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Gerald Blake

Directing

Biography

Gerald Blake (3 December 1928 – 5 April 1991) was a British television director who worked in drama from the 1960s to the 1980s. Beginning his career as an actor, Blake appeared in repertory, appearing in productions at Burnham and Farnham before becoming stage director at the New Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool. In October 1958, he became associate producer at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln. It was here during the presentation of a revue that BBC producer Norman Rutherford was visiting. Impressed by the production, he offered Blake a six-month drama producer's course with the corporation. Starting on 8 May 1962, his training consisted of directing episodes of Dr Finlay's Casebook, and afterwards he went on to become a television director. His numerous credits include The Gentle Touch, The Omega Factor (the episode "After-Image"), Blake's 7 (the episodes "The Harvest of Kairos" (1980) and "Death-Watch" (1980) from the third series), Survivors (three episodes from the first series), The Onedin Line, Out of the Unknown, Doctor Who (the stories The Abominable Snowmen (1967) and The Invasion of Time (1978)), Super Gran, Compact, Z-Cars, Mr. Palfrey of Westminster, and Coronation Street.

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
The Expert
9.0

The Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. John Hardy, a pathologist working for the Home Office and was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was also one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had numerous high quality guest appearances by actors such as John Carson, Peter Copley, Rachel Kempson, Peter Vaughan, Clive Swift, Geoffrey Palmer, Peter Barkworth, Jean Marsh, Ray Brooks, George Sewell, Anthony Valentine, Bernard Lee, Lee Montague, Geoffrey Bayldon, Mike Pratt, Edward Fox, André Morell, Brian Blessed, Nigel Stock, Philip Madoc and Warren Clarke.

The Expert

1968Series