Well its still a series from 63 to present day, its just that for many years, we never broke things down into seperate series like you do in the USA.
It wasnt til the Ecclestone run that we even started calling its series 1 etc (although Jaburg will point out it isnt series 1).
To us, it was just the Doctor Who series, they were never numbered.

It was only when video took off that we even bothered with series numbering on anything.

Snarf is shit. His death will be rejoiced!