Patrick Douglas Selmes Jackson (26 March 1916 – 3 June 2011) was an English film and television director.

Biography

Born in Eltham, to a formerly affluent family which was severely affected by the Wall Street Crash in 1929, and his father's long-term illness and early death ending Jackson's formal education. He joined the GPO Film Unit on his 17th birthday as a messenger boy after his mother persuaded her MP, Sir

Kingsley Wood Sir Howard Kingsley Wood (19 August 1881 – 21 September 1943) was a British Conservative politician. The son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister, he qualified as a solicitor, and successfully specialised in industrial insurance. He became a membe ...

, then also postmaster general, to find work for her son. Rising to production assistant, he was part of the crew for the short film ''

Night Mail ''Night Mail'' is a 1936 British documentary film directed and produced by Harry Watt and Basil Wright, and produced by the General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit. The 24-minute film documents the nightly postal train operated by the London, ...

'' (1936). The voice narrating the poem by

W.H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

("This is the Night Mail crossing the border, bringing the cheque and the postal order.") was Jackson himself. He directed a number of documentaries, the first being ''The Horsey Mail'' (1938) about the rural postal service in Suffolk. ''The First Days'' (1939), co-directed by

Harry Watt Harry Watt (18 October 19062 April 1987) was a Scottish documentary and feature film director, who began his career working for John Grierson and Robert Flaherty. His 1959 film ''The Siege of Pinchgut'' was entered into the 9th Berlin Inter ...

and Humphrey Jennings, was the first of the wartime documentaries, in this instance concerned with the '

Phoney War The Phoney War (french: Drôle de guerre; german: Sitzkrieg) was an eight-month period at the start of World War II, during which there was only one limited military land operation on the Western Front, when French troops invaded Germa ...

' period. Jackson's debut feature film was ''Western Approaches'' (1944), a semi-documentary war film for what was now the Ministry of Information's

Crown Film Unit The Crown Film Unit was an organisation within the British Government's Ministry of Information during the Second World War. Formerly the GPO Film Unit it became the Crown Film Unit in 1940. Its remit was to make films for the general public in ...

. For what became a three-year project, Jackson took on the writing, direction, editing and casting (of non-professional actors) a film about merchant seamen. Featuring an extended period on location at sea, the lifeboat sequences alone took six-months to complete. After the war, Jackson spent three years in Hollywood under contract to

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

, although the only film he directed during this period was '' Shadow on the Wall'' (1950), based on the novel ''Death in the Doll's House'' by Lawrence P. Bachmann and Hannah Leessuch. His film ''

Encore An encore is an additional performance given by performers after the planned show has ended, usually in response to extended applause from the audience.Lalange Cochrane, in ''Oxford Companion to Music'', Alison Latham, ed., Oxford University Pre ...

'' (1951) was in competition at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival . ''

White Corridors ''White Corridors'' is a 1951 British drama film directed by Pat Jackson and starring Googie Withers, Godfrey Tearle, James Donald and Petula Clark. It is based on a novel by Helen Ashton. The film is set in a hospital shortly after the establish ...

'' (1951), a semi-documentary drama about a hospital in the regions, was critically well received at the time. '' What a Carve Up!'' (1961), a film in the old dark house genre, was the most commercially successful of Jackson's later feature films. Jackson worked in television during the 1960s and 1970s. Impressed by the stage work of Patrick McGoohan, he seems to have been involved in casting him for ''

Danger Man ''Danger Man'' (retitled ''Secret Agent'' in the United States for the revived series, and ''Destination Danger'' and ''John Drake'' in other overseas markets) is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again b ...

'' (US:''Secret Agent''), episodes of which he directed. Apart from McGoohan's ''

The Prisoner ''The Prisoner'' is a 1967 British television series about an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village, where his captors designate him as Number Six and try to find out why he abruptl ...

'' (1967), he was also involved with episodes of ''

The Saint The Saint may refer to: Fiction * Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint", the protagonist of a book series by Leslie Charteris and subsequent adaptations: ** ''The Saint'' (film series) (1938–43), starring Louis Hayward, George Sanders an ...

'' and '' The Professionals''. Jackson died on 3 June 2011 aged 95.

Films and television series

*''

Western Approaches The Western Approaches is an approximately rectangular area of the Atlantic Ocean lying immediately to the west of Ireland and parts of Great Britain. Its north and south boundaries are defined by the corresponding extremities of Britain. The c ...

'' (documentary feature, 1944) *''

'' (1951) *'' Encore!'' (1951) *'' The Feminine Touch'' (1956) *''

The Birthday Present ''The Birthday Present'' is a 1957 British drama film directed by Pat Jackson. The film also featured Thorley Walters and Ian Bannen in small roles. Plot Simon Scott, a top toy salesman, returns from a business trip to Germany with a watch hidd ...

'' (1957) *''

Virgin Island The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geology, geologically and biogeography, biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Ric ...

'' (US ''Our Virgin Island'', 1958) *''

Snowball A snowball is a spherical object made from snow, usually created by scooping snow with the hands, and pressing the snow together to compact it into a ball. Snowballs are often used in games such as snowball fights. A snowball may also be a large ...

'' (1960) *'' Seven Keys'' (1961) *'' What a Carve Up!'' (1961) *''

Don't Talk to Strange Men ''Don't Talk to Strange Men'' is a 1962 black and white British crime thriller film directed by Pat Jackson and produced at Marylebone Film Studios and on location in Buckinghamshire. Plot As a prologue an unseen driver gives a lift to a woman. ...

'' (1962) *''

Seventy Deadly Pills 70 (seventy) is the natural number following 69 and preceding 71. In mathematics 70 is: * a sphenic number because it factors as 3 distinct primes. * a Pell number. * the seventh pentagonal number. * the fourth tridecagonal number. * the fif ...

'' (1964) *''

'' (4 episodes; 1967–1968) *''

The Famous Five ''The Famous Five'' is a series of children's Adventure fiction, adventure novels and short stories written by English author Enid Blyton. The first book, ''Five on a Treasure Island'', was published in 1942. The novels feature the adventures ...

'' (2 episodes; 1978)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Pat 1916 births 2011 deaths English film directors People from Eltham People educated at Bryanston School