Philip Saville

Philip Saville (28 October 1927 – 22 December 2016) was a British director, screenwriter and former actor whose career lasted half a century. The British Film Institute's Screenonline website described Saville as "one of Britain's most prolific and pioneering television and film directors". His work included 45 contributions to ''Armchair Theatre'' (1956–1972) and he won two Best Drama Series BAFTAs for ''Boys from the Blackstuff'' (1982) and ''The Life and Loves of a She-Devil'' (1986).

Early life

Saville was born Philip Saffer on 28 October 1927 at Marylebone, London (in later life he gave his birth year as 1930, a date repeated in all his obituaries), son of Louis Saffer (who later assumed the anglicized form of the family name, "Saville", chosen by his father, Joseph Saffer, a master tailor), a travelling salesman for a clothing company, and Sadie Kathleen (known as "Kay"), née Tanenberg, supervisor of Fortnum & Mason's women's fashion department at Piccadilly.

He studied science at London University and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). His National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals was ended by his discharge after he sustained a serious knee injury involving an armoured vehicle.

Career

From the 1950s, Saville worked in television as a director working on plays such as Harold Pinter's '' A Night Out'' (1960) for ABC's ''Armchair Theatre'' anthology series. He directed over 40 plays for ''Armchair Theatre'' and helped pioneer the innovative visual style it became known for, including rapid and intricate camera movements during the often live productions. The critic John Russell Taylor, however, wrote that Saville had submerged the romance "Duel for Love" (''Armchair Theatre'', 1961) "under intricate camerawork of exquisite beauty and complete irrelevance".

Saville also directed '' Madhouse on Castle Street'' (1963) for the BBC, an example "of his interest in psychological states and subjective viewpoints", according to Oliver Wake. The (now lost) production was the first acting appearance of the folk singer Bob Dylan, whom Saville had flown over specifically to take part in the play. Saville's production of '' Hamlet at Elsinore'' (1964) for the BBC pioneered the use of videotape for location recording. An anonymous reviewer in ''The Times'' wrote that Saville "while creating handsome pictures, did not allow the setting to distract him from the business of the play". He also worked on an episode of ''Out of the Unknown'', a version of the E.M. Forster short story "The Machine Stops" (1966) in this period. This won the main prize at the 1967 Trieste international science fiction film festival.

Later career

Saville's significant later work includes ''Boys from the Blackstuff'' (1982) and ''The Life and Loves of a She-Devil'' (1986), which both won BAFTAs for Best Drama Series.

For the cinema, Saville directed '' The Fruit Machine'' (1988, released as ''Wonderland'' in the US), '' Metroland'' (1997) and ''The Gospel of John'' (2003).

He also directed a masterclass studio in London specialising in dramatic improvisation. Saville's documentary on Harold Pinter ''Pinter's Progress'' (2009) for Sundance international television channels and UK's Sky Arts features numerous interviews with associates of the Nobel Prize–winning playwright.

Personal life

Saville was married to the actress, film and theatre director Jane Arden from 1947; the couple had two sons, Sebastian and Dominic, but separated in the mid-1960s, although they did not divorce. Arden died in 1982. He also had a daughter, Elizabeth Saville from another relationship. In the 1960s, Saville, while married, had an affair with the artist Pauline Boty, whom he had met towards the end of her student days and who had worked for him. Their affair is said to have inspired the film '' Darling''. He also had an eight-year relationship with actress Diana Rigg in the same period.

From the 1960s onward, he lived in the former home of the artist Augustus John in St John's Wood, London.
Philip Saville married his second wife, Nina Francis (née Zuckerman) in 1987, and they had a son, Waldo Saville. His wife Nina was at his bedside when he died.

Filmography

Actor

* 1948 '' A Piece of Cake''
* 1948 ''To the Public Danger''
* 1948 ''Penny and the Pownall Case'' (actor: Police Car Driver)
* 1953 '' Murder at 3am'' (actor: Edward/Jim King)
* 1953 '' The Straw Man'' (actor: Link Hunter)
* 1954 '' Bang! You're Dead'' (actor: Ben Jones)
* 1954 ''The Night of the Full Moon'' (actor: Dale Merritt)
* 1955 ''Contraband Spain'' (actor: Martin Scott)
* 1957 '' The Great Van Robbery'' (actor: Carter)
* 1957 '' The Betrayal'' (actor: Bartel)
* 1958 '' On the Run'' (actor: Driscol)
* 1958 ''Three Crooked Men'' (actor: Seppy)
* 1959 '' An Honourable Murder'' (actor: Mark Anthony)

Director

* 1960 '' Armchair Theatre: A Night Out'' (television)
* 1962 '' Armchair Theatre: Afternoon of a Nymph'' (television)
* 1964 '' Hamlet at Elsinore'' (television), (director)
* 1964 ''The Wednesday Play: In Camera'' (television), (director/adaptation) — based on Jean-Paul Sartre's ''No Exit''
* 1966 ''Stop the World, I Want to Get Off'' (director) — based on the musical ''Stop the World – I Want to Get Off''
* 1968 ''Oedipus the King'' (director/screenwriter)
* 1969 ''The Best House in London'', (director)
* 1971 '' Secrets'' (director/screenwriter)
* 1977 ''Count Dracula'' (director)
* 1983 '' Those Glory Glory Days'' (director)
* 1985 ''Shadey'' (director)
* 1986 ''The Life and Loves of a She-Devil'' (director)
* 1987 ''Mandela'' (director)
* 1988 '' The Fruit Machine'' (director, US: ''Wonderland'')
* 1989 ''Fellow Traveler'' (director)
* 1990 ''Max and Helen'' (director)
* 1990 '' Crash: The Mystery of Flight 1501'' (director)
* 1991 ''Angels'' (director)
* 1991 ''The Cloning of Joanna May'' (director) — based on Fay Weldon's '' The Cloning of Joanna May''
* 1993 ''Family Pictures'' (director)
* 1995 ''The Buccaneers'' (director, TV miniseries/serial) — based on Edith Wharton's '' The Buccaneers''
* 1997 '' Metroland'' (director)
* 1998 ''Little White Lies'' (director)
* 2000 ''My Uncle Silas'' (director)
* 2002 ''The Biographer: The Secret Life of Princess Di'' (director)
* 2003 '' Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale'' (director, film made for TV)
* 2003 ''The Gospel of John'' (director)

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Saville, Philip
1927 births
2016 deaths
British film directors
British male screenwriters
British television directors
Male actors from London
Royal Corps of Signals soldiers
Writers from London
20th-century British Army personnel