Chris Parr (born 1943) is a British theatre director and television drama producer and executive.

Career

Chris Parr grew up in Littlehampton, Sussex.He was educated at Chichester High School for Boys, where his contemporaries included Howard Brenton, David Wood and the late David Horlock, and Queen's College, Oxford, to which he won an Open Scholarship to read Classics. However, he left Oxford without a degree but with the intention of making a career in the theatre. From 1969 to 1972, Parr was the first Fellow in Theatre at the University of Bradford. During this period he worked closely with Bradford University Drama Group, directing or producing new plays by writers, notably Howard Brenton, David Edgar and Richard Crane, who were already getting, or were about to get, attention on a national level. From 1975 to 1981 he was Artistic Director of the

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco. The Traverse Theatre company commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary p ...

, where he ran the Royal Court Theatre's Sunday Night Programme and developed and regularly directed plays by new and emerging Scottish playwrights. Writers such as John Byrne and Tom McGrath emerged in this time. In 1994, he was appointed head of drama at BBC Birmingham, and in the same year he produced the serial ''

Takin' Over the Asylum ''Takin' Over the Asylum'' is a six-part BBC Scotland television drama about a hospital radio station in a Glasgow psychiatric hospital. The show was written by Donna Franceschild, produced by Chris Parr and directed by David Blair. The sho ...

'', which won a

BAFTA award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cere ...

. In 1995 he moved to the BBC's central drama department in London to become Head of Drama Series. By 2002, he had moved to

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

as head of drama.

Credits

as Director

*''Revenge'' by

Howard Brenton Howard John Brenton FRSL (born 13 December 1942) is an English playwright and screenwriter. While little-known in the United States, he is celebrated in his home country and often ranked alongside contemporaries such as Edward Bond, Caryl Churc ...

(

Royal Court Theatre Upstairs The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...

, 1969) *''Gum and Goo'' by Howard Brenton, Bradford University Theatre Group, 1969–70 *''Heads'' by Howard Brenton, University of Bradford Drama Group, 1969 *''The Education of Skinny Spew'' by Howard Brenton, University of Bradford Drama Group, 1969 *''Triple Bill: Laughs etc, History of a Poor Old Man and The Old Jew'' (Soho Theatre, 1970) *''Two Kinds of Angels'' (Bradford, 1970) *''Inquisition'' (Soho Theatre, 1971) *''A Fart for Europe'' (Theatre Upstairs, 1973) *''True-Life'' (Soho Theatre, 1973) *''New Reekie'' (Traverse Theatre, 1977) *''A&R'' (Traverse Theatre, 1977) *''Rents'' (Traverse Theatre, 1979) *''The Case of David Anderson QC'' (Traverse Theatre, 1980) *''The Long March'' (BBC Television, 1983) *''The Rainbow'' (BBC Television) *''Heartlanders'' (Birmingham Community Theatre, 1989) *''Kings of the Road'' (Edinburgh Festival, Ambassadors Dublin, Winchester Theatre Royal, Greenwich Theatre, 2003) *''The Musical'' (Edinburgh Festival, 2004)

as Producer

*''

Children of the North ''Children of the North'' is a British television thriller drama series, written by John Hale, that first broadcast on BBC2 on 30 October 1991. The series, comprising four episodes, was based on the novel trilogy ''The Killing of Yesterday's Ch ...

'' (BBC Northern Ireland, 1991) *'' You, Me & Marley'' (BBC, 1992) *''

Martin Chuzzlewit ''The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit'' (commonly known as ''Martin Chuzzlewit'') is a novel by Charles Dickens, considered the last of his picaresque novels. It was originally serialised between 1842 and 1844. While he was writing it ...

'' (BBC, 1994) *''

'' (BBC Scotland, 1994)

as Executive Producer

*'' Preston Front II'' (BBC, 1995) *''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983. The programme focused on ...

'' (Thames, 2002)

as Commissioning Editor

*'' Dangerfield'' (BBC) *''

Preston Front ''All Quiet on the Preston Front'' is a BBC comedy drama about a group of friends in the fictional Lancashire town of Roker Bridge, and their links to the local Territorial Army infantry platoon. It was created by Tim Firth. Episodes Three se ...

'' (BBC) *'' Backup'' (BBC) *''

Dalziel and Pascoe Detective Superintendent Andrew "Andy" Dalziel and Detective Sergeant, later Detective Inspector, Peter Pascoe are two fictional Yorkshire detectives featuring in a series of novels by Reginald Hill. Characterisation and style Dalziel is d ...

'' (BBC) *''

Cruel Train ''Cruel Train'' (also known as ''The Beast in Man'') is a British television crime drama, written and directed by Malcolm McKay, and first broadcast on BBC2 on 22 December 1996. Based on Émile Zola's 1890 novel ''La Bête humaine'', and set duri ...

'' (BBC)

References

Sources

'New Challenge at BBC' ''Bradford University News and Views'', November 1995
Retrieved 3 December 2005. 1944 births Living people British theatre directors British television producers British television executives Academics of the University of Bradford {{UK-tv-bio-stub