Don Battye
Donald Gordon Battye was an Australian composer, writer and television producer, best known for his work with Crawford Productions and Reg Grundy Organisation.
Biography and career
Battye worked on several Crawford Productions television serials as a writer, script editor, and producer including soap opera The Box in 1976 and 1977, The Sullivans and police procedural drama series Division 4, Bluey and Homicide.Battye and business partner Peter Pinne wrote children's musicals which premiered at the Alexander Theatre, Monash University, from 1973 to 1980. as well as the adult musicals All Saints' Day, Don't Tell Helena, A Bunch of Ratbags, It Happened in Tanjablanca, Red White * Boogie, Sweet Fanny Adams, Caroline, The Computer and Love Travelling Salesman and Prisoner Cell Block H, the Musical.
He later worked for Reg Grundy Productions, as Senior Vice President Drama Development which in that capacity made him producer and executive producer on such programmes as the action series Chopper Squad, which first took him to join the company, police procedural drama series Bellamy and soap operas, The Restless Years, for which he also wrote over 100 episodes, Sons and Daughters for which he also wrote over 150 episodes, Waterloo Station, Possession and Neighbours. Battye was Executive Producer of Neighbours from 1988–1992 and wrote for the program until the year 2000. Battye co-composed the famous theme song to Sons and Daughters with Pinne, plus two songs for inclusion in Neighbours.
He produced and composed music from the Philippines where he had resided since 1998. He wrote a memoir which encompassed his life from being a child actor to a senior television executive.
He and Brian Kavanagh wrote the screenplay A City's Child.