Don Taylor (English Director And Playwright)
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Donald Victor Taylor (30 June 1936 – 11 November 2003) was an English writer, director and producer, active across theatre,
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and television for over forty years. He is most noted for his television work, particularly his early 1960s collaborations with the playwright David Mercer, much of whose early work Taylor directed for the
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.


The BBC

Born in
Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also ) is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropo ...
in London, Taylor attended Chiswick Grammar School and subsequently studied
English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...
at
Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...
. While at university he became actively involved in student theatre, particularly with the Experimental Theatre Club. It was for the club that Taylor directed, in 1957, the world premiere of '' Epitaph for George Dillon'' by the acclaimed playwright
John Osborne John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, and entrepreneur, who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in post-war theatre. Born in London, he briefly worked as a jo ...
. After graduating, he joined the
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as a general trainee in 1960, quickly becoming a television director in the drama department. His first directing work was an episode of the crime series ''Scotland Yard'', but he rapidly became more associated with directing single plays. His association with David Mercer began in 1961 with '' Where the Difference Begins'', the first instalment in what became the "Generations" trilogy, the subsequent instalments of which – '' A Climate of Fear'' (1962) and '' Birth of a Private Man'' (1963) – were also directed by Taylor. He also directed Mercer's ''Sunday Night Play'' episode '' A Suitable Case for Treatment'' (1962), which explored the writer's experiences of his own
nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...
. Taylor was greatly displeased by the arrival in December 1962 of the Canadian producer
Sydney Newman Sydney Cecil Newman (; April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian producer and screenwriter who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, he was app ...
as the new Head of Drama at the BBC. He regarded Newman as an uncultured populist with no theatrical knowledge or background; Taylor himself felt that the BBC should be the " National Theatre of the Air". He also disliked Newman's restructuring of the drama department, one of the features of which was the abolition of the BBC's traditional single producer/director role and the division of responsibilities of producing and directing to separate posts. Newman attempted to work with Taylor and offered him the producer's role on a series the Canadian himself had initiated – an educational science-fiction serial for children entitled ''
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 ...
''. Taylor had no interest in the series. Taylor remained with the BBC for a time, but was not a staff member and left in 1964 on the expiration of his contract. Although he did return as a freelancer to direct two episodes of ''
The Wednesday Play ''The Wednesday Play'' is an anthology series of United Kingdom, British television plays which ran on BBC One, BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic ...
'' in 1965 – including a further Mercer play, '' And Did Those Feet?'' – he later claimed to have been "blacklisted" from working in the BBC's drama department for the remainder of the decade, and there is a deal of evidence to show that this was the case. Taylor himself quoted Lionel Harris as confirming this to Ellen Dryden in his memoir ''Days of Vision''.


Later career

He was, however, able to find work with other departments of the BBC, directing several episodes of the arts documentary series '' Omnibus''. He also began to find success as a playwright himself, for the theatre, with his first professional play ''Grounds for Marriage'' being premiered by the
Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded as The Traverse Theatre Club in 1962 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes, Richard Demarco, Terry Lane, Andrew Muir, John Martin and Sheila Colvin. The Traverse Th ...
in 1967. From the early 1970s, he also began to work for BBC television drama again directing versions of his own plays ''
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'' in 1972, and '' The Roses of Eyam'' the following year. He also worked in television for the ITV network, including two episodes of Nigel Kneale's ATV anthology horror series '' Beasts'' in 1976. He went on to direct mostly classic theatrical adaptations for the BBC, including ''
The Two Gentlemen of Verona ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'' is a Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1589 and 1593. It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and is often seen as showing his first ten ...
'' in 1984 for their '' The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare'' series, which adapted all of Shakespeare's plays for the small screen. In 1986 he directed ''
Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' (, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles. While some scholars have argued that the play was first performed , this is highly uncertain. Originally, to ...
'' (Oedipus the King). His final television work was his own new translation of '' Iphigenia at Aulis'' by
Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...
in 1990, after which he retired from the medium. That same year he published a memoir of his television work, ''Days of Vision'', in which he was scathing of the state of modern television drama and the disappearance of the theatrical tradition from the medium. For the remainder of his career, Taylor was particularly active in radio and the theatre. The same year he retired from television work, he and his wife established a radio production company called First Writes, producing plays independently for transmission on
BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...
. He both wrote and directed for radio himself and worked alongside his wife in running a youth theatre company they had established near their Chiswick home. He wrote several plays for the company, including "Daughters of Venice". Later in life, the family moved to the village of Banham, near
Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...
, in
Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
, where Taylor died in 2003. He had married the writer Ellen Dryden in 1960 – she and their two children survived him. Less than a year after his death,
Katie Mitchell Katrina Jane Mitchell (born 23 September 1964) is an English theatre director. Life and career Mitchell was born in Reading, Berkshire, raised in Hermitage, Berkshire, and educated at Oakham School. Upon leaving Oakham, she went up to Mag ...
directed a production of his translation of ''Iphigenia at Aulis'' at the Lyttelton, to huge critical acclaim. The "National Theatre of the Air" had not come to pass, but finally his work was played at the National Theatre. This was followed in 2007 by the same director's production of his translation of ''Women of Troy'', and in 2012 by Polly Findlay's production of his 'Antigone', with Christopher Eccleston and Jodie Whittaker.


References

*Purser, Philip. ''Obituary: Don Taylor'' (subscription link). "
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
". Thursday 20 November 2003. *Hayward, Anthony. ''Don Taylor: Exponent of live television and theatre''. "
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
". Saturday 22 November 2003.


External links

*
Overview of Taylor's radio work at the suttonelms drama siteFull biography at British Television drama
by Oliver Wake. 15 April 2010. Accessed June 2010

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Don British radio directors English television directors Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford 1936 births 2003 deaths People from Marylebone English male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English male writers People from Breckland District Alumni of Chiswick School