Graeme Harper (born 11 March 1945) is a British
television
director. He is best known for his work on the
science-fiction series
Doctor Who, for which he is the
only person to have directed episodes of both the original run
(1963–89) and revived run (2005–) of the programme.
Doctor Who Magazine has described
him as "the longest-serving crew member on
Doctor
Who."
Early life and career
Born in
London
, Harper began elocution lessons at the Italia Conti Academy as a child in
1955, at the encouragement of his mother who was worried that he
was developing a cockney
accent. This led to him being cast as Master Bardell in
an adaptation of
Charles Dickens'
novel
The Pickwick
Papers for the independent television company
Associated-Rediffusion, when the
company approached the Academy asking if they had a boy with bright
red hair for the role, and they recommended Harper.
Further television work followed in the late 1950s, appearing in
children's serials for
BBC Television
under producer / director
Shaun Sutton.
From the ages of sixteen to twenty-one Harper worked predominantly
in the
theatre, not only as an actor but
also as a
stage manager. After further
television work, however, he decided that acting was not the career
he would like, and he would instead rather be behind the scenes.
One of his main ambitions for becoming involved in the production
side of the industry was to make
Westerns.
While applying for production jobs in television, he worked for a
time as a driving instructor. One of his pupils was the personal
secretary of film director
Stanley
Kubrick, who arranged for him to visit the
sound stages at
MGM-British Studios where Kubrick's film
2001: A Space
Odyssey was then being produced. During this visit, Harper
briefly met Kubrick.
BBC career
After hearing nothing from his various applications to the BBC,
Harper wrote to his former director Shaun Sutton, who was by now
Head of Drama Serials at the BBC.
With Sutton's assistance Harper gained an
interview for the position of floor assistant, in which role he
began working at BBC Television Centre
in London in September 1966.
Harper worked on various productions in this capacity, including
the
Doctor Who serial "
The Power of the Daleks" and later
the 1967 adaptation of
The Forsyte
Saga novels. He also worked on the series
Play of the
Month, where he first worked with the director
Douglas Camfield, with whom he would often
work in later years. In 1969 he was promoted to
assistant floor
manager. In 1975 he was promoted again and became a
production assistant.
One of the first productions he was assigned to in this role was
the
Doctor Who serial "
The
Seeds of Doom", again working under director Douglas
Camfield.
In 1980, Harper once more worked on
Doctor Who when he was
assigned to be production assistant to director
Paul Joyce on the serial "
Warriors' Gate". Joyce's approach to the
production resulted in various delays, and Harper had to take on
extra responsibility for helping to direct the serial in order to
ensure it was finished in time. Following this,
Doctor
Who's
executive producer and
producer,
Barry Letts and
John Nathan-Turner, endorsed Harper's
application for the BBC's in-house television director course, from
which he graduated in 1982.
Harper's first television directing work consisted of episodes of
the medical drama series
Angels. In 1983, John Nathan-Turner
offered him work on
Doctor Who, but as he could only
employ
freelance directors, Harper would
need to resign from the staff of the BBC first. This Harper did,
and he began working on
Doctor Who in the autumn of
1983.
Freelance work
Harper's first
Doctor Who serial, "
The Caves of Androzani", was the last
Doctor Who story to feature
Peter Davison in the title role.
Produced in late 1983, it was broadcast in March 1984. It is widely
regarded by fans of the programme as one of the finest instalments
of the series. In 1985 he worked again on the programme, directing
"
Revelation of the Daleks",
starring
Colin Baker. In 1989 he was
approached to direct the
Sylvester
McCoy-starring
Doctor Who serial "
Battlefield", but he was committed
to episodes of the
Central
Television drama series
Boon. In 1993 he was attached to the
potential
Doctor Who thirtieth anniversary special "The
Dark Dimension", but this was abandoned at the pre-production
stage.
Harper's other work has included episodes of
Bergerac (1985 & 1987),
Star Cops (1987),
The New Statesman (1987),
The House of Eliott
(1991–93),
The Bill (1993),
The Detectives (1995–97),
Casualty (1997,
2004–05),
EastEnders (2000–02)
and
Robin Hood
(2006). In 1999 his work on the television adaptation of
David McRobbie's novel
See How They Run was nominated
for an
Australian Film
Institute Award for "Best Direction in a Television Drama", and
in 2001 he shared in a
BAFTA
Children's Award win in the category of "Best Drama" for
Custer's Last Stand
Up.
Return to Doctor Who
In 2005, twenty years after his last work on
Doctor Who, he was invited to direct four
episodes of the 2006 series, starring
David Tennant. Having previously worked with
the new series' executive producer
Russell T Davies on the programmes
On the
Waterfront and
The House of Windsor,
Harper had contacted Davies soon after the announcement of
Doctor Who's revival in September 2003, to say that he
would very much like to work on it. Scheduling conflicts meant that
he was unable to work on the first series of the revival in 2005,
but for the second series in 2006 he directed two two-part stories
featuring the
Cybermen; "
Rise of the Cybermen" / "
The Age of Steel", and the series finale
"
Army of Ghosts" / "
Doomsday". His work on the episode "Doomsday" saw
him awarded the
BAFTA Cymru Award for
Best Drama Director in April 2007.
Harper directed two episodes, "
42"
and "
Utopia", for the 2007
series of
Doctor Who, as well as the mini-episode
"
Time Crash", part of the 2007 edition of
the BBC's annual
Children in Need
charity
telethon. He also directed
Whatever Happened
to Sarah Jane?, a two-part serial for spin-off series
The Sarah Jane
Adventures.
He directed five episodes of the
2008 series of
Doctor Who,
"
Planet of the Ood", "
The Unicorn and the Wasp",
"
Turn Left", "
The Stolen Earth", and "
Journey's End" and the second of
the
2009
specials, "
The Waters of
Mars", broadcast in November 2009. He directed the last two
stories for the second series of
The Sarah Jane
Adventures:
The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and
Enemy of the Bane
Partial credits
References
External links
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