Bill Sellars

Bill Sellars
Born	William Sellars 5 June 1925 Brighton, England[1]
Occupation	Television producer
Employer	BBC

William "Bill" Sellars (born 5 June 1925) (http://www.rusticom.co.uk/times.pdf) is a British television producer, most active from the 1960s to the 1980s. His entire career was spent working on projects for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Of these, All Creatures Great and Small, which he produced for its entire run, was the biggest success. Conversely, his biggest critical failure was likely Triangle, a soap opera set on board a ferry in the North Sea.

As director

Sellars' first significant creative work for the BBC was as a director. From 1962-1965, he was periodically assigned to some of the more daring shows of the time, such as the upscale soap, Compact, and the early Doctor Who. For this latter programme, he oversaw The Celestial Toymaker.^[2] He also directed episodes of United! and 199 Park Lane during this period. However, due to the BBC's policy of wiping videotape, little of Sellars' directorial work survives.

As producer

After a three-year period as a contract director, Sellars shifted into the role as producer. His first in this role was as Verity Lambert's successor on The Newcomers.^[3] From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, he moved through a quick succession of soap operas, including The Doctors and The Brothers. By 1973, he had entered a five-year period of directing shorter-form dramas. Most of these endeavours were, like The Chinese Puzzle and a portion of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, far afield from his usual work in soap opera.

By 1978, however, he found himself back to regular series work. This time, however, he was handed All Creatures Great and Small. Although he would produce other shows in the downtime from All Creatures — such as the poorly received Triangle and the Creatures-clone, One By One — he would work on Creatures until the close of his active career in 1990. Indeed, it was for Creatures that he received his only two significant awards nominations: a BAFTA nomination for Best Drama Series in 1979, and a Primetime Emmy nomination for Best Children's Series in 1990.^[4]

Now the oldest living former director of Dr Who, he remains one of the few surviving links to the early series and to an incomplete classic serial. After finally retiring he settled in Richmond North Yorkshire where for several years he very successfully managed The Georgian Theater Royal in Richmond, the oldest and most complete Georgian theater in the world during which time he produced and directed many shows for local groups, principally the Richmond Amateur Dramatic Society. On his final retirement he moved to Spain and has only recently returned to England as he reached his nineties.

References

1. BFI entry on Bill Sellars
2. Behind-the-scenes description of the making of The Celestial Toymaker
3. BFI's page on The Newcomers, showing Sellars firmly the producer from at least May to December 1967
4. Sellars' awards page at IMDb