Television Director
Born : July 4th 1928
Died: November 2nd 2017
Paddy Russell, who has died aged 89, was one of the first women to become a television director on the BBC’s staff. She had earned herself a strong reputation as the corporation’s first female floor manager and for her work on a number of landmark productions.
Born in Highgate, she was the eldest daughter of Bertie (who, like his father before him, worked for P & O) and his wife Alicia. She did not enjoy her schooling at the strict Joan of Arc convent school in Rickmansworth and clashed with her father when she announced that she wanted to become an actress. He was slightly pacified when she added a stage management element to the course she enrolled in at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Whilst at Guildhall she was chosen to appear in a live television performance of Toad of Toad Hall (1950): she was short and could sing which made her perfect casting for one of the jury, though Harry Secombe (as the judge) spent most of the time trying to make his young co-stars laugh. A further engagement six months later, singing a solo and helping out with stage management on The Insect Play (1950) convinced her that behind-the-scenes work was more interesting and, crucially, better paid.
She work as and assistant floor manager and then production assistant under Rudolph Cartier, the pioneering producer/director behind the ground breaking 1950s Quatermass science fiction serials and an uncompromising version of 1984 (1954) - all of these productions requiring Russell’s unflappable efficiency. She and Cartier enjoyed a tempestuous working relationship but he - a famously hard task master - respected her enormously whilst the actors he employed found her to be a helpful buffer and empathic colleague. She finally became a director with a series called Return and Answer (1961) and after a brief stint under Cartier again she then she left the BBC staff and became freelance in 1964.
She considered herself and actors’ director, so when she was asked to helm a Doctor Who story she was relieved when there were no science fiction elements in it. The Massacre (starring William Hartnell, 1966) is a grim historical set during a time of religious strife. For the climactic mass slaughter of Protestant Huguenots on St Bartholomew’s Day 1572, she opted have her camera pan across ancient woodcuts depicting the horrendous scenes (screams and the sounds of burning were overlaid too): far more effective than any live action equivalent would have achieved at the time.
Her favourite Doctor was Jon Pertwee whom she directed in conspiracy thriller Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) but her stories with Tom Baker - Pyramids of Mars (featuring alien servo-robots as Egyptian mummies, 1975) and Horror of Fang Rock (a shapeshifting alien on a lighthouse, 1977) - are the best remembered. With high body counts and a haunting period atmosphere both stories are considered to be among the very best on the show’s history.
Her other TV work encompassed soap opera (The Newcomers, Emmerdale Farm), crime drama (Z-Cars, Softly, Softly), classics (Treasure Island, Little Women) and more science fiction (Out of the Unknown, The Omega Factor). She even turned her hand to the quiz show 3-2-1 before moving into current affairs broadcasting (first Yorkshire TV’s regional news show Calendar and then radio), relishing the chance to turn to her live roots.
After retirement she was delighted when Doctor Who DVD producers sought her out for interviews, which usually took place at her home and were often interrupted by the many stray cats she had rescued and housed.
She is survived by her younger brother Chris.
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