Douglas Camfield
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Douglas Camfield (died 27 January 1984) was an accomplished director for television from the 1960s to the 1980s. His programme credits include Z Cars, Paul Temple, Van der Valk, The Sweeney, Shoestring, The Professionals, The Nightmare Man and the BBC dramatisation of Beau Geste.
[edit] Career
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;
- The Crusade
- The Time Meddler (notable for its imaginative use of effects to overcome studio confines);
- The Myth Makers;
- The Daleks' Master Plan (a mammoth twelve episodes in length, mostly written by two writers alternating episodes);
- The Web of Fear;
- The Invasion (which became the most expensive Doctor Who serial up to that time);
- Inferno (he became ill during the recording of the Doctor Who serial Inferno, and the remaining studio scenes were directed by the series' producer, Barry Letts, but he was still credited for these scenes);
- Terror of the Zygons; and
- The Seeds of Doom
He sought to get Philip Hinchcliffe to commission his script for the programme, which involved aliens, the French Foreign Legion and would have killed off the character of Sarah Jane Smith. However, this story was not produced, and Sarah left the programme in The Hand of Fear.
Douglas Camfield served as an officer in the British Army during his younger years.
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.
