Maria Edith Bird (pronounced Marie) (24 August 1891 – 25 August 1979) was a South African-born British producer. She was born in

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; ) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King ...

Colony of Natal The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies t ...

, and died in the village where she lived for most of her life,

Westerham Westerham is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 3.4 miles east of Oxted and 6 miles west of Sevenoaks, adjacent to the Kent border with both Greater London and Surrey. I ...

, aged 88. She was a descendant of

Francis Bird Francis Bird (1667–1731) was one of the leading English sculptors of his time. He is mainly remembered for sculptures in Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral. He carved a tomb for the dramatist William Congreve in Westminster Abbey and s ...

the sculptor and Colonel Christopher Bird who was Colonial Secretary at Cape Town Castle (where there is a landmark named after him in Kirstenbosch, South Africa – Colonel Bird's Bath). Her mother brought her children from Natal Colony to the UK to be educated and Maria attended a Scottish convent. Following school, she studied the

Dalcroze eurhythmics Dalcroze eurhythmics, also known as the Dalcroze method or simply eurhythmics, is a developmental approach to music education. Eurhythmics was developed in the early 20th century by Swiss musician and educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze and has inf ...

music and dance method under

Émile Jaques-Dalcroze Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (6 July 1865 – 1 July 1950) was a Swiss composer, musician, and music educator who developed Dalcroze eurhythmics, an approach to learning and experiencing music through movement. Dalcroze eurhythmics influenced Carl O ...

in Dessau.Transcript from interview with Maria Bird's nephew Maria Bird helped found BBC Children's Television with her close friend

Freda Lingstrom Freda Violet Lingstrom OBE (23 July 1893 – 15 April 1989) was a BBC Television producer and executive, responsible for pioneering children's programmes in the early 1950s. She and her friend Maria Bird together created '' Andy Pandy'' and '' ...

with whom she set up Westerham Arts, the production company commissioned by the BBC to produce TV pieces including ''

The Woodentops The Woodentops are a British rock band that enjoyed critical acclaim and moderate popularity in the mid-1980s. History The band formed in 1983 in South London with an initial lineup of Rolo McGinty (vocals, guitar, formerly of the Wild Swans ...

'' (1955), '' Flower Pot Men'' (1952) and ''

Andy Pandy ''Andy Pandy'' is a British children's television series that aired on BBC Television in 1950. Originally live, a series of 26 filmed programmes was shown until 1970, when a new series of 13 episodes was made. This series was the basis for a co ...

'' (1950). Westerham Arts was based in Chartwell Cottage (owned by Bird and Lingstrom and subsequently bequeathed to the National Trust). It neighbours the

Chartwell Chartwell is a English country house, country house near Westerham, Kent, in South East England. For over forty years, it was the home of Sir Winston Churchill. He bought the property in September 1922 and lived there until shortly before his ...

Estate. Maria and Freda built a shed in their garden where their puppet films were made. In addition to TV production she was a writer, narrator and musician.

References

External links

Maria Bird Biography at IMdb
1891 births 1979 deaths British television producers Educational broadcasting in the United Kingdom People from Pietermaritzburg British women television writers British composers People from Westerham British women television producers 20th-century British screenwriters Colony of Natal people {{UK-screenwriter-stub