James MacTaggart was a Scottish born television producer, director and writer.

After an initial career as an actor, MacTaggart worked for BBC Radio in Scotland before moving into television, relocating to London around 1961. MacTaggart aimed to break down the use of naturalism

Naturalism (theatre)

Naturalism is a movement in European drama and theatre that developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It refers to theatre that attempts to create a perfect illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies: detailed, three-dimensional settings Naturalism is a...

 in television drama: "We were going to destroy naturalism", his colleague scriptwriter Troy Kennedy Martin

Troy Kennedy Martin

Troy Kennedy Martin was a Scottish-born film and television screenwriter best known for creating the long running BBC TV police series Z-Cars, and for the award-winning 1985 anti-nuclear drama Edge of Darkness...

 once said, "if possible, before Christmas". MacTaggart was given the responsibility of producing the second season of The Wednesday Play

The Wednesday Play

The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured...

; Head of BBC Drama Sydney Newman

Sydney Newman

Sydney Cecil Newman, OC was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s...

 later credited him with the series success. MacTaggart directed later productions during the anthology series' run and also instalments in its successor, Play for Today

Play for Today

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...

He joined Kestrel Productions, set up by Kenith Trodd

Kenith Trodd

Kenith Trodd is a British television producer particularly noted for a long association with television playwright Dennis Potter.The son of a crane driver, Trodd was raised in the Christian fundamentalist Plymouth Brethren...

, Tony Garnett

Tony Garnett

Tony Garnett is a film producer who has worked in feature films and on British television. He was born in Birmingham, England, and studied psychology at the University of London....

 and Ken Loach

Ken Loach

Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...

, which had an arrangement with the new ITV contractor London Weekend Television

London Weekend Television

London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...

, and directed Dennis Potter

Dennis Potter

Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...

's Moonlight on the Highway

Moonlight on the Highway

Moonlight on the Highway is a television play by Dennis Potter, first broadcast on 12 April 1969 as part of ITV's Saturday Night Theatre strand...

(1969), with Ian Holm

Ian Holm

Sir Ian Holm, CBE is an English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear...

 in the play's leading role, and Simon Gray

Simon Gray

Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE , was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years...

's Pig in the Poke (also 1969). The company was short-lived, and MacTaggart freelanced. His only feature film All the Way Up

All the Way Up

All the Way Up is a 1970 British comedy film directed by James MacTaggart based on Semi-Detached, a 1962 play by Midlands dramatist David Turner. It stars Richard Briers, Warren Mitchell, Pat Heywood, Kenneth Cranham, Adrienne Posta and Elaine Taylor....

was released in 1970.

James MacTaggart died unexpectedly in 1974. A lecture in his memory is delivered annually at the Edinburgh International Television Festival

Edinburgh International Television Festival

The Edinburgh International Television Festival, founded in 1976, is held annually over the British August bank holiday weekend at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre....

each August.

External links