Verity Lambert
Encyclopedia
Verity Ann Lambert, OBE
(27 November 1935 – 22 November 2007) 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
. Her many credits include Adam Adamant Lives!
, The Naked Civil Servant
, Rock Follies
, Minder
,
Widows
, G.B.H., Jonathan Creek
and Love Soup
.
Lambert began working in television in the 1950s, and continued to work as a producer until the year she died. After leaving the BBC in 1969, she worked for other television companies, notably Thames Television
and its Euston Films
offshoot in the 1970s and 80s. She also worked in the film industry, for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment
, and from 1985 ran her own production company, Cinema Verity
.
The British Film Institute
's Screenonline
website describes Lambert as "one of those producers who can often create a fascinating small screen universe from a slim script and half-a-dozen congenial players."
Women were rarely television producers in Britain at the beginning of Lambert's career. When she was appointed to Doctor Who in 1963 she was the youngest producer, and only female drama producer, working at the BBC
. The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications
hails her as "not only one of Britain's leading businesswomen, but possibly the most powerful member of the nation's entertainment industry ... Lambert has served as a symbol of the advances won by women in the media". She died the day before the 44th anniversary of the first showing of Doctor Who.
, the daughter of a Jewish accountant, and educated at Roedean School
. She left Roedean at sixteen and studied at the Sorbonne
in Paris
for a year, and at a secretarial college in London for eighteen months. She later credited her interest in the structural and characterisational aspects of scriptwriting to an inspirational English teacher. Lambert's first job was typing menus at the Kensington De Vere Hotel, which employed her because she had been to France
and could speak French
. In 1956, she entered the television industry as a secretary at Granada Television
's press office. She was sacked from this job after six months.
Following her dismissal from Granada, Lambert took a job as a shorthand
typist at ABC Television
. She soon became the secretary to the company's Head of Drama, and then a production secretary working on a programme called State Your Case. She then moved from administration to production, working on drama programming on ABC's popular anthology series Armchair Theatre
. Armchair Theatre was overseen at the time by the company's new Head of Drama, Canadian
producer Sydney Newman
.
Catastrophic incidents could occur on Live television
of this era. On 30 November 1958, while Lambert was working as a production assistant on Armchair Theatre, an actor died during a broadcast of Underground
and she had to take responsibility for directing the cameras from the studio gallery while director Ted Kotcheff
worked with the actors on the studio floor to accommodate the loss.
In 1961 Lambert left ABC, spending a year working as the personal assistant to American
television producer David Susskind
at the independent production company Talent Associates
in New York
. Returning to England, she rejoined ABC with an ambition to direct, but got stuck as a production assistant, and decided that if she could not find advancement within a year she would abandon television as a career.
, and the following year Lambert joined him at the Corporation. Newman had recruited her to produce Doctor Who
, a programme he had personally initiated. Conceived by Newman as an educational science-fiction series for children, the programme concerned the adventures of a crotchety old man travelling through space and time with his sometimes unwilling companions in a machine larger on the inside than the out
. The show was a risk, and in some quarters not expected to last longer than thirteen weeks.
Although Lambert was not Newman's first choice to produce the series — Don Taylor
and Shaun Sutton
had both declined the position — the Canadian was very keen to ensure that Lambert take the job after his experience of working with her at ABC. "I think the best thing I ever did on that was to find Verity Lambert," he told Doctor Who Magazine
in 1993. "I remembered Verity as being bright and, to use the phrase, full of piss and vinegar! She was gutsy and she used to fight and argue with me, even though she was not at a very high level as a production assistant."
When Lambert arrived at the BBC in June 1963, she was initially given a more experienced associate producer, Mervyn Pinfield
, to assist her. Doctor Who debuted on 23 November 1963 and quickly became a success for the BBC, chiefly on the popularity of the alien creatures known as Dalek
s. Lambert's superior, Head of Serials Donald Wilson, had strongly advised against using the script in which the Daleks first appeared, but after the serial's successful airing, he said that Lambert clearly knew the series far better than he did, and he would no longer interfere in her decisions. The success of Doctor Who and the Daleks also garnered press attention for Lambert herself; in 1964, the Daily Mail
published a feature on the series focusing on the perceived attractiveness of its young producer: "The operation of the Daleks ... is conducted by a remarkably attractive young woman called Verity Lambert who, at 28, is not only the youngest but the only female drama producer at B.B.C. TV... [T]all, dark and shapely, she became positively forbidding when I suggested that the Daleks might one day take over Dr. Who."
Lambert oversaw the first two seasons of the programme, eventually leaving in 1965. "There comes a time when a series need new input," she told Doctor Who Magazine thirty years later. "It's not that I wasn't fond of Doctor Who, I simply felt that the time had come. It had been eighteen very concentrated months, something like seventy shows. I know people do soaps forever now, but I felt Doctor Who needed someone to come in with a different view."
She moved on to produce another BBC show created by Newman, the swashbuckling action-adventure series Adam Adamant Lives!
(1966–67). The long development period of Adam Adamant delayed its production, and during this delay Newman gave her the initial episodes of a new soap opera
, The Newcomers
, to produce. Further productions for the BBC included a season of the crime drama Detective (1968–69) and a 26-part series of adaptations of the stories of William Somerset Maugham (1969). During this period, Lambert was referenced in Monty Python
’s 1969 sketch "Buying a Bed," which featured two shop assistants called Mr. Verity and Mr. Lambert, named after her.
In 1969 she left the staff of the BBC to join London Weekend Television
, where she produced Budgie
(1970–72) and Between the Wars (1973). In 1974, she returned to the BBC on a freelance basis to produce Shoulder to Shoulder, a series of six 75-minute plays about the suffragette
movement of the early 20th century.
Later in 1974 Lambert became Head of Drama at Thames Television
, a successor company of her former employers ABC. During her time in this position she oversaw several high-profile and successful contributions to the ITV
network, including The Naked Civil Servant
(1975), Rock Follies
(1976–77), Rumpole of the Bailey
(1978–92) and Edward and Mrs Simpson
(1978). In 1976 she was also made responsible for overseeing the work of Euston Films
, Thames' subsidiary film production company, at the time best known as the producers of The Sweeney
. In 1979 she transferred to Euston full-time as the company's Chief Executive, overseeing productions such as Quatermass
(1979), Minder
(1979–94) and Widows
(1983).
At Thames and Euston, Lambert enjoyed the most sustained period of critical and popular success of her career. The Naked Civil Servant won a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for its star John Hurt
as well as a Broadcasting Press Guild
Award and a prize at the Prix Italia
; Rock Follies won a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society
Award, while Widows also gained BAFTA nominations and ratings of over 12 million — unusually for a drama serial, it picked up viewers over the course of its six-week run. Minder went on to become the longest-running series produced by Euston Films, surviving for over a decade following Lambert's departure from the company.
Television historian Lez Cooke described Lambert's time in control of the drama department at Thames as "an adventurous period for the company, demonstrating that it was not only the BBC that was capable of producing progressive television drama during the 1970s. Lambert wanted Thames to produce drama series 'which were attempting in one way or another to tackle modern problems and life,' an ambition which echoed the philosophy of her mentor Sydney Newman." Howard Schuman, the writer of Rock Follies, also later praised the bravery of Lambert's commissioning. "Verity Lambert had just arrived as head of drama at Thames TV and she went for broke," he told The Observer
newspaper in 2002. "She commissioned a serial, Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, for safety, but also Bill Brand, one of the edgiest political dramas ever, and us... Before we had even finished making the first series, Verity commissioned the second."
Lambert's association with Thames and Euston Films continued into the 1980s. In 1982, she rejoined the staff of parent company Thames Television as Director of Drama, and was given a seat on the company's board
. In November 1982 she left Thames, but remained as Chief Executive at Euston until leaving in November of the following year to take up her first post in the film
industry, as Director of Production for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment
. Her job here was somewhat frustrating as the British film industry was in one of its periodic states of flux, but she did manage to produce some noteworthy features, including the 1986 John Cleese
film Clockwise
.
Lambert later expressed some regret on her time in the film industry in a feature for The Independent
newspaper. "Unfortunately, the person who hired me left, and the person who came in didn't want to produce films and didn't want me. While I managed to make some films I was proud of — Dennis Potter
's Dreamchild
, and Clockwise with John Cleese — it was terribly tough and not a very happy experience."
Verity Lambert was Chair of the British Film Institute
Production Board in 1981/1982.
. The company's first production was the 1988 feature film A Cry in the Dark
, starring Sam Neill
and Meryl Streep
and based on the "dingo baby
" case in Australia
. Cinema Verity's first television series, the BBC1 sitcom May to December
, debuted in 1989 and ran until 1994. The company also produced another successful BBC1 sitcom, So Haunt Me
, which ran from 1992 to 1994.
Lambert executive produced Alan Bleasdale
's hard-hitting drama serial G.B.H. for Channel 4
in 1991, winning critical acclaim and several awards. Lambert's relationship with Bleasdale was not entirely smooth, however — the writer has admitted in subsequent interviews that he "wanted to kill Verity Lambert" after she insisted on the cutting of large portions of his first draft script before production began. However, Bleasdale subsequently admitted that she was right about the majority of the cut material, and when the production was finished he only missed one small scene from those she had demanded be excised.
A less successful Cinema Verity production, and the most noted mis-step of Lambert's career, was the soap opera Eldorado, a co-production with the BBC set in a British expatriate
community in Spain
. At the time it was the most expensive commission the BBC had given out to an independent production company. Launched with a major publicity campaign and running in a high-profile slot three nights a week on BBC1, the series was critically mauled and lasted only a year, from 1992 to 1993. Lambert's biography at Screenonline suggests some reasons for this failure: "With on-location production facilities and an evident striving for a genuinely contemporary flavour, Lambert's costly Euro soap Eldorado suggested a degree of ambition ... which it seemed in the event ill-equipped to realise, and a potentially interesting subject tailed off into implausible melodrama. Eldorado's plotting ... was disappointingly ponderous. As a result, the expatriate community in southern Spain theme and milieu was exploited rather than explored." Other reviewers, even the best part of a decade after the programme's cancellation, were much harsher, with Rupert Smith's comments in The Guardian
in 2002 being a typical example. "A £10 million farce that left the BBC with egg all over its entire body and put an awful lot Equity
members back on the dole... it will always be remembered as the most expensive flop of all time."
In the early 1990s, Lambert attempted to win the rights to produce Doctor Who independently for the BBC; however, this effort was unsuccessful because the Corporation was already in negotiations with producer Philip Segal
in the United States
. Cinema Verity projects that did reach production included Sleepers
(BBC1, 1991) and The Cazalets
(BBC One, 2001), the latter co-produced by actress Joanna Lumley
, whose idea it was to adapt the novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard
.
Lambert continued to work as a freelance producer outside of her own company. She produced the popular BBC One comedy-drama series
Jonathan Creek
, by writer David Renwick
, ever since taking over the role for its second series in 1998. From then until 2004 she produced eighteen episodes of the programme across four short seasons, plus two Christmas Specials. She and Renwick also collaborated on another comedy-drama, Love Soup
, starring Tamsin Greig
and transmitted on BBC One in the autumn of 2005.
In 1973, Lambert married television director Colin Bucksey (a man ten years her junior), but the marriage collapsed in 1984, and they divorced in 1987. She had no children, once telling an interviewer, "I can't stand babies — no, I love babies as long as their parents take them away." In 2000 two of her productions, Doctor Who and The Naked Civil Servant, finished third and fourth respectively in a British Film Institute
poll of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
of the 20th century.
(OBE) for her services to film and television production, and the same year she received BAFTA's Alan Clarke
Award for Outstanding Contribution to
Television. She died of cancer five days before her 72nd birthday. She was due to have been presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and Television Awards the following month.
Her last work was to produce the second series of Love Soup. A dedication, to her memory, was shown after the first episode was aired on March 1, 2008.
In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Human Nature
", the Doctor (as John Smith) refers to his parents as Sydney and Verity, a tribute to both Newman and Lambert. And on Christmas Day 2007, in the Doctor Who episode "Voyage of the Damned
", a dedication, to her memory, was shown at the end of the episode.
An unofficial 10 minute film entitled "Verity: Men, Bitches & Daleks" was created about Verity and charts her struggle in getting Doctor Who on TV. It focuses on her relationship with Sydney Newman and results in his admission that hiring her was the best thing he ever did. Whilst this is an unofficial film created by two students (Thomas Cowell & Joey Guy), many Doctor Who fans believe that something more official should be made in order to pay tribute to her career.
The 2008 DVD release of "The Time Meddler", as well as containing the last commentary she made before her death, also contains a short documentary feature "Verity Lambert Obituary" described as "A concise essay looking back over the career of one of Doctor Who's co-creators."
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(27 November 1935 – 22 November 2007) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
television
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...
and film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
. She is best known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
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...
, a programme which has become a part of British popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, and for her association with Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
. Her many credits include Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives! is a British television series which ran from 1966 to 1967 on the BBC. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, the show was a comedy adventure that took a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian .- Character...
, The Naked Civil Servant
The Naked Civil Servant (film)
The Naked Civil Servant is a 1975 TV film based on the 1968 autobiography by the gay icon Quentin Crisp, also titled The Naked Civil Servant. It stars John Hurt in the title role....
, Rock Follies
Rock Follies
Rock Follies, and its sequel, Rock Follies of '77, was a comedy musical drama shown on British television in the mid 1970s. The storyline, over 12 episodes and two series, followed the ups and downs of a fictional female rock band called the "Little Ladies" as they struggled for recognition and...
, Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
,
Widows
Widows (TV series)
Widows was a British primetime television serial aired in 1983, produced by Euston Films for Thames Television and aired on the ITV network....
, G.B.H., Jonathan Creek
Jonathan Creek
Jonathan Creek is a British mystery series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. Primarily a crime drama, the show is also peppered with broadly comic touches...
and Love Soup
Love Soup
Love Soup is a British television comedy-drama produced by the BBC and first screened on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. It stars Tamsin Greig as Alice Chenery and Michael Landes as Gil Raymond . The series is written by David Renwick of One Foot in the Grave fame, and was produced by Verity Lambert...
.
Lambert began working in television in the 1950s, and continued to work as a producer until the year she died. After leaving the BBC in 1969, she worked for other television companies, notably Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
and its Euston Films
Euston Films
Euston Films was a British film and television production company. It was a subsidiary company of Thames Television, and operated from the 1970s to the 1990s, producing various series for Thames, which were screened nationally on the ITV network...
offshoot in the 1970s and 80s. She also worked in the film industry, for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment
EMI Films
EMI Films was a British film and television production company and distributor. The company was formed after the takeover of Associated British Picture Corporation in 1968 by EMI....
, and from 1985 ran her own production company, Cinema Verity
Cinema Verity
Cinema Verity was a British independent television and film production company, founded in 1985 by Verity Lambert, the television producer, who named the company after herself and as a pun on the expression 'cinéma vérité'....
.
The British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
's Screenonline
Screenonline
Screenonline is a Web site devoted to the history of British film and television, and to social history as revealed by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lottery New Opportunities Fund.Reviews...
website describes Lambert as "one of those producers who can often create a fascinating small screen universe from a slim script and half-a-dozen congenial players."
Women were rarely television producers in Britain at the beginning of Lambert's career. When she was appointed to Doctor Who in 1963 she was the youngest producer, and only female drama producer, working at the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications
Museum of Broadcast Communications
The Museum of Broadcast Communications is an American museum that currently exists exclusively on the Internet and not in any physical capacity. Its stated mission is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain...
hails her as "not only one of Britain's leading businesswomen, but possibly the most powerful member of the nation's entertainment industry ... Lambert has served as a symbol of the advances won by women in the media". She died the day before the 44th anniversary of the first showing of Doctor Who.
Early career in independent television
Lambert was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the daughter of a Jewish accountant, and educated at Roedean School
Roedean School
-Roedeanians in fiction:* Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward * Dawn Drummond-Clayton * Emily James...
. She left Roedean at sixteen and studied at the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
for a year, and at a secretarial college in London for eighteen months. She later credited her interest in the structural and characterisational aspects of scriptwriting to an inspirational English teacher. Lambert's first job was typing menus at the Kensington De Vere Hotel, which employed her because she had been to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and could speak French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. In 1956, she entered the television industry as a secretary at Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
's press office. She was sacked from this job after six months.
Shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed or brevity of writing as compared to a normal method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos and graphē or graphie...
typist at ABC Television
Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this...
. She soon became the secretary to the company's Head of Drama, and then a production secretary working on a programme called State Your Case. She then moved from administration to production, working on drama programming on ABC's popular anthology series Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968....
. Armchair Theatre was overseen at the time by the company's new Head of Drama, Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
producer 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...
.
Catastrophic incidents could occur on Live television
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
of this era. On 30 November 1958, while Lambert was working as a production assistant on Armchair Theatre, an actor died during a broadcast of Underground
Underground (1958 TV play)
Underground was a science fiction television play presented as part of the British anthology series Armchair Theatre which was broadcast live by the ITV commercial network on 30 November 1958...
and she had to take responsibility for directing the cameras from the studio gallery while director Ted Kotcheff
Ted Kotcheff
Ted Kotcheff , sometimes credited as William Kotcheff or William T. Kotcheff, is a Canadian film and television director, who is well known for his work on several high-profile British television productions and as a director of films such as First Blood.-Early life:Kotcheff was born William...
worked with the actors on the studio floor to accommodate the loss.
In 1961 Lambert left ABC, spending a year working as the personal assistant to American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television producer David Susskind
David Susskind
David Susskind was a producer of TV, movies, and stage plays and also a pioneer TV talk show host.-Personal:...
at the independent production company Talent Associates
Talent Associates
Talent Associates, Ltd. , was a production company headed by David Susskind, later joined by Daniel Melnick, Leonard Stern and Ron Gilbert.-Origins:...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Returning to England, she rejoined ABC with an ambition to direct, but got stuck as a production assistant, and decided that if she could not find advancement within a year she would abandon television as a career.
BBC career
In December 1962 Sydney Newman left ABC to take up the position of Head of Drama at BBC TelevisionBBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
, and the following year Lambert joined him at the Corporation. Newman had recruited her to produce 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...
, a programme he had personally initiated. Conceived by Newman as an educational science-fiction series for children, the programme concerned the adventures of a crotchety old man travelling through space and time with his sometimes unwilling companions in a machine larger on the inside than the out
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
. The show was a risk, and in some quarters not expected to last longer than thirteen weeks.
Don Taylor (director)
Donald Victor Taylor was an English writer, director and producer, active across theatre, radio and television for over forty years...
and Shaun Sutton
Shaun Sutton
Shaun Alfred Graham Sutton OBE was an English television writer, director, producer and executive, who worked in the medium for nearly forty years from the 1950s to the 1990s...
had both declined the position — the Canadian was very keen to ensure that Lambert take the job after his experience of working with her at ABC. "I think the best thing I ever did on that was to find Verity Lambert," he told Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
in 1993. "I remembered Verity as being bright and, to use the phrase, full of piss and vinegar! She was gutsy and she used to fight and argue with me, even though she was not at a very high level as a production assistant."
When Lambert arrived at the BBC in June 1963, she was initially given a more experienced associate producer, Mervyn Pinfield
Mervyn Pinfield
Mervyn Pinfield was a British Television producer and director working for the BBC during the 1950s and 1960s. He is well known for being the associate producer on the BBC television series Doctor Who from the first episode of An Unearthly Child to The Romans, during Verity Lambert's tenure as...
, to assist her. Doctor Who debuted on 23 November 1963 and quickly became a success for the BBC, chiefly on the popularity of the alien creatures known as Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s. Lambert's superior, Head of Serials Donald Wilson, had strongly advised against using the script in which the Daleks first appeared, but after the serial's successful airing, he said that Lambert clearly knew the series far better than he did, and he would no longer interfere in her decisions. The success of Doctor Who and the Daleks also garnered press attention for Lambert herself; in 1964, the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
published a feature on the series focusing on the perceived attractiveness of its young producer: "The operation of the Daleks ... is conducted by a remarkably attractive young woman called Verity Lambert who, at 28, is not only the youngest but the only female drama producer at B.B.C. TV... [T]all, dark and shapely, she became positively forbidding when I suggested that the Daleks might one day take over Dr. Who."
Lambert oversaw the first two seasons of the programme, eventually leaving in 1965. "There comes a time when a series need new input," she told Doctor Who Magazine thirty years later. "It's not that I wasn't fond of Doctor Who, I simply felt that the time had come. It had been eighteen very concentrated months, something like seventy shows. I know people do soaps forever now, but I felt Doctor Who needed someone to come in with a different view."
She moved on to produce another BBC show created by Newman, the swashbuckling action-adventure series Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives! is a British television series which ran from 1966 to 1967 on the BBC. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, the show was a comedy adventure that took a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian .- Character...
(1966–67). The long development period of Adam Adamant delayed its production, and during this delay Newman gave her the initial episodes of a new 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,...
, 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...
, to produce. Further productions for the BBC included a season of the crime drama Detective (1968–69) and a 26-part series of adaptations of the stories of William Somerset Maugham (1969). During this period, Lambert was referenced in Monty Python
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
’s 1969 sketch "Buying a Bed," which featured two shop assistants called Mr. Verity and Mr. Lambert, named after her.
In 1969 she left the staff of the BBC to join 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...
, where she produced Budgie
Budgie (TV series)
Budgie was a popular British television series starring former popstar Adam Faith which was produced by ITV company London Weekend Television and broadcast on the ITV network between 1971 and 1972....
(1970–72) and Between the Wars (1973). In 1974, she returned to the BBC on a freelance basis to produce Shoulder to Shoulder, a series of six 75-minute plays about the suffragette
Suffragette
"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
movement of the early 20th century.
Thames Television and Euston Films
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
, a successor company of her former employers ABC. During her time in this position she oversaw several high-profile and successful contributions to the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network, including The Naked Civil Servant
The Naked Civil Servant (film)
The Naked Civil Servant is a 1975 TV film based on the 1968 autobiography by the gay icon Quentin Crisp, also titled The Naked Civil Servant. It stars John Hurt in the title role....
(1975), Rock Follies
Rock Follies
Rock Follies, and its sequel, Rock Follies of '77, was a comedy musical drama shown on British television in the mid 1970s. The storyline, over 12 episodes and two series, followed the ups and downs of a fictional female rock band called the "Little Ladies" as they struggled for recognition and...
(1976–77), Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer which starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an ageing London barrister who defends any and all clients...
(1978–92) and Edward and Mrs Simpson
Edward and Mrs Simpson
Edward & Mrs. Simpson is a seven-part British television series that dramatises the events leading to the 1936 abdication of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, who gave up his throne to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson....
(1978). In 1976 she was also made responsible for overseeing the work of Euston Films
Euston Films
Euston Films was a British film and television production company. It was a subsidiary company of Thames Television, and operated from the 1970s to the 1990s, producing various series for Thames, which were screened nationally on the ITV network...
, Thames' subsidiary film production company, at the time best known as the producers of The Sweeney
The Sweeney
The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...
. In 1979 she transferred to Euston full-time as the company's Chief Executive, overseeing productions such as Quatermass
Quatermass (TV serial)
Quatermass is a British television science fiction serial produced by Euston Films for Thames Television and broadcast on the ITV network in October and November 1979. Like its three predecessors, Quatermass was written by Nigel Kneale...
(1979), Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
(1979–94) and Widows
Widows (TV series)
Widows was a British primetime television serial aired in 1983, produced by Euston Films for Thames Television and aired on the ITV network....
(1983).
At Thames and Euston, Lambert enjoyed the most sustained period of critical and popular success of her career. The Naked Civil Servant won a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for its star John Hurt
John Hurt
John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
as well as a Broadcasting Press Guild
Broadcasting Press Guild
The Broadcasting Press Guild is a British association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media generally....
Award and a prize at the Prix Italia
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international Italian television, radio-broadcasting and Website award. It was established in 1948 by RAI - Radiotelevisione Italiana in Capri...
; Rock Follies won a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
Award, while Widows also gained BAFTA nominations and ratings of over 12 million — unusually for a drama serial, it picked up viewers over the course of its six-week run. Minder went on to become the longest-running series produced by Euston Films, surviving for over a decade following Lambert's departure from the company.
Television historian Lez Cooke described Lambert's time in control of the drama department at Thames as "an adventurous period for the company, demonstrating that it was not only the BBC that was capable of producing progressive television drama during the 1970s. Lambert wanted Thames to produce drama series 'which were attempting in one way or another to tackle modern problems and life,' an ambition which echoed the philosophy of her mentor Sydney Newman." Howard Schuman, the writer of Rock Follies, also later praised the bravery of Lambert's commissioning. "Verity Lambert had just arrived as head of drama at Thames TV and she went for broke," he told The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
newspaper in 2002. "She commissioned a serial, Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, for safety, but also Bill Brand, one of the edgiest political dramas ever, and us... Before we had even finished making the first series, Verity commissioned the second."
Lambert's association with Thames and Euston Films continued into the 1980s. In 1982, she rejoined the staff of parent company Thames Television as Director of Drama, and was given a seat on the company's board
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
. In November 1982 she left Thames, but remained as Chief Executive at Euston until leaving in November of the following year to take up her first post in the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
industry, as Director of Production for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment
EMI Films
EMI Films was a British film and television production company and distributor. The company was formed after the takeover of Associated British Picture Corporation in 1968 by EMI....
. Her job here was somewhat frustrating as the British film industry was in one of its periodic states of flux, but she did manage to produce some noteworthy features, including the 1986 John Cleese
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
film Clockwise
Clockwise (film)
Clockwise is a 1986 British comedy film starring John Cleese. It was directed by Christopher Morahan, written by Michael Frayn and produced by Michael Codron. The film was co-produced by Moment Films and Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment...
.
Lambert later expressed some regret on her time in the film industry in a feature for The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
newspaper. "Unfortunately, the person who hired me left, and the person who came in didn't want to produce films and didn't want me. While I managed to make some films I was proud of — 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 Dreamchild
Dreamchild
Dreamchild is a 1985 British drama film produced by Verity Lambert, directed by Gavin Millar and written by Dennis Potter. It stars Coral Browne, Ian Holm, Peter Gallagher, Nicola Cowper and Amelia Shankley and is a fictionalized account of Alice Liddell, the child who inspired Lewis Carroll's...
, and Clockwise with John Cleese — it was terribly tough and not a very happy experience."
Verity Lambert was Chair of the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
Production Board in 1981/1982.
Cinema Verity
In late 1985 Lambert left Thorn EMI, frustrated at the lack of success and at restructuring measures being undertaken by the company. She established her own independent production company, Cinema VerityCinema Verity
Cinema Verity was a British independent television and film production company, founded in 1985 by Verity Lambert, the television producer, who named the company after herself and as a pun on the expression 'cinéma vérité'....
. The company's first production was the 1988 feature film A Cry in the Dark
A Cry in the Dark
Evil Angels is a 1988 Australian film directed by Fred Schepisi. The screenplay by Schepisi and Robert Caswell is based on John Bryson's 1985 book Evil Angels, the title under which the film was released in Australia...
, starring Sam Neill
Sam Neill
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....
and Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
and based on the "dingo baby
Azaria Chamberlain disappearance
Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain was a nine-week-old Australian baby girl, who disappeared on the night of 17 August 1980 on a camping trip to Uluru with her family. Her body was never found. Her parents, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent by a dingo...
" case in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Cinema Verity's first television series, the BBC1 sitcom May to December
May to December
May to December was a British sitcom which ran for 39 episodes, from 2 April 1989 to 27 May 1994 on BBC1. The series was written by Paul Mendelson and produced by Cinema Verity....
, debuted in 1989 and ran until 1994. The company also produced another successful BBC1 sitcom, So Haunt Me
So Haunt Me
So Haunt Me is a British television sitcom about a family that moves into a home occupied by the ghost of its previous resident, a middle-aged Jewish mother. The show was produced by Cinema Verity for the BBC and originally aired from 1992 to 1994....
, which ran from 1992 to 1994.
Lambert executive produced Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale is an English television dramatist, best known for writing several social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.The Bleasdales live in prescot,liverpool,wales and london.-Early life:Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother...
's hard-hitting drama serial G.B.H. for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in 1991, winning critical acclaim and several awards. Lambert's relationship with Bleasdale was not entirely smooth, however — the writer has admitted in subsequent interviews that he "wanted to kill Verity Lambert" after she insisted on the cutting of large portions of his first draft script before production began. However, Bleasdale subsequently admitted that she was right about the majority of the cut material, and when the production was finished he only missed one small scene from those she had demanded be excised.
A less successful Cinema Verity production, and the most noted mis-step of Lambert's career, was the soap opera Eldorado, a co-production with the BBC set in a British expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
community in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. At the time it was the most expensive commission the BBC had given out to an independent production company. Launched with a major publicity campaign and running in a high-profile slot three nights a week on BBC1, the series was critically mauled and lasted only a year, from 1992 to 1993. Lambert's biography at Screenonline suggests some reasons for this failure: "With on-location production facilities and an evident striving for a genuinely contemporary flavour, Lambert's costly Euro soap Eldorado suggested a degree of ambition ... which it seemed in the event ill-equipped to realise, and a potentially interesting subject tailed off into implausible melodrama. Eldorado's plotting ... was disappointingly ponderous. As a result, the expatriate community in southern Spain theme and milieu was exploited rather than explored." Other reviewers, even the best part of a decade after the programme's cancellation, were much harsher, with Rupert Smith's comments in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
in 2002 being a typical example. "A £10 million farce that left the BBC with egg all over its entire body and put an awful lot Equity
Actors' Equity Association
The Actors' Equity Association , commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing the world of live theatrical performance, as opposed to film and television performance. However, performers appearing on live stage productions without a book or...
members back on the dole... it will always be remembered as the most expensive flop of all time."
In the early 1990s, Lambert attempted to win the rights to produce Doctor Who independently for the BBC; however, this effort was unsuccessful because the Corporation was already in negotiations with producer Philip Segal
Philip Segal
Philip David Segal is a television producer. He emigrated to the United States in 1974 at the age of twelve, where he studied film at San Diego State University...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Cinema Verity projects that did reach production included Sleepers
Sleepers (TV series)
Sleepers is a 1991 comedy-drama produced by Cinema Verity for the BBC, set around the period of Glasnost in the Soviet Union.-Plot summary:...
(BBC1, 1991) and The Cazalets
The Cazalets
The Cazalets is a 2001 five-episode television drama series about a large privileged family set at the time of World War II, set between 1937 and 1947. It was based on the novels of Elizabeth Jane Howard, adapted by the screenwriter Douglas Livingstone. The series was originally produced by Cinema...
(BBC One, 2001), the latter co-produced by actress Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...
, whose idea it was to adapt the novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Elizabeth Jane Howard
Elizabeth Jane Howard, CBE is an English novelist. She was previously an actress and a model.In 1951 she won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her first novel, The Beautiful Visit...
.
Lambert continued to work as a freelance producer outside of her own company. She produced the popular BBC One comedy-drama series
Jonathan Creek
Jonathan Creek
Jonathan Creek is a British mystery series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. Primarily a crime drama, the show is also peppered with broadly comic touches...
, by writer David Renwick
David Renwick
David Peter Renwick is an English television writer, best known for creation of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave and the mystery series Jonathan Creek....
, ever since taking over the role for its second series in 1998. From then until 2004 she produced eighteen episodes of the programme across four short seasons, plus two Christmas Specials. She and Renwick also collaborated on another comedy-drama, Love Soup
Love Soup
Love Soup is a British television comedy-drama produced by the BBC and first screened on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. It stars Tamsin Greig as Alice Chenery and Michael Landes as Gil Raymond . The series is written by David Renwick of One Foot in the Grave fame, and was produced by Verity Lambert...
, starring Tamsin Greig
Tamsin Greig
Tamsin Greig is an English actress principally known for two Channel 4 television comedy parts: Fran Katzenjammer in Black Books and Dr. Caroline Todd in Green Wing...
and transmitted on BBC One in the autumn of 2005.
In 1973, Lambert married television director Colin Bucksey (a man ten years her junior), but the marriage collapsed in 1984, and they divorced in 1987. She had no children, once telling an interviewer, "I can't stand babies — no, I love babies as long as their parents take them away." In 2000 two of her productions, Doctor Who and The Naked Civil Servant, finished third and fourth respectively in a British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
poll of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
100 Greatest British Television Programmes
The BFI TV 100 is a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute , chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened....
of the 20th century.
Legacy
In the 2002 New Year's Honours list Lambert was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(OBE) for her services to film and television production, and the same year she received BAFTA's Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke was a television and film director, producer and writer, born in Wallasey, Merseyside, England.Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cinema, including work for the famous play strands The Wednesday Play and Play for Today...
Award for Outstanding Contribution to
Television. She died of cancer five days before her 72nd birthday. She was due to have been presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and Television Awards the following month.
Her last work was to produce the second series of Love Soup. A dedication, to her memory, was shown after the first episode was aired on March 1, 2008.
In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Human Nature
Human Nature (Doctor Who episode)
"Human Nature" is the eighth episode of the third series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the first episode of a two-part story written by Paul Cornell adapted from his 1995 Doctor Who novel Human Nature...
", the Doctor (as John Smith) refers to his parents as Sydney and Verity, a tribute to both Newman and Lambert. And on Christmas Day 2007, in the Doctor Who episode "Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned (Doctor Who)
"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on 25 December 2007, it is 72 minutes long and the third Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005...
", a dedication, to her memory, was shown at the end of the episode.
An unofficial 10 minute film entitled "Verity: Men, Bitches & Daleks" was created about Verity and charts her struggle in getting Doctor Who on TV. It focuses on her relationship with Sydney Newman and results in his admission that hiring her was the best thing he ever did. Whilst this is an unofficial film created by two students (Thomas Cowell & Joey Guy), many Doctor Who fans believe that something more official should be made in order to pay tribute to her career.
The 2008 DVD release of "The Time Meddler", as well as containing the last commentary she made before her death, also contains a short documentary feature "Verity Lambert Obituary" described as "A concise essay looking back over the career of one of Doctor Who's co-creators."
Filmography
- Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor 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...
(1963-1965), producer - Adam Adamant Lives!Adam Adamant Lives!Adam Adamant Lives! is a British television series which ran from 1966 to 1967 on the BBC. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, the show was a comedy adventure that took a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian .- Character...
(1966-1967), producer - Detective (1968), producer
- Take Three GirlsTake Three GirlsTake Three Girls is a drama series on BBC1 which ran between 1969 and 1971 about the lives of three girls sharing a flat in 'Swinging' London....
(1969), producer - W. Somerset Maugham (1969-1970), producer
- BudgieBudgie (TV series)Budgie was a popular British television series starring former popstar Adam Faith which was produced by ITV company London Weekend Television and broadcast on the ITV network between 1971 and 1972....
(1971), producer - Between the Wars (1973), producer
- The Silver Mask (1973), producer
- A.D.A.M. (1973), producer
- Achilles Heel (1973), producer
- After Loch Lomond (1973), producer
- Shoulder to Shoulder: Sylvia Pankhurst (1974), producer
- The Naked Civil ServantThe Naked Civil Servant (film)The Naked Civil Servant is a 1975 TV film based on the 1968 autobiography by the gay icon Quentin Crisp, also titled The Naked Civil Servant. It stars John Hurt in the title role....
(1975), executive producer - Rock FolliesRock FolliesRock Follies, and its sequel, Rock Follies of '77, was a comedy musical drama shown on British television in the mid 1970s. The storyline, over 12 episodes and two series, followed the ups and downs of a fictional female rock band called the "Little Ladies" as they struggled for recognition and...
(1976), executive producer - Couples (1976), executive producer
- The Norman Conquests (1977), producer
- ITV PlayhouseITV PlayhouseITV Playhouse was a UK comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a...
: Roadrunner (1977), executive producer - The Sailor's Return (1978), executive producer
- Charlie MuffinCharlie MuffinCharlie Muffin is a 1979 made-for-TV film based on the novel Charlie M by Brian Freemantle. In the U.S., the picture was later re-released under the title A Deadly Game....
(1979), executive producer - QuatermassQuatermass (TV serial)Quatermass is a British television science fiction serial produced by Euston Films for Thames Television and broadcast on the ITV network in October and November 1979. Like its three predecessors, Quatermass was written by Nigel Kneale...
(1979), executive producer - The Knowledge (1979), executive producer
- A Performance of Macbeth (1979), executive producer
- Fox: King Billy (1980), executive producer
- The Flame Trees of ThikaThe Flame Trees of ThikaThe Flame Trees of Thikais a British television mini-series of seven 50-minute episodes made by Euston Films for Thames Television in 1981. It was adapted by John Hawkesworth from the 1959 book of the same title by Elspeth Huxley, and is set in and around the town of Thika in Kenya's Central Province...
(1981), executive producer - Saigon: Year of the Cat (1983), producer
- The Nation's Health (1983), executive producer
- Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983), executive producer
- Widows (1983), executive producer
- MinderMinder (TV series)Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
(1979-1984), executive producer - Morons from Outer SpaceMorons from Outer SpaceMorons from Outer Space is a 1985 comedy/science-fiction film directed by Mike Hodges.-Plot:The story begins on a small spaceship docking with a refueling station. On board are a group of four aliens, Bernard, Sandra, Desmond, and Julian...
(1985), executive producer - ClockwiseClockwiseCircular motion can occur in two possible directions. A clockwise motion is one that proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top...
(1986), executive producer - Link (1986), executive producer
- Evil Angels (1988), producer
- American Roulette (1988), executive producer
- Coasting: Offshore (1990), producer
- G.B.H. (1991), executive producer
- SleepersSleepers (TV series)Sleepers is a 1991 comedy-drama produced by Cinema Verity for the BBC, set around the period of Glasnost in the Soviet Union.-Plot summary:...
(1991), executive producer - Boys from the Bush (1991), producer
- EldoradoEldorado (TV series)Eldorado was a British soap opera that ran for only one year, from 6 July 1992 to 9 July 1993. Set in Coín on the Costa Del Sol and based around the lives of British and European expats, the BBC hoped it would be as successful as EastEnders and replicate some of the sunshine and glamour of imported...
(1992), producer - Comics (1993), producer
- Class Act (1994), producer
- Heavy WeatherHeavy Weather (TV)Heavy Weather was a dramatisation for television by Douglas Livingstone of the novel Heavy Weather by P. G. Wodehouse , set at Blandings Castle...
(1995), producer - Temp (1995), producer
- She's Out (1995), producer
- A Perfect StateA Perfect StateA Perfect State was a 1997 British situation comedy starring Gwen Taylor, Trevor Cooper, Emma Amos and Danny Webb. It debuted on BBC1 on Thursday 27 February 1997 and ran for seven episodes....
(1997), executive producer - Jonathan CreekJonathan CreekJonathan Creek is a British mystery series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. Primarily a crime drama, the show is also peppered with broadly comic touches...
(1998-2004), producer - The Cazalets (2001), producer
- Love SoupLove SoupLove Soup is a British television comedy-drama produced by the BBC and first screened on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. It stars Tamsin Greig as Alice Chenery and Michael Landes as Gil Raymond . The series is written by David Renwick of One Foot in the Grave fame, and was produced by Verity Lambert...
(2005-2008), producer