Richard Bramall (Director - Special Offer)

Richard Nicholas Bramall originally trained as an actor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London and had credits in theatre during the 1960s. Bramall later turned his hand to stage direction with credits including Big Night for Sherlock, produced by Oldham Rep and staged at the Oldham Coliseum, during September 1968.

After being chosen as one of five trainees Bramall started as a director at ATV during the early 1970s debuting with a pair of ITV Sunday Night Drama productions; 'The Crib' (26th December 1971) and 'The Sanctuary Man' (7th May 1972). He was then approached by producer Alan Coleman to direct the children’s fantasy drama series Escape into Night (19th April – 24th May 1972), based on the book Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr. The production captivated its audience due in part to the astute direction of Bramall and has gathered a cult following over the years by word of mouth. Coleman then appointed Bramall as one of the director’s on the anthology series Late Night Theatre with Bramall supervising the episode 'Family Tree' (30th May 1973). This was followed by work on another drama anthology, Love Story, with Bramall directing the story 'Walter' (20th November 1973) which saw his first professional pairing with producer Nicholas Palmer. Bramall was a regular director on the second and third seasons of The Kids From 47A between 1973 and 1974, and it was on this series that he first came into contact with Linda Marchal whom he would cast in a supporting role in his Beasts episode 'Special Offer'. In all Bramall directed four episodes of The Kids From 47A scripted by Marchal. He was also appointed as the producer, his first credit in this capacity, for the third season of the series which transmitted between August and October 1974. For the Christmas season Bramall directed a one-off adaptation of The Little Match Girl (24th December 1974).

Prior to Beasts Bramall directed two episodes of Hunter’s Walk; 'Say Nothing' (6th July 1976) and 'Missing' (3rd August 1976). His Beasts episode was next. Post-Beasts Bramall turned his attention to one off drama, a musical called The Dancing Years (1976), starring Anthony Valentine, and a two part storyline for The Cedar Tree – 'Cause for Concern' (13th and 14th December 1976).

The majority of his work for the year was on The Cedar Tree with Bramall overseeing twelve episodes between January and July 1977. His remaining productions for 1977 was an episode of ATV’s drama series Cottage To Let – 'The Last Day' (9th August 1977), written by Dave Martin and Bob Baker, and The ITV play story 'Are You Stone Cold, Santa Claus?' (24th December 1977). He then returned to children’s drama to oversee all seven episodes of the second series of A Bunch of Fives (12th April – 24th May 1978).

Bramall made his final contribution towards The Cedar Tree in August 1978 and also directed two episodes of the drama series The Foundation – 'Tactics' (29th September 1978) and 'Commitments' (6th October 1978). His final ATV production was directing an episode of the anthology drama series Heartland – 'Last Knockings' (12th January 1980). Nicholas Palmer, who had asked Bramall to work on Beasts, was the producer of this set of one-hour plays on the theme of love.

Bramall left ATV to go freelance and he soon picked up work on the third season of the hit BBC series All Creatures Great and Small directing four episodes. For Thames he undertook directing duties on an episode of police cadets drama The Squad – 'Wheels' (5th November 1980). It was then back to the BBC to direct the Sunday afternoon classic series The Talisman (30th November 1980 – 25th January 1981) for producer Barry Letts. Although the action was set in Palestine the recording was based in London with studio interiors at the Cardiff BBC studios. It was back to Thames Television next with a contribution to the children’s drama anthology series Theatre Box – 'You Must Believe All This' (24th December 1981). For Scottish Television he directed two episodes of Skin Deep, a drama series about two sisters living in Glasgow. Bramall was responsible for the opening episode, 'Sisters' (22nd June 1982), and the later episode 'Changes' (12th August 1982). He returned to Thames, this time working for the children’s drama department, to direct the series S.W.A.L.K. (9th November – 14th December 1982) which was transmitted by Channel 4. Nicola Cowper played a teenager, Amanda, who lives her life through the world of teenager’s magazines. The series featured visualisations of her fantasies and Prunella Scales as an agony aunt who gives terrible advice.

For the BBC Bramall then directed ten episodes of One By One, a series based on the real life exploits of international zoo vet David Taylor (renamed Donald Turner in the series). Bramall’s episodes spanned the first and second series transmitted between February 1984 and March 1985.For the children’s anthology series Dramarama he directed by the episode 'Dodger, Bonzo and the Rest' (4th June 1984). After completing work on One By One Bramall worked on Storyboard, a series of single dramas designed to be pilots for potential series, directing the episode 'King and Castle' (20th August 1985) which starred Nigel Planer and Derek Martin as a pair of debt collectors. He also directed a television presentation of 'Moliere' (27th October 1985) as part of the series Theatre Night. Anthony Sher starred.

Work for Thames continued with Bramall contributing towards two episodes of Ladies in Charge including debut episode 'Zoe’s Fever' (6th May 1986). Next was a second episode of Dramarama – 'Jessie’s Place' (25th September 1986). This was followed by two episodes of Bergerac and a single episode of The Bill – 'Skipper' (23rd November 1987). Between July 1988 and March 1989 Bramall was also the producer of The Bill working on over thirty episodes.

Following this he oversaw two episodes of Waterfront Beat (3rd and 24th February 1990), a Phil Redmond created series featuring the policing of the Liverpool Docks. Between April 1990 and February 1991 he was the producer on Eastenders. He also produced two seasons of the BBC drama series Growing Pains during 1992 and 1993.

His next director engagement was on the eighth season of Casualty with Bramall overseeing four episodes between October 1993 and January 1994. His final directing credit was on a single episode of the soap opera Emmerdale (1st December 1994). His final credit as a producer was the three part children’s drama Pigeon Summer (18th September – 2nd October 1995).

After retiring from the world of television Bramall became a church pastor in Chichester, West Sussex and retrained as a life coach as well as lecturing at Portsmouth University. He passed away on 3rd March 2020, aged 75, from a terminal brain tumour. At the time of his passing his wife, Diana, said “He was gregarious and adventurous. He was someone who wanted the best for everyone. He was a man who loved people, meeting people and being engaged with them.[1]”

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[1] https://www.chichester.co.uk/news/people/gregarious-community-man-threw-himself-everything-2502778 (accessed 3rd November 2020)