Douglas Camfield

Douglas Camfield
Born	Douglas Gaston Sydney Camfield (1931-05-08)8 May 1931 India (adopted by English parents)
Died	27 January 1984(1984-01-27) (aged 52) Hounslow, London, England
Occupation	Television director
Years active	1961 - 1984
Spouse	Sheila Dunn (1965 - 1984; his death)

Douglas Gaston Sydney Camfield (8 May 1931 – 27 January 1984) was an accomplished director for television from the 1960s to the 1980s. He studied at York School of Art and aimed to work for Walt Disney. He was a Lieutenant in the West Yorkshire Regiment, and was training to be in the SAS (but due to an injury he pulled out of the application process). His programme credits include Doctor Who, Z-Cars, Paul Temple, Van der Valk, The Sweeney, Shoestring, The Professionals, Out of the Unknown, The Nightmare Man, the BBC dramatisation of Beau Geste and Ivanhoe the 1982 television movie.

Doctor Who

He is particularly well known for his work on Doctor Who and was production assistant on its earliest serials, The Pilot Episode, An Unearthly Child and Marco Polo. Camfield went on to direct many other stories in its first thirteen years:

• Planet of Giants-episode 3 only
• The Crusade
• The Time Meddler (notable for its imaginative use of effects to overcome studio confines);
• The Daleks' Master Plan (mammoth twelve episodes in length co-written by Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner);
• The Web of Fear (the story that introduced the popular character of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, and saw the return of the Yeti). Camfield was responsible for the casting of Nicholas Courtney as Lethbridge-Stewart;
• The Invasion (which became the most expensive Doctor Who serial up to that time, featuring an unprecedented amount of location filming as well as introducing the organisation UNIT to the series). Camfield was responsible for the casting of future regular John Levene as Benton;
• Inferno (he became ill during the recording of episode 2 of this serial and the remaining studio scenes were directed by the series' producer, Barry Letts, but Camfield was still credited for these scenes);
• Terror of the Zygons (the story that saw the last appearance of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as a regular character);
• The Seeds of Doom (the story that saw the last involvement of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce until Battlefield in 1989)

He submitted a script for the series to producer Philip Hinchcliffe called "The Lost Legion", which involved aliens and the French Foreign Legion (a subject which fascinated him). However the story never made it into production.

Personal life

Camfield was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps in 1951 during his National Service. Later the same year he transferred to the West Yorkshire Regiment (Territorial Army). He was promoted Lieutenant in 1952. He left in 1956 for health reasons. It has often been noted by those who worked with him that Camfield always retained an affection for the British Army and brought military standards of organisation to the programmes he directed. He was also known for his strict professionalism but was well liked personally by many actors, producers and writers.

In later life he suffered from a heart ailment and died of a heart attack. He was married to the actress Sheila Dunn, whom he cast in the Doctor Who stories The Daleks' Master Plan, The Invasion and Inferno. They had a son Joggs, who as of 2012 was working in the music industry. Joggs featured heavily in a DVD tribute documentary "Remembering Douglas Camfield" which was included in the 2013 DVD release of Douglas' Doctor Who serial Terror of the Zygons.

Legacy

In 2013, as part of the fiftieth anniversary celebrations for Doctor Who, the BBC produced a drama depicting the creation and early days of the series. Camfield appears as a character in the drama, An Adventure in Space and Time, portrayed by actor Sam Hoare.

External links

• Douglas Camfield at IMDb