Susan Belbin
Directing
Biography
Susan Jane Belbin (born 20 October 1948, Inverness, Scotland) is a Scottish retired television director and producer known for her work on British sitcoms including Only Fools and Horses, 'Allo 'Allo!, Hi-de-Hi!, Are You Being Served?, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Bread, One Foot in the Grave and Jonathan Creek. She began her career working with Morecambe and Wise and later collaborated extensively with David Croft. She went on to work closely with David Renwick, producing and directing most of the first five series of One Foot in the Grave. Belbin retired from television in 1997 due to ill health, briefly returning to contribute to the final series of One Foot in the Grave before stepping down permanently.
Known For
The misadventures of hapless cafe owner René Artois and his escapades with the Resistance in occupied France.
'Allo 'Allo!
Only Fools and Horses.... Is a British sitcom created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally transmitted on BBC One from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen sporadic Christmas specials aired until 2003. In working-class Peckham in south-east London, ambitious market trader Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter and his younger half-brother Rodney, explore their highs and lows in life, in particular their attempts to get rich. Initially not an immediate hit and receiving little promotion early on, it later achieved consistently high ratings, and the 1996 episode "Time on Our Hands" (originally billed as the series finale) holds the record for the biggest UK audience for a sitcom episode, attracting 24.3 million viewers. The series bears a significant influence on British culture, contributing several words and phrases to the English language.
Only Fools and Horses
Working from his home in a converted windmill, Jonathan Creek is a magician with a natural ability for solving puzzles. He soon puts this ability to the use of solving impossible crimes and mysterious murders.
Jonathan Creek
Bread is a British television sitcom, written by Carla Lane, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC1 from 1 May 1986 to 3 November 1991. The series focused on the devoutly-Catholic and extended Boswell family of Liverpool, in the district of Dingle, led by its matriarch Nellie through a number of ups and downs as they tried to make their way through life in Thatcher's Britain with no visible means of support. The street shown at the start of each programme is Elswick Street. A family called Boswell had also featured in Lane's earlier sitcom The Liver Birds and Lane admitted in interviews that the two families were probably related. Nellie's feckless and estranged husband, Freddie, left her for another woman known as 'Lilo Lill'. Her children Joey, Jack, Adrian, Aveline and Billy continued to live in the family home in Kelsall Street and contributed money to the central family fund, largely through benefit fraud and the sale of stolen goods.
Bread
One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series. The series features the exploits of Victor Meldrew and his long-suffering wife, Margaret. The programmes invariably deal with Meldrew's battle against the problems he creates for himself. Living in a typical household in an unnamed English suburb, Victor takes involuntary early retirement. His various efforts to keep himself busy, while encountering various misfortunes and misunderstandings are the themes of the sitcom. Despite its traditional production, the series supplants its domestic sitcom setting with elements of black humour and surrealism.
One Foot in the Grave
Sitting Pretty is a 1992 BBC television sitcom written by John Sullivan. The series starred Diane Bull, David Ashford and John Cater and was directed by Susan Belbin and Angela De Chastelai Smith. The series followed the travails of a woman whose millionaire husband dies suddenly. She discovers that her husband's will has left her penniless and she is forced to move back in with her parents and sister on their farm. The lead role was originally intended to be played by a male lead, but was changed to become the first Sullivan sitcom to feature a female lead since Just Good Friends. However, John Oliver notes that it is also remembered as the writer's first notable failure.
Sitting Pretty
The River follows the tranquil life of lovable, Cockney, ex-convict Davey Jackson who is lock keeper on the canal near the village of Chumley-on-the-Water.
The River
Nelson's Column was a British comedy television series produced during 1994 and 1995.
Nelson's Column
The Meldrews become acquainted with a reverend who thinks he has lost his faith, and Victor learns more about a video shop clerk with whom he had a conflict.
One Foot in the Grave: Who's Listening
The Meldrews go on holiday to Portugal with Mrs Warboys, who is hoping for romance with her penpal Alfonso. Photographer Martin Trout follows them there, believing they have a roll of film that belongs to him.
One Foot in the Grave: One Foot in the Algarve
Relations between Patrick and Victor reach a new low via an unending stream of post-it notes; during a visit from a council health inspector, Victor learns that the horse manure he bought for his allotment may be radioactive
One Foot in the Grave: The Man In The Long Black Coat
The Meldrews find a man living in their shed; he turns out to be a drug-dealer. Victor takes a gardening job, working for Patrick's new boss and dealing with very effective herbicide.
One Foot in the Grave: Starbound
The Meldrews get a surprise visit from Mr. Foskett, whom they know only because they stayed in the same guest house 17 years ago.
One Foot in the Grave: The Man Who Blew Away
A witch predicts an untimely end for Victor; Patrick and Pippa prepare to move far away from the Meldrews, but Patrick gets stuck with Victor while trying to escape his secretary's jealous boyfriend.
One Foot in the Grave: The Wisdom Of The Witch
Victor muses about life while in the bath.