Christopher Chisholm Barry (20 September 1925 – 7 February 2014) was a British television director. He worked extensively in BBC television drama and became best known for his work on the

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

''. He also directed the direct to video ''Doctor Who'' spin-off ''

Downtime In computing and telecommunications, downtime (also (system) outage or (system) drought colloquially) is a period when a system is unavailable. The unavailability is the proportion of a time-span that a system is unavailable or offline. This is ...

'' in 1995.

Early life and education

Barry was the son of Sir Gerald Barry, editor of the ''News Chronicle'' and director general of the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

in 1951, and his first wife Gladys, He attended

Blundell's School Blundell's School is an Private schools in the United Kingdom, independent co-educational boarding school, boarding and Day school, day school in the English Public School (United Kingdom), public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon, T ...

in Devon and the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, before service in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

Career

Barry became a trainee at

Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in west London, England. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on th ...

and worked on the film '' The Ship That Died of Shame'' (1955) as an assistant director to

Basil Dearden Basil Dearden (born Basil Clive Dear; 1 January 1911 – 23 March 1971) was an English film director. Early life Dearden was born as Basil Clive Dear at 5 Woodfield Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex to Charles James Dear, a steel manufacturer, and the ...

. He joined the BBC as a production assistant in 1955. In 1963, Barry was asked by producer

Verity Lambert Verity Ann Lambert (27 November 1935 – 22 November 2007) was an English television and film producer. Lambert began working in television in the 1950s. She began her career as a producer at the BBC by becoming the founding producer of t ...

to be one of the initial directors of the BBC's new science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Barry's work on ''Doctor Who'' went on to cover the longest span of any director during the original run of the series, overseeing episodes until 1979. Among Barry's other television credits were episodes of ''

Compact Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to: * Interstate compact, a type of agreement used by U.S. states * Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines * Compact government, a t ...

'' (1962), '' Ann Veronica'' (1964), '' Paul Temple'' (1970–71), ''

Z-Cars ''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police and CID detectives in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by ...

'' (1971–78), '' Poldark'' (1975), ''

The Onedin Line ''The Onedin Line'' is a BBC television drama series that ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham. The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and covers the rise of a fictional shipping company, the Onedin Line, nam ...

'' (1977), '' All Creatures Great and Small'' (1978–80), ''

Juliet Bravo ''Juliet Bravo'' is a television in the United Kingdom, British television police procedural drama series, first broadcast on 30 August 1980, that ran for six series and a total of 88 episodes on BBC One, BBC1. The theme of the series concerned ...

'' (1980) and '' Dramarama'' (1989). His other science fiction credits were for ''

Out of the Unknown ''Out of the Unknown'' is a British television science fiction and horror anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Most episodes of the first three series were dramatisations of s ...

'' (1969), '' Moonbase 3'' (1973) and '' The Tripods'' (1984). He appeared in a feature covering his life's work on the DVD release of the ''Doctor Who'' serial '' The Creature from the Pit'' (1979), released in May 2010.

Personal life

Barry lived in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

in his retirement. He died following an escalator fall in a shopping centre in

Banbury Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. The parish had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding ...

on 7 February 2014. An inquest into his death was held on 5 June 2014.

''Doctor Who'' credits

* ''

The Daleks ''The Daleks'' (also known as ''The Mutants'' and ''The Dead Planet'' is the second serial in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC TV in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to ...

'' – episodes 1, 2, 4 and 5 (1963–64) * '' The Rescue'' (1965) * '' The Romans'' (1965) * '' The Savages'' (1966) * ''

The Power of the Daleks ''The Power of the Daleks'' is the Doctor Who missing episodes, completely missing third serial of the Doctor Who (season 4), fourth season of British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly part ...

'' (1966) * '' The Dæmons'' (1971) * '' The Mutants'' (1972) * ''

Robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

'' (1974) * ''

The Brain of Morbius ''The Brain of Morbius'' is the fifth serial of the Doctor Who (season 13), 13th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC One, BBC1 from 3 to 24 January 1976. Th ...

'' (1976) * '' The Creature from the Pit'' (1979) * ''

'' (1995)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barry, Christopher 1925 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Royal Air Force personnel Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in England Alumni of the University of Cambridge BBC people British television directors Mass media people from Oxfordshire Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Greenwich People educated at Blundell's School People from Greenwich