Born on 16th October 1920 in Rotherham, Yorkshire McWhinnie attended Rotherham Grammar School. By all accounts he was a quiet and reserved man with the air of a “provincial school master.”[1] He joined the BBC in the 1940s and was involved mainly in administrative roles during the 1940s before becoming a radio scriptwriter and producer in 1945. In 1949 he was promoted to the role of producer for the radio drama department and by 1951 he was working as a drama script editor. From 1953 he was promoted to the Assistant Head of Sound Drama before becoming a drama director. During this period there was a new wave of writers who had realised the need for different emphasis in drama structure and diction. McWhinie was instrumental in promoting the broadcast of several of these new writers including Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter.
In an article for the Radio Times introducing the new season of radio programmes McWhinnie was passionate in his belief in new writers and advances in radio presentation techniques given the threat of television. He wrote “if sound drama is ultimately to survive it must be on its own terms – that is to say, with specially scripted work which makes full use of radio’s flexibility, intimacy, and capacity for imaginative and evocative storytelling.[2]” In 1959 his book, The Art of Radio, was published by Faber and was an account of producing Beckett plays for the medium. The book advanced McWhinnie’s belief that sound effects played a crucial part in the storytelling and together with dialogue was able to a rich atmosphere.
All That Fall was not only Samuel Beckett’s first play for the radio, but also the first production to use and integrate tape sound effects into the presentation. It not only bought this new technique to a popular audience but also demonstrated to the BBC the need for the corporation to establish their own facilities for such material. The play depicts the journey of an elderly woman, Ma Rooney, to the train station to meet her husband, Dan, who is blind. The majority of the dialogue is from Ma Rooney and the other characters she meets as she walks to the station are presented as existing a dream like plane abstracted from the real world. To create the ethereal and dreamlike qualities needed for the play McWhinnie worked alongside Desmond Briscoe to create the effects using echo chambers and other techniques. The play was a critical success.
McWhinnie’s next radio drama was The Disagreeable Oyster (1957), by Giles Cooper, and it also heavily relied on specially created sound effects. The wild plot concerns a man who spends a bizarre weekend away from his wife when he is confronted by two versions of himself. They two versions argue over what is moralistic and appropriate behaviour for a married man. The play begins normal enough but once the main character goes on holiday the everyday sounds begin to become distorted. The play’s experimental nature caused difficulties at the BBC and resulted in a delay of transmission. Comparisons were made with the play’s sound effects to those used in The Goon Show and the use of sped up and distorted voices was defended by Douglas Briscombe who commented “we used them because they seemed appropriate, certainly not because the Goons used them.”[4]
Private Dreams and Public Nightmares (7th October, 1957) was introduced to the public as a Radiophonic Poem and began with a personal introduction by McWhinne himself: “This program is an experiment, an exploration. It has been put together with enormous enthusiasm with equipment designed for other purposes. It’s not a masterpiece, not even a minor one, and it’s not a stunt. We think it is worth broadcasting as a perfectly serious first attempt to find out whether we can convey a new kind of emotional and intellectual experience by means of what we call radiophonic effects.”[5]
Krapp’s Last Tape was specifically written for the actor Patrick Magee by Samuel Beckett. Magee was present at the debut production of the play at the Royal Court theatre in October 1958. McWhinnie was the director and the single act play ran for 38 performances. McWhinnie then went on to direct the radio play Embers (24th June 1959) by Samuel Beckett. The programme won the RAI prize at the Prix Italia[6] awards in 1959. It here that McWhinnie first worked with Patrick Magee who was in the cast alongside Jack MacGowran (who was another preferred actor by Samuel Beckett). Following the setting up of the Radiophonic Workshop one of the first radio dramas to commission work from the unit was McWhinnie’s The Ocean. Written by James Hanley the play revolved around the crew of a World War Two ships crew adrift in a lifeboat. The Radiophonic crew, Daphne Oram and Desmond Briscoe, toiled for seven days creating sound effects and textures which blurred the line between music and sound effects. In the world of theatre McWhinnie directed the production of Harold Pinter’s play The Caretaker which debuted on 27th April 1960 at the Arts theatre. The cast of three was made up of Alan Bates, Donald Pleasence and Peter Woodthorpe. With a new cast the play then toured the UK during the summer of 1961. In 1962 he was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Director (Dramatic) for this version of Pinter’s The Caretaker.
The Stage newspaper dated 13th October 1960 broke the news that McWhinnie would be leaving the BBC after a 13 year relationship with the broadcaster. He had decided to concentrate on freelancing and work as a director in the theatre. The December of the same year McWhinnie opened his first theatre production following this announcement. Based at the Aldwych Theatre The Duchess Malfi was headlined by Peggy Ashcroft, Peter Jeffrey and Patrick Wymark, the father of Jane Wymark who later would feature in the Beasts episode 'Baby'.
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Coming just over a year after his debut direction for Thirty Minute Theatre McWhinnie was given a second episode, 'Invasion' (10th April 1969), which has a fascinating premise. A group of middle class people are attending a dinner party whilst in the corner of the room a TV set is showing news reports on the Vietnam War. As people become bored with the chatter at the dinner party they turn their attention to the TV reports and become overwhelmed by the horror of the war. The dinner party continues as one by one the guests die, the colour drained from them, crushed by the images of war, in their seat. Meanwhile the babble of trivial chatter and gossip continues as their demise is unnoticed by the other guests. This continues until only one guest is left, their back to the screen, munching away on their food unaware and alone. The production of the play was no less experimental in its approach. Director McWhinnie did not engage with the traditional rehearsal period and instead he worked out only a framework which allowed the actors to improvise the dinner party. The only direction given to the actors was when they should become distracted from the conversation by the horror and violence transmitted on the television. The production garnered glowing reviews including Ann Purser for The Stage who wrote “As an experiment in a new form of drama it worked remarkably well – no tricks for tricks sake, but using silence and fading colour for a specific and obvious purpose…The play was without question a powerful emotional experience.[8]”
Amongst his theatre work during this period was a musical version of Hamlet written by Humphrey Searle and staged at the Royal Opera House in London from April 1969. He also directed two one-act plays by Barry Bermange, The Interview and No Quarter, at Hampstead Theatre Club during June 1969. His other main television project for the year was bringing to the screen a one –off version of Noel Coward’s This Happy Breed to BBC viewers. The cast featured Frank Finlay and Dandy Nichols.
McWhinnie began the new decade with The Dead (3rd January 1970), a Granada produced adaptation of the James Joyce story of the same name. The script was by Hugh Leonard and the cast included Ray McAnally and Pauline Delaney. He was then assigned to work on two episodes of the BBC drama anthology series Solo which was a series of monologues by famous historical figures. Margaret Tyzack played Isabella Beeton, the author of one of the most famous cookbooks in the entire world, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, in the episode 'Margaret Tyzack as Mrs Beeton' (4th February 1970). Mcwhinnie’s second directorial effort for the series was 'Eileen Atkins as Mrs Mary Kingsley' (25th February 1970). Kingsley was a famous Victorian traveller. McWhinnie’s next BBC production was 'Howards End' (19th April 1970) for the BBC Play of the Month series.
McWhinnie was then hired by Associated-Rediffusion Television to steer their ITV Playhouse production 'The Creeper' (7th September 1970) with a cast that included Alan Badel and Tom Chadbon. Theatre work for the start of the decade included a version of George Bernard Shaw’s The Apple Cart at The Mermaid Theatre during March 1970 with John Neville and Maurice Denham. From November 1970 until January 1971 McWhinnie was engaged to direct a touring production of the play Meeting at Night. The cast included Wilfrid Hyde White.
His first assignment for 1971 was the ITV Saturday Night Theatre episode 'The Dead' (2nd January 1971) adapted from the short story by James Joyce and featuring Ray McAnally in a story set in a wintry Dublin in the 1890s. The production was selected as one of independent television’s entries to the 1972 International Festival in Monte Carlo. The Stage review celebrated McWhinnie’s input stating “Donald McWhinnie’s direction caught and developed the changing mood of the story with handsome economy.[9]” Next was the penultimate episode of the BBC’s biographical period drama Elizabeth R which starred Glenda Jackson in the title role. 'The Enterprise of England' saw McWhinnie direct a cast which included such stalwarts as Robert Hardy, John Woodvine and Ronald Hines. McWhinnie’s third Thirty Minute Theatre engagement was 'Soldier Ants' (27th September 1971) with his fourth coming only a few months later in the form of 'The Gardeners of My Youth' (15th November 1971).
ATV employed McWhinnie to direct the first two episodes of their drama series Home and Away – 'The Cold Wind Doth Blow' (14th February 1972) and 'A Risky Virtue' (21st February 1972). Sandwhiched between these two episodes was the transmission of another BBC Play of the Month from McWhinnie – 'Stephen D' (20th February 1972), based on the James Joyce story. The Sextet was an anthology series of BBC television dramas based around the theme of sexuality which retained the same cast (Denholm Elliott, Billie Whitelaw and Richard Vernon) for each play. McWhinnie directed the episode 'Night Duty' (20th June 1972) which centred on a night worker at a mental institute. His penultimate Thirty Minute Theatre production was 'Thrills Galore' (4th September 1972), though the most enduring and important episode he directed was the last. 'Krapp’s Last Tape' (29th November 1972) was written by Samuel Beckett especially for Patrick Magee to perform and Magee reprised his role for the TV production. This would directly lead to McWhinnie casting Magee in his Beasts episode 'What Big Eyes'.
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Granada TV employed McWhinnie to direct three episodes of their anthology drama series Country Matters based on short stories by A E Coppard and H E Bates. The series made a quite a stir at the time due to its realism and just how relentless rural life could be. One of the more controversial episodes was McWhinnie’s production 'The Mill' (27th August 1972) based on the story by H E Bates. Rosalind Ayres starred as the naïve Alice Hartop a 17 year old girl who moves into an old mill owned by the Hollands. Mrs Holland (Brenda Bruce) has dropsy and is bedridden whilst Mr Holland (Ray Smith) makes sexual advances towards young Alice. She eventually ends up pregnant. The play was filmed on location in Derbyshire in Monsal Dale and the surrounding Peakland villages and was selected to represent ITV at the 1973 Prix Italia Radio and Television Festival.
A second series was commissioned the following year with McWhinnie on directing chores for two episodes which ended the sophomore run; 'The Ring of Truth' (4th March 1973) and 'The Four Beauties' (11th March 1973) were both adapted from short stories by H E Bates. 'The Four Beauties' is worthy of note as it starred Michael Kitchen who McWhinnie would later reuse in his Beasts instalment 'What Big Eyes'. 'The Ring of Truth' was set in the 1930s and tells of a young man, prompted by a dream, who sets off to discover the secret behind his father’s death. This quest eventually leads him to mysterious girl in a northern town. Next was a brief return to the BBC for their Play of the Month with the episode 'A Room with a View' (15th April 1973) based on the story by E M Forster.
He continued his work for ITV with the Yorkshire Television production 'Afternoon at the Festival' (6th May 1973), an episode of ITV Sunday Night Theatre in which McWhinnie again worked with Rosalind Ayres. The play was written by David Mercer and also featured Leo McKern and Adrienne Corri in the cast. ITV anthology work continued with 'Mr Loveday’s Little Outing' (1st June 1973), an instalment of Between The Wars, a series which adapted work set in the years between the First and Second World Wars. Oranges and Lemons was a series of plays themed around the location of the Eastend docklands of London. McWhinnie directed the play 'A Funny Kind of Joke' (4th November 1973) written by PJ Hammond which opened the series with a cast containing James Bolan and Barbara Ferris in a tale of infidelity and revenge.
The Yorkshire Television single drama Click (14th February 1974) had originally been scheduled for transmission on 29th October 1973, but was postponed. The drama starred Maurice Roeves, Ann Bell and George Baker. McWhinnie directed the Charles Humphreys penned script. Next was an episode of the Granada Television series Childhood – 'An Only Child' (28th April 1974). He was then employed by the BBC once more for work on their period drama Fall of Eagles which dramatized the fall of three European dynasties – the Hohenzollerns, the Romanovs and The Habsburgs. McWhinnie oversaw the tenth episode, 'Indian Summer of an Emperor' (17th May 1974). Future Beasts actor T P McKenna was amongst the cast. McWhinnie's penultimate episode of the BBC Play of the Month was 'The Wood Demon' (17th November 1974) which was based on the play by Anton Chekhov. After this brief return to the corporation McWhinnie was employed by Anglia Television for directing duties on the one-off drama production Fallen Angels (1974), adapted from the work by Noel Coward. Sacha Distel, Joan Collins and Susannah York featured. 1975 would see McWhinnie return to the BBC to work on three episodes of the ambitious failure Churchill’s People starting with 'The Conquerors' (3rd February 1975) followed by 'The Wallace' (3rd March 1975) and 'America! America!' (7th April 1975). He stayed with the BBC for a two part production of Moll Flanders (26th November and 3rd December 1975) based on the novel by Daniel Defoe and starring Ian Ogilvy. Prior to his work on Beasts McWhinnie was involved in the three-part drama John Macnab (14th – 28th April 1976) directing all three episodes. See below for more information on this production. His only other television work for the year was the Beasts episode 'What Big Eyes'.
To mark the 70th birthday of Samuel Beckett the Royal Court theatre staged a new production of Beckett’s Endgame, overseen by McWhinnie, during May 1976. Patrick Magee was cast as Hamm and Stephen Rea portrayed Clov. This was followed by McWhinnie directing two single act plays for the retrospective – Play and That Time, which were presented during May and April 1976. For BBC Scotland McWhinnie directed John Macnab (14th April – 28th April 1976), a three-episode adaptation of the John Buchan novel. Set in 1920s Scotland the play tells the story of three members of the establishment (James Maxwell, Derek Godfrey and Bernard Horsfall) who seek excitement by poaching on the estates of Scottish landowners. The production had a scathing review published in The Stage written by Charles Barron. As well as describing all the characters as paper thin he went on “Perhaps producer Pharic Maclaren and his director, Donald McWhinnie, were wrong to allow the story to stretch to three episodes. An enforced economy – amputation to half the length – would have tightened the dialogue and strengthened the action.[10]”
McWhinnie continued to ping pong between his work for independent television and the BBC with work on the drama series Wings for the BBC creating the episode 'Business as Usual' (23rd January 1977). A decade after his first contribution to the BBC Play of the Month strand McWhinnie made his sixth and final episode, 'The Country Wife' (13th February 1977), from the play by William Wycherley. This was a full blooded costume drama featuring Anthony Andrews and Phil Daniels amongst the cast. Next for McWhinnie was directing performance sequences for an edition of the BBC arts programme Lively Arts hosted by Melvyn Bragg. 'Shades: Three Plays by Samuel Beckett' (17th April 1977) focussed on the work of the playwright. The three plays were Ghost Trio, …but the clouds… (which featured Billie Whitelaw and Ronald Pickup) and Not I. Beckett was guarded about the programme and wrote to the BBC demanding to know the content of the programme before taking part. He also requested a meeting with the director, McWhinnie, before he would consent to the programme adapting his work.
After this excursion into the arts McWhinnie landed back at ITV to direct two episodes of the twice-weekly drama Rooms (10th and 11th May 1977) which featured Jill Gascoigne in one of the main roles. During 1978 McWhinnie worked on Thames Television’s Armchair Thriller series with the six-part storyline 'A Dog’s Ransom' (7th – 23rd March 1978). The Last Campaign (3rd January 1978) was a single drama from Anglia. McWhinnie directed the script by Hugh Leonard which was based on the novel The Captains and The Kings by Jennifer Johnston. The programme starred Frank Finlay and was set in an Irish village where the friendship between an old man and a young boy is misconstrued.
During 1978 the BBC finalised plans to produce the complete cycle of 36 Shakespeare plays over a six year period. The first episode of the BBC Television Shakespeare season was to have been McWhinnie’s production of Much Ado About Nothing starring Penelope Keith, Anthony Andrews, Arthur Lowe and Michael York. The programme was announced as the first episode during December 1978 but was suddenly pulled from the schedules and replaced with Romeo and Juliet. No reason was given for the sudden dropping of the production though newspaper reports reported that its postponement was due to the need for reshoots, however, no reshoots were carried out and the episode was abandoned and replaced by a new adaptation. For whatever reason the McWhinnie production was considered unsuitable for broadcast by the BBC management.
McWhinnie was engaged by Anglia to direct the ITV Playhouse offering 'Queen of a Distant Country' (12th July 1978) which had a cast which included Liza Goddard. What Every Woman Knows (13th August 1978) was a play produced by BBC Scotland and adapted from the story by JM Barrie. McWhinnie directed and Hannah Gordon and Moultrie Kelsall starred. McWhinnie was next employed by Anglia Television to direct the play Memories (24th October 1978), written by William Trevor. BBC Scotland employed McWhinnie to work on The Miser (27th March 1979), an adaptation of the play by Moliere with an impressive performance by Rikki Fulton. Other work for the year included directing an episode of the first season of Tales of the Unexpected for Anglia Television. Roald Dahl’s short story 'William and Mary' (7th April 1979), which had been previously filmed for Dahl’s ‘Way Out anthology series the previous decade, starred Elaine Stritch and Marius Goring. He also made his first episode of Rumpole of the Bailey for Thames Television debuting with the episode 'Rumpole and the Age for Retirement' (3rd July 1979).
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McWhinnie’s only television project for 1980 was Thames Television’s eight part dramatization of Nancy Mitford’s novel Love in A Cold Climate (29th October – 17th December 1980) which cast Judi Dench and Michael Aldridge in lead roles. The director stayed with Thames working on two episodes of the comedy drama Funny Man with Jimmy Jewell in the lead role – 'Grown Up Girlie' (28th May 1981) and 'Hearth and Home' (4th June 1981). McWhinnie's only other television for the year was directing and producing an episode of Yorkshire Television’s Celebrity Playhouse. 'Eden End' (20th December 1981) was adapted by McWhinnie himself from the story by J B Priestley. Eileen Atkins starred.
Theatre work for the year included a production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler at the Bristol Hippodrome. The cast included Ralph Bates, Tom Baker, Tom Bell and Irene Handle. The production was designed by Voytek who had provided memorable design work for the TV series Mystery and Imagination as well as later credits as a director on series such as Callan. From May 1981 until August 1981 he directed the play Translations for the National Theatre, first based at Hampstead Theatre in London and later at the Lyttelton Theatre. McWhinnie was nominated for an Olivier Award for director of the year in 1981 for his work on this stage presentation.
Back to BBC 2 was next for McWhinnie with a play written by Stewart Parker to mark the centenary of the birth of James Joyce. The play, Joyce in June (30th December 1982), acts a biographical sketch of the young author, delving into the mind and creative process of Joyce during this period. The events of the play take place on 17th June 1904, the day after the events in the novel. Stephen Rea and Gabriel Byrne also figured in the cast. Live from Pebble Mill was a series of live television plays broadcast from the BBC’s Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham. McWhinnie was involved in one of the five episodes, 'Cargo Kings' (6th March 1983). The series strived to recapture the dramatic form of the live broadcast and the series was conceived and produced by Robin Midgley, the head of drama at BBC Birmingham.
Also for the BBC McWhinnie directed two episodes of the series Maybury which featured Patrick Stewart as a psychiatrist (29th July and 5th August 1983). This would be McWhinnie’s final directing work for the BBC. He returned to the series Rumpole of the Bailey to oversee two episodes – 'Rumpole and the Golden Thread' (18th October 1983) and 'Rumpole and the Female of the Species' (1st November 1983). Towards the end of 1983 McWhinnie directed a production of Lovers Dancing by Charles Dyer at the Noel Coward Theatre in London with Colin Blakely and Paul Eddington in the cast.
McWhinnie was assigned as the director for both seasons of London Weekend Television’s Mapp and Lucia which were adapted from the work by E F Benson and featured Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales as the two social rivals in 1930s England. The first season of five episodes were transmitted 14th April – 12th May 1985 with a second season of a further five episodes transmitted 3rd – 31st May 1986. He also contributed a fourth, and final, episode to Rumpole of the Bailey with the episode 'Rumpole and the Judge’s Elbow' (9th February 1987). McWhinnie died on 8th October 1987 and was survived by his wife, the playwright Pauline Macauley, and his son Paul. His final directing effort, an episode of The ITV Play series, was transmitted posthumously. 'Chekov in Yalta' (14th August 1988) featured Tom Courtney as Chekov and was based on a stage play by John Driver and Jeffrey Haddow which detailed a visit by the Moscow Arts Theatre Company to Chekhov’s villa in 1900.
[2] Donald McWhinnie, “A Season of New Radio Plays”, Radio Times, March 26th 1954, page 8
Writer George Cooper was one of the first to take up the idea of using sound effects as an integral part of a story. He was first paired with McWhinnie when they worked on Cooper’s play Mathry Beacon (1956). The plot sees a World War Two army outfit assigned to guard the Deflector, a mysterious new weapon designed to fight the Nazis, which they have no understanding of. The war ends, another war begins and ends, they have offspring and they still guard the weapon. Decades pass until one of the military unit smashes the machine up. Its constant hum stops. The unit then realise they have lived their entire lives guarding a weapon that does not work.
McWhinnie was the producer and director of Beckett’s 1957 radio play All That Fall (17th January 1957). During April 1956 Brian George, the BBC head of Central Program Operations, proposed setting up a small unit within the BBC to experiment with electronic sound effects for use in radio programmes. Shortly before the transmission of All That Fall George commissioned a report which saw McWhinnie contribute to a document which stressed the value such a unit would bring to drama productions[3]. McWhinnie had travelled to Paris as part of his preparation on All That Fall to meet with composers of musique concrete and his input was invaluable in stating a case for an electronic sound effects unit. The unit would eventually become the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
McWhinnie was the producer and director of Beckett’s 1957 radio play All That Fall (17th January 1957). During April 1956 Brian George, the BBC head of Central Program Operations, proposed setting up a small unit within the BBC to experiment with electronic sound effects for use in radio programmes. Shortly before the transmission of All That Fall George commissioned a report which saw McWhinnie contribute to a document which stressed the value such a unit would bring to drama productions[3]. McWhinnie had travelled to Paris as part of his preparation on All That Fall to meet with composers of musique concrete and his input was invaluable in stating a case for an electronic sound effects unit. The unit would eventually become the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
All That Fall was not only Samuel Beckett’s first play for the radio, but also the first production to use and integrate tape sound effects into the presentation. It not only bought this new technique to a popular audience but also demonstrated to the BBC the need for the corporation to establish their own facilities for such material. The play depicts the journey of an elderly woman, Ma Rooney, to the train station to meet her husband, Dan, who is blind. The majority of the dialogue is from Ma Rooney and the other characters she meets as she walks to the station are presented as existing a dream like plane abstracted from the real world. To create the ethereal and dreamlike qualities needed for the play McWhinnie worked alongside Desmond Briscoe to create the effects using echo chambers and other techniques. The play was a critical success.
McWhinnie’s next radio drama was The Disagreeable Oyster (1957), by Giles Cooper, and it also heavily relied on specially created sound effects. The wild plot concerns a man who spends a bizarre weekend away from his wife when he is confronted by two versions of himself. They two versions argue over what is moralistic and appropriate behaviour for a married man. The play begins normal enough but once the main character goes on holiday the everyday sounds begin to become distorted. The play’s experimental nature caused difficulties at the BBC and resulted in a delay of transmission. Comparisons were made with the play’s sound effects to those used in The Goon Show and the use of sped up and distorted voices was defended by Douglas Briscombe who commented “we used them because they seemed appropriate, certainly not because the Goons used them.”[4]
Krapp’s Last Tape was specifically written for the actor Patrick Magee by Samuel Beckett. Magee was present at the debut production of the play at the Royal Court theatre in October 1958. McWhinnie was the director and the single act play ran for 38 performances. McWhinnie then went on to direct the radio play Embers (24th June 1959) by Samuel Beckett. The programme won the RAI prize at the Prix Italia[6] awards in 1959. It here that McWhinnie first worked with Patrick Magee who was in the cast alongside Jack MacGowran (who was another preferred actor by Samuel Beckett). Following the setting up of the Radiophonic Workshop one of the first radio dramas to commission work from the unit was McWhinnie’s The Ocean. Written by James Hanley the play revolved around the crew of a World War Two ships crew adrift in a lifeboat. The Radiophonic crew, Daphne Oram and Desmond Briscoe, toiled for seven days creating sound effects and textures which blurred the line between music and sound effects. In the world of theatre McWhinnie directed the production of Harold Pinter’s play The Caretaker which debuted on 27th April 1960 at the Arts theatre. The cast of three was made up of Alan Bates, Donald Pleasence and Peter Woodthorpe. With a new cast the play then toured the UK during the summer of 1961. In 1962 he was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Director (Dramatic) for this version of Pinter’s The Caretaker.
The Stage newspaper dated 13th October 1960 broke the news that McWhinnie would be leaving the BBC after a 13 year relationship with the broadcaster. He had decided to concentrate on freelancing and work as a director in the theatre. The December of the same year McWhinnie opened his first theatre production following this announcement. Based at the Aldwych Theatre The Duchess Malfi was headlined by Peggy Ashcroft, Peter Jeffrey and Patrick Wymark, the father of Jane Wymark who later would feature in the Beasts episode 'Baby'.
McWhinnie’s first work in television was as the writer and producer of Samson and Delilah (16th April 1959), a half hour version of the D H Lawrence story starring Patrick Allen and Sam Kydd. This was followed by a producer only credit on the one-off play Without the Grail (13th September 1960), which featured Sean Connery and Michael Horden in the cast. Written by Giles Cooper the play saw Connery play an agent sent to investigate Horden’s tea plantation owner. McWhinnie’s theatre credits for 1960 included a production of The Duchess of Malfi for the debut season of the newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company. His 1961 theatre workload consisted of a version of Paddy Chayefsky’s The Tenth Man staged at the Comedy Theatre over April and May 1961 and Pinter’s The Caretaker (October 1961) – a near legendary version of the play starring Donald Pleasence, Alan Bates and Robert Shaw - and Rattle of a Simple Man (September 1962) with Edward Woodward as Percy Winthram (the role that Harry H Corbett took in the 1964 film version) at the Garrick Theatre. The Stage newspaper gave the production a rave review: “Donald McWhinnie’s direction keeps the play moving along with a rise and fall of pace that seems exactly right, so that the more serious moments never sag but grip and hold the attention before the comedy takes control again and sweeps breathlessly on.[7]”
Perhaps one his most interesting piece of theatre work for the period was his direction of the production Three staged at the Arts theatre during the first few months of 1961. The play was in fact a trilogy of one act plays each written by a different author. This portmanteau stage play began with Lunch Hour by John Mortimer followed by NF Crisps’ The Form and finishing with A Slight Ache by Harold Pinter. Each story had a fresh cast. In April 1961, along with Peter Brook, Peter Wood and Michael Elliott, McWhinnie was appointed as an associate director at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In June he directed a television version of Waiting for Godot (26th June 1961). George Cooper provided the script for 'The Lonesome Road' (21st January 1962), an episode of the ATV play anthology Drama 62, which provided McWhinnie with a producer/director credit on one of the broadcasters flagship play slots. This was followed with a further two episodes during 1963 for the strand, now titled Drama 63, starting with 'Passing Through' (13th January 1963) continuing with 'A Love of Treason' (24th February 1963). He returned to the programme the following year, with the production now called Drama 64, to work on another Giles Cooper script, 'A Wicked World' (8th March 1964). His theatre work for this period included directing another version of The Caretaker in Cambridge during February 1962, Everything in the Garden by Giles Cooper during March at the Arts theatre and Doctor of Philosophy, the first play by author Muriel Spark, at the Arts theatre over October 1962.
1963’s theatrical work included directing the play The Fourth of June based at the St Martins theatre over January and February 1963. Next was a revival of George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma at the Haymarket theatre over the summer of 1963. Featuring prominently in the cast was a young actor called Nicholas Courtney who would later enjoy fame in the role of the Brigadier in Doctor Who. Further theatre work included a venture in to the world of theatre by the TV franchise Associated- Rediffusion who presented a version of the Gert Hofman play Mr Mayor during September 1963. McWhinnie directed John Mills and Anthony Quayle in lead roles. When the play was staged at the Garrick theatre the title was changed to The Power of Persuasion. Next was directing another production based on a Giles Cooper script. Out of the Crocodile was based at the Phoenix theatre during October and November 1963 with a cast that included Kenneth More. This was More’s first stage appearance since 1952. This was followed with The Fourth of June, a play about life in at Eton College, at the Royal Theatre, Brighton during January 1964.
July 1964 would see the press night of McWhinnie’s latest theatrical work, a production of Beckett’s Endgame for the Royal Shakespeare Company, at the Aldwych Theatre in London. Patrick Magee featured in the cast as Hamm. He returned to the BBC to work on the TV anthology series The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling with the episode 'Only a Subaltern' (13th September 1964) which featured Joss Ackland and Barbara Murray in the cast. Staying with the BBC McWhinnie oversaw the Giles Cooper scripted BBC 2 play Carried By Storm (25th October 1964). McWhinnie cast Simon Ward, Ronald Lacey, Nicholas Courtney and future Beasts actor Patrick Magee (as the Duke of Wellington) in roles. This episode was the start of a fruitful association between McWhinnie and Theatre 625 which would provide him with the majority of his work in the next few years. Thursday Theatre instalment 'Point of Departure' (17th December 1964) followed and starred his old friend Jack MacGowran as well as providing an early role for a young actor called John Hurt.
July 1964 would see the press night of McWhinnie’s latest theatrical work, a production of Beckett’s Endgame for the Royal Shakespeare Company, at the Aldwych Theatre in London. Patrick Magee featured in the cast as Hamm. He returned to the BBC to work on the TV anthology series The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling with the episode 'Only a Subaltern' (13th September 1964) which featured Joss Ackland and Barbara Murray in the cast. Staying with the BBC McWhinnie oversaw the Giles Cooper scripted BBC 2 play Carried By Storm (25th October 1964). McWhinnie cast Simon Ward, Ronald Lacey, Nicholas Courtney and future Beasts actor Patrick Magee (as the Duke of Wellington) in roles. This episode was the start of a fruitful association between McWhinnie and Theatre 625 which would provide him with the majority of his work in the next few years. Thursday Theatre instalment 'Point of Departure' (17th December 1964) followed and starred his old friend Jack MacGowran as well as providing an early role for a young actor called John Hurt.
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McWhinnie began an association with the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company which would result in an annual production with the company. The first play was a version of Bill Naughton’s Alfie mounted between September and November 1964. John Neville undertook the title role. His next Theatre 625 instalment was a further adaptation of a Jean Anouilh play, 'Poor Bitos' (7th February 1965), headlined by Patrick Allen and John Neville. Another Giles Cooper script was next, the macabre 'Unman, Wittering and Zigo' (9th February 1965) which would later be made into a little seen film in 1971. McWhinnie had originally directed the radio production of the story (23rd November 1958). The TV production gave actor Hywel Bennett an early role as one of the schoolboys who may have committed a murder. The BBC selected the play, alongside companion BBC 2 production The Houseparty (7th June 1964), to represent the corporation for the 1965 Italia Prize in Venice.
McWhinnie’s annual theatre engagement with the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company took place between May and July 1965 with a production of The Cavern by Jean Anouilh. Between February and March 1966 McWhinie directed a production of The Astrakahn Coat for the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company with a cast that included Judi Dench, James Villiers and Harold Innocent. During 1965 McWhinnie directed the Broadway production of Bill Naughton’s comedy All in Good Time at the Royale Theatre. The play, starring Donald Wolfit and Richard Dysart, opened on 18th February 1965 and closed soon afterwards on 27th March 1965 after receiving poor press and failing to find an audience.
1967 started with McWhinnie overseeing a trilogy of plays for Theatre 625 scripted once more by Giles Cooper starting with 'Sword of Honour 1: Men At Arms' (2nd January 1967) which featured Edward Woodward as a staunch Roman Catholic, Guy Crouchback, preparing for war in 1939. The following week 'Sword of Honour 2: Officers and Gentlemen' (9th January 1967) saw Crouchback undergoing tragic and comic adventures during the Second World War. The trilogy completed with 'Sword of Honour 3: Unconditional Surrender' (16th January 1967) in which Crouchback ponders his future at the end of the war. McWhinnie’s close association with Giles Cooper continued into his theatre work. The Cooper play Happy Family was presented during March 1967 at the St Martins theatre with McWhinnie directing. His first contribution to the long running BBC Play of the Month came with 'The Moon and Sixpence' (12th November 1967) adapted by Clive Exton from the W Somerset Maugham novel. McWhinnie directed Charles Gray in the lead role. Another collaboration with Cooper for Theatre 625 came at the end of 1967. 'Kittens Are Brave' (26th November 1967) featured Geoffrey Bayldon and George Murcell in the cast. His final Theatre 625 production for the year was 'Lieutenant Tenant' (4th December 1967) adapted by Scot Finch from the play by Pierre Gripari.
Next was an episode of The Wednesday Play, 'Monsieur Barnett' (24th January 1968), another adaptation of a Jean Anouilh work and featuring Michael Redgrave as an ageing millionaire reflecting on his life in a Parisian hairdressers. This was followed by his first work on the long running anthology drama programme Thirty Minute Theatre – 'The Interview' (28th February 1968). The script was written by Barry Bermange who would also write McWhinney’s next entry in the series. Theatre wise McWhinnie directed the first performance of William Corlett’s play Tinker’s Curse at the Nottingham Playhouse over January and February 1968. Between May and July 1968 McWhinnie directed the play Vacant Possession produced by the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company
Next was an episode of the ambitious BBC themed drama anthology series The Jazz Age. The 1920s era was the theme for this series of productions and McWhinnie oversaw the ninth episode in the run, 'Thark' (5th November 1968), a haunted house comedy based on the play by Ben Travers. Fay Weldon provided the script for McWhinnie’s next directing task. 'Smoke Screen' (15th January 1969) was a Wednesday Play episode which saw Edwin Richfield as a successful advertising executive who has worked on promoting a popular brand of cigarettes. When his mother is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer he comes under attack from his family and friends.
McWhinnie’s annual theatre engagement with the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company took place between May and July 1965 with a production of The Cavern by Jean Anouilh. Between February and March 1966 McWhinie directed a production of The Astrakahn Coat for the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company with a cast that included Judi Dench, James Villiers and Harold Innocent. During 1965 McWhinnie directed the Broadway production of Bill Naughton’s comedy All in Good Time at the Royale Theatre. The play, starring Donald Wolfit and Richard Dysart, opened on 18th February 1965 and closed soon afterwards on 27th March 1965 after receiving poor press and failing to find an audience.
1967 started with McWhinnie overseeing a trilogy of plays for Theatre 625 scripted once more by Giles Cooper starting with 'Sword of Honour 1: Men At Arms' (2nd January 1967) which featured Edward Woodward as a staunch Roman Catholic, Guy Crouchback, preparing for war in 1939. The following week 'Sword of Honour 2: Officers and Gentlemen' (9th January 1967) saw Crouchback undergoing tragic and comic adventures during the Second World War. The trilogy completed with 'Sword of Honour 3: Unconditional Surrender' (16th January 1967) in which Crouchback ponders his future at the end of the war. McWhinnie’s close association with Giles Cooper continued into his theatre work. The Cooper play Happy Family was presented during March 1967 at the St Martins theatre with McWhinnie directing. His first contribution to the long running BBC Play of the Month came with 'The Moon and Sixpence' (12th November 1967) adapted by Clive Exton from the W Somerset Maugham novel. McWhinnie directed Charles Gray in the lead role. Another collaboration with Cooper for Theatre 625 came at the end of 1967. 'Kittens Are Brave' (26th November 1967) featured Geoffrey Bayldon and George Murcell in the cast. His final Theatre 625 production for the year was 'Lieutenant Tenant' (4th December 1967) adapted by Scot Finch from the play by Pierre Gripari.
Next was an episode of The Wednesday Play, 'Monsieur Barnett' (24th January 1968), another adaptation of a Jean Anouilh work and featuring Michael Redgrave as an ageing millionaire reflecting on his life in a Parisian hairdressers. This was followed by his first work on the long running anthology drama programme Thirty Minute Theatre – 'The Interview' (28th February 1968). The script was written by Barry Bermange who would also write McWhinney’s next entry in the series. Theatre wise McWhinnie directed the first performance of William Corlett’s play Tinker’s Curse at the Nottingham Playhouse over January and February 1968. Between May and July 1968 McWhinnie directed the play Vacant Possession produced by the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company
Next was an episode of the ambitious BBC themed drama anthology series The Jazz Age. The 1920s era was the theme for this series of productions and McWhinnie oversaw the ninth episode in the run, 'Thark' (5th November 1968), a haunted house comedy based on the play by Ben Travers. Fay Weldon provided the script for McWhinnie’s next directing task. 'Smoke Screen' (15th January 1969) was a Wednesday Play episode which saw Edwin Richfield as a successful advertising executive who has worked on promoting a popular brand of cigarettes. When his mother is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer he comes under attack from his family and friends.
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Coming just over a year after his debut direction for Thirty Minute Theatre McWhinnie was given a second episode, 'Invasion' (10th April 1969), which has a fascinating premise. A group of middle class people are attending a dinner party whilst in the corner of the room a TV set is showing news reports on the Vietnam War. As people become bored with the chatter at the dinner party they turn their attention to the TV reports and become overwhelmed by the horror of the war. The dinner party continues as one by one the guests die, the colour drained from them, crushed by the images of war, in their seat. Meanwhile the babble of trivial chatter and gossip continues as their demise is unnoticed by the other guests. This continues until only one guest is left, their back to the screen, munching away on their food unaware and alone. The production of the play was no less experimental in its approach. Director McWhinnie did not engage with the traditional rehearsal period and instead he worked out only a framework which allowed the actors to improvise the dinner party. The only direction given to the actors was when they should become distracted from the conversation by the horror and violence transmitted on the television. The production garnered glowing reviews including Ann Purser for The Stage who wrote “As an experiment in a new form of drama it worked remarkably well – no tricks for tricks sake, but using silence and fading colour for a specific and obvious purpose…The play was without question a powerful emotional experience.[8]”
McWhinnie began the new decade with The Dead (3rd January 1970), a Granada produced adaptation of the James Joyce story of the same name. The script was by Hugh Leonard and the cast included Ray McAnally and Pauline Delaney. He was then assigned to work on two episodes of the BBC drama anthology series Solo which was a series of monologues by famous historical figures. Margaret Tyzack played Isabella Beeton, the author of one of the most famous cookbooks in the entire world, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, in the episode 'Margaret Tyzack as Mrs Beeton' (4th February 1970). Mcwhinnie’s second directorial effort for the series was 'Eileen Atkins as Mrs Mary Kingsley' (25th February 1970). Kingsley was a famous Victorian traveller. McWhinnie’s next BBC production was 'Howards End' (19th April 1970) for the BBC Play of the Month series.
McWhinnie was then hired by Associated-Rediffusion Television to steer their ITV Playhouse production 'The Creeper' (7th September 1970) with a cast that included Alan Badel and Tom Chadbon. Theatre work for the start of the decade included a version of George Bernard Shaw’s The Apple Cart at The Mermaid Theatre during March 1970 with John Neville and Maurice Denham. From November 1970 until January 1971 McWhinnie was engaged to direct a touring production of the play Meeting at Night. The cast included Wilfrid Hyde White.
His first assignment for 1971 was the ITV Saturday Night Theatre episode 'The Dead' (2nd January 1971) adapted from the short story by James Joyce and featuring Ray McAnally in a story set in a wintry Dublin in the 1890s. The production was selected as one of independent television’s entries to the 1972 International Festival in Monte Carlo. The Stage review celebrated McWhinnie’s input stating “Donald McWhinnie’s direction caught and developed the changing mood of the story with handsome economy.[9]” Next was the penultimate episode of the BBC’s biographical period drama Elizabeth R which starred Glenda Jackson in the title role. 'The Enterprise of England' saw McWhinnie direct a cast which included such stalwarts as Robert Hardy, John Woodvine and Ronald Hines. McWhinnie’s third Thirty Minute Theatre engagement was 'Soldier Ants' (27th September 1971) with his fourth coming only a few months later in the form of 'The Gardeners of My Youth' (15th November 1971).
ATV employed McWhinnie to direct the first two episodes of their drama series Home and Away – 'The Cold Wind Doth Blow' (14th February 1972) and 'A Risky Virtue' (21st February 1972). Sandwhiched between these two episodes was the transmission of another BBC Play of the Month from McWhinnie – 'Stephen D' (20th February 1972), based on the James Joyce story. The Sextet was an anthology series of BBC television dramas based around the theme of sexuality which retained the same cast (Denholm Elliott, Billie Whitelaw and Richard Vernon) for each play. McWhinnie directed the episode 'Night Duty' (20th June 1972) which centred on a night worker at a mental institute. His penultimate Thirty Minute Theatre production was 'Thrills Galore' (4th September 1972), though the most enduring and important episode he directed was the last. 'Krapp’s Last Tape' (29th November 1972) was written by Samuel Beckett especially for Patrick Magee to perform and Magee reprised his role for the TV production. This would directly lead to McWhinnie casting Magee in his Beasts episode 'What Big Eyes'.
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Granada TV employed McWhinnie to direct three episodes of their anthology drama series Country Matters based on short stories by A E Coppard and H E Bates. The series made a quite a stir at the time due to its realism and just how relentless rural life could be. One of the more controversial episodes was McWhinnie’s production 'The Mill' (27th August 1972) based on the story by H E Bates. Rosalind Ayres starred as the naïve Alice Hartop a 17 year old girl who moves into an old mill owned by the Hollands. Mrs Holland (Brenda Bruce) has dropsy and is bedridden whilst Mr Holland (Ray Smith) makes sexual advances towards young Alice. She eventually ends up pregnant. The play was filmed on location in Derbyshire in Monsal Dale and the surrounding Peakland villages and was selected to represent ITV at the 1973 Prix Italia Radio and Television Festival.
A second series was commissioned the following year with McWhinnie on directing chores for two episodes which ended the sophomore run; 'The Ring of Truth' (4th March 1973) and 'The Four Beauties' (11th March 1973) were both adapted from short stories by H E Bates. 'The Four Beauties' is worthy of note as it starred Michael Kitchen who McWhinnie would later reuse in his Beasts instalment 'What Big Eyes'. 'The Ring of Truth' was set in the 1930s and tells of a young man, prompted by a dream, who sets off to discover the secret behind his father’s death. This quest eventually leads him to mysterious girl in a northern town. Next was a brief return to the BBC for their Play of the Month with the episode 'A Room with a View' (15th April 1973) based on the story by E M Forster.
He continued his work for ITV with the Yorkshire Television production 'Afternoon at the Festival' (6th May 1973), an episode of ITV Sunday Night Theatre in which McWhinnie again worked with Rosalind Ayres. The play was written by David Mercer and also featured Leo McKern and Adrienne Corri in the cast. ITV anthology work continued with 'Mr Loveday’s Little Outing' (1st June 1973), an instalment of Between The Wars, a series which adapted work set in the years between the First and Second World Wars. Oranges and Lemons was a series of plays themed around the location of the Eastend docklands of London. McWhinnie directed the play 'A Funny Kind of Joke' (4th November 1973) written by PJ Hammond which opened the series with a cast containing James Bolan and Barbara Ferris in a tale of infidelity and revenge.
The Yorkshire Television single drama Click (14th February 1974) had originally been scheduled for transmission on 29th October 1973, but was postponed. The drama starred Maurice Roeves, Ann Bell and George Baker. McWhinnie directed the Charles Humphreys penned script. Next was an episode of the Granada Television series Childhood – 'An Only Child' (28th April 1974). He was then employed by the BBC once more for work on their period drama Fall of Eagles which dramatized the fall of three European dynasties – the Hohenzollerns, the Romanovs and The Habsburgs. McWhinnie oversaw the tenth episode, 'Indian Summer of an Emperor' (17th May 1974). Future Beasts actor T P McKenna was amongst the cast. McWhinnie's penultimate episode of the BBC Play of the Month was 'The Wood Demon' (17th November 1974) which was based on the play by Anton Chekhov. After this brief return to the corporation McWhinnie was employed by Anglia Television for directing duties on the one-off drama production Fallen Angels (1974), adapted from the work by Noel Coward. Sacha Distel, Joan Collins and Susannah York featured. 1975 would see McWhinnie return to the BBC to work on three episodes of the ambitious failure Churchill’s People starting with 'The Conquerors' (3rd February 1975) followed by 'The Wallace' (3rd March 1975) and 'America! America!' (7th April 1975). He stayed with the BBC for a two part production of Moll Flanders (26th November and 3rd December 1975) based on the novel by Daniel Defoe and starring Ian Ogilvy. Prior to his work on Beasts McWhinnie was involved in the three-part drama John Macnab (14th – 28th April 1976) directing all three episodes. See below for more information on this production. His only other television work for the year was the Beasts episode 'What Big Eyes'.
To mark the 70th birthday of Samuel Beckett the Royal Court theatre staged a new production of Beckett’s Endgame, overseen by McWhinnie, during May 1976. Patrick Magee was cast as Hamm and Stephen Rea portrayed Clov. This was followed by McWhinnie directing two single act plays for the retrospective – Play and That Time, which were presented during May and April 1976. For BBC Scotland McWhinnie directed John Macnab (14th April – 28th April 1976), a three-episode adaptation of the John Buchan novel. Set in 1920s Scotland the play tells the story of three members of the establishment (James Maxwell, Derek Godfrey and Bernard Horsfall) who seek excitement by poaching on the estates of Scottish landowners. The production had a scathing review published in The Stage written by Charles Barron. As well as describing all the characters as paper thin he went on “Perhaps producer Pharic Maclaren and his director, Donald McWhinnie, were wrong to allow the story to stretch to three episodes. An enforced economy – amputation to half the length – would have tightened the dialogue and strengthened the action.[10]”
McWhinnie continued to ping pong between his work for independent television and the BBC with work on the drama series Wings for the BBC creating the episode 'Business as Usual' (23rd January 1977). A decade after his first contribution to the BBC Play of the Month strand McWhinnie made his sixth and final episode, 'The Country Wife' (13th February 1977), from the play by William Wycherley. This was a full blooded costume drama featuring Anthony Andrews and Phil Daniels amongst the cast. Next for McWhinnie was directing performance sequences for an edition of the BBC arts programme Lively Arts hosted by Melvyn Bragg. 'Shades: Three Plays by Samuel Beckett' (17th April 1977) focussed on the work of the playwright. The three plays were Ghost Trio, …but the clouds… (which featured Billie Whitelaw and Ronald Pickup) and Not I. Beckett was guarded about the programme and wrote to the BBC demanding to know the content of the programme before taking part. He also requested a meeting with the director, McWhinnie, before he would consent to the programme adapting his work.
After this excursion into the arts McWhinnie landed back at ITV to direct two episodes of the twice-weekly drama Rooms (10th and 11th May 1977) which featured Jill Gascoigne in one of the main roles. During 1978 McWhinnie worked on Thames Television’s Armchair Thriller series with the six-part storyline 'A Dog’s Ransom' (7th – 23rd March 1978). The Last Campaign (3rd January 1978) was a single drama from Anglia. McWhinnie directed the script by Hugh Leonard which was based on the novel The Captains and The Kings by Jennifer Johnston. The programme starred Frank Finlay and was set in an Irish village where the friendship between an old man and a young boy is misconstrued.
During 1978 the BBC finalised plans to produce the complete cycle of 36 Shakespeare plays over a six year period. The first episode of the BBC Television Shakespeare season was to have been McWhinnie’s production of Much Ado About Nothing starring Penelope Keith, Anthony Andrews, Arthur Lowe and Michael York. The programme was announced as the first episode during December 1978 but was suddenly pulled from the schedules and replaced with Romeo and Juliet. No reason was given for the sudden dropping of the production though newspaper reports reported that its postponement was due to the need for reshoots, however, no reshoots were carried out and the episode was abandoned and replaced by a new adaptation. For whatever reason the McWhinnie production was considered unsuitable for broadcast by the BBC management.
McWhinnie was engaged by Anglia to direct the ITV Playhouse offering 'Queen of a Distant Country' (12th July 1978) which had a cast which included Liza Goddard. What Every Woman Knows (13th August 1978) was a play produced by BBC Scotland and adapted from the story by JM Barrie. McWhinnie directed and Hannah Gordon and Moultrie Kelsall starred. McWhinnie was next employed by Anglia Television to direct the play Memories (24th October 1978), written by William Trevor. BBC Scotland employed McWhinnie to work on The Miser (27th March 1979), an adaptation of the play by Moliere with an impressive performance by Rikki Fulton. Other work for the year included directing an episode of the first season of Tales of the Unexpected for Anglia Television. Roald Dahl’s short story 'William and Mary' (7th April 1979), which had been previously filmed for Dahl’s ‘Way Out anthology series the previous decade, starred Elaine Stritch and Marius Goring. He also made his first episode of Rumpole of the Bailey for Thames Television debuting with the episode 'Rumpole and the Age for Retirement' (3rd July 1979).
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McWhinnie’s only television project for 1980 was Thames Television’s eight part dramatization of Nancy Mitford’s novel Love in A Cold Climate (29th October – 17th December 1980) which cast Judi Dench and Michael Aldridge in lead roles. The director stayed with Thames working on two episodes of the comedy drama Funny Man with Jimmy Jewell in the lead role – 'Grown Up Girlie' (28th May 1981) and 'Hearth and Home' (4th June 1981). McWhinnie's only other television for the year was directing and producing an episode of Yorkshire Television’s Celebrity Playhouse. 'Eden End' (20th December 1981) was adapted by McWhinnie himself from the story by J B Priestley. Eileen Atkins starred.
Theatre work for the year included a production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler at the Bristol Hippodrome. The cast included Ralph Bates, Tom Baker, Tom Bell and Irene Handle. The production was designed by Voytek who had provided memorable design work for the TV series Mystery and Imagination as well as later credits as a director on series such as Callan. From May 1981 until August 1981 he directed the play Translations for the National Theatre, first based at Hampstead Theatre in London and later at the Lyttelton Theatre. McWhinnie was nominated for an Olivier Award for director of the year in 1981 for his work on this stage presentation.
Back to BBC 2 was next for McWhinnie with a play written by Stewart Parker to mark the centenary of the birth of James Joyce. The play, Joyce in June (30th December 1982), acts a biographical sketch of the young author, delving into the mind and creative process of Joyce during this period. The events of the play take place on 17th June 1904, the day after the events in the novel. Stephen Rea and Gabriel Byrne also figured in the cast. Live from Pebble Mill was a series of live television plays broadcast from the BBC’s Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham. McWhinnie was involved in one of the five episodes, 'Cargo Kings' (6th March 1983). The series strived to recapture the dramatic form of the live broadcast and the series was conceived and produced by Robin Midgley, the head of drama at BBC Birmingham.
Also for the BBC McWhinnie directed two episodes of the series Maybury which featured Patrick Stewart as a psychiatrist (29th July and 5th August 1983). This would be McWhinnie’s final directing work for the BBC. He returned to the series Rumpole of the Bailey to oversee two episodes – 'Rumpole and the Golden Thread' (18th October 1983) and 'Rumpole and the Female of the Species' (1st November 1983). Towards the end of 1983 McWhinnie directed a production of Lovers Dancing by Charles Dyer at the Noel Coward Theatre in London with Colin Blakely and Paul Eddington in the cast.
McWhinnie was assigned as the director for both seasons of London Weekend Television’s Mapp and Lucia which were adapted from the work by E F Benson and featured Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales as the two social rivals in 1930s England. The first season of five episodes were transmitted 14th April – 12th May 1985 with a second season of a further five episodes transmitted 3rd – 31st May 1986. He also contributed a fourth, and final, episode to Rumpole of the Bailey with the episode 'Rumpole and the Judge’s Elbow' (9th February 1987). McWhinnie died on 8th October 1987 and was survived by his wife, the playwright Pauline Macauley, and his son Paul. His final directing effort, an episode of The ITV Play series, was transmitted posthumously. 'Chekov in Yalta' (14th August 1988) featured Tom Courtney as Chekov and was based on a stage play by John Driver and Jeffrey Haddow which detailed a visit by the Moscow Arts Theatre Company to Chekhov’s villa in 1900.
1] Ann Jellicoe and Donald McWhinnie interviewed by Robert Rubens in Transatlantic Review No 12, Spring 1963, p27
[3] Special Sound: The Creation and Legacy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Louis Niebut, Oxford University Press (2010), page 35
[4] Donald Briscoe, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, page 9
[5] Donald McWhinnie, Private Dreams and Public Nightmares, Radio Times, October 4th, 1957, page 27
[6] Prix Italia is an international Italian television, radio and website award. It was first was awarded in 1948.
[7] “Two Vivid Hours With Two Players” by DFB, The Stage, Thursday 27th September 1962, page 13
[8] “An Experiment That Worked Remarkably Well” by Ann Purser, The Stage, Thursday 17th April 1969, page 12
[9] “Immaculate Acting in Sensitive Adaptation” by John Philips, The Stage, Thursday 7th January 1971, page 11
[10] “Buchan Serial Dull, Prosey and Slow” by Charles Barron, The Stage, Thursday 22nd April 1976, page 13
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