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Morris Barry

Morris Barry

Directing

Biography

Morris Randolph Barry (9 February 1918 – 20 November 2000) was a producer and director for the BBC in the 1960s and 1970s, and also worked as an actor. He made his name as a producer and director on productions such as Angels, Compact and Z-Cars, but his most impressive credit was perhaps as producer of the highly popular dramatisation of Poldark by Winston Graham. Barry directed three Doctor Who stories during the Patrick Troughton years: The Moonbase (1967), The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967) and The Dominators (1968). He was known by the cast and crew of Doctor Who to be a somewhat strict and uncompromising director of the old school, but The Moonbase and The Tomb of the Cybermen are often spoken of as classics of 1960s Doctor Who. He was also well known for carrying a music stand to place his script on during rehearsals. He also appeared as an actor in the Doctor Who story The Creature from the Pit in 1979, playing the scientist Tollund. His other acting credits include episodes of Are You Being Served?, Blake's 7, The Day of the Triffids, Tales of the Unexpected, All Creatures Great and Small, and Hi-de-Hi!. Morris Barry died in 2000.

Known For

Compact
5.0

Compact was a British television soap opera shown by the BBC between 1962 and 1965. The series was created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, who together went on to devise Crossroads. In contrast to the kitchen sink realism of Coronation Street, Compact was a distinctly middle-class serial, set in the more "sophisticated" arena of magazine publishing. An early "avarice" soap, it took the viewer into the business workplace, and aligned the professional lives of the characters with more personal storylines. The show was scheduled for broadcast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, thus avoiding a clash with ITV's Coronation Street on Mondays and Wednesdays. When Compact began, the editor was a woman, Joanne Minster, yet it was not long before she was replaced by Ian Harmon, the son of the magazine's owner. Despite being largely criticised by reviewers, Compact was popular with the general public, and in 1964 a regular omnibus edition was introduced, broadcast on Sundays. Morris Barry, a some-time actor and BBC director – he directed several Doctor Who stories in the 1960s – took over as producer and was given a brief to spice the series up in view of the criticism it had received from the national press. But the BBC, never comfortable with the concept of soap opera, quietly dropped the series in 1965.

Compact

1962Series