Peter Duffell (10 July 1922 − 12 December 2017) was a British film and television
director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''D ...
and
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
, born in
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour.
...
, England.
The British actor
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...
called Duffell Britain's "most under-rated director."
Biography
Duffell was born in
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour.
...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
in 1922. He was the only son of a broken marriage, which resulted in his attending a variety of schools in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
and
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, as his mother moved away to work and he was raised by his grandmother. With a strong academic bent and great enthusiasm for the arts, he studied at
London University
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...
and then at
Keble College
Keble College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to th ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, where he took an honours degree in English language and literature.
Duffell began his career as a director with installments of the film series ''
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...
'' and the ''
Edgar Wallace Mysteries
The ''Edgar Wallace Mysteries'' is a British second-feature film series mainly produced at Merton Park Studios for Anglo-Amalgamated. There were 48 films in the series, which were released between 1960 and 1965. The series was screened as ''The E ...
'' second features for
Anglo-Amalgamated
Anglo-Amalgamated Productions was a British film production company, run by Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy, which operated from 1945 until roughly 1971 (after which it was absorbed into EMI Films). Low-budget and second features, often produced at M ...
, both originally made for cinema release in the UK, as well as making documentaries and television commercials.
Based on his television work,
Milton Subotsky
Milton Subotsky (September 27, 1921 – June 27, 1991) was an American film and television writer and producer. In 1964, he founded Amicus Productions with Max Rosenberg, Max J. Rosenberg. Amicus means "friendship" in Latin. The partnership pro ...
of
Amicus Productions
Amicus Productions was a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England, active between 1962 and 1977. It was founded by American producers and screenwriters Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg.
Films
Prior to establish ...
selected Duffell to direct ''
The House That Dripped Blood
''The House That Dripped Blood'' is a 1971 British anthology horror film directed by Peter Duffell and distributed by Amicus Productions. It stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Nyree Dawn Porter, Denholm Elliott, and Jon Pertwee. The ...
'' (1970), though he turned down other Amicus films because he did not want to be typecast as a horror director.
He moved on to write and direct the film script of a book by one of his greatest heroes
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
, who, although notoriously dismissive of most film adaptations of his work, rated Duffell’s ''
England Made Me'' (1973) "excellent". He was commissioned by
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...
to direct ''
Inside Out'' (1975), a caper movie filmed in Berlin.
Duffell was also Greene's choice to write and direct ''
The Honorary Consul
''The Honorary Consul'' is a British thriller novel by Graham Greene, published in 1973. Greene considered it one of his favourite works. It is set at the run-up to Argentina's 'Dirty War' in the early 1970s.
Plot summary
The story is set in ...
''. Together they collaborated on the script, but in the event other interests intervened and to the great dismay of both Duffell and Greene the film was made to another script by another director. However, the two men remained life-long friends and Greene continued to hope that they would again work together. Duffell won the
BAFTA award for Best Director for ''
Caught on A Train
''Caught on a Train'' is a British television play written by Stephen Poliakoff and directed by Peter Duffell, based on an overnight train journey across Europe, and following the route of a journey that Poliakoff had himself made from London to V ...
'' (1980) written by
Stephen Poliakoff
Stephen Poliakoff (born 1 December 1952) is a British playwright, director and screenwriter. In 2006 Gerard Gilbert of ''The Independent'' described him as the UK's "pre-eminent TV dramatist" who had "inherited Dennis Potter's crown".
Early ...
and featuring
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft (22 December 1907 – 14 June 1991), known professionally as Peggy Ashcroft, was an English actress whose career spanned more than 60 years.
Born to a comfortable middle-class family, Ashcroft was deter ...
and
Michael Kitchen
Michael Roy Kitchen (born 31 October 1948) is an English actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle in the ITV drama ''Foyle's War'', which comprised eight series betwee ...
. He also scripted and directed films based on the work of writers such as
Margaret Drabble
Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, (born 5 June 1939) is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer.
Drabble's books include '' The Millstone'' (1965), which won the following year's John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and ''Jer ...
and
Francis King
Francis Henry King (4 March 19233 July 2011) Ion Trewin and Jonathan Fryer"Obituary: Francis King" ''The Guardian'', 3 July 2011. was a British novelist and short story writer. He worked for the British Council for 15 years, with positions i ...
, and wrote many other screenplays for cinema and television. ''Experience Preferred but Not Essential'' (1982), which he directed for
David Puttnam
David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA (born 25 February 1941) is a British film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include ''Chariots of Fire'', which wo ...
, was shown at the London Film Festival and at festivals in Italy and Canada. It enjoyed box-office success in American where – after a rave interview by
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' – it ran for six months in one New York cinema alone.
Duffell's six-hour television epic ''The Far Pavilions'' (1984) for
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
and
Goldcrest
The goldcrest (''Regulus regulus'') is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family. Its colourful golden crest feathers, as well as being called the "king of the birds" in European folklore, gives rise to its English and scientific na ...
(shown by
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
in the UK) from the best-selling novel by
M. M. Kaye
Mary Margaret ('Mollie') Kaye (21 August 1908 – 29 January 2004) was a British writer. Her most famous book is ''The Far Pavilions'' (1978).
Life
M. M. Kaye was born in Simla, British India, and lived in an Oakland, Shimla, a heritage proper ...
, was filmed in India. Duffell's direction of the vast, colourful crowd scenes was a triumph and, as
Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif ( ar, عمر الشريف ; born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub , 10 April 193210 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as one of his country's greatest male film stars. He began his career in his native country in the ...
said, on a par with
David Lean
Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely considered one of the most important figures in British cinema, Lean directed the large-scale epics ''The Bridge on the River ...
's crowd scenes.
''Letters from An Unknown Lover'' (''Les Louves'', 1986), is a bi-lingual French television film, also in English. ''
King of The Wind
''King of the Wind'' is a novel by Marguerite Henry that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1949. It was made into a film of the same name in 1990. '' (1990), is a children's adventure film shot in Turkey and the UK.
Duffell's many TV credits as director and writer include ''
The Avengers'' (1967), ''
Man in a Suitcase
''Man in a Suitcase'' is a British television private eye thriller series produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. It originally aired in the United Kingdom on ITV from 27 September 1967 to 17 April 1968. ABC broadcast episodes of ''Man in a ...
'' (1967–68), ''
Journey to the Unknown
''Journey to the Unknown'' is a British anthology television series, produced by Hammer Film Productions and 20th Century Fox Television. It aired on ABC from September 26, 1968, to January 30, 1969.[Strange Report
''Strange Report'' is a British television crime drama series starring Anthony Quayle as Adam Strange. It was produced by ITC Entertainment and first broadcast in 1969 on ITV
In the United States, NBC broadcast ''Strange Report'' between 8 Jan ...]
'' (1969), ''
The Adventures of Black Beauty
''The Adventures of Black Beauty'' is a British adventure family television series produced by London Weekend Television and shown by ITV in the United Kingdom between 1972 and 1974. It was distributed internationally by London Weekend Internat ...
'' (1972), ''The Racing Game'' (1979–80), ''
Inspector Morse
Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse, GM, is the eponymous fictional character in the series of detective novels by British author Colin Dexter. On television, he appears in the 33-episode drama series ''Inspector Morse'' (1987–2000), ...
'' (1988), and ''
Space Precinct
''Space Precinct'' is a British television series that was first broadcast from 1994 to 1995 on Sky One and later on BBC Two from 1995 to 1996 in the UK, and in first-run syndication in the United States. Many US stations scheduled the show in ...
'' (1995).
One of Duffell's great passions was music, above all Mozart, jazz – in his youth he led The Rhythm Club of High Wycombe - and flamenco, playing semi-pro flamenco guitar, sometimes at
Ronnie Scott
Ronnie may refer to:
*Ronnie (name), a unisex pet name and given name
* "Ronnie" (Four Seasons song), a song by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe
*"Ronnie," a song from the Metallica album '' Load''
*Ronnie Brunswijkstadion, an association football stadium ...
's, and producing a flamenco LP by leading Spanish musicians. He loved cricket and was a member of the
MCC for many years.
His autobiography ''Playing Piano in A Brothel'', the title derived from an old film industry joke, was published in the USA by Bear Manor Media. (When asked what he did for a living the man replied "I'm a film director, but please don't tell my mother, she thinks I play piano in a brothel".) He lived with his wife of 30 years, the publicist Rosslyn Cliffe Duffell, between homes in South West of France and the South West of England, where he died after a stroke on 12 December 2017. He also leaves behind Son Christopher and three grandsons, twins William, a successful photographer, Edwin Spooner and James.
Filmography
* ''The Never Never Murder'' (1961) (short film)
* ''The Silent Weapon'' (1961) (short film)
* ''The Grand Junction Case'' (1961) (short film)
* ''
Partners in Crime'' (1961)
* ''
The House That Dripped Blood
''The House That Dripped Blood'' is a 1971 British anthology horror film directed by Peter Duffell and distributed by Amicus Productions. It stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Nyree Dawn Porter, Denholm Elliott, and Jon Pertwee. The ...
'' (1971)
* ''
England Made Me'' (1973) + screenplay
* ''
Inside Out'' (1975)
* ''
Caught on a Train
''Caught on a Train'' is a British television play written by Stephen Poliakoff and directed by Peter Duffell, based on an overnight train journey across Europe, and following the route of a journey that Poliakoff had himself made from London to V ...
'' (TV film, 1980)
* ''Daisy'' (TV film, 1980)
* ''The Waterfall'' (TV film, 1980) + screenplay
* ''
Experience Preferred... But Not Essential'' (1982)
* ''The Far Pavilions'' (TV Mini-series, 1984)
* ''Letters to an Unknown Lover'' (TV film, 1986)
* ''Hand in Glove'' (TV film, 1987)
* ''
King of the Wind
''King of the Wind'' is a novel by Marguerite Henry that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1949. It was made into a film of the same name in 1990. '' (1990)
* ''Some Other Spring'' (TV film, 1991) + screenplay
* ''Genghis Khan'' (1992)
Memoirs
* ''Playing Piano in a Brothel: Memoirs of a Film Director'' (2010), with a foreword by
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duffell, Peter
1922 births
2017 deaths
Alumni of Keble College, Oxford
British film directors
People from Canterbury