Douglas Camfield
- Publication: The Stage and Television Today
- Date: 1984-02-09
- Author:
- Page: 14
- Language: English
DRAMA director Douglas Camfield died of a heart attack on January 28, after a career of almost 30 years in television. He was 52.
Most of his work was on series and serials: among his directing credits are 55 episodes of Doctor Who, and 14 episodes of Z Cars for the BBC, as well as various episodes of Special Branch, The Sweeney, and 1)anger UXB for Euston Films, Shoestring for the BBC, and The Professionals for LWT.
He had recently directed the BBC's adaptation of Beau Geste, and an original serial for BBC-1, Missing From Home, which has yet to go out. He was due to start directing The Prisoner of Zenda - like Beau Geste for the BBC's Sunday teatime classic serial slot - when he died.
Douglas Camfield joined the BBC in the mid-50s as an assistant film editor, and went on to work as a BBC assistant floor manager, floor manager, and production assistant before becoming a producer and director. His early BBC directing included a serial adaptation of After Many a Summer, two live single plays for the Thirty Minute Theatre slot, and three plays for a series called Trial.
Subsequently he directed on The Lotus Eaters, The Onedin Line, Target, Accident, Number on End, and The Nightmare Man, for BBC, while his work for Thames included an Armchair Theatre production, and episodes of Van der Valk and Public Eye.
Recently Douglas Camfield had also directed a production of Ivanhoe, made for CBS by Norman Rosemont in association with Columbia Pictures.
Shaun Sutton, the BBC's former head of drama group, writes:
"I knew Douglas Camfield as a friend and a fellow director for 20 years; we worked together on most of the early 'live' television series - everything from The Troubleshooters to Doctor Who, from Z Cars to Detective, The Onedin Line to Paul Temple.
"Joining BBC television in 1955 he tackled a wide range of jobs from assistant film editor to drama producer and director. Ile was an absolute professional, and his work was always clear-cut, enjoyable and entertaining. He was as much at home in film (as with Target and Shoestring) as with the all-studio television play.
"I shall always remember him as a cheerful man, rarely despondent. In the last years of his professional life he experienced considerable illness, but he refused to let this frustrate him; indeed he was about to start work on a new serial - The Prisoner of Zenda - in the last days of his life.
"He leaves behind him the remembrance of hundreds of productions and a host of friends - actors, writers, directors, designers, cameramen - in the world of drama in which he so happily lived."
Joined in 55
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- APA 6th ed.: (1984-02-09). Douglas Camfield. The Stage and Television Today p. 14.
- MLA 7th ed.: "Douglas Camfield." The Stage and Television Today [add city] 1984-02-09, 14. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: "Douglas Camfield." The Stage and Television Today, edition, sec., 1984-02-09
- Turabian: "Douglas Camfield." The Stage and Television Today, 1984-02-09, section, 14 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Douglas Camfield | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Douglas_Camfield | work=The Stage and Television Today | pages=14 | date=1984-02-09 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=26 March 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Douglas Camfield | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Douglas_Camfield | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=26 March 2025}}</ref>
