After four years as a staff director Taylor suddenly
found that his contract was not to be renewed. Instead he would continue to
work for the BBC on a freelance basis. Towards the end of September 1965 he
directed a theatre revival of Fanny’s
First Play at the Mermaid Theatre. His first freelance director work for
the BBC was And Did Those Feet? (2nd
June 1965), another Taylor / Mercer collaboration. The play was partly filmed
on location in a candle lit public swimming at night and was a fantasy essay on
madness and eccentricity. The production proved to be costly and Taylor had to
request additional resources to complete the project which was noted by BBC
Drama Department management and eventually used as an excuse to not employ him
for several years. In effect Taylor found himself black listed from working
within the department, though this did not prevent him from working for
different departments within the corporation.
Theatre work for this period included a revival of the Bernard Shaw play The Philanderer at the Mermaid Theatre
during January and February 1966. The cast included his wife Ellen Dryden and
Wensley Pithey, who would later play Mr Liversedge in the Beasts episode ‘Special Offer’. Taylor also directed a version of
the play The Swallows, written by
Ronald Dubillard, at the Traverse Theatre Club, Edinburgh during September 1966
and then the New Arts Theatre Club during October 1966. Taylor then wrote and
directed the play Grounds for Marriage
presented by the Traverse Theatre Club in Edinburgh during June 1967. This was
the first play Taylor wrote for the stage. Taylor also wrote the stage play Sisters which was presented at the Northcot
Theatre, Exeter during August and November 1968. The Citizen’s Theatre in
Glasgow staged Sam Foster Comes Home,
written by Taylor, during October 1969. The play centred on the character Sam
Foster who has opted out of society because he refuses to compromise his
beliefs.
.jpg)
The Woman From The
Shadows (19th January 1969) was the first of six films that Taylor
directed for the BBC Arts Department for the documentary series Omnibus. Narrated by William Hurndall
the programme dramatized the life and work of the poet William Wordsworth.
Bernard Horsfall, who would appear in the Beasts
episode ‘The Dummy’, played Wordsworth. Taylor himself would script several of
these Omnibus episodes.Theatre wise Taylor had an immense success with The Roses of Eyam (1970) which was in
almost continuous production for several years after it debuted. The play was
based on real events that occurred in a small Derbyshire village in the 17th
Century. A bundle of clothes from plague riddled London arrives in the village
with disastrous consequences. The village takes the decision to isolate itself
from the outside world in a bid to stop the plague infecting over nearby villages.
In effect the village voted to succumb to the plague and sacrificed itself to
save others. The played debuted at the Northcott theatre on 23rd
September with a cast that included a small role for John Rhys Davies who
Taylor would employ to provide radio voices for the Beasts episode ‘During
Barty’s Party’.
His second Omnibus episode, It’ll Be All Live on the Night (1st November 1970), was
a documentary that looked at the state of regional theatre in the UK. Taylor
scripted the programme which examined the theatres, and their artistic
directors, in Exeter, Windsor, Stoke on Trent and Nottingham. The third Omnibus submission was Paradise
Restored (2nd January 1972) which was again written by Taylor.
The episode was a dramatization of the life of John Milton, as played by John
Neville, which was well acclaimed by critics. Taylor also scripted his fourth Omnibus episode, Actor, I Said (9th
April 1972) which had a solid cast that included Barry Foster and Martin Jarvis
Taylor found himself
in the director’s chair for the BBC Drama Department after several years (his
line managers who blacklisted him long since departed) for the BBC 2 play Prisoners (7th April 1971), a two hander starring Edward Woodward
as a prisoner and Warren Mitchell as his jailer. The Stage gave the play a
glowing review: “The direction, by the author himself, Don Taylor, had the two
characters jumping up and down every few seconds and rushing about like mad as
is often the case in conversation pieces. But on this occasion it did not in
fact jar – it seemed as natural and uncontrived as anyone has the right to
expect artifice to be. Some of the camera movements were really quite
delicious.”
Next was the play ‘The Exorcism’ (5th
November 1972), a truly disturbing episode of the BBC horror anthology series Dead of Night, which has become a key
work in the area of Folk Horror. Taylor dug beneath the usual surface dressings
of the genre subverting the material to become what has been described as a
“socialist ghost story”
when the suffering of long dead paupers impinges on the world of the well to do
middle class. The play featured Clive Swift who would later feature in the Beasts instalment ‘The Dummy’.
Taylor also wrote his next directorial project, The Roses of Eyam (12th June
1973), based on his stage play. The production was nominated for the best
original teleplay by the Writers’ Guild. Taylor then returned to the
documentary programme Omnibus with the episode The Runaway (18th November 1973). Taylor’s first
directing work for independent television followed with the ATV play The Person Responsible (1974) and Visitors (1974) both written by his wife
Ellen Dryden. Taylor was not a fan of independent television, but he relished
the chance to produce some of his wife’s work for television.
His final contribution to the series Omnibus was Find Me (8th
December 1974) written by David Mercer. Anthony Hopkins, David Collings and
Charlotte Cornwell starred. The production was shot on film during 1973 and was
the story of Polish novelist, wartime poet and political figure Marek
(Hopkins). This was the sixth Mercer script that Taylor had directed. The stage
version of The Exorcism opened at the
Comedy Theatre, London in 1975. The production’s main star, actress Mary Ure,
died suddenly after the opening night which resulted in the tabloid newspapers
having a field day suggesting links between her demise and the supernatural
forces present in the play. Despite all the publicity the play only ran for a
month before closing. Taylor himself had tried to stop the play as he felt the
production company was not interested in the allegorical messages in the drama.
Instead he felt that they just wanted to cash in on the then present craze for
Satanism and the supernatural amongst the British public and inspired by the film
The Exorcist. Taylor objected to the play being rewritten
and sensationalised and tried to prevent production but withdrew not wanting to
enter into a public row with the producers.
The two episodes of Beasts were his next directing project and would be a highlight of
his experiences working for ITV. Interviewed in The Stage in 1977 Taylor stated “I work very little for ITV, merely
because they don’t very often do the kind of thing I want to do. There have
been exceptions. I had a very satisfactory association with Nicholas Palmer at
ATV.”
Palmer was the producer of Beasts.
It was back to the BBC for his first contribution to
the BBC 2 Playhouse series writing
and directing the episode ‘Dad’ (23rd April 1976) and this was followed
up with the episode ‘The Achurch Letters’ (12th January 1977). This
was also written and directed by Taylor and focussed on the relationship
between the writer George Bernard Shaw and a drug addicted actress. During June
1977 Taylor directed a version of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure at
the St. George’s Theatre in Tufnell Park. His first of three contributions to
the BBC Play of the Month drama
anthology came with an adaptation of the Harley Granville Parker play ‘Waste’ (4th
December 1977), first written in 1907 and immediately banned by the stage
censor, the Lord Chamberlain, due to explicit dialogue around the topic of male
and female relations and references to abortion. Taylor’s adaptation found
little favour with the viewing audience with the majority of viewers watching The Silver Jubilee Royal Gala on ITV.
Taylor then became actively involved in the first
season of a new flagship drama anthology for the his old employer. BBC 2 Play of the Week saw three
episodes directed by Taylor with two of them also written by him. His first
episode was the experimental ‘Flayed’ (22nd February 1978), which he
also wrote, and starred Timothy Bateson and Ian Holm. The action took place in
a deserted television studio containing five characters, each there for a
different reason. This was quickly followed with a remake of ‘For Tea on Sunday’
(29th March 1978) which Taylor had originally directed 15 years
earlier. This time the play’s destructive ending did not warrant a wave of
complaints from the viewers. At the time Taylor said that the play “was meant
to foretell the coming rage of a world torn apart by capitalism and terrorism.”
The third play was ‘When Actors Come’ (3rd May 1978) which was also
written by Taylor. Manning Wilson was cast as the narrator of the story. Taylor
revised this play for the stage debuting the production at the Forum,
Wythenshawe performed by members of the Manchester Library Theatre Company from
2nd February 1979. Other theatre credits during this period included
directing a version of Julius Caesar
at St George’s Theatre starring Bernard Hepton as Caesar during April 1979
Taylor then turned his attention to the Arthur
Miller play The Crucible (12th April 1980) directing an epic 165 minute
television production which included the seldom performed third act. The
distinguished cast included Sarah Berger, making her television debut as
Abigail, Denis Quilley, Anna Cropper, Daniel Massey, Eric Porter and Peter
Vaughan. Further down the cast list was a young Sarah Sutton who would later
feature as Doctor Who companion
Nyssa. Taylor’s third contribution to BBC
2 Playhouse was ‘In Hiding’ (15th March 1980) with Taylor
directing and writing a story about a teenager learning about life and death
while staying with his aunt during the summer holidays. Denholm Elliott and Tim
Piggot Smith featured in the cast. Taylor’s
final BBC 2 Playhouse episode was ‘A
Last Visitor for Mr Hugh Peter’ (30th January 1981) which he again
directed and wrote. The story saw Hugh Peter (Peter Vaughan) alone in a prison
cell awaiting his fate. He was once a member of Oliver Cromwell’s army and has
now been sentenced to death. While he waits he is visited by various characters
including Charles I and the black figure of death. Gary Watson, who had
provided voice over work for ‘During Barty’s Party’, was cast by Taylor as the personification of Death. The play
broke the fourth wall by having the main character suddenly break off and
wander over to join a studio discussion about the production half way through
the programme.
Taylor made a rare excursion into the ongoing series
format when he directed four episodes of Maybury
which starred Patrick Stewart as a psychiatrist working at Maybury General
Hospital. ‘Not To Worry, Everything Is Under Control’ (23rd June
1981), ‘Trouble At Home’ (30th June 1981), ‘Eddie’ (28th
July 1981) and ‘Weekend’ (4th
August 1981). He returned to BBC Play of
the Month with two consecutive episodes; ‘The Critic’ (23rd
August 1982) and ‘The White Guard’ (20th September 1982). October
and December 1983 saw a version of Taylor’s play The Exorcism, now based on his original script, toured with Kate
O’Mara playing Mary Ure’s role.
His next BBC production was a version of
Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona
(27th December 1983). The one off drama The Testament of John (28th April 1984) was also written
by Taylor. The Theban Plays by
Sophocles were a trio of dramas all directed by Taylor and also translated by
him; ‘Oedipus The King’ (16th September 1986), ‘Oedipus At Colonus’
(17th September 1986) and ‘Antigone’ (19th September
1986). In December 1986 it was announced that Taylor had been appointed as the
new artistic director for Compass Theatre, a company led by Sir Anthony Quayle.
Quayle and Taylor had met when they both worked on The Theban Plays for BBC 2. His first task was directing a version
of King Lear in April 1987. Other
productions included The Government
Inspector in May 1988
He still undertook radio and stage work including Retreat from Moscow written and directed
by Taylor at New End theatre, Hampstead during January 1993. For Radio 4’s Monday Play strand Taylor wrote Underworld (21st February
1994) as well as writing and directing Merely
Players (29th April 1996). Further Radio 4 work included Where Three Roads Meet (24th
April 1998) which featured a vicar who had lost his faith in the existence of
God. Taylor adapted and directed a three part version of The Decameron for BBC Radio 4 broadcast from 12th July
1998 and directed a three part radio drama serial, Rites of Passage, starting 23rd August 1998. Radio 4
transmitted a version of the play Moliere,
or the League of Hypocrites (31st October 1999) directed by Taylor
and Ballet Shoes, adapted by Ellen Dryden,
for Radio 4 during December 1999. In April and June 2000 BBC Radio 4 showcased
a series of dramas written or directed by Taylor. The run included Walking to Africa (April 2000) as well
as murder thriller Confessions of a
Justified Sinner (April 2000). Both plays were written by James Hogg. In
June Radio 4 transmitted Taylor’s 45 minute play about guilt, A Visitation (June 2000), starring John
Wood, Julian Glover and Prunella Scales. August saw Taylor directing Losing Rosalind (August 2000) written by
Ellen Dryden.
Taylor died on 11th November 2003 in Banham, Norfolk aged 67 after a
long battle with colon cancer which eventually spread to his brain. The Guardian obituary defined Taylor as “a
figure of towering purpose and austerity in the years when television drama was
the true national theatre.” The
Stage proclaimed “Don Taylor was one of Britain’s most innovative and
respected television directors.” Taylor had
married the actress and writer Ellen Dryden (1938-2022) in 1960 and the union had
one daughter, Lucy, and one son, Jon, an actor and writer.
The last play Taylor wrote for radio, A
Nice Little Trip to Spain (4th May 2004) investigated the
mystery of why a socialist volunteer in the Spanish Civil War was buried
alongside fascists. Taylor’s son portrayed one of the characters in the play. A
celebration of Don Taylor’s life and work took place at St Paul’s Church,
Covent Garden on Sunday 13th June 2004. Between June and September
2004 a production of Euripides Iphigenia at
Aulis, based on the translation by Don Taylor, was mounted by National
Theatre. The company also mounted a version of Women of Troy between November 2007 and January 2008 based on
Taylor’s translation of Euripides original play.
Don Taylor was adept across several mediums; theatre, television and
radio. His work alongside Nigel Kneale on the Beasts episode ‘During Barty’s Party’ could easily be reconfigured
to successfully work in all three of these media. A fitting tribute to a man
who broke new ground and was not afraid to grasp the potential of drama to have
a profound impact on its audience.
.jpg)
