Derek Bennett
Derek Bennett (5 November 1930 — 2005) was an English television director and producer.
Works
Coronation Street
The residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Britain's longest-running soap.
Release Date1960-12-09
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count7
Vote Count117
Play for Today
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
Release Date1970-10-15
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count1
Vote Count10
Emmerdale
The lives of several families in the Yorkshire Dales revolve around a farm and the nearby village. With murders, affairs, lies, deceit, laughter and tears, it's all there in the village.
Release Date1972-10-16
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count4
Vote Count100
ITV Playhouse
ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.
Release Date1967-09-25
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count5
Vote Count3
ITV Play of the Week
A UK anthology series of single plays from major playwrights old and new. It ran from 1955 to 1974, producing about five hundred ninety-minute episodes from Granada Television. Season 1 also incorporates the Plays from the 'H.M. Tennant Globe Theatre' series, some of which were incorporated and labelled in listings as official Play of the Week episodes and some of which were played in place of Play of the Week episodes in alternative ITV regions. All 8 plays have been incorporated into this entry for convenience.
Release Date1955-09-27
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count7
Vote Count5
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.
Release Date1975-12-17
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count1
Vote Count24
Upstairs, Downstairs
Upstairs: the wealthy, aristocratic Bellamys. Downstairs: their loyal and lively servants. For nearly 30 years, they share a fashionable townhouse at 165 Eaton Place in London’s posh Belgravia neighborhood, surviving social change, political upheaval, scandals, and the horrors of the First World War.
Release Date1971-10-10
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count11
Vote Count32
Centre Play
Anthology series of half hour plays produced in BBC's Television Centre's studios.
Release Date1973-07-19
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count3
Vote Count1
The Main Chance
The Main Chance was a British television series which first aired on ITV between 1969,1970,1972 and 1975. A drama, it depicts the sudden transformation in the life of solicitor David Main who relocates from London to Leeds.
Release Date1969-06-18
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count4
Vote Count4
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
Anthology series of dramatic works.
Release Date1969-01-11
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count3
Vote Count3
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
An anthology series produced by Thames Television, comprised of short mystery, suspense or crime adaptations featuring, as the title suggests, detectives who were literary contemporaries of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.
Release Date1971-09-20
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count2
Vote Count11
Wilde Alliance
Wilde Alliance is a 1978 British television programme created by Ian Mackintosh and produced by Yorkshire Television for l ITV. The light-hearted mystery series follows husband-and-wife amateur detectives Rupert and Amy Wilde.
Release Date1978-01-17
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count3
Vote Count3
Hadleigh
Hadleigh was a British television series made by Yorkshire Television which originally ran from 1969 to 1976. Developed by Robert Barr, it was a sequel to the writer's earlier Gazette for the same company. The theme music was composed by Alan Moorhouse and, from series 3, Tony Hatch. James Hadleigh played by Gerald Harper, was "the perfect squire, paternalistically careful of his tenantry's welfare, beloved in the village, respected in the council." A "knight in a shining white Aston Martin V8, he sets about correcting local injustices." His wife, from a lower-class background, was played by Hilary Dwyer. The series attracted around 17 million viewers at its peak.
Release Date1969-09-16
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count4
Vote Count4
Bootsie and Snudge
Bootsie and Snudge is a British television situation comedy series written, in the early days, by Barry Took and Marty Feldman; later writers were John Antrobus, Jack Rosenthal, ventriloquist Ray Alan and Harry Driver. The plot follows Former Sergeant Major Claude Snudge meets up with Corporal Bootsie when they both start work at an exclusive Gentlemen's Club. Of the 104 produced episodes, 100 of these survive.
Release Date1960-09-23
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count3
Vote Count2
The Sandbaggers
The Sandbaggers is a British television drama series about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War. Set contemporaneously with its original broadcast on ITV in 1978 and 1980, The Sandbaggers examines the effect of the espionage game on the personal and professional lives of British and American intelligence specialists.
Release Date1978-09-18
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count1
Vote Count12
Lytton's Diary
Lytton's Diary is a 1985–86 British comedy-drama programme created and written by Peter Bowles and Philip Broadley. Produced by Thames Television for ITV, it originated as a single play on the anthology programme Storyboard before expanding into two popular series, known for their mix of glamour, intrigue, and social commentary. Bowles stars as Neville Lytton, a suave and successful Fleet Street gossip columnist for the Daily News. Lytton navigates the world of high-society scandals, political corruption, and personal challenges, balancing his professional life with his love life and his ambition to write a novel.
Release Date1985-01-09
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count2
Vote Count3
Knight Errant Limited
Adam Knight is a young man who, having tried several jobs, decides to set up an agency, 'Knight Errant '59', to solve other people's problems - whatever they may be. There's plenty of scope and, assisted by former reporter Liz and idealistic young writer Peter, the latter-day Sir Lancelot is kept busy with a variety of curious and exciting cases. The series had two titles, Knight Errant '59 and Knight Errant Limited of which only two episodes exist out of the 75 produced.
Release Date1959-10-13
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count6
Family Solicitor
Naylor and Freeman is a firm of solicitors. There are five partners, and each handles a variety of cases involving human problems.
Release Date1961-06-28
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count5
Villains
Follows the linked fates of nine bank robbers, led by George. It begins with the nine men meeting in prison during their appeal and traces each individual after the group escape from custody.
Release Date1972-07-22
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count1
Vote Count4
The Odd Man
The first of a trilogy of police procedurals produced in the 1960s by Granada TV, linked by the presence of pompous but increasingly genial police Chief Inspector Charles Rose, The Odd Man initially dealt with the investigations of theatrical-agent-cum-detective Steve Gardiner, and his encounters with the police in the form of Chief Inspector Gordon and DS Swift. By season three, Rose takes Gardiner's place.
Release Date1960-10-19
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count8
Vote Count1
Armchair Thriller
Armchair Thriller is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in two series in 1978 and 1980. Owing something to some of the off-shoots of the earlier Armchair Theatre, the new series used scripts adapted from published novels and stories. Although not properly a horror series it included several supernatural elements. Armchair Thriller was produced by Thames Television, but it included serials made by Southern Television.
Release Date1978-02-21
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count6
Vote Count5
It's Dark Outside
This spin-off from The Odd Man (1962) starred William Mervyn as the acerbic Inspector Rose, who, alongside the soft-hearted pensive Det. Sgt. Swift (Keith Barron), are joined by Anthony (John Carson) and Alice Brand (June Toblin), a barrister and his journalist wife, though not for long. By the second season, the Brands and Swift departed, leaving the calm, cold Rose in prime position, supported by newcomers DS Hunter (Anthony Ainley), his girlfriend Claire (Veronica Strong), and her boozy reporter friend Fred Blaine (John Stratton).
Release Date1964-01-03
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Episode Count8
Skyport
Release Date1959-07-02
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count4
The Caesars
The Caesars is a British television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network in 1968. Made in black-and-white and written and produced by Philip Mackie, it covered similar dramatic territory to the later BBC adaptation of I, Claudius, dealing with the lives of the early emperors of Ancient Rome, but differed in its less sensationalist depictions of historical characters and their motives.
Release Date1968-09-22
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count6
Vote Count6
Conceptions of Murder
In this 6-episode series, the playwright Clive Exton recreated 6 sensational murder cases of the 20th Century, exploring the motives of the killers.
Release Date1970-09-18
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count3
Affairs of the Heart
Anthology series of thirteen one-hour love stories based on the short stories of Henry James.
Release Date1974-09-29
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count3
Vote Count1
Napoleon and Love
Napoleon and Love is a British television miniseries produced by Thames Television for ITV, lasting for nine episodes from 5 March to 30 April 1974. The series stars Ian Holm in the title role as Napoleon and depicts his relationships with the women who featured in his life as a backdrop to his rise and fall.
Release Date1974-03-05
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count3
Vote Count1
Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968.
Release Date1956-07-08
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count1
Vote Count6
Born and Bred
Two large, interrelated south London families struggle to believe that blood is thicker than water.
Release Date1978-09-13
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count4
Vote Count1
Mutinies
Gerald works in publisling. He was a pilot in World War 2 and enjoys talking about his aerial battles. His employees dislike him, apart from his loyal secretary. One evening, his wife tells him about her depression. Gerald has a solution: gin and tonic. He complains to her about the state of modern society, but his own problems are about to worsen...
Release Date1974-07-29
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Sorrell and Son
Heartfelt story of a father making sacrifices to help his son over the years. Remake of one of films great "lost films"
Release Date1984-06-06
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Episode Count6
Vote Count2
Beryl's Lot
Beryl's Lot is a British comedy drama about a woman approaching middle-age and embarking on a programme of personal development. It was written by Kevin Laffan, produced by David Cunliffe and Peter Willes, and directed by Derek Bennett and David Reynolds for Yorkshire Television and broadcast on ITV between 1973 and 1977. Beryl's Lot ran for 3 series and 52 episodes in total before its cancellation. The first two series each consisted of 13 one hour-long episodes, the third series of 26 episodes of 30 minutes.
Release Date1973-11-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count26
Grandad
A comedy of an old man's attempt to get his own way.
Release Date1982-08-07
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Man at the Top
Man at the Top was a British television series originally aired on ITV lasting for 23 episodes between 1970 and 1972 . The series depicted the character of Joe Lampton, the protagonist of John Braine's novel Room at the Top and two films Room at the Top and Life at the Top. In 1973 a spin-off film from the series, Man at the Top, was released.
Release Date1970-12-14
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count2
Vote Count3
Kindly Leave The Kerb
Jones and Butterworth play a pair of poverty-line buskers.
Release Date1971-05-21
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Episode Count6
Hot Fat
Three men meet in a sauna bath - one is a busy estate agent, one is in the middle of a sympathetic pregnancy and one is an annoying eccentric. The play shows how they spoil each other's relaxation.
Release Date1974-02-21
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Forget Me Not
Drama series about a newspaper columnist and the stories she pursues.
Release Date1976-07-18
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Episode Count6
A Catching Complaint
The perfect middle-class couple are holding a dinner party when Nicholas gets a telephone call from Sheila, the mother of his teenage daughter Joan, saying that she can no longer stand to be with her and he must look after her now.
Release Date1966-09-05
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
The Pueblo Affair
A reconstruction of an event in 1968 when a converted cargo ship the USS Pueblo was seized by the North Korean Navy as a spy ship. It was supposed to be protected by the US Pacific Fleet but they are out of range at this time. The play concerns Captain Bucher and his crew left on their own to deal with duty, their own lives and preventing another Korean War.
Release Date1970-01-19
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Tales of Unease
Tales of Unease was a British supernatural drama series based on a series of horror story anthologies, edited by John Burke. The series ran for seven episodes in 1970. The anthologies were published between 1960 and 1969.
Release Date1970-10-30
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count1
Vote Count1
Bad Bad Jo Jo
Kayo Hathaway created a wildly successful comic strip featuring "Bad Bad Jo Jo", a murderous hulking white racist, and his cackling mother. Hathaway is about to go into tax exile but decides to entertain a couple of fans. Hathaway is louche and cynical. The two fans like to dress up as the characters and act out their fantasies. Hathaway is their next victim.
Release Date1970-12-04
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Biggles
Biggles was a Detective Air Inspector attached to Scotland Yard. Helping him was Ginger & Bertie and they fought against villains like von Stalhein. Aimed at a younger audience there was plenty of action, excitement, death traps and even some flying with each adventure ending in a cliff hanger with the viewers told to tune in next week for more daring adventures.
Release Date1960-04-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count1
Vote Count2
Dodger, Bonzo and the Rest
Dodger, Bonzo and the Rest was a television drama series which centered around the lives of Michael "Dodger" Dolan and his sister, Carol who were part of a large foster family in London. It was aired in the early evenings on the ITV channel's Children's ITV. There were two series of six episodes between 1985 and 1986 plus a Christmas Special which aired on 22 December 1986. The Christmas Special was the final episode of the series. It starred Lee Ross as Dodger, and Sophy McCallum as his sister Bonzo.
Release Date1985-02-18
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count4
Vote Count2
The Law Centre
Drama set in a centre where people in trouble can get free legal help.
Release Date1978-07-08
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count1
Bloomfield
Comedy drama series by Roy Clarke about unsuccessful private eye Billy Gibbs and his ex-wrestler assistant Bloomfield.
Release Date1983-01-04
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Episode Count3
Out of the Shadows
A U.S. Embassy worker is helped by an Interpol agent to prove herself innocent of a murder in the Greek isles.
Release Date1988-09-02
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count2
If It Moves, File It
John Bird and Dudley Foster starred as Quick and Foster, two ineffectual and faceless Civil Servants who work in the filing department of a government department and are constantly on the run from Froggett (John Nettleton), their boss.
Release Date1970-08-28
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Episode Count6
The Square of Three
An army private decides one day that he's not taking any more orders, precipitating a crisis of confidence for the Medical Corps major assigned to investigate his case.
Release Date1973-10-16
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
The Chelsea Murders
When a barmaid and part-time model becomes a murderer's third victim in Chelsea, the only apparent links are to a local reporter, Mary, and three art graduates financing a film with local part-time jobs.
Release Date1981-12-30
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count3
Children of the Gods
A strange religious cult has an effect on a young girl.
Release Date1979-01-06
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
The Stories of Guy de Maupassant
A series of dramas based on the works of Guy de Maupassant which aired in 1963 from Granada Television
Release Date1963-06-20
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count4
The Investigation
Television adaptation of Peter Weiss's play about the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials.
Release Date1967-03-07
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Missing Persons
During a visit to childhood friend Edith, retired housewife Hetty Wainthropp discovers that Edith's husband, Frank, has a son by a previous marriage. Hetty decides to turn amateur detective to trace him. When this gives her a taste for detection, Hetty decides to set up a private detective agency.
Release Date1990-05-30
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
A Splinter of Ice
Fay Weldon's play about adultery, middle age, and ambition.
Release Date1972-05-29
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Dogfood Dan and the Carmarthen Cowboy
Two long distance truck drivers talk about their sexual escapades to each other using CB Radio.
Release Date1982-07-24
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
The Museum Attendant
Michael Abbensetts’ first play for TV is a powerful, funny and shocking exposé of the racism faced by a black museum attendant in his place of work.
Release Date1973-08-02
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector