William Sellars is a British television

British television

Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...

 producer

Television producer

The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...

, most active from the 1960s to the 1980s. His entire career was spent working on projects for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Of these, All Creatures Great and Small

All Creatures Great and Small (TV serial)

All Creatures Great and Small is a popular British television series, based on the books of the British veterinary surgeon Alf Wight, who wrote under the pseudonym James Herriot.-Background:...

, which he produced for its entire run, was the biggest success. Conversely, his biggest critical failure was likely Triangle

Triangle (TV series)

Triangle was a BBC television soap opera in the early 1980s, set aboard a North Sea ferry which sailed between Felixstowe & Gothenburg and Gothenburg & Amsterdam. A third imaginary leg existed between Amsterdam & Felixstowe to make up the program title, but this was not operated by the ferry company...

, a soap opera set on board a ferry

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

 in the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

.

As director

Sellars' first significant creative work for the BBC was as a director. From 1962-1965, he was periodically assigned to some of the more daring shows of the time, such as the upscale soap, Compact

Compact (TV series)

Compact is a British television soap opera shown by the BBC between 1962 and 1965. The series was created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, who together went on to devise Crossroads....

, and the early Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

. For this latter programme, he oversaw The Celestial Toymaker

The Celestial Toymaker

The Celestial Toymaker is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 2 April to 23 April 1966.-Plot:...

. He also directed episodes of United!

United!

United! was a British television series which was produced by the BBC between 1965 and 1967, and was broadcast twice-weekly on BBC1.The series followed the fortunes of a fictional second division football team, Brentwich United...

and 199 Park Lane

199 Park Lane

199 Park Lane is a British television soap opera produced by the BBC in 1965.The series was a consciously upper-class affair, based around the residents of an exclusive block of apartments in London, and dealt with the intrigues of the Chelsea/Kensington set.All of this short-lived soap opera's 18...

during this period. However, due to the BBC's policy of wiping

Wiping

Wiping or junking is a colloquial term for action taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies, in which old audiotapes, videotapes, and telerecordings , are erased, reused, or destroyed after several uses...

 videotape, little of Sellars' directorial work survives.

As producer

After a three-year period as a contract director, Sellars shifted into the role as producer. His first in this role was as Verity Lambert

Verity Lambert

Verity Ann Lambert, OBE was an English television and film producer. She is best known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who, a programme which has become a part of British popular culture, and for her association with Thames Television...

's successor on The Newcomers

The Newcomers (TV series)

The Newcomers was a late 1960s BBC soap opera which dealt with the subject of a London family, the Coopers, who moved to a housing estate in the fictional country town of Angleton. It was broadcast in bi-weekly half hour episodes from 5 October 1965 until 28 November 1969...

. From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, he moved through a quick succession of soap opera

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

s, including The Doctors and The Brothers. By 1973, he had entered a five-year period of directing shorter-form dramas. Most of these endeavours were, like The Chinese Puzzle and a portion of the Lord Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...

mysteries, far afield from his usual work in soap opera.

By 1978, however, he found himself back to regular series work. This time, however, he was handed All Creatures Great and Small

All Creatures Great and Small (TV serial)

All Creatures Great and Small is a popular British television series, based on the books of the British veterinary surgeon Alf Wight, who wrote under the pseudonym James Herriot.-Background:...

. Although he would produce other shows in the downtime from All Creatures — such as the poorly received Triangle

Triangle (TV series)

Triangle was a BBC television soap opera in the early 1980s, set aboard a North Sea ferry which sailed between Felixstowe & Gothenburg and Gothenburg & Amsterdam. A third imaginary leg existed between Amsterdam & Felixstowe to make up the program title, but this was not operated by the ferry company...

and the Creatures-clone, One By One

One By One (TV series)

One By One is a British television series made by the BBC between 1984 and 1987.The series, created by Anthony Read, followed the career of international veterinarian David Taylor and his work caring for exotic animals at zoos in Britain, from the 1950s to the 1970s...

— he would work on Creatures until the close of his active career in 1990. Indeed, it was for Creatures that he received his only two significant awards nominations: a BAFTA nomination for Best Drama Series in 1979, and a Primetime Emmy nomination for Best Children's Series in 1990.