Peter Grimwade
Biography
Peter Grimwade (8 June 1942 – 15 May 1990) was a British television director and screenwriter, known for his work as a director and writer of the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who in the 1980s. After joining the BBC in the late 1960s, Grimwade first worked on Doctor Who as a production assistant on Jon Pertwee's first serial, Spearhead from Space (1970). He occupied this position on a further five serials. He got his first chance to direct when he was asked to film some model shots for the serial The Robots of Death (1977). George Gallaccio, producer of The Omega Factor (1979), gave Grimwade his full directorial debut on the episode "Out of Body, Out of Mind" in the series. Grimwade was also around this time a production assistant on the BBC's All Creatures Great and Small (1978) and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979). After directing the Doctor Who serial Full Circle (1980) from John Nathan-Turner's first season as producer, Grimwade was given the task of directing Tom Baker's final serial, Logopolis (1981). When Peter Davison became the Doctor, Grimwade first directed him in the serial Kinda (1982) and then directed Earthshock, featuring the return of the Cybermen after seven years and the death of the Doctor's companion Adric. Grimwade had also written two serials, Time-Flight (1982) and Mawdryn Undead (1983), and had been asked to write Davison's penultimate story, which became Planet of Fire (1984). Because the story's requirements were in constant flux, mainly due to uncertainty over the filming location and cast changes, he eventually became frustrated and allowed script editor Eric Saward to finish the serial.
Known For & Full Filmography2 Titles
Drama Series - 2015, 16 episodes • as Himself
Myth Makers was a semi-professional series of documentaries about the principal creatives of the 1963 version of Doctor Who. It was produced for the direct-to-video market by Reeltime Pictures — with most releases being interviews of a single cast or crew member conducted by Nick Briggs. The vast majority of the original interviews were conducted between the mid-1980s and the early 2000s. A few more volumes surfaced until the late 2000s, but most of the releases in the 2000s were actually remastered — and often re-edited — versions of the the interviews that had originally been recorded in the 1980s or 1990s. The series was notable for being the first video series about the production of Doctor Who. Its longevity proved there was an appetite for such information, and it is probably fair to say that it helped pave the way for Doctor Who Confidential, as well as the audio interviews that became commonplace on most Big Finish audio CDs.
Movie - 2011, 2h 15m • as Self
A look at the career of Peter Grimwade: writer, director and the name behind the eponymous robot phobia syndrome.