np.

I have been told the latest Dr Who ser is shot on sony F35 camera's!

Yes, I've also read in several places that the newest series of Doctor Who was shot on Sony F35's. Though opinions vary about the quality of the writing, the newest episodes look absolutely stunning--very cinematic--much more so than the first 4 series.

I'm not a huge fan of the newer Dr Who series, but I saw an episode this week and to my eyes it does look way nicer than the previous episodes. They did scream de-interlaced video to me. Digi Beta is a nice format to work with and always looks it's best when it's left at 50i IMO.

One issue about shooting interlaced and then filmlooking is that you can't do much about the shutter speed--normally there is no electronic shutter applied (aka 360 degree shutter) vs the 1/48 or 180 degree shutter applied to 24p material. Thus even though 60 or 50i footage can be processed to give the cadence of 24p, it will not have the same look unless the shutter is engaged during capture, something that is not normally done when shooting interlaced. As anyone who has shot 24p footage with a 360 degree/no shutter knows, it creates a somewhat smeary result that reduces the effectiveness of replicating the film look.