Derek Lister
Directing
Biography
Derek began his professional career as a Director in the theatre with productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court, Traverse, Soho, King's Head and Manchester's University Theatre, most of which were either world or UK premieres of new plays. Moving into television Derek directed several highly regarded single dramas and TV movies for leading network companies and the BBC. At the same time he diversified into episodic drama, often as an originating Director. This has led to a full and varied career in the top echelons of British television drama. He has enjoyed great success as a writer, with eight single shot plays produced for TV and radio. Two of these were nominated for Sony Awards. His first stage play "Blue on Blue" premiered in October 2006 and was runner up for the 2007 Meyer-Whitworth Award. A feature film version was subsequently commissioned.
Known For
A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.
Playhouse
The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.
The Bill
Rockliffe's Babies is a British television police procedural devised by Richard O'Keefe, and starring Ian Hogg as maverick Detective Sergeant Alan Rockliffe, who is assigned to train seven young recruits to the CID, all fresh out of uniform. Under his irascible guidance, it is hoped that they will blossom into full-blown detectives. But Rockliffe is human – so human that he makes more mistakes than the 'Babies' he's supposed to be training. A follow-up series, Rockliffe's Folly, follows Rockliffe through his relocation to Wessex, dealing with rural crimes as part of a new team of investigators. The seven episode third series proved to be the last, with many citing a change in the programme's formula for the heavy ratings decline. Many viewers stated that the success of the two Babies series came not from Rockliffe himself, but from the popular ensemble cast.
Rockliffe's Babies
An anthology of six standalone plays presented relationships either beginning or ending in love – but the outcome was not always marriage (or happiness). A second series of five episodes aired in 1986.
Love and Marriage
Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie.
ScreenPlay
It's such a simple, natural thing to have a baby, thinks Mary. But she and husband Paul are preoccupied with their careers. Can their young neighbour Tessa help, or are the emotions around a new baby more complex than anyone had expected?
Baby Talk
What is friendship? Why do two grown men behave like egomaniac children or flustered prima donnas? And when they meet unexpectedly after ten years, how will things be?
The Best of Friends
When the widowed Mrs Bing goes into hospital for a routine operation, she little realises she will soon make a dramatic bid for the most essential freedom of all.
Eskimos Do It
After his wife leaves him, Paul seeks solace at a sophisticated health spa run by a pair of sinister siblings. Strangely attracted by the scent of a vine that grows on the old ice house in the spa's grounds, Paul is drawn ever deeper into a horrifying mystery.
The Ice House
They train people to look after lads like Gary at the centre. So why does Vernon persist in keeping his brother at home?
Happy
'I'm an expert on pigs now. How many people can claim they've castrated 1.000 baby pigs? Not many.' Brian is enthusiastic about his new job, but Thomas has seen it all before.
Mucking Out
"I wish I could write ... about what Spain was like - a real cause. Not just Cornford, Hemingway and Orwell, but the ordinary blokes who went." A confused industrial dispute at a London hospital triggers off in trade unionist George Harley 's mind memories of his days fighting in the Spanish Civil War, when the issues seemed so much clearer.
The Cause
And a warm welcome to a very cold valley! Charlton Athletic are playing Notts County and things are livening up in the Press Box.
The Back Page
A tragic event shatters the complacent calm of a great university. Haunted by it, Peter Molyneux turns up at the Italian villa of Dr Still.
An Affinity with Dr. Still
What do Rose from Devon and Christina from Stuttgart have in common? And in what way is their fate linked to that of wealthy Fiona Dunkerley?
The Network
In a quiet English commuter town, a former parish church is knocked down to make way for a new apartment block. Locals pass by the rubble unconcerned, except for Sami Shehadi, a Syrian refugee who is upset by the lack of respect for history. After unearthing the site’s incredible origins with the help of young librarian, Bryony, the unlikely friends take action and steal the church bell to protest the redevelopment. However, amidst pressure from the police, media, and their own personal struggles, will they succeed in making this bell ring again?
About A Bell
Connie decides to defend her pregnant friend Gina, but soon discovers why people may not always be willing to tell the truth.