Bill Bain (director)

This article is about the film director. For other uses of this name, see Bill Bain (disambiguation).

Bill Bain (18 December 1929 in Wauchope, New South Wales, Australia – 21 February 1982 in London, England) was an Australian television and film director.

Biography

Australia

Bill Bain originally trained as a school teacher, but became a pioneer of Australian television after he joined the fledgling Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the 1950s.[1]

In Australia, he directed the country's first TV pantomime for Christmas in 1959.[2] He also directed the TV plays Corinth House (1961) and Funnel Web (1962).

Britain

He left Australia in 1963 for Europe and directed numerous episodes of British television series, including Harpers West One, Emerald Soup, The Avengers, Callan, Redcap, Upstairs Downstairs, The Duchess of Duke Street, Enemy at the Door, The Brack Report, and Armchair Theatre.[3]

It was noteworthy that "For many, Upstairs, Downstairs and The Duchess of Duke Street typify excellence in British television drama. The leading director for both series was Bill Bain, an Australian".[4]

For Amicus he directed a feature film What Became of Jack and Jill?.[5] Bain called the film "a savage indictment of the shallow education young people get today."[6] Another 'one off' was a TV adaptation of a Noël Coward short story called Pretty Polly in which he directed Lynn Redgrave.[7] On location in Sri Lanka, he directed an episode of the 1973 Australian-British-German series Elephant Boy based on the Rudyard Kipling story Toomai of the Elephants.

Bain returned to Australia briefly in 1973 where he lamented the quality of local television.[8] He came back in 1975 to attempt to set up a $1 million feature about opal mining.[9]

He won an Emmy Award in 1975 for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for his work on the Upstairs, Downstairs episode "The Sudden Storm".[10]

In 1979, he returned to Australia for three months to be a consultant at the Film and Television School.

In 1968, he married the British actress Rosemary Frankau[11] and they had two sons Matthew and Sam Bain.

He died in St Stephens Hospital in London aged 52.[12] The cause of his death was melanoma.

Select filmography

References

  1. ^ "Introducing Bill Bain". ABC Weekly. p. 44.
  2. ^ "No Ill Will at Christmas". The Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 30 December 1959. p. 42. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  3. ^ "DID YOU KNOW?". The Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 22 April 1964. p. 16. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  4. ^ Murray, Scott; Beilby, Peter; Philippe, Mora (1978). "Bill Bain Interview with Scott Murray". Cinema Papers. 17: 10–13. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  5. ^ Vagg, Stephen (28 June 2020). "Ten random Australian connections with Hammer Films". Filmink.
  6. ^ "Cueing in the Cucumbers". Sydney Morning Herald. 19 March 1973. p. 53.
  7. ^ "'Pretty Polly'". Television Heaven. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  8. ^ "Cueing in the Cucumbers". Sydney Morning Herald. 19 March 1973. p. 53.
  9. ^ "Director in Talks on $1 m Aust film". Sydney Morning Herald. 3 November 1975. p. 2.
  10. ^ "'Upstairs chap'down under Bill Bain home with an Emmy". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 24 November 1975. p. 3. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  11. ^ "SOCIAL ROUNDABOUT". The Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 29 May 1968. p. 10. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  12. ^ "Film director found success in England". Sydney Morning Herald. 23 February 1982. p. 10.
  13. ^ "TV serial a multi-nation affair". The Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 23 October 1963. p. 17. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  14. ^ "TELEVISION Miss Jones' new format". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 29 March 1968. p. 13. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  15. ^ "Kangaroo Valley' play on BBC". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 7 November 1969. p. 17. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.


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