Haldane Duncan
Encyclopedia
Haldane Duncan is a television producer
and director
, best known for his contributions to soap opera
s.
, the popular music
television show
which ran from 1964 to 2006, and the children's show, Crackerjack, hosted by Leslie Crowther
. For a few months he worked with the legendary Dennis Main Wilson on a pilot Sit Com for Jimmy Tarbuck by Johnny Speight called To Lucifer a Son. He then worked on shows starring Dusty Springfield
, with guests such as Tom Jones, Scott Walker and Mel Tormé. recorded at the BBC Television Theatre
in Shepherd's Bush
.Autobiographical detail, from an interview with Duncan, part 1: TV Heroes website. Retrieved on March 15, 2008. The last programme he worked on in London was the BBC's first Light Entertainment series in colour, Once More with Felix, starring Julie Felix. Both series were Produced and Directed by Stanley Dorfman
.
In 1968, Duncan back to work in his native country, for BBC Scotland
, although he still spent "an inordinate amount of time in London" on training courses. These included attachments to the Paul Temple series starring Frances Matthews and Doomwatch starring Robert Powell. Whilst with them, he was the Assistant Floor Manager on the production of Dr. Finlay's Casebook
, which starred Andrew Cruickshank
, Bill Simpson
and Barbara Mullen
. He also worked on several Wednesday Plays Produced and Directed by Pharic MacLaren, and The Borderers, starring Iain Cuthbertson and Michael Gambon
He started directing on the BBC Scotland series Songs of Scotland. A special version was produced for the BBC's 1973 Hogmanay Show and saw the first TV appearance of Bill Paterson. In 1974 he moved to Scottish Television
, the ITV
regional station, where he began producing and directing. In 1977 he was in charge of their In Concert productions, beginning with one featuring Barbara Dickson
on February 7, 1977. He made Devine Country, a series featuring Scotland’s major Country & Western star, Sydney Devine. He also directed the popular music series, Thingamajig. By 1979, he was making documentaries at home and abroad and in 1980 began adding drama to his output. It was around this time that "ITV wanted a daytime
soap from Scotland but had no interest in Garnock Way
, the weekly serial that STV
made for local consumption", and so Duncan was set to work on Take the High Road
(initially named The Glendhu Factor and then High Road - Low Road, finally settling on the title by which it was known until 1994, when it changed to just High Road).
He directed the Hogmanay Show in December 1981, which traditionally saw out the old year and brought in the new, and in 1982 covered an outside broadcast from the Edinburgh Festival
of Benjamin Britten
's Noye's Fludde
.
boys [who] gain access to the housemaster
's personal files during a midnight feast". Previously he had made a series for schools called Scot's History. In the one featuring Bonnie Price Charlie's retreat at Derby, the title role was played by a young Alan Rickman in one of his first TV appearances.
Duncan produced the three-part story "Murder in Season" (with Ken Stott and Isla Blair. from the popular Scottish TV series Taggart
in 1985, and he would go on to direct six complete storylines within the show between 1986 and 1990. Knife Edge (with Iain Glen, Siobhan Redmond and Alex Norton as the butcher.) Death Call (with Alan Cumming, Julie Graham and John Cairney) The Killing Philosophy (with Sheila Greir and Phillip Dupuy) Cold Blood (with Diane Keen) Hostile Witness (Neil McKinven, Paul Higgans and Robert Carlyle) and Evil Eye (with Jill Gascoine and John Hannah) His other major television contribution in 1985 featured the Scottish folk musicians, The Corries with guests such as Judy Collins, Tom Paxton, Louden Wainwright 111, Lonnie Donegan and The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem, in a six-part series he produced and directed, entitled “The Corries and Other Folk”.[18]
Apart from his Taggart work in 1986, he also directed a televised Scottish Opera
performance of Rossini's La cambiale di matrimonio on July 9, 1986. And from 1986 to 1988, he produced or directed various children's television plays in the Dramarama
series which ran from 1983 to 1989 on Scottish Television. These were My Mum's a Courgette (with Elaine C Smith) by Janice Halley, Waiting for Elvis by Alex Norton, Stan's First Night (with Gregor Fisher) by Alex Norton, Brainwaves by Anne Marie De Mambro, The Secret of Croftmore (featuring a sixteen year old David Tennant) by James Graham and The Macramé Man by Stuart Hepburn, starring Mark MacManus. His other major work of that period, broadcast on December 31, 1988, was The Steamie
, with Eileen McCallum, Dorothy Paul, Katy Murphy, Sheila Donald and PeterMullan a "TV version of the stage play by Tony Roper
", which he co-produced and directed, and in which a group of Scottish washerwomen try to finish their work in the Public Washouse before the Hogmanay
festivities start. His contributions to Take the High Road continued in parallel that year, and in 1989 he directed the 60 minute drama Albert and the Lion, by Kevin Clarke, which starred James Ellis
and Russell Hunter
. On three consecutive years from 1990 to 1992 he Produced and Directed the Hogmanay Show for STV. These were innovative in that the music was integrated with a story. A Guid New Year was set in an imaginary flat in Glasgow. A' the Best was set in an hotel (The Heidrum Hodrum) hosting a TV Hogmany Show ( thinly disguised send up of BBC's disastrous broadcast from the Gleneagles Hotel). Out With the Old took place in an old folks home for theatricals (Dungagin') and featured the last Hogmany appearance of Andy Stewart.
Returning home in 1995, he immediately began work on the Nicky Campbell
-hosted TV game show
Wheel of Fortune
, which ran from 1988 to 2001, and which featured contestant
s who would gamble for big prizes on the spin of a giant wheel, in conjunction with a word game
format.
1996 was also the year in which Duncan entered the sphere of directing British soap opera
s in earnest, beginning with 9 episodes of Channel 4's Liverpool
-based Brookside
, for Mersey Television
. Duncan would return to make several more episodes in 1999 and 2000, before moving on. Also in 1996 and on into 1997, he was director for six instalments of the other big Channel 4/Mersey TV hit Hollyoaks
. He then made fourteen editions of the Cockney
soap opera EastEnders
for the BBC
in 1997/98 - edited clips of these contributions would also be featured in EastEnders: The Mitchells - Naked Truths, a television special focussing on the Mitchell family who feature heavily in the London soap.
Duncan made a nostalgic
return to Scottish Television
to direct the one-off sport
s drama The Game in 1998. This told the tale of "a Rangers
fan
atic and a Celtic
fanatic [who] put aside their differences and unite behind the Scottish team
for the 1978 World Cup
from the comfort of their couch
". It featured Alex Norton, Andy Gray, Phyllis Logan and Forbes Masson. In early 1999, he directed several instalments of the children's television show Hububb, a vehicle
for kids' comic
Les Bubb
, featuring Elaine C Smith, Ford Keirnon and Grag Hemphill
In the year 2000, he directed eleven episodes of Coronation Street
for Granada Television
. In 2001 he made fifteen episodes of the "new" Crossroads for Central TV in Nottingham. In 2002 made several of the River City
soap opera shows for BBC Scotland, "set in a fictional West End area of Glasgow called 'Shieldinch' that, whilst looking authentically Glaswegian, follows the template of Albert Square
, complete with local shop, café and pub". He returned to direct six more instalments of Coronation Street in 2003 and 2004.
, which airs on the ITV
network several times a week. Beginning in 1972 as Emmerdale Farm, it initially centred on just the agricultural
base of the Sugden family, with other characters appearing there from the surrounding areas. Over time, the village of Beckindale was included more often, the most famous landmark of the early days being The Woolpack
public house
, which became a social meeting place for many of the characters. The village changed its name to Emmerdale in 1994, although the change of name for the series happened in 1989.
Haldane Duncan directed his first episode of Emmerdale for Yorkshire Television
on November 8, 1999. The producer was Kieran Roberts and the script was by Bill Lyons. He devoted much of his time over the next nine years to the programme making 260 Episodes. The last known contribution to the soap opera from him as director was on 27 August 2008.
This is also his last recorded work of any kind.
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
and director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, best known for his contributions to soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s.
Early years
In 1958 Duncan left George Heriot's School in Edinburgh to take up a career in Insurance. In 1965, after attending the College of Drama in Glasgow (now the RSAMD), Duncan moved to working in the Theatre in Edinburgh. Firstly at the Traverse in its original location in James’ Court on the Lawnmarket under Jim Haynes. He then became a founder member of The Royal Lyceum Theare of Edinburgh where Tom Fleming was the Artistic Director. Tom Conti, Brian Cox and Eileen McCallum were also in that Company. In 1967, got a job in television with the BBC working as a "holiday relief" assistant floor manager] on programmes such as Top of the PopsTop of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
, the popular music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
television show
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
which ran from 1964 to 2006, and the children's show, Crackerjack, hosted by Leslie Crowther
Leslie Crowther
Leslie Crowther, CBE was an English comedian, actor and gameshow host.-Biography:Crowther was born in West Bridgford in Nottinghamshire. At the end of 1944 he moved to London with his parents, but was evacuated for a few months to Bute until just after the war ended.His father, Leslie Frederick...
. For a few months he worked with the legendary Dennis Main Wilson on a pilot Sit Com for Jimmy Tarbuck by Johnny Speight called To Lucifer a Son. He then worked on shows starring Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
, with guests such as Tom Jones, Scott Walker and Mel Tormé. recorded at the BBC Television Theatre
Shepherds Bush Empire
The O2 Shepherds Bush Empire is a music venue in Shepherd's Bush, London, England, run by the Academy Music Group. It was built in 1903, as a music hall, and in 1953 became the BBC Television Theatre...
in Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush
-Commerce:Commercial activity in Shepherd's Bush is now focused on the Westfield shopping centre next to Shepherd's Bush Central line station and on the many small shops which run along the northern side of the Green....
.Autobiographical detail, from an interview with Duncan, part 1: TV Heroes website. Retrieved on March 15, 2008. The last programme he worked on in London was the BBC's first Light Entertainment series in colour, Once More with Felix, starring Julie Felix. Both series were Produced and Directed by Stanley Dorfman
Stanley Dorfman
Stanley Dorfman is music director and producer.Dorfman was active in Great Britain throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He was the original co-producer and director for the TV music show Top Of The Pops and created and directed the BBC’s In Concert series....
.
In 1968, Duncan back to work in his native country, for BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
, although he still spent "an inordinate amount of time in London" on training courses. These included attachments to the Paul Temple series starring Frances Matthews and Doomwatch starring Robert Powell. Whilst with them, he was the Assistant Floor Manager on the production of Dr. Finlay's Casebook
Dr. Finlay
Dr. Finlay is a fictional character, the hero of a series of stories by Scottish author A. J. Cronin.-History:The stories were used as the basis for the long-running BBC television programme, Dr. Finlay's Casebook, screened from 1962 to 1971, and radio series . Based on Cronin's novella entitled...
, which starred Andrew Cruickshank
Andrew Cruickshank
Andrew John Maxton Cruickshank was a Scottish supporting actor, most famous for his portrayal of Dr Cameron in the long-running UK BBC television series, Dr Finlay's Casebook, which ran for 191 episodes from 1962 until 1971.-Life and career:Andrew Cruickshank was born to Andrew and Mary...
, Bill Simpson
Bill Simpson (actor)
William Nicholson Simpson was a Scottish film and television actor, most famous for his portrayal of the title role in the long-running BBC TV series, Dr. Finlay's Casebook.-Beginnings:...
and Barbara Mullen
Barbara Mullen
Barbara Mullen was an American actress well known in the UK for playing the part of Janet the housekeeper in Dr Finlay's Casebook...
. He also worked on several Wednesday Plays Produced and Directed by Pharic MacLaren, and The Borderers, starring Iain Cuthbertson and Michael Gambon
He started directing on the BBC Scotland series Songs of Scotland. A special version was produced for the BBC's 1973 Hogmanay Show and saw the first TV appearance of Bill Paterson. In 1974 he moved to Scottish Television
Scottish Television
Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV franchisee, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. It is the second oldest ITV franchisee still active...
, the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
regional station, where he began producing and directing. In 1977 he was in charge of their In Concert productions, beginning with one featuring Barbara Dickson
Barbara Dickson
Barbara Ruth Dickson, OBE is a Scottish singer whose hits include "I Know Him So Well" and "January February"...
on February 7, 1977. He made Devine Country, a series featuring Scotland’s major Country & Western star, Sydney Devine. He also directed the popular music series, Thingamajig. By 1979, he was making documentaries at home and abroad and in 1980 began adding drama to his output. It was around this time that "ITV wanted a daytime
Daytime television
Daytime television is the general term for television shows produced that are intended to air during the daytime hours on weekdays. This article is about American daytime television, for information about international daytime television see Daytime television....
soap from Scotland but had no interest in Garnock Way
Garnock Way
Garnock Way was a short-lived Scottish soap opera, produced by Scottish Television for the ITV network, running from 1976 to 1979. Set in a mining community in a town halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh...
, the weekly serial that STV
Scottish Television
Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV franchisee, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. It is the second oldest ITV franchisee still active...
made for local consumption", and so Duncan was set to work on Take the High Road
Take the High Road
Take the High Road was a Scottish soap opera produced by Scottish Television, and set in the fictional village of Glendarroch , and claims to have about 2 million fans, including the Queen Mother...
(initially named The Glendhu Factor and then High Road - Low Road, finally settling on the title by which it was known until 1994, when it changed to just High Road).
He directed the Hogmanay Show in December 1981, which traditionally saw out the old year and brought in the new, and in 1982 covered an outside broadcast from the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
of Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Noye's Fludde
Noye's Fludde
Noye's Fludde is an early 15th century mystery play from the Chester Mystery Cycle. It was set to music by Benjamin Britten in 1957 based on an edition by Alfred W. Pollard...
.
Expanding his horizons
His first major Drama was “The Old Master” by Donald Campbell, in a story featuring Andrew Keir celebrating his 100th birthday. John Welsh and Rowena Cooper were also in it. He had continued to direct episodes of Take the High Road well into 1985, but still found time to make a series for new writers called Preview. The titles included Should we come back to-morrow (with Maurice Roeves) by James Graham and Midnight Feast (with Robert Addie) by Michael Wilcox. It told the story of "[t]wo public schoolIndependent school (UK)
An independent school is a school that is not financed through the taxation system by local or national government and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so is not subject to the conditions imposed by...
boys [who] gain access to the housemaster
Housemaster
In British education, a housemaster is a member of staff in charge of a boarding house, normally at a boarding school . The housemaster is responsible for the supervision and care of boarders in the house and typically lives on the premises...
's personal files during a midnight feast". Previously he had made a series for schools called Scot's History. In the one featuring Bonnie Price Charlie's retreat at Derby, the title role was played by a young Alan Rickman in one of his first TV appearances.
Duncan produced the three-part story "Murder in Season" (with Ken Stott and Isla Blair. from the popular Scottish TV series Taggart
Taggart
Taggart is a Scottish detective television programme, created by Glenn Chandler, who has written many of the episodes, and made by STV Productions for the ITV network...
in 1985, and he would go on to direct six complete storylines within the show between 1986 and 1990. Knife Edge (with Iain Glen, Siobhan Redmond and Alex Norton as the butcher.) Death Call (with Alan Cumming, Julie Graham and John Cairney) The Killing Philosophy (with Sheila Greir and Phillip Dupuy) Cold Blood (with Diane Keen) Hostile Witness (Neil McKinven, Paul Higgans and Robert Carlyle) and Evil Eye (with Jill Gascoine and John Hannah) His other major television contribution in 1985 featured the Scottish folk musicians, The Corries with guests such as Judy Collins, Tom Paxton, Louden Wainwright 111, Lonnie Donegan and The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem, in a six-part series he produced and directed, entitled “The Corries and Other Folk”.[18]
Apart from his Taggart work in 1986, he also directed a televised Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies funded by the Scottish Government...
performance of Rossini's La cambiale di matrimonio on July 9, 1986. And from 1986 to 1988, he produced or directed various children's television plays in the Dramarama
Dramarama (TV series)
Dramarama is the name of a British children's' anthology series broadcast on ITV between 1983 and 1989. It tended to feature drama of a science fiction or supernatural bent. The programme was administered by Tyne Tees Television in Newcastle, who had a track-record for organising cross-franchise...
series which ran from 1983 to 1989 on Scottish Television. These were My Mum's a Courgette (with Elaine C Smith) by Janice Halley, Waiting for Elvis by Alex Norton, Stan's First Night (with Gregor Fisher) by Alex Norton, Brainwaves by Anne Marie De Mambro, The Secret of Croftmore (featuring a sixteen year old David Tennant) by James Graham and The Macramé Man by Stuart Hepburn, starring Mark MacManus. His other major work of that period, broadcast on December 31, 1988, was The Steamie
The Steamie
The Steamie is a comedy-drama stage play, written by Rab C. Nesbitt actor Tony Roper. It followed the lives of a group of 1950s Glasgow women washing their clothes in a public washhouse . It was first performed at the Crawford Theatre, Glasgow in 1987.A television version was made by Scottish...
, with Eileen McCallum, Dorothy Paul, Katy Murphy, Sheila Donald and PeterMullan a "TV version of the stage play by Tony Roper
Tony Roper (actor)
Tony Roper is a Scottish actor, comedian, playwright and writer.His first major starring role was in Scotch and Wry. He wrote the classic comedy-drama The Steamie in 1988. He achieved even greater fame in Naked Video and in the spin off series Rab C Nesbitt, in which he played Rab's...
", which he co-produced and directed, and in which a group of Scottish washerwomen try to finish their work in the Public Washouse before the Hogmanay
Hogmanay
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner...
festivities start. His contributions to Take the High Road continued in parallel that year, and in 1989 he directed the 60 minute drama Albert and the Lion, by Kevin Clarke, which starred James Ellis
James Ellis (actor)
James Ellis is an actor from Northern Ireland with a television career of more than 45 years. He went to school at Methodist College Belfast and later studied at both Queen's University Belfast and the Bristol Old Vic....
and Russell Hunter
Russell Hunter
Russell Hunter was a popular Scottish television, stage and film actor. He is perhaps best known as the character "Lonely" in the TV thriller series Callan, starring Edward Woodward and that of Shop-Steward Harry in the Yorkshire Television sitcom The Gaffer.-Life:Born Russell Ellis in Glasgow,...
. On three consecutive years from 1990 to 1992 he Produced and Directed the Hogmanay Show for STV. These were innovative in that the music was integrated with a story. A Guid New Year was set in an imaginary flat in Glasgow. A' the Best was set in an hotel (The Heidrum Hodrum) hosting a TV Hogmany Show ( thinly disguised send up of BBC's disastrous broadcast from the Gleneagles Hotel). Out With the Old took place in an old folks home for theatricals (Dungagin') and featured the last Hogmany appearance of Andy Stewart.
The 1990s and a new century
At the beginning of the new decade, Duncan cut his ties with Scottish Television, becoming freelance, and began work for BBC Scotland on two instalments of “Strathblair,[25] the "[t]en part drama series set in Scotland during the 1950s".[26]. It featured Andrew Keir and Ian Carmichael. From 1992 to 1995, he directed ten episodes of the London police drama The Bill for Thames Television,[24] With the success of "emergency services" television drama series, such as The Bill and Casualty, in the United Kingdom, Duncan spent part of 1994 in Germany, where he had been commissioned by production company Endemol to direct two hour-long instalments of the Bill-style police drama, “Die Wache”,[27] for their home market. The episodes were filmed in Cologne and North Rhine-Westphalia,[29] with the police station set being located in the Cologne suburb of Dellbrück.[28]Returning home in 1995, he immediately began work on the Nicky Campbell
Nicky Campbell
Nicholas Andrew Argyll "Nicky" Campbell is a Scottish radio and television presenter and journalist. He is known for his time presenting on programmes such as the consumer affairs programme Watchdog...
-hosted TV game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (UK game show)
Wheel of Fortune is a British television game show created by Merv Griffin. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes...
, which ran from 1988 to 2001, and which featured contestant
Contestant
A contestant is someone who takes part in a competition, usually a professional competition or a game show on television. The participants competing against each other have to go through rounds...
s who would gamble for big prizes on the spin of a giant wheel, in conjunction with a word game
Word game
Word games and puzzles are spoken or board games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.Word games are generally engaged as a source of entertainment, but have been found to serve an educational purpose as well...
format.
1996 was also the year in which Duncan entered the sphere of directing British soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s in earnest, beginning with 9 episodes of Channel 4's Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
-based Brookside
Brookside
Brookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
, for Mersey Television
Mersey Television
Lime Pictures, formerly known as Mersey Television, is a British television production company, founded by producer and writer Phil Redmond in the early 1980s....
. Duncan would return to make several more episodes in 1999 and 2000, before moving on. Also in 1996 and on into 1997, he was director for six instalments of the other big Channel 4/Mersey TV hit Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill...
. He then made fourteen editions of the Cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
soap opera EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1997/98 - edited clips of these contributions would also be featured in EastEnders: The Mitchells - Naked Truths, a television special focussing on the Mitchell family who feature heavily in the London soap.
Duncan made a nostalgic
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
return to Scottish Television
Scottish Television
Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV franchisee, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. It is the second oldest ITV franchisee still active...
to direct the one-off sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
s drama The Game in 1998. This told the tale of "a Rangers
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
fan
Fan (person)
A Fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person with a liking and enthusiasm for something, such as a band or a sports team. Fans of a particular thing or person constitute its fanbase or fandom...
atic and a Celtic
Celtic F.C.
Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...
fanatic [who] put aside their differences and unite behind the Scottish team
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...
for the 1978 World Cup
1978 FIFA World Cup
The 1978 FIFA World Cup, the 11th staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in Argentina between 1 June and 25 June. The 1978 World Cup was won by Argentina who beat the Netherlands 3–1 after extra time in the final. This win was the first World Cup title for Argentina, who became the fifth...
from the comfort of their couch
Couch
A couch, also called a sofa, is an item of furniture designed to seat more than one person, and providing support for the back and arms. Typically, it will have an armrest on either side. In homes couches are normally found in the family room, living room, den or the lounge...
". It featured Alex Norton, Andy Gray, Phyllis Logan and Forbes Masson. In early 1999, he directed several instalments of the children's television show Hububb, a vehicle
Star vehicle
A star vehicle has historically been a movie, play, TV series, or other production whose primary purpose, besides turning a profit, is to enhance someone's career. Vehicles are most commonly produced when a young or inexperienced actor has signed a long-term contract with a major studio...
for kids' comic
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Les Bubb
Les Bubb
-Career:Les Bubb who was born in Liverpool, started his miming career way back in 1982, where he performed in pubs and cabaret clubs.He got his big break in 1988, after appearing on Jim Davidson Introduces: New Entertainers, Friday Night Live twice, and on the kids' show Going Live!, all of which...
, featuring Elaine C Smith, Ford Keirnon and Grag Hemphill
In the year 2000, he directed eleven episodes of Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
for Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
. In 2001 he made fifteen episodes of the "new" Crossroads for Central TV in Nottingham. In 2002 made several of the River City
River City
River City is a Scottish television soap opera, first broadcast in Scotland on BBC Scotland on 24 September 2002. River City storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional district of Shieldinch in Glasgow...
soap opera shows for BBC Scotland, "set in a fictional West End area of Glasgow called 'Shieldinch' that, whilst looking authentically Glaswegian, follows the template of Albert Square
Albert Square
Albert Square is the fictional location of the BBC soap opera EastEnders. It is ostensibly located in the equally fictional London borough of Walford in London's East End. The square's design was based on the real life Fassett Square in Hackney, and was given the name Albert Square after the real...
, complete with local shop, café and pub". He returned to direct six more instalments of Coronation Street in 2003 and 2004.
Nine years in Emmerdale
Since 1999, Duncan has worked on the one other major soap opera so far not mentioned - EmmerdaleEmmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
, which airs on the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network several times a week. Beginning in 1972 as Emmerdale Farm, it initially centred on just the agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
base of the Sugden family, with other characters appearing there from the surrounding areas. Over time, the village of Beckindale was included more often, the most famous landmark of the early days being The Woolpack
The Woolpack
This article is about the soap opera. Click the link for the Cumulus cloud formation synonym.The Woolpack is a fictional public house on the popular ITV soap opera Emmerdale. Its sign is a wool bale, a popular symbol in sheep-rearing country. It has played host to many of the soap's storylines and...
public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
, which became a social meeting place for many of the characters. The village changed its name to Emmerdale in 1994, although the change of name for the series happened in 1989.
Haldane Duncan directed his first episode of Emmerdale for Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
on November 8, 1999. The producer was Kieran Roberts and the script was by Bill Lyons. He devoted much of his time over the next nine years to the programme making 260 Episodes. The last known contribution to the soap opera from him as director was on 27 August 2008.
This is also his last recorded work of any kind.
External links
- Complete 11-part interview with Haldane Duncan at the TV Heroes website